drew moser : : theological riffs, cultural rants, anecdotal quips

Long Lost Brothers?

27 February 2007

Rainn Wilson and Rob Bell? You be the judge...

Labels: dwight schrute, rainn wilson, rob bell, the office

Drew Moser @ 9:50 PM : : permalink : : 1 comments : : links to this post

Incarnation

26 February 2007

The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.--John 1:14 (The Message)

I love Eugene Peterson's take on this verse. One could unpack the significance of the incarnation (God becoming flesh) for a lifetime. On second thought, maybe we should all be proactively seeking to understand the significance of the incarnation. It's not simply a task for the ivory towers of academia, but a call for all Christ-followers. With all the talk, banter, and debate on the emerging/missional/evangelical/megachurch/(insert your own here:___), we so easily lose the basic essence of Jesus: he became flesh and blood...and he moved into the neighborhood.

It's a powerful lesson in the Christian life. What are we here for? To memorize and defend a laundry list of doctrinal statements? Though developing, understanding, and defending one's belief system is important, it's not the reason for our existence.

What are we here for? To huddle in lavish buildings on Sunday mornings, with all of the trappings of a Hollywood movie studio, so that we can entertain?

What are we here for? To find a faith that caters to our need for emotional encouragement?

We're here to be the hands and feet of Jesus, and move into a neighborhood, and serve there. We're willing to follow Jesus into the affluent suburbs, with the McMansions, the comfortable life, the growing investment portfolio. But are we willing to follow him into a neighborhood...a particular neighborhood? Are we willing to move into a neighborhood for the sake of mission and service? Are we willing to sacrifice the American Dream to do so?

Just some stream of consciousness blabbering here...

Labels: church, incarnation

Drew Moser @ 3:21 PM : : permalink : : 2 comments : : links to this post

Book Review: Catch-22

25 February 2007

I finally finished Catch-22, by Joseph Heller. It's the book that coined what is probably the most well known phrase used by people who don't have a clue as to its origin. Set during WWII, this book was unlike any I've ever read. 440 plus pages of brilliantly penned satire, with such transparent realism. If you're looking for a clean, linear plot, don't read this book. Reading it is like playing chronological twister. At first it's maddening, but after awhile you get into Heller's rhythm and begin to figure out what he's trying to do. The chaotic plot development is all part of the 'Catch-22'/deja vu/circular logic theme that pervades the entire novel.

I'd highly recommend it. It's by no means a quick or easy read, but it certainly is enlightening. He never glosses over the horrors of war, nor the selfishness of humanity.

You can purchase Catch-22 HERE.

Labels: books, catch-22, peace

Drew Moser @ 9:43 AM : : permalink : : 0 comments : : links to this post

Article Alert!

21 February 2007

My second installment in the adoption series for Relevant is now available online. It's my attempt to answer some of the basic questions regarding adoption. You can check it out HERE.

Labels: adoption, Guatemala, writing

Drew Moser @ 6:35 AM : : permalink : : 0 comments : : links to this post

Crap.

19 February 2007

Crap.

Drew Moser @ 8:50 PM : : permalink : : 0 comments : : links to this post

Good question. What About the 21st Century Person?

"Is twentieth-century man one who runs down the street shouting, 'I've got the answers. What are the questions?'"--Marshall McLuhan

Labels: culture, marshall mcluhan

Drew Moser @ 3:45 PM : : permalink : : 0 comments : : links to this post

Blogger's Block...

If 'blogger's block' exists, I've got it. The main culprit: our adoption struggles coupled with a self-diagnosed mild version of seasonal depression. Translation: we're at an unbelievably frustrating point in our adoption journey (just read HERE and HERE)...and it's friggin' cold outside, and it bothers me just enough to whine about it. For me, that's a bad combination.

It's been paralyzing. Since I'm a pastor, I work Sundays, so I take Friday and Saturday off to have a semi-normal weekend. When we started the adoption process, there was a mountain of paperwork. Our weekends were filled with paperwork stuff. It was a blessing in that I felt like I was actively able to move this adoption forward. There were tangible things that we could do to bring our daughter into our family. But it was also a curse: The lack of true authentic rest begins to take its toll. It's not healthy.

Fast forward to the present. We're through the paperwork phase...an now we're waiting. There's nothing we can do to speed the adoption along. Some days I feel it would be easier to tattoo 'waiting' on my forehead. Then, when people ask "How's the adoption coming along?", I could just shrug my shoulders and point to my forehead. The blessing of this stage in our adoption is that I have more time to actually REST. But the curse is that we're supposed to receive weekly updates on every Friday. So, instead of truly resting, Bekah and I end up anxiously checking our inbox all day to see if our update is available. It's not healthy either.

So Bekah and I are taking some proactive steps to improve our weekends:

• We've planned a visit to be with our daughter. It gives us something adoption related to plan and look forward to. Our prayer is that we will be able to not just visit her, but bring her home.
• We're brushing up on our Espanol. It's more than rusty, but we're committed to rescuing Eloisa from poverty...not her culture. Here's what we're using...
  
• Coffee Break Spanish Podcast--Short podcasts devoted to basic conversational Spanish.
  
• Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish--A Spanish language classic, with sketches by none other than Andy Warhol.
  
• Quizlet--Quizlet is a Web 2.0 flashcard site. You can create your own online flaschard set of vocab, or use someone else's. There's a ton of Spanish language sets.
  
• We're also reading up on Guatemalan culture, history, etc by reading In Focus: Guatemala. (side note: America has done everything possible to ruin Guatemala. It's sad. I'm amazed that Americans can even adopt from Guatemala.)
  
• Fridays are now re-purposed for prayer and fasting; giving our anxieties over this adoption to God. It's a struggle to keep this focus, but we're working on it.
  

So there it is. It really has nothing to do with emerging theology, church and culture, rural life, etc. but I just felt like getting it off my chest. Thanks for letting me vent.

Labels: adoption, Guatemala, personal

Drew Moser @ 8:45 AM : : permalink : : 1 comments : : links to this post

One Billion Bulbs...

12 February 2007

Imagine the possibilities. Imagine if people all over the world mobilized to replace one billion standard incandescent light bulbs with energy-efficient compact fluorescent (CFL) light bulbs. What would that mean? It would mean that those people would save money each month on their electricity bill. It would mean they would save enough energy to light tens of millions of homes for a year. It would mean the prevention of greenhouse gases equivalent to the annual emissions of millions of cars.

Got your attention? Check out One Billion Bulbs...

Join the light bulb revolution. Check out their progress so far.







In sum, ditch this...













For this...

Labels: enrivonment, justice, one billion bulbs

Drew Moser @ 3:59 PM : : permalink : : 7 comments : : links to this post

Article Alert!: When Lists Get Stupid...

10 February 2007

My post "When Lists Get Stupid...", has been published in the Feb. edition of The Next Wave E-Zine.

Here's a refresher:

"I've been noticing a list making it's way all over the web: The Church Report's 50 Most Influential Christians in America. Why? Why are we drawn to rankings like this? C'mon! Let's take a step back and look at how ridiculous this is: WE ARE RANKING PASTORS. Does anyone else see a problem with this? Thus, in response. Here's my own list. Enjoy the top 10 things that are stupid about a list ranking pastors..."

You can read the rest HERE.

Labels: church, culture, humor, the next wave, writing

Drew Moser @ 9:45 PM : : permalink : : 0 comments : : links to this post

The Church of the Future?

08 February 2007

Having just finished Liquid Church, by Pete Ward, my head is spinning. I think it's a good thing. It's a tiny book that packs a big punch; part theology, part sociology, and part dream...I'm amazed at the sheer amount of new ideas Ward crams into 98 pages. As Ward future-casts the church, many of his ideas are admittedly speculative, which leads to an ethereal journey on what the body of Christ could be.

Here's what I mean. Ward clearly and coherently articulates the pulse of our Western culture's shift from modernity (solid) to postmodernity (liquid). Often, he refers to the present as 'liquid modernity'. The solid ice of modernity is melting away, resulting in some big ice chunks left floating about an increasingly fluid culture. It's a helpful metaphor that effectively frames his thoughts throughout the book.

Ward's recommendation is that the church must become liquid in order to reach a liquid culture. Solid church (aka, Church as we've always known it), centered on a weekly congregational gathering, is completely irrelevant to a liquid culture that no longer utilizes a regular, weekly, social gathering as its primary method of communication and community formation. Instead, liquid culture relies on networks, communication processes based on hubs (affinity-based gathering beyond a Sunday morning service) and connecting nodes (methods of communication/participation in the network).

So how do we be the church given postmodernity's fluidity. The fundamentalist will inevitably claim: Stay firm. Keep doing the things we've been doing. The 'liquid' believer will see what God is doing in the waters of culture and seek to engage it.

One other point worth noting: Ward has an interesting take on need vs. desire and the church's role in the debate. Solid church, according to Ward, has focused on trying to show culture what it truly 'needs'. All the while, they ignore postdmodern humanity's desires. Postmodernity is less interested in being told what it 'needs'. Postmoderns are more interested in quenching their spiritual thirst. Solid church responds, "Well, this is what you need." Postmodernity's response: "But this is what I desire." Liquid church seeks to cater to the good, life-giving desires of postmodernity, while upholding the central, core tenets of the Christian faith.

I'm still working through a few of Ward's prescriptions, trying to determine what my response should be. For example: He proposes embracing spiritual consumerism, and redeeming it. I'm having trouble with this, as I believe one of the main weaknesses of churches today is their blatant consumerist orientation. In spite of a few questions, I'd highly recommend this book. Ward brings that British perspective on Western culture that is desperately needed in the U.S.

You can get it HERE.

Labels: culture, emerging church, liquid church, pete ward, postmodern

Drew Moser @ 11:23 AM : : permalink : : 4 comments : : links to this post

Book Review: The River Why

06 February 2007

If you're looking for a novel that takes the reader on a postmodern metaphysical trip, then The River Why is for you. Written by David James Duncan (author of The Brothers K), this book is no page turning thriller, but it does offer fantastic introspection on humanity and spirituality. Duncan's an incredible writer, and can probe the human soul with the best of them.

The main character, Gus, leaves the comforts of home behind to live the hermit's life in the wilderness of Oregon, where he can focus more intently on his one and only passion: fishing. Gus soon finds that the hermit's life is not all it's cracked up to be, as his solitude forces him to confront fundamental issues of purpose, existence, and spirituality.

If you want a better understanding of postmodern spirituality (especially with an eco-friendly bent) than this book will suffice. Duncan proposes a mother nature oriented pluralistic/universalistic spirituality that so many find appealing. While I personally don't agree with all Duncan's conclusions, I appreciate his spiritual thirst and his quest for meaning and purpose in life. Through Gus, he asks deep metaphysical questions most authors and readers shy away from. And he highlights humanity's wanton destruction of God's creation.

You can purchase the book HERE.

Labels: books, david james duncan, postmodern, spirituality

Drew Moser @ 8:41 AM : : permalink : : 1 comments : : links to this post

David James Duncan on Evangelism...

05 February 2007

I'm right in the thick of Duncan's novel, The River Why. I'll post a full review when I'm finished, but I had to share this quote. It's Duncan's take on modern methods of evangelism:

"...a typical door-to-door urb-and-burb God's devotee--for these inexplicable people make it their business to bombard unsuspecting citizens in the privacy of their own homes with little comic books full of the most grandiose and depressing threats, prophecies and admonitions unimaginable; and they paste all kinds of weird epigrams and doom prophecies on their cars, causing many an innocent motorist to drive to his death trying to read the blasted things; and a common edition of these bumper legends promises worse havoc, flatly warning that the drivers of these stickered cars could at any moment evaporate away to Heaven in a process called 'Rapture,' showing no concern for the holocaust of traffic fatalities they would unavoidably leave behind!"--David James Duncan, The River Why.

A little mean-spirited perhaps, but it's a helpful viewpoint from an outsider's take on how we communicate the gospel to the world. Any thoughts?

Labels: books, christian subculture, evangelism

Drew Moser @ 10:24 AM : : permalink : : 0 comments : : links to this post

Adoption Help...

01 February 2007

As a result of my article "Practically Pro-Life," Relevant Magazine's Revolution editor has asked me to work on an adoption series for their column. Here's the lineup I proposed:

1. A How-To article. This would involve the logistics in choosing international/domestic, choosing a country (if international), choosing an agency, the paperwork phase, etc. Also, highlight grants available, and other tips for paying for the adoption fees. (Update: I just sent off the first run draft for this article).
2. Issues in Adoption This would explore the unique issues that come with adoption (attachment, cultural issues, racism/prejudice, appropriate adoption lingo, etc...)
3. Patience in the Quest for Justice (waiting in the adoption process) This would be more of a reflective piece on how we so often have to wait for justice to be realized. It's through that patient suffering that God so often reveals Himself. Adoption is a perfect example. There is so much waiting, so much patience required to make things right.
4. Thoughts reflections before the trip (anxiety, nervousness, questions/fears). This will get more personal to our story, and would come as our time to travel draws near (hopefully March/April). A more personal/reflective piece...
5. Thoughts reflections after the trip (chronicling the trip, reactions). This piece would be written as we are in Guatemala and after we return, giving the reader an insider view into the events, experiences, and emotions (man, that's a lot of unintentional 'e's) when united with Eloisa for the first time.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas? The goal with the series is to encourage, inspire, and inform others to adopt. Hopefully by making our experience more transparent, people will see that it's not such an impossible and scary thing after all...

Labels: adoption, relevant magazine, writing

Drew Moser @ 3:09 PM : : permalink : : 2 comments : : links to this post