Saturday, June 20, 2015
Comic Art
(just remember "iconic" does not always mean "good")
comic art comic books comics iconic covers
Friday, June 19, 2015
On LIturgy
The liturgy is transcultural in that it includes orders and symbols that witness to the church as a worldwide communion.How much that contrasts with the current ideas that liturgy is entirely embedded in the current culture to achieve relevancy. Christ takes us out of current culture and creates on of His own, which may be composed on bits of many, but will still be utterly unique. Should our liturgy not be the same?
It is contextual in that it always admits the use of natural or cultural elements in worship in each locality.
It is countercultural in that the gospel it proclaims and celebrates always holds out the vision of an alternative worldview and lifestyle.
It is cross-cultural in that it uses expressions from different cultures.
Liturgy culture
Friday Humor
Thursday, June 18, 2015
Happy and Good
The Weeping
The Welcome
The Waiting
The Worship
Good advice, all of it, but why does it make for a "happy" heart? We are hardly "happy" when we are weeping. Sure we can play games with the definition of happiness or we can talk about long term versus short term - or maybe we just threw in that word to motivate people to read what they otherwise would not read?
These are good habits to have. That should be all that is needed to say - good. But good isn't always happy; Christ on the cross was as good as it gets in human history, but there was nothing happy about it. It was something Jesus did because, and simply because it was good. Shouldn't that be enough?
But more, when we throw in an appeal to something that may or may not result, are we really honoring God? Isn't it a bit of a lie? And then people get disillusioned, and well, then where is the church? Christ reminded us to "take up our cross," is that happy? I don't think so, but it is very, very good. That's enough.
enough good happy
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Just Management Advice
1. Clear lines of direction. A clear vision. The box drawn around a certain end goal or objective.PUH-LEAZE! Anybody in any organization needs those things - why are they reserved for "Creatives?" And what the heck is a "creative" anyway? Sometimes we seem to over think things just a bit too much.
2. The freedom to draw within the lines. (There’s the freedom creatives love.) Limited micromanagement. Maximum empowerment. The freedom to fail. The freedom to dream. All within the broad — very broad — but defined boundaries.
3. Accountability along the way. Someone to check in with them periodically. Motivate them. Give them encouragement. Let them know they are making progress — that they are doing good work.
And that is a huge problem when it comes to church. We keep inventing new categories and looking for new things when maybe, just maybe, the secret is to learn how to do the classic stuff better.
classic invention leadership
Monday, June 15, 2015
Parts of the Same Whole
Think of faith and obedience as travel companions heading to the same destination—namely, to please and glorify the Lord. You cannot have one without the other. They grow simultaneously as they are practiced but will wither if neglected.I think that is true of so many of the attributes of the Christian life. They comprise a whole, we cannot pick and choose, we have to buy into the whole package.
Without faith, humility is impossible because to allow humility into us we have to believe that God will protect us. Without humility love is impossible becasue we cannot count the other as more important unless we are humble. Without obedience we do not know that faith is real. And so it goes.
There are several "ladder" passages in scripture. (e.g. 2 Peter 1:5-8 - Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.) In these passages, one trait leads to another leads to another. It is inescapable and for one to be real they all have to be real. We cannot jump from faith to true and deep love, must proceed through all the characteristics.
Too often we tell people only about the stuff they want to hear about and skip the steps and co-travelers. Is it any wonder then that the gospel is so hard to find in our culture?
co-travelers faith love obedience
