Gospel Tracts are effective? YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING?
Kirk and his friend Ray were back againt his week. This episode they spent the whole half an hour on the "effective" use of gospel tracts. Holy crap, these guys can't be serious. Has a tract ever been effective in helping anyone in becoming a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ?
During the episode, they constantly tried to hit home the fact that gospel tracts are a great way to, "break the ice." Am I just dumb? If you have to use a tract to break the ice with someone, let's just be blunt, YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO SHARE ANYTHING ABOUT JESUS WITH ANYONE!
If you aren't strong enough in your faith (what ever that faith may be), to be willing to put your personal relationships on the line, you should be worrying about your own faith, not that of others.
There is nothing effective about tracts. They are not a magic bullet that releases you of the responsibility in sharing your own story. I would wager that no one that comes to this site and hears this challenge could come up with proof that tracts are effective. I'll give $100 to the first person that can comment to this posting with evidence that a tract has ever effectively helped someone in becoming a fully devoted follower of Jesus. Serously, $100! Let the games begin.
P.S. When asked by someone whom Ray was "sharing the Gospel", if he (Ray) was perfect, Ray replied, "Yes, I'm perfect. Perfect in Jesus Christ." UUUUHHHHHG!
Monday, November 28, 2005
Friday, November 25, 2005
525,600 minutes in a year.
So have you seen it? Have you gone to the theatre and seen the movie? No, not Harry Squatter. I'm talking about RENT! I went to see it two nights ago and was blown away. RENT is by far the best recent-musical-turned-into-a-movie in the past five years. I doubt it will recieve the recogonition of Chicago or Moulin Rouge. But in my book it was a ton better. Sure I maybe bais from the stand point that I was a teenager during the initial AIDS crisis in this country, so the time in which the story takes place intrests me. Sure I may be bias because for some of the same reasons for the previous sentance I enjoyed the music from Rent a great deal. But, I'm most likely biased because this film, as in the theatre production and as in the book, the story is all about community. Now if you are homophobic, this movie may not be the best place for you to learn some of the leasons in life about the need for having authentic commmunity. You may want to watch the Godfather (not kidding, there are great leasons in the Godfather about the value of community and respect). I also strongly suggest that high school and college students that believe they have a "strong" group of friends, go see this movie all together. Afterwords, sit around and discuss the following question: Compared to the group of friends in the movie, how authentic is our community? Do we love each other unconditionally? Or are there strings attached to our friendships? Go see this movie!
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Dang it's cold! Makes me want to go to Thailand!
Being out in the cold weather made me surf the Internet last night. I spent lots of time dreaming about Thailand. The wonderful people I met there. The beautiful water. The amazing scenery. I miss it. I can't wait to go back.
While surfing through Hi Phi Phi's site I found these Ten Commandments for visiting Thailand:
1. Relax A LOT!!! The Thai people are very relaxed; you can’t expect to change that.
2. Turn down your need to express Be quite and subtle in your expressions
3. Observe the Thais Take time to observe how the Thai people interact with each other. Watch how Thai people act in everyday situations. Spend time to build relationships with the Thai people. You may feel like you want to rush in and do as much as you can to help, but taking a little time to observe the Thais and getting to know them is going to make you a lot more productive in the long run.
4. Smile a lot and mean it Even when you say sorry, even when you’re annoyed, laugh at your own problems. This must be a genuine smile: Thai people smile all the time so are very sensitive to false smiles, and it is impolite to give a false smile.
5. Wai Learn how to wai respectfully, and never wai with things in your hands. Use your intuition to know the right situations to wai and how to wai. The more that you bow and the higher your hands when you wai, the more respect that you are giving to the other person. Again don’t give false wais.
6. Be gentle Remember how you act when you are out and about. Thai people will love you when you are gentle in your actions, manner and the way you speak.
7. Accept everything that people offer with generosity Or decline very carefully; white lies are sometimes better than the truth.
8. Be aware of feet and heads Never touch a Thai person on the head, or shoulders. Never use your feet to point or move things around. Take your shoes off before entering a house, anytime that you see a heap of shoes by a door just take your shoes off. Never stand above an elder, if they sit you sit. If you have to sit on the floor sit with your feet to one side
9. No hugging, keep touching to a minimum Sometimes men will hold hands with other men or women will hold hands with other women, but only when they are good friends. You can touch on the elbow if you want to comfort someone who you have spent time to build a relationship with. If you are from a culture that kisses on the cheek, be aware that this will probably offend Thais if you do it to them. Also be aware of the clothes that you wear and how that is seen by the Thai. Women should dress modestly.
10. Be humble and be here to learn
I think these things are important in dealing with people in any situation.
While surfing through Hi Phi Phi's site I found these Ten Commandments for visiting Thailand:
1. Relax A LOT!!! The Thai people are very relaxed; you can’t expect to change that.
2. Turn down your need to express Be quite and subtle in your expressions
3. Observe the Thais Take time to observe how the Thai people interact with each other. Watch how Thai people act in everyday situations. Spend time to build relationships with the Thai people. You may feel like you want to rush in and do as much as you can to help, but taking a little time to observe the Thais and getting to know them is going to make you a lot more productive in the long run.
4. Smile a lot and mean it Even when you say sorry, even when you’re annoyed, laugh at your own problems. This must be a genuine smile: Thai people smile all the time so are very sensitive to false smiles, and it is impolite to give a false smile.
5. Wai Learn how to wai respectfully, and never wai with things in your hands. Use your intuition to know the right situations to wai and how to wai. The more that you bow and the higher your hands when you wai, the more respect that you are giving to the other person. Again don’t give false wais.
6. Be gentle Remember how you act when you are out and about. Thai people will love you when you are gentle in your actions, manner and the way you speak.
7. Accept everything that people offer with generosity Or decline very carefully; white lies are sometimes better than the truth.
8. Be aware of feet and heads Never touch a Thai person on the head, or shoulders. Never use your feet to point or move things around. Take your shoes off before entering a house, anytime that you see a heap of shoes by a door just take your shoes off. Never stand above an elder, if they sit you sit. If you have to sit on the floor sit with your feet to one side
9. No hugging, keep touching to a minimum Sometimes men will hold hands with other men or women will hold hands with other women, but only when they are good friends. You can touch on the elbow if you want to comfort someone who you have spent time to build a relationship with. If you are from a culture that kisses on the cheek, be aware that this will probably offend Thais if you do it to them. Also be aware of the clothes that you wear and how that is seen by the Thai. Women should dress modestly.
10. Be humble and be here to learn
I think these things are important in dealing with people in any situation.
Monday, November 14, 2005
Kirk Cameron is a massive tool!
I have a new hobby. I’ve started to listen and watch those in the media that I can’t stand. My wife and kids get kind of annoyed with me from time to time when I do this. If I’m in the car it’s not uncommon for me to listen to Sean Hannity or Rush “I’m a big fat liar” Limbaugh. Or if I’m flipping through channels I’ll stop on TBN to see what the heck the guy with both big hair and a reseeding hairline is jumping up and down screaming about. I do this so that I know what these people are saying. So many times no matter which side of an argument you find yourself on, you tend to rapidly discard and not listen to those screaming the loudest on the other side. If I think Bill O’Reily is a raving lunatic and I want to argue that point with my mom, I better know what the idiot is saying, so I can debunk it.
Tonight was one such occasion. Most “Christian” programs fly way under my radar these days. But I had heard that Kirk Cameron was touting some 22 disc DVD evangelism training series. So when I was surfing through channels and came across Kirk and his British friend Ray, I thought I would stop for a minute to hear what they had to say. I was so outraged at what I was hearing I began to take notes. You know it's gotta be bad if I take notes.
The most ironic thing about the program I watched tonight was in its name, “The Way of the Master.” As I break down the show I hope you see how far away from “the Way” Kirk and his friend really are.
Episode – “Witnessing to Loved Ones”
Six keys
1) Pray – Kirk and Ray went out of their way to make sure that the viewer knew that if you have a real passion to see your loved one in heaven that you need to pray for them and for God to intervene. Besides flying in the face of our God given free will, I do not prescribe to the notion that my requests alter God’s plan. I doubt there has been a single instance that after I was done praying God said, “Hey Roger, that’s a great idea! I never thought about doing that.” If God is mutable it is through the obedient act of praying and not the prayers themselves.
2) Be blameless – At this point Kirk went into a whole spiel about not being a hypocrite. His short diatribe about how we need to be careful about the language we use, the jokes we tell and the movies we watch was laughable. His philosophy was based on making the appearance of your life seem blameless. I guess what he forgot was we “all fall short of the glory of God” and therefore are full of blame. So trying to hide that fact with the appearance of righteousness is in and of it’s self is being hypocritical. People will be more attracted to what you have to offer when you, get this, be yourself. Being real is just that. When you try to be something your not people can see through that and will not trust you. Jesus went about his day, doing ordinary things (sure there were a couple of miracles), with ordinary people.
3) Confront – Now this one really confused me. On the one hand they want me to give my testimony (evidence that a witness gives to a court of law) and on the other they want me to confront. In a trial the witness doesn’t do the confronting, they do the testifying. And when you are a witness on the witness stand you aren’t allowed to give any testimony until you are asked a question. Yet Kirk and his friend want me to confront (to come face to face with somebody, especially in a challenge, and usually with hostility, criticism, or defiance) my family and loved ones. That doesn’t sound too much like “the Way” I know. If Jesus was ever confrontational it was with the religious leaders of his time, not with loved ones or people he met on the street.
4) Share Witnessing – This one just blows me away. Their strategy centers on sharing the “witnessing” opportunity with a loved one with a friend. So instead of me sharing my personal faith in Jesus with those in my life that really matter to me, Kirk suggest that I go do it with his dad and then he would come do that same thing for me with my brother. I’m not going to go into great detail on this one. Let’s just say there is no biblical precedence for this at all.
5) Good Works – These guys wanted to make sure that as a strategy you remember to do nice things for people, because once again that will make a good impression on others. WHAT! Your motivation for doing good works should be the pure fact that this is who Jesus calls you to be. If your motivation is to impress or influence others, it will never work. Jesus' own words, "Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 6:1 NIV)
6) Be Faithful – This is the Christian equivalent of Nike’s “Just Do It”. If you are “faithful” enough and “witness” to those God puts in your path, God will reward you. How wrong is that, let me count the ways. Oh wait, I think I already have in this post. Not everyone is a reaper, some were made to sow and some to plant. And all of these are equally important parts of the process of others seeing God in you.
Kirk and his friend Ray are the summation of everything wrong in the evangelical world today. If you want to “reach” people for Jesus you need to gain their trust by listening to their story, so that they will ask you to tell them your story, so that you can figure out together where God’s story overlaps with the other two. And in that tiny space you will have the chance to share your witness.
I’m sure that most of the people that read this blog entry won’t know the name Eddie Guerrero. Eddie was one of the most talented pro-wrestlers in recent history. Sunday morning Eddie was found dead in his hotel room in Wisconsin. Mondays wrestling show, Raw, was completely dedicated to the memory of Eddie. Besides clips from some of Eddie’s most memorable matches and special one time only live matches, wrestlers and crewmembers dropped their characters for the night to give “testimony” about their friend. We heard stories of how humble Eddie was, how he loved to make people laugh, how he would lite up when he talked about his family and how he took younger wrestlers under his wing to mentor them with their careers. At the end of the show I found myself envious of these witnesses relationship with Eddie. All I have ever known of him was his in-ring persona. I found myself wishing that I could have known Eddie like they did. That is what a great witness of Jesus should look like. After your testimony people should be jealous about the fact they don't have the kind of relationship with Jesus you do. Not feeling like they have been talked down to, because you have something they don't. In my fifteen years of youth ministry the one of things that would grate on me was when students would say, “My witness is boring, and I don’t have a good story.” Your story is effected by others and by God’s. If you look at others as projects, like Kirk and Ray do, when sharing your faith, I ascertain you neither know “the way” or “the Master.”
Tonight was one such occasion. Most “Christian” programs fly way under my radar these days. But I had heard that Kirk Cameron was touting some 22 disc DVD evangelism training series. So when I was surfing through channels and came across Kirk and his British friend Ray, I thought I would stop for a minute to hear what they had to say. I was so outraged at what I was hearing I began to take notes. You know it's gotta be bad if I take notes.
The most ironic thing about the program I watched tonight was in its name, “The Way of the Master.” As I break down the show I hope you see how far away from “the Way” Kirk and his friend really are.
Episode – “Witnessing to Loved Ones”
Six keys
1) Pray – Kirk and Ray went out of their way to make sure that the viewer knew that if you have a real passion to see your loved one in heaven that you need to pray for them and for God to intervene. Besides flying in the face of our God given free will, I do not prescribe to the notion that my requests alter God’s plan. I doubt there has been a single instance that after I was done praying God said, “Hey Roger, that’s a great idea! I never thought about doing that.” If God is mutable it is through the obedient act of praying and not the prayers themselves.
2) Be blameless – At this point Kirk went into a whole spiel about not being a hypocrite. His short diatribe about how we need to be careful about the language we use, the jokes we tell and the movies we watch was laughable. His philosophy was based on making the appearance of your life seem blameless. I guess what he forgot was we “all fall short of the glory of God” and therefore are full of blame. So trying to hide that fact with the appearance of righteousness is in and of it’s self is being hypocritical. People will be more attracted to what you have to offer when you, get this, be yourself. Being real is just that. When you try to be something your not people can see through that and will not trust you. Jesus went about his day, doing ordinary things (sure there were a couple of miracles), with ordinary people.
3) Confront – Now this one really confused me. On the one hand they want me to give my testimony (evidence that a witness gives to a court of law) and on the other they want me to confront. In a trial the witness doesn’t do the confronting, they do the testifying. And when you are a witness on the witness stand you aren’t allowed to give any testimony until you are asked a question. Yet Kirk and his friend want me to confront (to come face to face with somebody, especially in a challenge, and usually with hostility, criticism, or defiance) my family and loved ones. That doesn’t sound too much like “the Way” I know. If Jesus was ever confrontational it was with the religious leaders of his time, not with loved ones or people he met on the street.
4) Share Witnessing – This one just blows me away. Their strategy centers on sharing the “witnessing” opportunity with a loved one with a friend. So instead of me sharing my personal faith in Jesus with those in my life that really matter to me, Kirk suggest that I go do it with his dad and then he would come do that same thing for me with my brother. I’m not going to go into great detail on this one. Let’s just say there is no biblical precedence for this at all.
5) Good Works – These guys wanted to make sure that as a strategy you remember to do nice things for people, because once again that will make a good impression on others. WHAT! Your motivation for doing good works should be the pure fact that this is who Jesus calls you to be. If your motivation is to impress or influence others, it will never work. Jesus' own words, "Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 6:1 NIV)
6) Be Faithful – This is the Christian equivalent of Nike’s “Just Do It”. If you are “faithful” enough and “witness” to those God puts in your path, God will reward you. How wrong is that, let me count the ways. Oh wait, I think I already have in this post. Not everyone is a reaper, some were made to sow and some to plant. And all of these are equally important parts of the process of others seeing God in you.
Kirk and his friend Ray are the summation of everything wrong in the evangelical world today. If you want to “reach” people for Jesus you need to gain their trust by listening to their story, so that they will ask you to tell them your story, so that you can figure out together where God’s story overlaps with the other two. And in that tiny space you will have the chance to share your witness.
I’m sure that most of the people that read this blog entry won’t know the name Eddie Guerrero. Eddie was one of the most talented pro-wrestlers in recent history. Sunday morning Eddie was found dead in his hotel room in Wisconsin. Mondays wrestling show, Raw, was completely dedicated to the memory of Eddie. Besides clips from some of Eddie’s most memorable matches and special one time only live matches, wrestlers and crewmembers dropped their characters for the night to give “testimony” about their friend. We heard stories of how humble Eddie was, how he loved to make people laugh, how he would lite up when he talked about his family and how he took younger wrestlers under his wing to mentor them with their careers. At the end of the show I found myself envious of these witnesses relationship with Eddie. All I have ever known of him was his in-ring persona. I found myself wishing that I could have known Eddie like they did. That is what a great witness of Jesus should look like. After your testimony people should be jealous about the fact they don't have the kind of relationship with Jesus you do. Not feeling like they have been talked down to, because you have something they don't. In my fifteen years of youth ministry the one of things that would grate on me was when students would say, “My witness is boring, and I don’t have a good story.” Your story is effected by others and by God’s. If you look at others as projects, like Kirk and Ray do, when sharing your faith, I ascertain you neither know “the way” or “the Master.”
Friday, November 11, 2005
What is "Bad Ass"?
Besides Momma Flynn's Creole Kitchen?
Is there anything more bad ass then; driving down the road in a Jeep, wearing a cheap pair of aviator sunglasses, Foghat blaring from the stereo with an eighty pound German Shepard sticking his face out the back window?
I don't think so!
Is there anything more bad ass then; driving down the road in a Jeep, wearing a cheap pair of aviator sunglasses, Foghat blaring from the stereo with an eighty pound German Shepard sticking his face out the back window?
I don't think so!
Saturday, November 05, 2005
I love these "internet personality tests"!
They are so easy to manipulate! If you answer the questions honestly you get dumb results. BUT, if you know what you want the outcome to be, answering them is as easy as slipping across a chum covered poopdeck!
You are The Cap'n!
What's Yer Inner Pirate?
brought to you by The Official Talk Like A Pirate Web Site. Arrrrr!
You are The Cap'n!
Some men are born great, some achieve greatness and some slit the throats of any man that stands between them and the mantle of power. You never met a man you couldn't eviscerate. Not that mindless violence is the only avenue open to you - but why take an avenue when you have complete freeway access? You are the definitive Man of Action. You are James Bond in a blousy shirt and drawstring-fly pants. Your swash was buckled long ago and you have never been so sure of anything in your life as in your ability to bend everyone to your will. You will call anyone out and cut off their head if they show any sign of taking you on or backing down. You cannot be saddled with tedious underlings, but if one of your lieutenants shows an overly developed sense of ambition he may find more suitable accommodations in Davy Jones' locker. That is, of course, IF you notice him. You tend to be self absorbed - a weakness that may keep you from seeing enemies where they are and imagining them where they are not.
What's Yer Inner Pirate?
brought to you by The Official Talk Like A Pirate Web Site. Arrrrr!
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