Life is full of first days.

Today is my first day at my new teaching job.  I’m pretty pumped about it, and I’m remembering what it was like for me as a kid to go through all those first days of school.  I can remember a lot of them.  It was always a mix of nervousness and excitement and dread and school lunch.  Getting new school supplies was always fun.  There was always one kid who was so excited to get new glue, he’d be snacking on it before lunchtime.

Since today I’m experiencing another first day, it got me thinking about all the other first days I’ve had in my life.

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Wait, is that a mosque-”raising,” or “razing?”

Since it’s been several days since that whole business with the proposed mosque at Ground Zero hit, the Christian blogosphere has lit up with all kinds of opinoins.  As usual, I’ve waited a few days to think about the situation before I spoke up. 

As with most controversies, I have my gut instincts about it.  But the realities are much more complicated than we’d like them to be.  People are fired up and ready to come to fisticuffs over this thing.

Here’s what I’ve come up with in favor of and against the so called “Islamic Center.”

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What happened to Christian art?

They just don’t make Christian art like they used to, do they?  These days, Christian art is far more often silly, childish, or offensive than amazing.  That kind of saddens me.  Maybe not as many people are interested in depicting religious subjects.  Then again, maybe the Pope’s just not paying top dollar for Christian art like in the past.

Either way, our choices are fairly limited when it comes to modern Christian art, much like Christian music or Christian movies.  I’m not saying it’s all bad.  There’s plenty of talent out there.  I’ve looked for it and found it.  But if you don’t want a Thomas Kincaid painting, you may not know many other Christian artists working today.  Our choices are just few and far between.

Yet, every once in a while, a ray of hope glimmers for Christian art.

These images are a couple of years old, but they are fantastic.  The artists at The Glue Society created four images from the Bible as they may have appeared if Google Earth had captured them.  If you haven’t seen them, you need to check these out.  And they probably weren’t even created by Christians!

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Ah, the beginning of a new school year.

It’s always a momentous occasion.  But the most momentous school year of all is that first one away from home, the freshman year of college.  I remember when my parents drove away, and it dawned on me I wasn’t at church camp, and I wouldn’t be going home in a week.  There are tons of challenges in moving away from home for the first time.  One of the biggest tasks is outfitting a dorm room with everything a student needs to live in the comfort of a small cinderblock room with community showers.  Chances are your first home away from home won’t look like the Olsen twins’ penthouse or for that matter, any TV dorm room, so you’ll have to pick and choose what you bring to school.

Now that I have a home and I’m married, it amazes me that just a few short years ago, all my worldly possessions fit in the back of a small pick up truck.  However, of all the items I could’ve packed for college, there were eight absolutely necessary ingredients for dorm or apartment living.

Of course, videogames and iPods are obvious essentials, but there may be a lot of items that are missed on that last trip to Wal-Mart before classes start.  Today, I’m helping out our new college students with this handy dandy list of eight essential products for life after living with your parents.

Eight Totally Necessary Items for College Living

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Last Friday, I threw in my two cents on a little ongoing debate about female pastors.  You can read it here if you missed it.  While I didn’t comment on whether women should be pastors, I commented on three reasons maybe women shouldn’t be pastors.

We got a lot of great comments.  But I wonder if some of you were holding back.  The comments seemed to be decidedly one sided, saying that women should be pastors.  This is despite the fact that the two biggest denominations in America (Catholics and Southern Baptists) do not allow women to be pastors.

Yes, very few, if any people were willing to go out on that limb and say, “Yeah, there’s something about being a pastor that men are just better suited for,” or even, “I’d just rather listen to a man’s smooth baritone voice rather than a woman’s smooth baritone voice.”

Maybe I have very progressive readers.  But maybe we just don’t like talking about gender roles any more.  That, of course, is why I’m here.  I think we’ve totally messed up the discussion about gender roles.  We oftentimes can’t talk honestly about it.  Here’s why I think that is.

Three Reasons We Can’t Talk About Gender Roles

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 I just got invited to church.

On August 2, I counted down some of the biggest gimmicks in church history, designed to get visitors in the seats.  You can check it out here, if you missed it.  Included in the list were fire engine baptisms, church fight clubs, and Nashville’s Cornerstone Church (self described as “Nashville’s most ’dynamic’ church,”) putting on a three day rodeo, fireworks, and patriotic music festival.

From the fifty or so comments and Twitter shares, it seemed a lot of people found the list to be entertaining.  Then, something happened, a first here at The Church of No People.  A couple of days ago, I recieved one last straggling comment on the list, from someone who actually attends Cornerstone, Nashville’s most dynamic church.  Here’s what he had to say:

“[...] Isn’t the bottom line about salvations? In the end, if a church has a budget to spend to reach people who may not be reached otherwise, and just one of those people commits to Christ, isn’t that really the most important thing?

I understand frustration, but when a church has 200 or so people sign commitment cards of salvation or rededication then an event is worth all it costs.  FYI, Billy Graham, when asked about all he had led to Christ, said they had signed cards.  We never really know how many have a life changing moment if they live in other communities and attend other churches.

I cannot speak for other churches, but I personally attend Nashville’s most dynamic church and see lives changed on a daily basis [...] Why don’t you try us out, Sat. 14th at 5:00 pm then come to the Christian Education class after church called God Seekers?”

At first, I first thought I might respond in a somewhat sarcastic way to the comment.  For example, I might point out that I’m in Kansas City, not Nashville, so that’s kind of a drive.  Or I might point out that I’m a pastor, not a “God seeker,” but that didn’t sound right.

The comment was made by what you can see is a nice guy who loves his church, and I’m not here to rip on him.  In fact, looking at the church’s website, I can tell they do a lot of good things, so I’m not even here to rip on the church.  But I am here to call it like I see it, and this comment brings up a couple of points I’ve got to talk about.

Three Reasons Matt Politely Declines Your Invitation to Church

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