September is almost up, and that means our campaign to provide water to African communities is almost over. 

Although we didn’t make $30 grand, I’m still very proud of the work we’ve done.  Twenty-nine other bloggers have promoted this campaign, sold and auctioned off valuable items and just generally put their hearts into this.  There are hundreds of human beings who will have clean water to drink because of us, and I think that’s worth celebrating.  I always hope that this blog is worth something.  I know it’s worth something to me, and I’m encouraged all the time by people who write in and comment.  But water for people who need it is a very tangible result of our small corner of blog community.

If you haven’t checked out our campaign, please do so today and help us provide water to as many people as possible before time runs out.

Just so you know, I’m really pumped about what’s going down over the next month here on the blog.  I’ll be interviewing at least one author, hopefully two, and yes free stuff is in the cards for you, the readers.  One of them I can’t even believe agreed to an interview with little old me.  This one’s way out of my league.  I’m also reaching my two year anniversary as a blogger, and I’m going to be spending a few posts talking about this hobby that so many of us enjoy.

I am increasingly inspired lately when people tell me what they are passionate about.  For the last month, my focus has been water.  A few months ago, my focus was getting my Dad to Sudan.  But the people in my church live all over my city, and they all have their little passions, their neighborhoods, the ministries they are doing outside of church.  From renovating apartments for low income people, to organizing food drives, to giving showers to homeless people, to even raising the kids, everyone’s got something they love.

And we do so many of these things knowing that we are the ones who care the most about it.  Whenever my youth group would have a car wash fundraiser, we had a giant sign by the road, which I would jump out from behind and flail my arms in the air as a group of cars was passing.  It was my way of getting attention without wearing a two piece swimsuit.  The sign said, “Car Wash.  Honk if you care.”  We got a lot of honks, but not a lot of cars to wash.  People didn’t care that much.

But today, I want to care about what you care about.  I want to hear from you today.  What is your passion?  What is the totally awesome person, ministry, or community that is driving you today?

Today, I want to talk about church, pancakes and Katy Perry.  They all have something in common.

How hard can the church try to be relevant to our culture?  Seriously, how much relevance can we squeeze out of ourselves?  It seems like your church is nothing if it’s not being “relevant.” 

I guess a “relevant” church is one that can walk the walk and talk the talk of people today, one that can relate to people.  This week, I was reminded of a couple of ironies in our quest for relevance, and realized we might just have it all backwards. 

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It’s been a rough week for Bishop Eddie Long.

As an outspoken advocate against homosexuality in Atlanta, Long is now accused of coercing three young men into a sexual relationship with him.  Naturally, the media is all over this.

I’m not too familiar with Long, and many of you might not be either, because he’s just in a different circle from me.  I’m not going to spend my time even accusing or condemning Long, and you’ll see why in a minute.  But it seems like every few months, the church is just due for a scandal, preferably involving a sordid sexual affair. 

I don’t mean to detract in any way from the plight of the victims in these cases.  But ironically, it isn’t just the victims who are victimized, but as an honest man, I’m victimized and so are you, and I’m going to tell you why.

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The church used to be really good at commissioning art.  Now, not so much.  We pretty much shun art.

There’s another art we’re no good at either.  But we’re not the only ones.  Pretty much all of humanity has still not mastered this art…

The art of disagreement.

You’d think by now, we’d have this thing down.  We’ve been doing it…well, forever.  Yet for some reason, people still can’t get it right when it comes to resolving their differences.  I think it’s been no more apparent than the time we live in.  And I’ve got something to say about it, whether you agree with me or not.

Disagreement is an Art

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Hello again, my friends.  It is time to kick off another exciting week of whatever it is you do.

First of all, congrats to the winners of our drawing last week, Frank and Collin!  Their amazing skills at being randomly selected from a pool of contestants mean that they will be enjoying Leonard Sweet’s Nudge and SoulArize Vol. 2 (the secret prize.) 

I’m kicking off the week by asking you three more questions to assist me with my off the record writing project.  I have been absolutely amazed at the variety of responses to the questions I have asked previously.  It is amazingly humbling and challenging to me to hear stories from all of you which are so different from mine.  Today, I’ve got some big questions to ask.

Here we go.  Answer one or all three as you wish…

1.  Everyone has some kind of beef with the church.  I make light of those criticisms regularly here.  What is your personal biggest disappointment or disagreement with where the church is headed? (Your own home church, or the church altogether.)

2.  Why, despite having huge disappointments with the church, have you stuck around or kept your faith?

3.  If you no longer consider yourself a Christian, or you are a Christian, but you are “wandering” without a church, why is that?  Is your life better without church in your life?

You know, for me, I’ve had massive disappointments and pain caused to me by people who considered themselves Christians, even church leaders.  I think what kept me in church was almost a blindingly determined attitude that those people were not going to steal anything more from me than they had already.  They would not be vindicated by my faltering in faith. 

Ah, but enough about me.  I really want to hear answers to all three, but I think I’ll be a bit short on the third question.  If you know anyone who would be able to answer any of these, get them over here to leave a comment!  And hey, if you missed the other questions, you can find them here and here.

What a week.

Another big week of blogging behind us, and the world has yet to fail to provide us with lots to talk about.

But today’s post, for lack of a better word, is a blast.  I’ve literally got a stack of miscellaneous stuff I want to share with you.  Things that have been occupying my time, people I’ve been learning from, inspired by, or who’ve just made my day.  Hey, you may even win some free stuff today!  Here’s what’s on my mind these days…

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