Interesting Thought

"The soul is the seat of the free will, of the power of choice and so of the personality. If it submits to the guidance of the Spirit, it is assimilated to the Spirit, becomes wholly spiritual, even in its lower element."

Henri Crouzel, on Origen's understanding of man, from Origen: The Life and Thought of the First Great Theologian.

Tragedy

There's not much to say, but what there is to say Brian says well.

Heaven and Hell

Check out some interesting thoughts from Brian McLaren on heaven and hell. His take is very similiar to Rob Bell's. (We can make earth more like heaven or more like hell.)

Anyway, if you want to check out the video, click this. Watch his message on the kingdom of God and then click on the next video at the bottom. (If you place your cursor on the videos you'll see the titles.)

Any reactions?

The Stations

On Good Friday our youth and I set up a Stations of the Cross experience for our congregation. We used Tony Jones's* book Soul Shaper for the prayers and added an interactive element to each station. Some of the the elements encouraged thoughtful reflection on Christ, others on His suffering, still others on the suffering of others and our role in helping to alleviate that suffering. Having walked the stations many times growing up, I was hopeful that this would be a moving experience for our friends and one that would help deepen our collective celebration of Christ's resurrection. Later, reflecting on the night, I realized what a forming effect the stations had on me as a young boy.

This idea of setting up the stations was one the fermented for about two years. I had been aware that more Protestants were re-embracing the stations, but it wasn't until I was at a youth event for our denomination that I felt I had permission to do the stations. We were led through the stations by a distinguished seminary prof. and denominational leader. Later that year, I set up a much smaller version of the stations and led my senior high group through them. It was there that the idea of really doing this took off. And it came off even better than I hoped it would.

For example, one elderly lady thanked me for setting up the stations and commented, "I haven't felt like this in I don't know how long...probably not since I was first saved. I just came from the ladies room where I had a good cry and I feel like such a burden has been lifted. I'm ready for Easter now!" Others commented on how powerful an experience it was for them and I received some emails as well. I'm thankful for the opportunity to have done this and to have contributed to the Lenten journey of many in this way. It was quite a privilege. I think when all is said and done, this will rank up there amongst my favorite moments in ministry.




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*On Tony's blog he once gave a lesson on using apostrophes. For modern names that end in s, you add another s after the apostrophe to indicate possession. Go figure...

Rolling Stone on Battle Cry

Somehow I got a subsription to Rolling Stone magazine...really, I'm not sure how it happened, but I think it's related to purchasing concert tickets this summer to see Extreme's reunion.

Anyway...there's an article on Battle Cry in the latest issue. You can read it here.

I thought it was pretty even handed for a Rolling Stone article.