Film & Theology | Religulous & Expelled

// March 27th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

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Penn Jillette | That Was a Good Man

// December 19th, 2008 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Sometimes it takes an atheist to explain that love is at the heart of evangelism…

“How much do you have to hate somebody not to proselytize?” – Penn Jillette

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HT: Ed Stetzer

The Mentoring Project

// December 4th, 2008 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VynP8nKlIxs]

The Belmont Foundation

The Mentoring Project: donate

DonaldMillerWords.com (website)

DonMilleris.com (blog)

To Own a Dragon: Reflections on Growing Up without a Father

by Donald Miller and John MacMurray

Good dads are almost as rare as fire-breathing dragons – or at least so it seems. New from Donald Miller, author of the critically acclaimed Blue Like Jazz, comes a gut-wrenchingly honest look at growing up without a father. In a unique, literary style, Donald and John MacMurray – the man who taught Donald the things his dad never did – encourage readers to both recognize and leave behind the disappointment and emotional scars marked by having absent earthly fathers.

Orphaned Elephants in puberty are like men without fathers

Excerpted from Guys and Dads, a 2006 Christianity Today interview with Don Miller:

What was your experience growing up without a father?

My dad left before I remember anything. There were early memories of my mom interacting with my dad occasionally, trying to get a credit card back from him, but I don’t have any memories of my dad. It all seemed pretty normal. It wasn’t until five or six years ago that I even began to process the fact that something in my life had been missing. There were a lot of the things I didn’t know. By know I mean that on a holistic level I didn’t know that authority equals love, those sorts of things. I always felt like I was ten years behind in terms of the way I was living my life. I attribute that to not having a father.

It was watching a documentary about a group of orphaned elephants that helped you see the need for a male authority in your life.

Without the presence of older elephants in their lives to mentor them, these elephants remained in suspended musth cycles, which essentially is like a puberty phase. With an older male elephant there, their musth cycle will only last about three days. It’s a very uncomfortable time, but it’s eased when an older male elephant is in their life.

But for the elephants on this reserve, with no older males, their musth cycles did not end. They basically began to lose it. They acted out aggressively and violently toward other creatures. They began to withdraw from their tribe. When they introduced older male elephants into that community of orphaned elephants, their musth cycles ended. They were able to be normal.

It was very interesting to me that there is evidence in the animal kingdom that you are changed biochemically by your relationship to something outside of yourself. Young men are changed by their relationships with older men. There is evidence of that. So I began to wonder, what am I missing? How am I being affected by not having a dad? ….

[READ CHAPTER 2 IN TO OWN A DRAGON FOR THE FULL STORY ON THE ORPHANED ELEPHANTS]

Conversations with a Skeptic

// November 26th, 2008 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

This is series of conversations between Michael Amini, President of the Secular Union at UW, and Matt Jensen, director of college ministry and elder-in-training at Mars Hill. If you’re watching these videos, I pray that they would challenge you to be a thinking Christian, who can contend courageously for your faith, and at the same time, treat others with the same grace and patience that God has treated you. Too many of us have grown complacent with a personal faith that suits us alone, when we should seek to grow deeper in our understanding of the Gospel, church history, apologetics, world religions, cults, scientific issues, philosophical argument, etc. Too many of us settle for a superficial faith (because we’re selfish and lazy), instead of desiring to be used mightily by God as an evangelistic, missional, transformational agent of Christ’s redemption in the world. This guy isn’t even an elder/pastor yet, he’s a deacon. Convicting…

Conversations With A Skeptic Part 1

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Conversations With A Skeptic Part 2

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Reflections on Part 2 – CLICK HERE

Conversations With A Skeptic Part 3

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Conversations With A Skeptic Part 4

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Fighting with God

// November 5th, 2008 // 3 Comments » // Uncategorized

Anyone who is a Believer and loves UFC cannot pass up this opportunity. Consider this: Fight seminars from Matt Lindland, Ryan Schultz, Trevor Prangley and Matt Horwich. Messages from Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church, Darrin Patrick of The Journey Church, Ryan Dobson, Bill Russell, and others. Personal testimonies from Ken Shamrock, Trevor Prangley and more. Live viewing of UFC PPV with all the fighters. Interested yet???

The conference takes place on January 16th and 17th, 2009 at the legendary Team Quest Fight Club in Gresham. OR.

CHECK OUT THE PREVIEW VIDEO

This is a unique opportunity to learn fight principles from scripture in a manner that you will never forget!

Real fighters will teach you fight techniques that are tied directly to the Apostle Paul’s teachings in scripture about spiritual battle.

… in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.
2 Cor. 2:11

SPEAKERS

VIDEOS

SCHEDULE

REGISTER

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Halloween: Trick, Treat or Retreat?

// October 20th, 2008 // No Comments » // Life

Many Conservative Christians have demonized Halloween as a holiday venerating satanic worship and pagan superstition. The typical response of Christian fundamentalists (I consider myself one, as long as that means being passionate about the “fundamentals” of the faith) to questionable elements of culture has been to demonize and separate themselves from lost people (because sin is like a virus you can catch if you get near it), to retreat from the city to the suburbs or the country, find a good piece of land, put up barbed wire, load their guns, get some canned goods, and hunker down for Armageddon. Many churches try to find a compromise by repackaging Halloween in ways that are palatable to the people in the church, e.g. Harvest Festivals, Fall Celebrations, Costume parties, etc. In regard to engaging culture, I believe this is the grid we should use:

Proclaim the gospel of Jesus to the world
Receive anything that is not counter to the gospel
Reject anything incompatible with the truth of scripture
Redeem objects of sinful, idolatrous worship for the glory of God

Here is a great article on Halloween that looks at the holiday through this Gospel lens, asking: Can this be redeemed for Jesus? The Gospel gives us freedom to act out of conscience, not forcing legalism onto others on issues that the bible is silent or unclear on, but not ignorantly engaging aspects of culture that might be harmful. It’s about being thoughtful in our cultural engagement.

Gimme Some Sugar, Baby…

The holy, hellish, hodgepodge history of Halloween

By Pastor James Harleman, Mars Hill Church

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD

Hip-Hop Reformission

// October 3rd, 2008 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Interview with Lecrae – Mark Driscoll

At Text & Context in February 2008, Mark Driscoll sat down with Christian hip-hop artist Lecrae.

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Lecrae – Rebel Intro – Lecrae

This is the first song off of Lecrae’s new album Rebel in stores September 30. Buy it from Amazon.com

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