Charlie Wear’s Notes

 Hope for a New Year, pt. 1 by Len Hjalmarson: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (32)
 Hope for a New Year, pt. 2 by Len Hjalmarson: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (30)

This is an mp3 of an excellent article by Len Hjalmarson, Hope for a New Year, which appears in this month’s "Big" issue of Next-Wave. This quote encapsulates the essence of the article:

If I had something to speak into the emerging and missional conversation, it might be this wisdom of Francis. Let us begin again, for as yet we have done nothing.

The mp3 is in two parts…

My wife and I went to see "The Bucket List" yesterday. We both really enjoyed the movie, despite it’s less than real premise and maudlin storylines. I couldn’t help but be moved by Morgan Freeman’s character’s approach to faith. One observation: It is very clear that baby boomers are dealing with issues surrounding death and dying, faith and spirituality. What ends up being portrayed is a kind of non-judgmental approach to world religions. Reincarnation is discussed with the same weight as ancient Egyptian myth and the Judeo-Christian God.

Of course, Mr. Freeman (who excels at portraying God and deeply philosophical characters) has found the perfect foil in Jack Nicholson’s extremely wealthy hospital magnate. Medical treatment in general gets short shrift. Director Rob Reiner takes dramatic license a bit when he uses a "dead" character as the film’s narrator. This film should be a must-see for fundamentalist Christian practitioners who want to deny the cultural influences that both favor a return to spirituality and reject institutional "I’m right and you are going to hell" Christianity. Hopefully, it would cause them to think and have compassion, more than it would simply make them angry.

USA Today:

A new survey of U.S. adults who don’t go to church, even on holidays, finds 72% say "God, a higher or supreme being, actually exists." But just as many (72%) also say the church is "full of hypocrites."

Yikes!

I have been enjoying reading Seth Godin lately. The Purple Cow, Red Fez, Meatball Sundae-making marketing guru and author is frequently profound. In a recent lengthy article he wrote about the death of the "music business."

If you are part of a denominational leadership, or church planting movement, there is something profound lurking in the Godin observations about the music business. He makes ten big points that are clearly applicable to any sort of "business."

Here is the basic premise I have extrapolated: It is quite possible that in a digital age, the way we have done church (even in the "contemporary" expression) is "over." If this is true then we can expect more of the same of what we have seen over the last twenty years, declining participation, declining attendance, declining contributions (per capita), and declining involvement of younger people. If you see the common thread, it is the word "declining."

Nobody is giving seminars on "How to open a Drive-in Theater." Seminars on "How to start a Church," should take into consideration that there may not be a need for another "contemporary" church service for ‘authentic, real people’ to come and get free coffee and donuts, free wireless, listen and maybe sing along with some "contemporary" praise and worship songs, fill out a connect card and listen to a fill-in the blank topical sermon. If this is true, then what is the new thing look like?

I like to read all kinds of books on business, management and leadership. One of the authors who does a great job on his blog and in his books is Seth Godin, the marketing master. In a recent post he makes this point: Make promises and keep them.

This seems to be the problem with Christians and the Church in North America. We have failed to deliver on our "promise." You see, most everyone knows what we are supposed to be about: Doing unto others, turning the other cheek, being merciful, giving, blessing, all that Sermon on the Mount stuff. Someone else made our promises 2000 years ago, and we really haven’t lived up to them, have we? However, like the bunch of Pharisees we are, we keep saying to God, "Thank you that I am not like them." Well guess what, we are exactly like "them."

Godin makes the point that great organizations "overdeliver." My suggestion for all of us for 2008? Under-promise and Over-deliver. Tell others: We don’t have everything figured out, but here is what we do have figured out: we want to love God with all we’ve got and love our neighbors at least as well as we love ourselves. Let’s be nice to each other, especially our family members and then spread that circle out to include our co-workers and everyone we come in contact with daily.

I don’t usually discuss politics in any way, either in Next-Wave or on my journal. I find that like religion, political discussions can be very divisive. However, I want to go on record with a political prediction, just so I can look back and say I told you so 11 months or so from now! Here we go:

1. I predict that Barack Obama will not be the next president of the United States.

2. I predict that the next president of the United States will not be a Republican.

3. I predict that the Republican nominee will not be a Mormon.

Here are my reasons:

Cultural change comes slow and in an incremental way. For Barack Obama to be the next president we will have to overcome a number of historical firsts. First freshman Senator to be elected President. in the post-television era (read 1950 to present). First black man to be elected President. It is more likely that we will elect the first woman president, than the first black president.

In times of slow economic growth or recession, the party in power nearly always loses the presidency. It is pretty clear that 2008 is going to be a very difficult year economically. The Republicans have had eight years to address these issues and they are not finishing well, at least that will be the perception.

Check back with me on Thanksgiving Day and we will see how I did.

I don’t have much faith in the conventional wisdom. When the entire crowd is proclaiming some sort of "truth" my hackles begin to rise and I tend to question their view. I guess it is the same for me with science. I don’t have much faith in science.

I was watching a documentary the other night talking about the progenitor of the Big Bang Theory. He was a catholic priest, mathematician who extrapolated the tenets of Einstein’s theories and posited that if the universe is expanding that at some point it must have been smaller. From this came the "cosmic egg" and the big bang idea. Uh, that seems like an interesting theory and certainly is the result of some deep thinking. But I’ll tell you what, I am going to wait and see about the whole thing.

At one point in history a fellow named Galileo pointed out that the earth was not the center of the universe. That got him excommunicated, but we have pretty much been able to ascertain that he was right.

Okay, I said all of this just to say, Global Warming, huh? It snowed in Daytona Beach, Florida this week. I hate it when it gets that warm!

Once in a while I am overwhelmed by the courage I see displayed in someone. This can happen at a film or when reading an article, or simply when I am listening to someone tell a story. I just finished reading a long post by one of my favorite blogger-authors, Jordon Cooper. You can read the post here.

I guess it is the context of that post that has tears leaking from my eyes. You see Jordon Cooper is one of my heroes. A young leader who is following Jesus’ call on his life, Jordon works in an inner city mission. He actually enjoys going to work and has been rewarded with a stolen bicycle and numerous death threats. The most recent one apparently scared him because the targets of the threat had expanded beyond Jordon himself to his family.

I remember clearly a breakfast I had with Jordon at a Denny’s in Orange County near LA. He was there as a visiting "professor." As we talked the call of God on Jordon’s life became to clear me. In the aftermath Jordon has embraced his calling and helped found Resonate in Canada.

I don’t always agree with Jordon’s take on life, politics and the spiritual pursuit, but I greatly respect his authentic expression of discipleship as he writes about the trials and struggles of following Jesus in his Canadian city.

As I was reacting to Jordon’s recent posts and the one I referenced I was reminded of the opening phrases of an old Steve Camp song:

Some people want to live
within the sound of chapel bells,
But I want to run a mission
a yard from the gates of hell.

And with everyone you meet
I’ll take them the gospel and share it well
And look around you as you hesitate
for another soul just fell

Let’s run to the battle,
Run to the battle.

Jordon is living his life on the front lines of the battle that is raging in his city. And his courage moves me.