Archives for September 2007

Just got this to help with this presentation so I don’t have to stand there clicking my computer by myself, the problem I’ve run into the last 3 presentations I’ve given. It also controls itunes (so I’m going to use it to control my playlist in youth group too), idvd, quicktime, powerpoint, and about a million other things. SWEET!!!

I tried to watch the office this year. Everyone in the world I think watches it. I don’t watch much TV, so I even DVR’d the first episode and thought, dude, this is going to be great. I picked a time when I was ready for a solid 22 minutes of vegging. I thought, “I’m going to get cooler. I finally will be in on the jokes and can laugh with my friends and feel like I am funny.” Problem is:

1. I tried, but I don’t think the office is funny. I just sit there, trying to laugh but only smiling in hope that soon, I’ll bust a gut.
2. I feel like I’m at a party where I’m the only one in the room who doesn’t like the beverage everyone else is drinking.
3. Since like 5 billion people do think it’s funny, I must not be that funny.
4. I still don’t think the office is that funny.
5. I think I’m the only person my world who doesn’t think the office is funny.

not funny Brian out.

…encourage your soul and be #4 on the itunes album chart list. Be the Remedy!!!

OR

… be the number seven download on i-tunes on the same day as the above and be very cool sounding, but be Godless in it’s lyrical content. If you work with students, they know this song, like this song, dance to this song, and will turn this song up on the radio. In fact, when I visited a girl in the hospital, it was on the TV in the bed next door today. The groove is that cool. The lyrics are not as bad as almost anything by 50 cent, but they’re godless for sure. See for yourself.

The music video makes me think they might think they are being satirical. I asked my high school men’s group what they think a few weeks ago. They are split a little. Some say it is, some say it’s not. I think it’s cuz some really like the band. I do too. However, I think, it’s too cool and too vague to be truly satire.

here.. see the video for yourself.

what do you think… can music as satire work if it’s this vague? Is it satire?

Here’s the quote that worried me the most:

Yet, the research shows that millions of young outsiders have significant experience with Christians and Christian churches. The typical young outsider says they have five friends who are Christians; more than four out of five have attended a Christian church for a period of at least six months in the past; and half have previously considered becoming a Christian.

Sometimes I think that we should spend 5% of our time trying to bring people into the Christian faith and 95% of our time trying to help those who enter it, understand and own it. I think they might stay longer than 6 months before they head for the door. I’m deeply concerned about lasting impact these days. I don’t want to be a stopping place for high school students on their journey to disenfranchisement with those who claim to follow Jesus.

Here’s the quote that surprised me.

The book (Unchristian, by David Kinnaman) also includes exclusive perspective from 30 Christian leaders, including Mark Batterson, Chuck Colson, Louie Giglio, Dan Kimball, Brian McLaren, Kevin Palau, John Stott, and Rick Warren. Kinnaman described their contribution as an effort “to make sense of the complex and challenging project – both why the problems exist as well as what Christians ought to do in response to the information. We looked for the biblical space in order to respond to the sharpest criticism. Beyond simply reporting the problems that we discovered among a skeptical generation, my partner Gabe Lyons and I want the book to help Christians find a way forward, to read positive examples and find hope that their life can provide a clearer picture of Jesus to skeptical people around them.

Check out that list of contributors to this book. I might buy it for that reason alone. Should be a smorgasbord of opinions.

I started Seminary again tonight. I’m in a christian ethics class from 7:15 -10 pm for the next 10 weeks. I tried really hard to enter class today looking forward to it. I tried to decide that I’d make the most of it. I tried to decide that I’d go ready to learn and listen and have a good time. Here’s what I was reminded of in class tonight:

• Seminary is serious business. We don’t laugh. Smiling is allowed during breaks.

• Seminary is about big words. The bigger the words, the smarter you are. (there’s probably a big word for this too. I’m just too stupid to know what it is)

• Seminary is about listening, not conversing.

• Seminary is about surfing the web on your computer while acting like you’re taking notes. Really, this happens every week. My mac won’t get the web in this place, otherwise I might have to confess my sin of distraction here too.

• Seminary is a place where I put my big foot in my big mouth. I had to apologize after class for laughing at the professor’s use of a german word to clarify a students lack of understanding of a bigger word. I thought it was kinda funny. Bad idea. Mostly because I let an air of sarcasm slip out of my big stupid mouth. That and the fact that seminary is a serious serious place proved I was not funny at all. UGH. I think I’ll just sit there this quarter and take notes and mind my own $1200 worth of business. I was already thinking this, but after today I decided it’s pretty much a must do decision. I’m supposed to be talking in Big Church this weekend about Moses and “Dealing with difficult people.” Instead, I’m going to change the title to: “Dealing with Brian Berry”. I hope my professor comes and I hope my “alternative better self” is listening.

• Seminary is set to be home for me once a week for the next 5+ years of my life. I better get this thing figured out soon. Year 3 for me is starting a little rough.