GPC Blogs are Neat

Be sure to check out Jeff Bonhiver's blog that he just started. He is interning with me at GPC and he will be sure to keep us up to date on the latest and greatest from the world of worship and theology... I added him to my list of links under GPC/Fuller peeps. (I stole this picture off his Facebook!)

CELEBRITY SIGHTING!

So Whitney and I were enjoying Chipotle earlier this week. As we were sitting outside on the porch we were disturbed by a national icon. The one and only "Booger" as seen in Revenge of the Nerds came strolling by. I was stopped dead in my tracks as I remembered his extraordinary burping scene in the master narrative of the opus of Revenge of the Nerds. Whitney desperately wanted to get a picture and his autograph, but I contained her excitment as both of us choked on our burrito! May we always remember his brilliance.

Who's yo Daddy?

There was one more quiz to take!

You’re Origen! You do nothing by half-measures. If you’re going to read the Bible, you want to read it in the original languages. If you’re going to teach, you’re going to reach as many souls as possible, through a proliferation of lectures and books. If you’re a guy and you’re going to fight for purity … well, you’d better hide the kitchen shears. Find out which Church Father you are at The Way of the Fathers!

A Conversation Piece

While meandering around the blog of Dr. Chris Spinks, I came across two quizzes that help people to understand the way that they think... The first results tables that I am printing are Whitney's results and the second two results pages are my results. (I had a horrible time with the html, so I apologize that everything isn't well fitting, but I think that you will get the idea.)

Whitney

You scored as John Calvin, Much of what is now called Calvinism had more to do with his followers than Calvin himself, and so you may or may not be committed to TULIP, though God's sovereignty is all important. John Calvin 73% Anselm 67% Jürgen Moltmann 67% Paul Tillich 53% Martin Luther 47% Augustine 33% Karl Barth 33% Friedrich Schleiermacher 27% Charles Finney 27% Jonathan Edwards 20% Which theologian are you? created with QuizFarm.com

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. Emergent/Postmodern 75% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 64% Roman Catholic 61% Neo orthodox 54% Charismatic/Pentecostal 39% Classical Liberal 39% Modern Liberal 36% Reformed Evangelical 25% Fundamentalist 25% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

Nick

You scored as Anselm, Anselm is the outstanding theologian of the medieval period.He sees man's primary problem as having failed to render unto God what we owe him, so God becomes man in Christ and gives God what he is due. You should read 'Cur Deus Homo?' Anselm 73% Jürgen Moltmann 67% Augustine 47% Karl Barth 40% John Calvin 33% Charles Finney 27% Martin Luther 27% Jonathan Edwards 20% Paul Tillich 20% Friedrich Schleiermacher 13% Which theologian are you? created with QuizFarm.com

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. Emergent/Postmodern 75% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 64% Roman Catholic 61% Neo orthodox 54% Charismatic/Pentecostal 39% Classical Liberal 39% Modern Liberal 36% Reformed Evangelical 25% Fundamentalist 25% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

While some of the results were laughable, the quizzes were still enlightening to take! Just click on the links under the results and you will be taken to the website.

Humble Missional Movements

John Stackhouse Jr. (Author of Humble Apologetics) wrote an article in the May/June edition of Books and Culture entitled a Bigger-and Smaller-View of Mission. While the entire article was engaging, This section on inclusivism especially stood out to me...

"This position (Inclusivism) affirms that without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and the he rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6). This assertion comes in the great chapter listing examples of faith from the whole sweep of the Bible. Thus it includes lots of people who apparently had never heard of Jesus Christ, but had encountered the true God, believing that he did exist and that he is trustworthy, that he "rewards those who seek him" with what they cannot do for themselves. This is a fundamental posture of faith, and from this passage, as from many others in the Bible, it is obvious that one does not have to know about Jesus to adopt this posture that results in salvation. Does this mean that other religions are salvific? Certainly not. NO religion is salvific: not Hinduism or Shinto or Islam, but also not Christianity. God is salvific... To confine the scope of salvation to those who have heard certain facts about Jesus and who come to accept him on this basis, therefore, is not necessitated by the Bible, and in fact is not even the best way to understand the Bible."

Luke 15

This is why we are in need of a shepard as found in Luke 15. Watch it four times... I promise it gets funnier every time!

Another Blog

Be sure to check out the newest blog creation...

http://www.kineticfilms.blogspot.com

This blog will monthly display the work of the students that are a part of Kinetic (GPC High School Student Ministry). Earlier I posted our first film that we made. The second film is also posted on that site. The second film is also posted below. This short is an interpretation of the story of the rich man and Lazarus as written in Luke 16.

Nightline Debate

I had a hard time watching Nightline this evening. Beginning a new series, Nightline decided to premier "Face Off" with a debate on the existance of God between Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort versus members of the Rational Response Squad named Brian Sapient and a woman whom calls herself Kelly. As both side spouted cliche after cliche towards one another, Whitney and I shivered with pain. Quotes such as Cameron saying that "proving the existance of God is easier than you think", and that "we (Kirk and Ray) can absolutely prove the existance of God, 100 persent, without the use of faith" filled the airwaves. On the other side Kelly enlightened America that there is no historical evidance that "Jesus was even a man". And believe me... This is only the beginning. The most striking portion of the piece is the pain that is happening after the debate. As of right now 3,768 people have responded to the debate and most comments are full of toxic content... Following in the pattern set by the debaters. I would love to process this debate with people over the nexts days as I am struggling to articulate the ugliness behind the debate. I do recognize a couple of things about the debate. I do not fit on either side of this conversation and most people on both sides of the question that I have had intelligible conversations about this subject handled the material in exponentially more responsible ways also do not fit on either side of this debate. I have posted pieces of the debate below.

A Short

Within Kinetic (at GPC) we will be making short films once a month... This is the very first short that we will be premiering thing Sunday... I hope that you get a laugh out of it!

A Quietdrive Tribute

Jeff, a student at Fuller and my fellow intern at GPC, has a unique connection to a band that seems to be making quite a name for themselves across America. The band is Quietdrive and Jeff has a special connection with the band because his brother is the guitarist for the band. This is there first video that they have made from their single Rise From the Ashes... I have really enjoyed the song and thought that I would throw it out there on my blog...


This video is Quietdrive in concert singing what many like as their favorite Quietdrive song... The song is a cover that most will be familiar with... Time After Time

Family Camp

Whitney and I had a lovely time up at GPC's Family Camp last weekend. We drove 2 hours into the mountains to reflect on community with the people of GPC. Goran Dragolavic, the speaker, a self prclaimed reformed existentialist, gave us a marvelous space to converse about the implications of friendship and assembly. He powerfully noted a recent study that 55 percent of Americans do not have a close friendship with anybody and the 73 percent of evangelicals do not have a close friendship with anybody. Goran attributed this to friendships rooting in need and the truth that many evangelicals wear a mask that makes them look like they don't need anybody. Thus the 73 percent. This is a wide brush stroke of the dialogue of the weekend, but it really was fantastic. Whitney and I spent time with the people of GPC and we really enjoyed their companionship. The weekend gave us a certain energy that we were looking for and we now feel rested in many ways. Oh yeah... And Whitney played paintball. So awesome! A quote from her regrading paintball, "Paintball was my favorite part of the weekend."

Pounding

"Just because one carries a hammer, doesn't mean that everything is a nail." Dr. Dale Ryan

Diplaced People and Boxes

A group of people from Glendale ventured over to the Pomona Fairgrounds this past weekend to support ending the war in Northern Uganda through Invisable Children and the Displace Me Campaign. 5000 people from the area gathered and built cardboard houses, wrote letters to politicians, listened to speakers, prayed, and watched new film reporting on the conditions of Northern Uganda. For a more detailed report be sure to see Rene's site as he did a wonderful job with a lot of teh details of the context of the turmoil in Uganda. (Click on Rene out of the GPC/Fuller peeps)


As Whitney was coming home from work yesterday, police were beginning to put up yellow tape around campus. She had heard that there was a bomb threat, but we didn't put much more thought into it after she made it home. As I then left for class an hour later, I couldn't get into campus as everything had been taped off. I asked a policewoman what was happening and she told me to look at the box that was sitting right on the corner of Walnut and Oakland... I looked and she told me that people thought that the box contained a bomb... I eventually made it to class after walking 8 blocks around all of the commotion. While sitting in class we were startled by an explosion. Our professor sent somebody to go check what it was and it turns out that the bomb squad blew up the box. In doing so they discovered that the box was simply filled with alarm clocks for the office in which it was sent. In light of the Virginia Tech Disaster, this was a pretty scary deal for the Fuller Community. If you close up on the picture, you can actually see the box sitting on the corner.