Mad Hatter (Cross Process)

 

These were recently shot by my good friend Red Williamson (@newspin on twitter). His art / photos can be seen here. 

ROUGH DRAFT: Haunted Camp-Out (Design)

U2 Concert = Amazing

I really enjoyed myself tonight as Renee (my wife) and I went on a date to see U2 in concert. Loved the show, music and message. They are so much more than just a rock band - the live and play for a cause. They do what they do for more than money - it's to actually make a difference in their world. They are using their influence to make actual changes...

 These two photos from @mattknisely below are just amazing...

Best Tuna Sandwich?

Mentioned over Twitter today what I thought made for the best Tuna Sandwich and got a good amount of feedback from others I respect as to what makes for a GREAT Tuna Fish Sandwich. Here are the results and please leave your recipe and or reactions as comments. I am interested.

Best Tuna Sandwich

@JonFisher's - Tuna, diced hard-boiled eggs, diced sweet gherkin pickles, Miracle Whip. Served on toast over cheese Doritos.

@PandaBeara's -  Cheese, miracle whip light, diced mini dills served on whole wheat toast with Cheetos.

@RexBarrett's - Tuna, Mayo, diced red onion, chopped red apple and a handful of golden raisins. So good.

@IncludingTacos' - Albacore in water, red onion, garlic, mayo, coarse Dijon, curry, salt, crushed red pepper, flat parsley, toasted almonds.

@OKC_Casey's - Tuna, Spicy mustard and tuna on wheat.

@RMPhotography's - Best Tuna Sandwich: the one I don't have to eat.

of course my own (@MediaPeople's) - Tuna packed in oil, mayo, a bit of mustard, olives (diced), celery, bread and butter pickles, wheat bread.

So let's hear it! Give us the skinny on your best Sandwich...

People in the Hands of an Angry Church!

I am currently working on a writing project called "people in the hands of an angry church." This has created thoughts regarding our (christian) approach to the "world," as the church refers to outsiders. This "world" of non-Christians does not accept our faith or moral code (that we believe is from God) and therefore qualify as "sinners" (miscreant lost souls if you will). 

The dilemma of we have is in determining what our approach ought be to "win" people to our faith, namely Christ. We believe that the figurehead of our "lively and true religion" has commissioned us to "go into all the world and preach," and "make disciples" (cool word for followers, students). We have the tall order of engaging people and changing their minds and hearts via this tool we have been given called "the gospel." The words of the very one we believe to be the "Son of God" command us to do this, to engage this world with a "singular" message and the life experience to support it. 

Since the inception of this wonderful faith called Christianity the human race has gone through some major changes. When the main character of the New Testament (Jesus) was walking around doing his thing communication was incredibly localized. Relationship and social circles (towns and neighborhoods) had a power and integrity to them that most of us in the 21st century cannot understand. Imagine no internet, no phones and even writing and letters being rare. Television & radio did not exist. No Twitter or Facebook.

Non-local information took days, weeks even months to travel and many times via mouth to mouth. Families lived for generations in one city. Your name was well known and meant so much. It was the norm for you to inherit the trade of your father. People were tribal. Much of the travel Jesus was involved in was relative to the distance of traveling town to town for three years within a smaller state in America. Biblical Israel is, was tiny. The travel to Egypt that Jesus' parents did was a huge step that required an angel's command to set out on.

My point is that we look at much of the Bible, including this commission to "preach" through the lens of our technological highly anti local (globalized) perspective. We try to apply much of this outside of the context of relationship. I believe that the message to "outsiders" that we don't have relationship with needs to be one of total love, service and care. Challenging people to a certain code of behavior ought only to be delivered in the context of relationship.

I have seen people that have never met before correct others and challenge them over Twitter. Publicly reprimand people they have never met - thinking they are doing a good Christian duty. Due to a breakdown of understanding the more local context of Scripture and the political injection our culture has given to the church we deem it our job to control, reprove and reprimand people we have zero relationship with. We look at making "converts" as something we need to work up the courage to address.

Imagine this: A christian is at work and knows he needs to help his "wayward" co-workers. He sees them as depraved, lost, immoral sinners. He knows they "really" need help. He wants to be a good Christian and therefore feels bad about his not inviting them to Church.  He finally asks them to come and visit and feels better about himself for doing so. Another lady that attends the church works in an office full of unchurched people who have filthy mouths and often share dirty jokes. She is offended by their immorality and complains about how "bad" her job is for her. She pray for these horrible people often and suffers through at the job God has provided. A preacher stands in the pulpit and rages on about how "messed" up the "world" is and rails against the current administration. The crowd cheers as they hear the sounds of condescension toward the evil system they are forced to live in.  

The above circumstances are regular scenarios in many circles. We have an "us and them" mentality. We draw lines and make our mission very antagonistic. We build up this animosity in our doctrine and theology. Politics have played a part in this in that many followers of Jesus have turned themselves into a party. The problem with this is that it injects an even greater amount of anger, animosity and control into our faith as we participate in our "christian" politics. I am not suggesting at all that we should not be involved politically but to not be aware of how it can affect us is ignorant. 

Due to our detachment relationally, our global forms of mass communication, our political energy, our stigma toward the world we receive via preaching and our bad perspective about outsiders sculpted by the former things mentioned we come off as an unloving (even angry) and controlling organization. The warmth of the gospel is veiled by this attitude and approach. 

Imagine the man at work buying a co-workers lunch, inviting him into his home and learning more about him. Imagine him doing this three or four times out of genuine interest and respect in a life or person. Imagine trust is established. Imagine an invitation and conversation arises out of this context and grows in this green house of relationship. Imagine the young lady in the tough work place engaging her coworkers with an attitude that we are all people in need of grace and not being offended. Imagine she learns to genuinely care and learns to effectively interact with people their. Visualize her learning not to be odd or socially put out. Imagine her making efforts to communicate and have fun. Image she builds the same atmosphere of relationship in which grace can truly be evident. Imagine the preacher changing his tone and inspiring his people to think even dream of how they can mean more to people, of how they can enrich and inspire others. Imagine him painting pictures in the pulpit of what we mean to others.  

I hope in all of this rambling my point is clear. We need to become experts at loving, relating, respecting and appreciating, valuing people for what and who they are, people. The love clearly shown is the context for our invitation. This love accepted and reciprocated is the context for challenge and any form of healthy judgment. I am a firm believer that the challenges we bring to people need to be post Christ and relationship.

I think we need to stop calling people out, stop whining about the "world" and it's condition. We need to start being an evident caring person that finds value in all men and dignifies them by showing real love and acceptance. Concurrently we must set an example of a very different yet inspirational life. The changes in my life have always been in the light of my realization of God's love and or within the context of caring relationships. All come from a clear communication of God's kindness not any man's dogma. Think about it...

Engage your world with evident compassion. Live lives of open invitation. Build relationship and then challenge your brothers and sisters within it to become better in Christ. Challenge needs to occur but in the proper way. I think there are exceptions but as a general rule we need to stop criticizing and whining about the world further alienating ourselves from people and go make some friends. I wonder what would happen?

I am not saying to never contradict or voice a challenging idea (i am doing that here in this post actually). My point is to work harder at genuine relationship and for us to see what happens. I know I have written this passionately, but I am genuinely interested in other perspectives so let em fly. Let me here your thoughts on how this whole thing needs to work.