WOW! What a week! The cable’s been out. (No, you can’t ask…)

No Internet from Wednesday evening until 5:00 p.m. today. No e-mail, no blogging, no catching up on other folks’ blogs, no nothing! And one lousy channel on the TV…the local ABC affiliate. I’m pretty sure there’s a sermon in there somewhere – about being connected/disconected or whatever. Anyway…

In the middle of all that, I did get connected with Reggie McNeal on Thursday. You have, no doubt, seen his book The Present Future. He was here in Atlanta for a workshop and he is quite a guy! Lots of interesting and challenging stuff. Hard to take it all in. Of course, he speaks at a rate of about 235 words a minute, with gusts up to 550 or something like that. And he may have finished a complete sentence by now. I’ll unpack some of the workshop material in the next little while.

It’s good to back in the loop, that’s for sure!

I’ve gotta see The Incredibles!

Check out Halley’s comment (f-bomb alert for some of you…don’t say I didn’t warn you!)

It spends no small amount of time showing:

how a man’s life and career can hit the skids in middle-age and he can feel all dressed up with no place to go;

how a woman’s life is all about stretching (Elastic Girl as the Mom is superb) and sacrifice and compromise even for a superheroire (sic);

how a marriage works and how hard it is to keep it working;

how hard it is to be true to yourself and your talents and your own values;

and…

how letting your children become self-actualized — find and own and demonstrate their unique strength — is tough for parents;

From “Drowning,” by Siobhan Dutchyn

Water thickens around my neck, the air gets cramped and thin,
Reaching for an unknown aid, as numbness chills my skin
The laughter fades, the smiles disappear, the happiness is lost,
A shadow raises harsh despair for I am no longer on top
Paddle and push, engulfed with water as I try to gasp for air,
Cough and croak, sink not float, if I could think, I’d be scared.

My spirit is lost; it ran away without me, I will trace its tracks.

I’m on page 46-47 of Reggie McNeal’s The Present Future…

Most every church staff leader has been told by a layperson, “There’s no way I would do what you do, putting up with the complaints of church members.” What does this tell you? Many laypersons see ministers’ roles as the complaint department for disgruntled club members who want to be catered to. Church members who want to live missonal lives don’t want to be captured by the same concerns of club members that tie up their staff ministers.

And you thought all this time that Randy Bohlender was just some bald guy who hangs out in the desert, has a cool wife and great kids, and picks up good deals on used cars!

Seems he’s one of the President’s best advisors, too. (Well, he should be, let’s put it that way!)

Check out his good advice for Dubya’s second term…

Some quotes, from Religion & Liberty

John Locke:

The care of souls cannot belong to the civil magistrate, because his power consists only in outward force; but true and saving religion consists in the inward persuasion of the mind, without which nothing can be acceptable to God.

Charles Carroll:

To obtain religious as well as civil liberty, I entered zealously into the Revolution.� God grant that this religious liberty may be preserved in these States, to the end of time, and that all who believe in the religion of Christ may practice the leading principle of charity, the basis of every virtue.

I’m jumping into The Present Future and A Generous Orthodoxy as we speak!

Come on in!

A few days ago, I mentioned that I was reading A Primer on Postmodernism by Stanley J. Grenz. I finally finished it!

Now, I know it’s getting a little age on it (1996), and I imagine most people who happen by this space consider it to be a little “old hat.” But, I’ve got to admit, for a person who has long felt “unprepared and inadequate” in the realm of philosophy, Grenz is a pretty concise and helpful introduction.

(OK, OK…let me explain! When I started a doctoral program a few years back, I was basically ashamed and embarrassed because I apparently didn’t have the philosophical background of some of my peers and colleagues. My master’s degree basically prepared me to be a “company man” and a preparer of sermons – not really a leader or a thinker. Let the reader understand….)

All righty, then – that’s out of the way! So the Grenz Primer is a pretty good starting point for the philosophically challenged among us. But here’s the real kicker, as far as I’m concerned. Grenz’s Chapter 7 “The Gospel and the Postmodern Context” should be required reading for anyone who is interested in this business of “doing church” in the culture in which we find ourselves today. It would be especially helpful for those “immigrants” ($1 to Len Sweet and others!) to the postmodern culture. Like me.

That chapter, and indeed, the book proper, ends with this…

The gospel of Jesus Christ has gone forth in every era with power to convert human hearts. Today that gospel is the answer to the longings of the postmodern generation. Our task as Christ’s disciples is to embody and articulate the never-changing good news of available salvation in a manner that the emerging generation can understand. Only then can we become the vehicles of the Holy Spirit in bringing them to experience the same life-changing encounter with the triune God from whom our entire lives derive their meaning. (p. 174)

No matter whether “Your Guy” won or lost yesterday, here’s more proof – to me, at least – that Big Media just doesn’t get it.

They can’t seem to understand that they are no longer the Alpha Males when it comes to informing the public. They look for a scapegoat, and they find a convenient one: in the New Media of the blogosphere (on both, or all sides).

News organizations promised Wednesday to look into why their Election Day exit polls showed an initial surge for John Kerry, but also blamed bloggers for spreading news that gave a misleading view of the presidential race.

I had a TV set turned on throughout the night (and into the morning!) but I was getting most of my information from the web. And I was getting that information from “our side” and “their side.”

Whatever your political inclination, I think it’s pretty safe to say that Election ’04 nudged Big Media along toward irrelevance.

…that the President has won re-election.

…that Big Media still doesn’t get it.

…that exit polls are nothing compared to actually counting the legally cast votes.