Share your ideas on our Launch: Advent Conspiracy Blog

Now officially open: Share your ideas, struggles, and meaningful Advent experiences with one another on our official Launch Advent Conspiracy Blog.

The address is: www.launchadventconspiracy.blogspot.com

Sermon mp3's for this series are under the mp3 archive on the right side.

You can also access it via the link on the top right column of this page!

The Advent Conspiracy

This past Sunday, we introduced our Advent series which we are calling "The Advent Conspiracy". We are launching this holiday season journey alongside dozens of other churches across the country that are striving to celebrate Advent in a way that is worthy of the birth of Jesus.

When asked to describe the feelings that Christmas elicits, parents will all too often list such things as exhaustion, business, stress, guilt, materialism, greed. I shared the story of my 8th grade Christmas when I was so completely crushed and as a result spiteful to my mom when I got the GI Joe Troop Transport instead of the GI Joe Hovercraft. For me Advent was all about...me.

So this Christmas season, we are challenging one another to take a good honest look at what we are really all about. We are challenging each other to explore new ways of celebrating the Holidays. It's a conspiracy because we are committing to not settle for the status quo, but to to try a new of living, of worshipping, of giving, and of getting. We are conspiring to stand apart from the materialism and greed that all too often take center stage this time of year. We are conspiring to demonstrate another way to the world.

Here are the themes of our Advent Conspiracy:
Worship More: We are looking for ways to keep Christ at the center of all that we do.
Spend Less: The average family doesn't finish paying off Christmas bills until teh following August. We are encouraging one another to put less of an emphasis on spending money as a way of showing love to one another.
Give More: Instead of spending lots of money, we are encouraging one another to give more meaningful gifts, relational gifts, home-made gifts, the kind of gifts that will show up in scrap books and keep-sake boxes 30 years from now.
Love All: We'll talk about ways we as families and as a church family can use our resources to make a real difference in the world. Stay tuned to find out what we'll be doing around the world, and right here at home!

If you want to read more about the nationwide Advent Conspiracy movement, please visit the following website: www.adventconspiracy.org

We hope you'll join us on this journey to reclaim Advent in honor of the one whom we celebrate during this season!

mass media and the emerging church

I regularly check the blog of a guy named Tony Jones. Today, he mentions a story that ran in USA Today about the emergent church.

Some really interesting reading. Here's a link:
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20071112/opledereligion100.art.htm

There are some interesting thoughts on how the Emerging Church approaches alot of things. Take a look at these quotes and let me know what you think. Some of these ideas would challenge us on some of the issues we're dealing with. Some would make for mighty good conversation.

Here are some of my favorite quotes:

"according to emergent theology, the point of being Christian is not solely to achieve heaven in the next life, but to bring some heaven to this life by doing the work of Jesus."

"Emergents are quite certain about some things, nevertheless, especially Jesus and his clear instruction about the way Christians are to live out their faith — not primarily as respectable, middle-class pillars of status quo society, but as servants to the poor and to people in the margins. In the words of Gideon Tsang, a 33-year-old Texas emergent who moved himself and his family to a smaller home in a poorer part of town, "The path of Christ is not in upward mobility; it's in downward."

"Unlike the megachurches of mainstream evangelicalism, emerging groups do not emphasize attracting new members (although it seems to happen anyway) or constructing church buildings. Some emerging groups meet in rented auditoriums, some in people's homes, some in pubs. There is less emphasis, too, on programming for members. In their view, the church exists not primarily to serve members but to serve the community."


What do you think?

Good fences make good neighbors, or not.

Have you heard this saying before? It's an old saying - it's been around alot longer than the days of privacy fences that fully hide your backyard. Back in the "old days", a good fence was probably made of stones stacked on top of each other and was maybe 4 feet tall. Short enough so that you could talk to your neighbor, but tall enough that your neighbor wasn't likely to climb over unless there was a really important reason.

Well, coming from Los Angeles, I know a thing or two about fences. In my last neighborhood there, every single back yard was completely enclosed by a full privacy fence at least 8 feet tall so that not only could you not talk to your neighbor, you couldn't even see their backyard. Might be "naked animals in there"(another movie quote) for all you knew.

So when we moved into our new house here in Champaign, it was kind of a shock to the system to walk out onto the back porch and see nothing but grass between us and the house behind us and the houses on either side of us. At first I couldn't wait to build a fence. But after a few weeks, I realized something:

No fences make better neighbors.

I guess I mean neighbors in a "love your neighbor" / Jesus kind of way. Since there is no fence there, all the kids in the 'hood come walking through the back yard to play with my kids. The basketball court in our backyard becomes the neighborhood gathering spot, chalk art display, jump rope stage, race track, multi purpose play place. And I actually have conversations with my neighbors as we cut our grass, chase dogs, play with kids, etc. We're getting to know each other, and care about each other. We've learned about jobs, families, issues with kids. We're starting to share life together.

And it's all in large part because there's nothing between us but grass.

I'm glad we don't have a fence and I'm glad we know our neighbors.