Ron Cole : off the map...navigating life.

thoughts half baked:Oct.04...worship

( image courtesy of David LaChapelle's creativity )

Sometimes worship doesn't start with a nice chord progression. It's uncomfortable. It's humiliating. It comes out of desperation. It involves submission.

it involves... ... ...

Dick Staub...The Culturally Saavy Christian

Dick Staub turns the reins of The Kindlings Muse over to his trusted friend Bill Hogg a man with that rare blend of wisdom and wit delivered in the tongue of one who speaks in the accent he swears we will hear in heaven. They are talking about Dick Staub’s newest book “The Culturally Savvy Christian: A Manifesto for Deepening Faith and Enriching Popular Culture in an Age of Christianity-Lite,” described by scholar/pastor NT Wright as “an urgent book for our times.”

For those not familiar with Dick Staub, he hails out of the Pacific Northwest in the Seattle area. He has been engaged in the conversation of faith and culture for years. He does a live podcast from Hales Ales Brewery & Pub , Seattle’s Fremont District,  every Monday night at 7pm. After years of interviewing the shapers of American culture-authors, business leaders, educators, politicians, futurists, theologians, filmmakers, musicians and trend-watchers - Dick Staub is emerging as one of today’s most experienced and thoughtful observers of ideas in contemporary culture.

I'm barely in Dick's new book," The Culturally Saavy Christian ", and from the small bytes I've tasted...I'm ready to digest a whole more. Bill Hogg is doing the first of a three part interview around the book, and you can listen to it ...click < here >.

Where God is...

"Whatever thoughts we have about God, who He is or even if God exists, most will agree that God has a special place for the poor.  The poor are where God lives.  God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house.  God is where the opportunity is lost and lives are shattered.  God is with the mother who has infected her child with a virus that will take both their lives.  God is under the rubble of the cries that we hear during wartime.   God, my friends, is with the poor.  And God is with us, if we are with them." ( Bono at the NAACP Awards )

Thanks to JR Woodward for the heads up, you can have a listen and watch the whole speech over at his site...I was moved by Bono's words...and by the contrast between worlds.

"The Secret" ...it's not, we've heard it all before

Well, I was going to ignore it, but in my previous post, Annie in her comments brought of the " S " word. You know what I'm talking about, maybe you saw the panel of Gurus on Oprah's Show. Yah, its the Buzz...it's  " The Secret ." The hidden message, the Gospel of prosperity...where imagination becomes truth. Its, " name it, and claim it ", or " blab it, and grab it "...or just a new way to ensure you get your slice of the American pie.

Anyway, this is from a friend, and a site I visit often...here's her take...funny but true...

Are there useful principles and truths that are applicable to a believer's growth and maturity? Sure there are. Learning to take thoughts captive, to have our minds renewed according to the truth of God's Word, to overcome doubt and fear, these are all valuable concepts to understand.

Will this be a tool for bringing truth to spiritual seekers?

Is The Secret really Truth?

Is Spam really meat?

Is Velveeta really cheese?

I don't think that we can present a message of self-will and expect that people will find the truth of Jesus and the gospel in the midst of that.

The promises of The Secret seem antithetical to taking up one's cross. Based on its enormous popularity, we can see that people want answers. Or maybe they just want easy answers.


People are hungry.
Can we give them something better than Velveeta and Spam?

disarming a live handgrenade on christian TV

I've watched " 100 Huntley Street " from time to time depending on who they happen to have on as guests , this was one of those days I just happen to drop in by accident. Usually for the most part the interviews, the conversations are quite predictable...a sense all is scripted. But, hey, this is live TV...shouldn't there be a sense of unpredictability. Well, it must have been a flash divine circumstance...but this interview took unpredictability into a whole new realm.

It's almost as if Reynold and Kathy Mainse unknowingly have taken the pin out of a live handgrenade...and now desperately try and disarm it by trying to put the pin back in. I'll let you be the judge as to whether they were successful.

Drew Marshall is a radio host from Toronto with, as he says, the most listened-to christian radio show in Canada. These clips are an interview with Drew on "100 Huntley Street", a popular Canadian evangelical TV show. I had never heard of him before today, but I may have to check him out more often. Here's the link to his site

If you go to Drew Marshall's site and click on " Listen ", and look for this Title, " Do you agree with the 100 Huntley Street decision to not re-broadcast their live interview with Drew?...and can listen to some of the feedback.

advent...finding meaning

This image comes from Moot a few years ago...as the hype of advertizing, commercialism, consumerism swings into full gear...has Advent any significance today.

the tipping point to...1000

Malcolm Gladwell, in his book, " The Tipping Point " talks about the importance of connectors, networks, webs, clusters of people that interact, that are connected...that can cause something to tip and spread like a replicating virus. Suddenly we have an epidemic on our hands.

I want to open your eyes to the reality, that you may be a connector. Through your blog, through your the links in your side bar...you are a connector.

Vancouver friend Mike Todd would like your help to prove that connectors can make a difference, that we can find the tipping point and start an epidemic of Love. On the heels of the big kick off for the product Red in North America on Oprah'a show with Bono and guests, Mike gave us a challenge.

Please stick with this one to the end… where there is a challenge waiting for you.

I don’t have a clue what the profit margins are like on the iPod, but $10 doesn’t strike me as a lot of money. Let’s be realistic. It’s not. Here’s the choice: You can lay out $200, get a new iPod, and contribute $10 to a good cause. Or, you can just contribute the $10. We believe we can get 1000 people to donate $10 each. We’d like $10 from everyone in the developed world, but we’ll settle for you, and everyone you know. And when we’re done, we’ll pass the money--all of it--along to the Stephen Lewis Foundation. 

First, we need your $10. Just as importantly, we then need you to reach out to all your contacts. Post a link on your blog, send out an email to your friends, hang a banner from your window... whatever it takes. We'll keep you posted on how we're doing.

Together, we can do this. Help prove us right. Thank you.

There is a whole continent, that would like to see the phenomonen of the Tipping Point come to reality, that a virus of Love would spread...a virus that could ease poverty, and a virus that could heal.

You could be the connector that could cause things to Tip. Please take up the challenge.

(RED)emption...product red

The following is from Mike Todd over in Vancouver, reflecting on the North American kick-off of the ( Red ) campaign on Oprah's show with Bono and guests. I share Mikes concerns, the paradox that we can't feed Africa per say without feeding ourselves first...the need to feed this pervailing gluton of consumerism first. Anyway Mike has a great missional voice and expresses it far better than I, here's Mike...

(Red)emption

Please stick with this one to the end… where there is a challenge waiting for you.

This is a post I’ve been chewing on for a few days now, and I really wasn’t sure if I’d end up writing it or not. On balance, I think I need to.

On Friday, as Sue packed for Bangkok, we watched Bono and Oprah launch the North American version of the Product (RED) campaign. We were both inspi(red) by the excitement, and moved to tears by the scenes from Africa. But as the show progressed and the feeding frenzy that was Oprah’s shopping trip continued, I started to feel a little sick.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I love this program. And I hate it. Let me try to explain why.

Continued here...

Mike has a challenge for us all, so please read his post and hear him out.

Please stick with this one to the end… where there is a challenge waiting for you.

This is a post I’ve been chewing on for a few days now, and I really wasn’t sure if I’d end up writing it or not. On balance, I think I need to.

On Friday, as Sue packed for Bangkok, we watched Bono and Oprah launch the North American version of the Product (RED) campaign. We were both inspi(red) by the excitement, and moved to tears by the scenes from Africa. But as the show progressed and the feeding frenzy that was Oprah’s shopping trip continued, I started to feel a little sick.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I love this program. And I hate it. Let me try to explain why.

Continued here...

Mike has a challenge for us all, so please read his post and hear him out.

Is God green?

A new holy war is growing within the conservative evangelical community, with implications for both the global environment and American politics. For years liberal Christians and others have made protection of the environment a moral commitment. Now a number of conservative evangelicals are joining the fight, arguing that man's stewardship of the planet is a biblical imperative and calling for action to stop global warming.

But they are being met head-on by opposition from their traditional evangelical brethren who adamantly support the Bush administration in downplaying the threat of global warming and other environmental perils. The political stakes are high: Three out of every four white evangelical voters chose George W. Bush in 2004. "Is God Green?" explores how a serious split among conservative evangelicals over the environment and global warming could reshape American politics.

Bill Moyers just aired on PBS “Is God Green?” If you missed it on PBS, you can still see here. It is very well done and I highly recommend you check it out.

Bill Moyers and PBS have a great series of videos...and also a blog with a great conversation going.

In a modern world where faith reduced redemption to saving individual souls, communities are now dreaming of a God sized view of redemption...partners in the new creation.