Whoops!

Gilmore just pointed out to me that the comment section was only allowing registered users to comment. Whoops!

It's now been fixed so if someone wants to comment anonymously they can.

The Arcade Fire speaks the truth

If you saw Saturday Night Live a few weeks ago when Rainn Wilson (Dwight from The Office) hosted you might have noticed that night's musical guest, The Arcade Fire.

The Arcade Fire is one of my favorite bands. Their latest album is called Neon Bible and I really like it a lot. On stage they look a bit like they're Amish. I like the incongruity of a rock band dressing like they're from the 19th century and on their way to a barn raising. I recently talked to Greg Chandler about their performance on SNL and in his words, he "just wasn't feeling it, dog."

Okay, I added the "dog," myself.

Aaaanyway....

I recently read a quote from Win Butler, a member of The Arcade Fire in Paste magazine. It went like this:

"There are two kinds of fear: The Bible talks a lot about fear of God--fear in the face of something awesome. That kind of fear is the type of fear that makes someone want to change. But a fear of other people makes you want to stay the same, to protect what you have. It's a stagnant fear; and it's paralyzing."



Now, I have no idea if any of the members of The Arcade Fire are Christians or not. I kind of doubt they are just because if they were some Christian music magazine would have publicized the crap out of them by now. Whatever their religious leanings, though, I was really struck by this quote. What a perfect summation of what the Bible means when it says to "fear" God.

Fear seems like such a negative emotion. Nobody wants to be "afraid" of anything. But here, "fear" is a realization. Fear is recognizing how much bigger God is than us - and being motivated by the realization to make changes in our life for the better. Not because we think he might punish us if we don't - but because seeing him in his goodness makes us want to strive to imitate him.

So that's today's little lesson from the seedy, sinful world of popular music. Come back tomorrow for a lesson from Justin Timberlake on how to get the most out of your devotional time.

Okay, not really.

What's your religious world view?

The internet is full of personality tests. You can take tests that will tell you the regular stuff, like how you react to conflict, or the slightly more sublime, like which character from super hero you are.

A year or so ago I found a test that told me what my religious world view was. I decided to take it again today to see if it had changed any. It hadn't. My results are below. At the very bottom there's a link to the test so you can take it yourself. When you're done, come back here and post in the comment section what your world view is (but don't try and copy and paste the code they give you. The comment section doesn't support html - if you didn't understand what i just typed, just ignore it).

My results:

You scored as Emergent/Postmodern. You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this.

What's your theological worldview?
created with QuizFarm.com

Beyond Above and Beyond

Really nice weekend at ol' Xroads - or St. Awesome's as a few of my friends and I have taken to calling it, don't ask me why. I had the privilege of volunteering on the video team this weekend so I got to observe three different crowds celebrating what God's been doing in people's lives throughout the last three years.

It was really awesome to hear Glen read the letters that people have sent him regarding how being a part of the Above and Beyond campaign has affected their lives.

I figured it's possible that maybe some of you have stories that, for whatever reason, you didn't email to Glen but still might like to share. Or maybe after being in the service this weekend you were touched and have something on your heart you'd like people to hear. If so, this is your place.

Just look down at the bottom of this post and you'll see the word "comments." That's a link to the blog's comment section. Just click it and a little box will open where you can type in a message - or read messages other people have left.

You have the option of signing your comments or making them anonymously. Feel free to do either - but keep in mind that sometimes when you put a name on a post it helps build a sense of community - even here on the internet.

So let's hear it!

lostopedia

I know lots of folks have given up on Lost due to the seemingly uneven mystery to answers ratio. I, for one, still really enjoy the show in spite of moments of intense frustration.

If, like me, you have trouble remembering many of the endless plot points that have cropped up in the three years the show has been on the air, check out Lostopedia.

Lostopedia is an open source Lost reference guide. "Open source" means anybody can contribute to it - like Wikipedia (an online open source encyclopedia).

Because it's open to anyone's contribution there is the possibility of errors and fabricaitons but my guess is, more often than not, you'll find the information there to be reliable. And if it isn't - who cares? It's just a tv show.