So who do you download?  Burn discs by?  Create MP3 files for?  Or simply have streaming audio playing while you’re working at your computer?

This is your opportunity to tell the world all about your favorite sermon audio source.  You can vote for popular speakers and pastors, but I’m also hoping you’ll help me discover some obscure ones I don’t know about.

I’m looking for:

• The communications style and edginess of Rob Bell
• The relevance and application to current situations of Andy Stanley
• The historical and contextual information of Bruxy Cavey
• The penetrating thought processes of Greg Boyd

I’m also looking for:

• Good quality audio, straight forward downloading
• Non-extremist, middle-ground Evangelical theology
• Something that hits me where I live
• Consistent fresh material available each month
• Life changing teaching from someone who under 40 who has 50 years of pastoral experience.    Just kidding about the last one.

But like I said, you can simply vote for your personal favorites.

In the comment section below, right.     Go!

Jeff Snow is a guy we got to know shortly after moving from Toronto, Canada 20-years ago, to our current home in small town Ontario.   In a smaller town people in ministry often have to wear many hats, and we don’t know anyone who juggles them better than Jeff.   Whether working with Youth for Christ, hosting a radio show, serving on the town’s Character Committee, helping serve dinner once a week in a low-income ghetto, guest speaking at local churches, or leading worship in a variety of settings; Jeff brings with him the best of two worlds and two ministry models:  Years spent training for and serving in a local church setting and now eight years serving with Youth for Christ.

He wrote this recently for a YFC Newsletter, and we think we know Jeff well enough that we didn’t need to ask permission.   Guess we’ll find out soon enough…

I decided to back to school part-time this fall to work on my Master’s degree.  It was a bold decision.   It was an exciting decision.  Some weeks, I think it might have been a foolish decision.

The course I’m taking right now is Biblical Greek Exegesis.  Our assignments involve taking the Greek text of the New Testament and translating it into English.   Through the exercises, we hope to better understand the nuances of the language in order to better understand what scripture is saying.

As I thought about what we do at Youth For Christ, I realized that I didn’t start translating scripture a few weeks ago in this course, I’ve been doing it for years.

For example, I took a course this summer in Spiritual Formation, and the major assignment focused on the themes of Justification, Sanctification and Glorification.  For Talk-Time at drop-in, I’m going to share on these themes.   But if I used these three terms, all I would get is blank stares, and maybe a few laughs.

So I need to explain these important truths in a way that teens can understand.

Justification — When we ask Jesus to forgive us of the wrong things we’ve done that hurt ourselves, hurt others and hurt God, and rely on His death on the cross to pay the penalty of these wrongs things, then God declares us not guilty.   It’s like He looks at us through a “Jesus filter” and doesn’t see or remember our sin.

Sanctification — There’s more to knowing God than just saying “I’m sorry.”   We also need to say “Take Over,” and let His Holy Spirit guide and direct our decisions.   And the more we do that, the more we become like Jesus, and the cool parts of who He is become more and more a part of our lives, like His love, His patience, His self-control.

Glorification — When we ask Jesus into our lives and allow the Holy Spirit to live in us, it’s the beginning of life forever with God, not just here, but in heaven as well.  Jesus promises us a home forever with Him that goes beyond our wildest dreams.

We at Youth For Christ are in the translation business.   We do our best to take the timeless truths of the Gospel, and, without changing their inherent meanings, present them to a generation of young people in ways that they can understand and relate to.  We present them to a generation whose language and ways of learning are constantly changing and evolving.

Please pray for us as we translate the Gospel to youth.  And pray for our youth, that they will hear, understand, and believe.

~Jeff Snow, Northumberland Youth For Christ; Ontario, Canada.

If you are interested in supporting the work that Jeff does, use the Contact Us page on the sidebar so we can send you more information on giving by check or VISA.   Canadian tax receipts available. (Or leave a comment which we’ll delete; your e-mail will not be visible on the page.)

When the pastor at Family of Christ Congregation walked out the side door of the church and ran into the manager of the local radio station next door, he didn’t know his ministry and his world were about to change.

Family of Christ Congregation (FCC) was his third pastorate.   A rather imposing figure of a man, Pastor Tyrone Lexington Boone was born to an African American father and a Latino mother in a middle class suburb of northern Ohio; but the posting at FCC found him in a Tennessee medium-sized town that was “part south and part midwest” in its outlook.

The church seated 185 according to the fire marshal; though they once packed 210 people in for a wedding without resorting to extra chairs.   Sunday mornings tended to attract a fairly full house mixing young and old, suits and shorts, whites and non-whites, Charismatics and conservatives and the occasional “I’m not there yet” seeker.

The block was a mix of commercial and residential, but the church’s lot was deep, so parking was at the back of a skinny driveway.   You didn’t want to be going in when everybody else was coming out, or driving out when others will trying to come in.   There was a rather large bed and breakfast place on the other side of the driveway, and the local radio station was next door.

Currently operating under the somewhat dated name “PEACE 99;” the radio station wasn’t even a 99 at all, but broadcast at 98.9 FM.   But their studio was well insulated and the church never heard any noise from the place, especially on Sunday mornings when they ran some pre-recorded music commercial free.

Pastor Boone usually used the back door to the parking lot, but went out the side door more to see if the door actually worked or if it would prove to be sealed shut in the event of an emergency.    It was at that moment that Dan Righter — or at least that was his on-air name — the afternoon guy, station manager and owner of PEACE 99 walked out the side door of his building to see if the building lawn might need cutting.

“Hey!   I never use that door;” they both said to each other, almost in unison.   Dan Righter was also the station’s best sales representative, even though he had guys hired to do that job.   He was a quick study and his philosophy was that nothing in life is coincidence.  He saw an opportunity.

Pastor Boone muttered something about a “divine appointment” and was therefore quite receptive when the radio guy said he had an idea.

“I don’t actually make any money on Sunday mornings.   It’s not a good time to sell advertising spots.   So we just play stuff from the archives.    Heck, I even put a kid’s audition tape on the air to fill the time.   But I am under pressure from our community service advisory board to be doing more to help out in the town.   So Pastor, how’d you like to broadcast your Sunday service, free of charge?”

Boone shrugged his shoulders and said he’d never thought about going the radio before.    That was a lie.   It was all he thought about.   The Bible college he went to was next to a university that had a 100-watt campus station that could be heard for miles.    Not knowing he was from the adjacent institution, the students that ran the campus outlet gave him a four hour show on Monday nights.    He played an eclectic mix of music that had listenership from around the broader community.

“I don’t know about putting the church on the radio;” he replied.

“Look;”  Dan said; “There’s larger churches in town I can offer this to, but it’s a real hassle technically if I’m just giving the time away.   With you guys, I can run a line from your sound system right through these doors we just walked through, and when it’s over, it takes about 30 seconds to roll up the cable.  I’ll put the ‘free’ part in writing and we’ll commit to each other for 26 weeks.  If you want to walk away in six months, that’s fine.”

“You got a deal;” Pastor Boone blurted out, realizing even at that moment that this was a rather major decision he was going to have to clear through his board members, all ten of them.   Plus, he was at first going to have to make it sound like something he was considering, instead of something that was a done deal.

Nonetheless, the men shook hands on it.   Starting that Sunday, Family of Christ would begin sending their audio signal next door for PEACE 99 to spread throughout the town of 26,000 people.

It was Tuesday.

Selling the concept was easier than Pastor Boone thought.   He decided to poll the board members individually.   In the big cities, church boards meet to arrive at consensus.   In smaller towns, board members talk to each other throughout the week so they can determine consensus before arriving at the meeting.

Of course it helped that he said, “The radio guy next door is offering us a chance to run our audio signal into the station for ninety minutes on Sunday morning, for six months, free of charge.  Any objection?”

You might as well make cold calls to the board and say, “The humane society needs us to provide shelter to some stray cats for a few weeks.  Any objections?”    I mean, how can you say no to cute kittens?   But more to the point, how can you formulate any objection to something that blindsides you from out of nowhere?

So the thing breezed through stage one with all ten board members quickly; so quickly that Pastor Boone then phoned them all again and asked, “Hey, about that radio thing, we don’t need to have a meeting on this, do we?”    The weather was nice that week, so a meeting to discuss one emergency agenda item didn’t have a lot of appeal.

And so the biggest thing to happen to Family of Christ Congregation was thrown together in about five days, with no formal board approval and absolutely no knowledge of the congregation.

The church sound technician, Gary, was also a board member, but Pastor Boone told him he was going to set up some things to be controlled from the platform so that he could “avoid dead air.”   He explained that way they could take up the offering without the radio audience even knowing it was going on.

Some of the board members mentioned the concept to their wives who in turn may have told an extra person or two, but Gary had a busy week at work and was happy that Pastor Boone was going to take care of all the advance details.    The pastor phoned once to say that he would also be doing the actual mix from the platform and that Gary simply needed to control a single channel to set the auditorium volume level.

So a few people knew about the radio thing, but only one person knew about the technical specifications — or lack thereof — and he didn’t speak to anyone.

As a result, not even the board members were prepared for what awaited that Sunday morning.   The rest of the church family had nothing with which to mentally process what they saw on the platform when they walked into the sanctuary that Sunday.

The pulpit had been replaced by a large DJ console, complete with twin turntables, a bank of CD players and a couple of cartridge machines that were in wider use at radio stations before everything went computerized.   There was a very large boom stand supporting an equally oversize microphone and a large — 18 inch — institutional analog-style clock of the kind you only see in radio stations and hospital operating rooms.

The screen that normally hosted the lyrics to the congregational worship songs bore the news:

Starting this week and for the next six months, we will be broadcasting from 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM live on PEACE 99; 98.9 on your FM dial.

And at 10:00 AM that’s exactly what happened.    Pastor Boone’s usual greeting, “Good Morning;” which was always followed by a pause during which the congregation would reply “Good Morning; ” was replaced with the pause-less, “Good Morning this is PEACE 99, it’s 10 o’clock on a wonderful Sunday morning and you’re listening to Sunday Morning at Family of Christ, broadcasting from now until 11:30 from our church located next door to the PEACE 99 studios, and we just wanna invite you to turn up the music and pretend you’re at church with us, except you won’t be pretending because thanks to the magic of radio, you really are at church with us Family of Christ Congregation, the place to be on a Sunday morning, broadcasting live in stereophonic sound on PEACE 99.”

It seemed like one long sentence.   But maybe not as long as what — without even the taking of a breath — followed.

“My name is Tyler Boone and I’m the pastor at FCC Church and we want this next 90 minutes to be the highlight of your week.   I want you to kick back in the most comfortable chair you got, and turn the music up loud.   If anyone walks in the room and tries to tear you away from the radio, I want you to say, ‘Be quiet, ’cause we is in church.’  It’s 62 degrees right now and we’re going for a high today of 74 degrees with light winds from the southwest and clouding over late in the day.   It’s the day the Lord has made and you are gonna get rejoicin’ with it.  Right now we’re going to kick things off with my brother Israel Houghton and New Breed singin’ ‘I Am A Friend of God.’”

And with that the CD started playing, “Who are you that you are mindful of me; that you hear me, when I call?”

People in the congregation liked this song.   But right about now they would be actually singing it, not hearing it played from a CD.    The choir looked equally bewildered, but not as much as they would be when the song started the final chorus and Boone signaled to the choir director to get the choir standing and ready to do their first song.  He whispered to the pianist to start playing as soon as he gave the cue.

As the CD faded, Boone opened his microphone again, “It’s 10:05 and that was Israel Houghton with our first song.  So are you a friend of God today?”  Then he cued the pianist to start playing the choir intro even as the last of the music from the CD was still lingering in the sound system.   “Right now we got the Friends of Christ Congregation Choir who are gonna make you wanna sing along.”

He cut the rest of the intro short when the pianist reached the part where the choir hit their first note.   In one respect, the choir couldn’t compare with the recorded music, but on the other hand, it was an absolutely perfect cross-fade between the recorded and the live music sources.    Technically it was a flawless transition.

When the choir was into the final bar, he cued the congregation to break out into ’spontaneous’ applause, and before the applause died down he was back with another time-check, an invitation to a movie the church was showing that Friday, and some patter about a football game he’d seen on TV the day before.

And so it went.

There were sound effects, public service announcements, commercials for a number of Christian organizations, lots of recorded music, a couple of live solos from members of the choir, a seven year old girl perfectly reciting a memory verse, and a sermon that was preached in three twelve-minute sections instead of the usual forty minute version.

Oh yes, the congregation did get to sing.   One song.   Just one.   Only one.

Three quarters of the way through the service, Mr. Alkins, one of the longstanding members of FCC got up from his usual place in the third row and walked down the center aisle making circle loops around his ears the way you do when you want to convey that someone is a lunatic.   A few other people left before it was over as well.

But the next week, there were at least a dozen or more adult visitors, some with children in tow; though an equal number of FCC-ers had decided to simply stay home and catch the service on the radio.

The week after that the trend continued.    Dan Righter may have thought that Sunday morning was a ratings graveyard, but there were enough people tuned in to PEACE 99 to give the church a bit of a reputation and want to stop by for a visit to the “radio church” on Sunday morning, even though an equal member of the Family of Christ church family were reported to be attending churches elsewhere.

As for Pastor Boone, he was on a perpetual high in his new role as combination pastor and disc jockey.    Technically, the “show” only got better from week to week, and the choir members who stayed mastered the art of weaving in and out around the recorded songs.   In fact, there was now a waiting list to join the choir, caused in part because FCC only owned a total 22 choir gowns.

The sermons were as informative and inspiring as they had always been and even though the congregation didn’t get to sing as often, there was an equal amount of music in the service.

While Family of Christ was the kind of church that you could always attend while sneaking in a cup of coffee, some people did notice that there was an increased amount of talking going on during the morning.   There was also a lot of foot traffic coming and going throughout the service, not to mention the people who came late or didn’t stay for the whole 90 minutes.

The quality of the ‘fellowship’ somehow seemed more genuine however.   Whether or not that was due to the increase in talking during the service, or simply a result of the bond shared by those held captive by a common force was anyone’s guess.

But nobody had ever attended a “radio church” before, so people simply accepted that they were breaking new ground; creating a new paradigm.   And Pastor Boone’s wife Mazie smoothed over any negative criticisms with, “Hey, at least we ain’t on television;” followed by her larger-than-life laughter that made you want to laugh even if you were really upset about something.

The ten board members were more shocked and perplexed than anything else.    This whole thing had happened in a moment, in a heartbeat, without board approval.   They figured it would disappear as quickly as it had come, but hundreds of time checks and weather forecasts and even a couple of traffic reports later, there was no denying that it was a rather creative and clever initiative on Boone’s part.    They were mad as hell at him on the one hand, and huge fans of the radio format on the other.   And by about week ten, the church was the talk of the town.

Especially during week eight, when the first “outside” donation came in.   It was a farmer, about three towns to the east, who sent in $50 with a note saying he hadn’t been to church in years and that “the PEACE 99 service” was the highlight of his week.   He said he’d dusted off his Bible in order to better follow along with the “sermonettes” as he referred to the individual message sections.

And that’s how Family of Christ Congregation got on the radio.   Instead of taking what they normally did on Sunday morning and simply plugging in a line out from their sound system to the radio station next door, Pastor Boone simply brought the radio studio to church, either choosing to live out a dream or feed a massive ego; or willing to risk everything to be the best expression of a church using broadcast media to reach their corner of the world.

“It’s 11:09 and this is Tyler Boone bringin’ you the help and hope and the good news that Jesus is alive and He loves ya and He wants you to get to know ‘im better and get on with what He made you for doin’ and we’re here at Family of Christ right next to the radio station you’re listening to; and it’s no coincidence you’re listening to PEACE 99 this morning because God wants you to be a part of the Kingdom He’s buildin’ and preparin’ and you can’t afford to refuse his offer.    It’s a beautiful sixty-seven degrees with winds calm and don’t forget that at noon PEACE 99 has live coverage of the State basketball semi finals and don’t forget tonight at seven we’ve got the Fireproof movie screening free of charge right here at FC Congregation absolutely free of charge.   Right now we got the music of the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir and they’re gonna take us away with a classic song from 1993…”

I’m assuming most people have heard Wednesday referred to as ‘hump day;’ otherwise it probably sounds a bit rude.   The terms is rather widely used in Canada and the U.S.   …Here’s where my computer took me recently:

• A Christian musician in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada is facing a first-degree murder charge for a crime that occured 16 years ago, according to this article at ChristianWeek.org.
• Randy Morgan can’t help notice that among some pastors he knows personally whose churches have hit the 1,000+ mark in attendance, their messages have somewhat of a recurring theme.
• This link is old — about six months old — but with all the talk about Rob Bell’s orthodoxy these days, this March video post at Viddler has Rob taking eleven minutes to spell out his version of the Christian gospel.
• I’m not sure when and how I stumbled on the blog, Upwrite, but I like DP’s raw honesty.   A few weeks ago she kept seeing a guy around town who radiated a great sense of joy and peace, but he was not a Christian.   Not even close, as she describes.
• I gotta be honest; I rather skimmed this one because of the heaviness, intensity and pain of the subject.   Christian singer Steven Curtis Chapman discusses the recording of his new album, Beauty Will Rise, in the wake of the death of his daughter Maria; in a 4-page interview with Mark Moring at Christianity Today.
• Here’s a link to a website that directly addresses the issue of young people leaving the church, leaving their faith, or both.   CrossExamined  is a ministry headed by Frank Turek at crossexamined.org .
• Jered Wilson at the blog First Things considers the idea that criticism of ChristianChirp — the Christian alternative of Twitter, as in, ‘Why tweet when you can chirp?’ — is just too easy.   He’s got a fresh perspective here, though I wish this post was twice as long.
• I don’t agree with the header that John Saddington gave this video link, but this is the funniest 3 minutes and 42 seconds I’ve seen this week.  If you’re not Pentecostal or Charismatic, and find yourself in such a church unsure of what to do next, check out what was originally titled, How To Worship.
• So last week the very edgy blog, Stuff Christians Like didn’t print one of my comments presumably because it was too edgy.   Actually it was just a play on words, but now that JA is a Zondervan author, I guess he can’t be too careful.   Still, I like this post about pastors who forget to tell the congregation that, “You may be seated.”
• Speaking of rejection, Gospel Light became the first publisher this year to refuse a book review request.   If you missed it, Shane Claiborne has had a new book out for several weeks now, coauthored with the very like-minded John Perkins.   It deals with how to be both a good leader and a good follower and it takes a fresh approach to dual authorship.   But since I don’t actually have a copy, you can enjoy this review of the book, Follow Me To Freedom at the new blog, For Readers By Readers.   You might also enjoy this video clip about the book.
  

…Okay, let me spell it out.   Wednesday is halfway through the week, so once you reach noon, you’re said to be ‘over the hump.’   C’mon guys, it’s no fun if I have to explain it…

What amazes me though is that we’ve got so many new links since we did this last just a few days ago.   And there’s other links that didn’t make today’s final cut.  So where did your computer take you this week?

Portions of today’s blog were prerecorded.  Your mileage may vary.  No animals were hurt or injured in the preparation of this post.   Professional stunt driver; do not try this at home.

The story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19: 1-9 is the ultimate children’s Bible story.   Think about, it’s got:

• a short key character; kids can identify
• a parade — or something similar –  about to pass by
• tree climbing; what kid doesn’t like that?
• unlikely guy gets singled out for special treatment
• Zacchaeus and Jesus have a tea party, at least according to the children’s song; actual serving of tea may have been unlikely
• restitution of unfair trade practices; he did something bad and is going to make it right

But the tree climbing is the fun part of the story, so much so that we omit to notice the fact that respectable adults in the culture don’t climb trees.   In the book Preaching the Parables to Postmoderns, Brian Stiller reminds of another story where we miss the cultural nuances.

Stiller notes that in the story of the prodigal son, the father sees his returning son in the distance and runs to meet him.   To run meant to lift the lower hem of the tunics worn at that time, which would expose the ankles and lower leg.   While that may not seem out of line with the bathrobes worn in most church plays you’ve seen, it in fact is out of line with norms in that society.   Besides, the patriarchal head of household doesn’t run, period.

Zacchaeus climbs up a tree because he doesn’t want to miss Jesus.   The father in the story of the two brothers runs because he doesn’t want to miss a moment with or hide his enthusiasm for the return of his lost son.   Both actions involve a considerable loss of dignity on the part of both parties.

David understood this.   Consider this account from II Samuel 6:

¹⁴ David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might, ¹⁵ while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets.

¹⁶ As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she despised him in her heart.

¹⁷ They brought the ark of the LORD and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the LORD. ¹⁸ After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD Almighty. ¹⁹ Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes.

²⁰ When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!”

²¹ David said to Michal, “It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the LORD. ²² I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”

The line I like is verse 22: I will become even more undignified than this.    Nothing reinforces this like the Matt Redman song,

I will dance I will sing
To be mad for my King
Nothing Lord is hindering
The passion in my soul

And I’ll become even more
Undignified than this
Some would say it’s foolishness but
I’ll become even more
Undignified than this

David’s removal of his outer garment ought to remind you of something else.  Think about this moment from John 13:

¹It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love^.

²The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. ³Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; ⁴so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. ⁵After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

⁶He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

⁷Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” …

¹²When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place.

The outer garment that Jesus removed was the fine piece of clothing that symbolized his authority as a rabbi.   Hours later, Roman soldiers would gamble for the chance to walk way with this prime specimen of clothing as a souvenir of their day’s work.

This action symbolized his servant leadership, but as he told Peter, there was a bigger picture yet to be grasped.   I believe that the removal of his outer garment symbolizes something else entirely, as shown in Philippians 2:

⁵ You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.

⁶ Though he was God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
⁷ Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,
⁸ he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

⁹ Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor…

Jesus gave up the splendor of heaven — took of his outer robe — to enter into our human condition.   But then, as John 13:12 shows us, he puts that outer robe back on, i.e. he returns to the glory he had known before at the right hand of the Father.

There are lots of words we could use to describe this, but the key one for today is that he made himself undignified.

Now, he invites you to find a place where you can lose your own dignity in order to accomplish his purposes in your generation.

I Samuel and John passages – NIV; Philippians passage – NLT

This appeared today at WORLDmag.com; I’m reproducing the whole piece — it’s only four paragraphs — because I couldn’t really leave anything out.    You can also read it here.

Ripping the Bible

In an interview with Details magazine, openly gay actor Ian McKellen admits that when he stays in hotels he finds the in-room Bible and tears out the page condemning homosexuality:

I’m not proudly defacing the book, but it’s a choice between removing that page and throwing away the whole Bible. And I’m not really the first: I got delivered a package of 40 of those pages—Leviticus 18:22—that had been torn out by a married couple I know. They put them on a bit of string so that I could hang it up in the bathroom.

Apparently he and his fans leave Paul’s letters addressing this issue alone, including passages from Romans, 1 Corinthians, and 1 Timothy. But the man who’s best known for playing Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings and his followers can tear out all the pages they want because…

“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:8).

Pastor and Author Joel Osteen:

Totally Looks Like Comedian and Actor Tim Allen:

…OKAY, so it turns out somebody did this one at Totally Looks Like back in July, but I had this all done when I found out.    We should have a Totally Looks Like site for the Christian world…   Any suggestions?

My Previous Totally Looks Like attempt back in December, 2008.

NOVEMBER 3rd UPDATE:   There must be something in the air… seems I’m not the only person up to this game this week.   Check it out…

Time Magazine began the week joining other media who have noted the publication of The Book of Genesis by 66-year old American comic book illustrator Robert Crumb aka R. Crumb. In a November 1st online story, the magazine said:

Crumb’s manuscript is — for a man who has said he doesn’t believe Genesis is God’s word — oddly reminiscent of those produced by monks before printing presses: a faithful, verse for verse copy, painstakingly rendered. He hardly needed to change a thing; Genesis offers a smorgasbord of the kind of behavior Crumb is given to portraying: the persistent, colorful, depressing failure of humans to not give in to their baser desires. It’s sufficiently literal that cultural conservatives could hardly be offended, but it has more than enough supernatural events, betrayals and epic storylines to satisfy the comic book reader.

Despite the above, the book is not selling through comic book stores, Crumb’s traditional core market.  That might have to do with the content and the price; the book retails for $24.99 U.S. in hardcover.

The story also links to a review by the more Evangelical Ben Witherington III, who writes at Beliefnet:

…This super-lapsed Catholic has decided to depict scenes from all 50 chapters of Genesis, with the emphasis on verbatim. Those of us who knew a bit about his snarky past were holding our collective breath… The kudos for this book are also coming in from other quarters–Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and chronicler of pop culture thinks Crumb is successfully translating the Bible into a new medium… In the end Crumb after long debating how to depict God (as a bright light???) fell back on the old stand by–God as the old white guy with the long white beard. I wonder what the Mormons would say about this Genesis.,

Contrast this with Crumb’s other works which include the Hot ‘n Heavy collection which introduced readers to a number of characters including the not-so-religious Fritz The Cat.

Don’t look for copies of this at Family Christian Bookstores, though it would be interesting to see if they would order it for a customer.

If you’ve landed here from a search engine tag, welcome!

This is Thinking Out Loud, the blog of Christ-follower Paul Wilkinson, a half blog half webzine-wannabe, with the tag line, “Matters of Faith Because Faith Matters.”   It’s been running for nearly two years with fresh posts almost every day, breaking Christian news, occasional cartoons and a wide range of links, reprints and original content.    Take a minute or two to scan back through previous posts, click on the header at the top for today’s post, or pick a month at random from the sidebar menu and see what we were thinking about back then.

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I’m almost afraid to mention Halloween here.

First, I’m fearful of what all the extra publicity is going to do to the pastor at Amazing Grace Baptist Church when he lights the first match, no doubt surrounded by the tabloid media.   Of course,  this letter writer to their local newspaper notes some interesting complexities.

Yes, it's a pumpkin!

This will mark 20 years that we’ve lived in our present house.   The first year, Mrs. W. decorated in style.   Yes, we celebrated the pagan holiday.   I think we gave out fortune cookies; not the ones with Bible verses which we can’t afford.

But the second year, we gave out Christian cassette tapes.   I contacted one of the distributors and asked if they had something for pre-teens, and something for little kids that they wanted to unload.   I bought about 90 tapes for 50 cents each.

A couple of years ago, a girl came up to me in the bookstore and said, “I once lived in your neighborhood and got one of the tapes you gave out for Halloween.   I really enjoyed it.”

So hey, you never know.

But I realize as I write this that this subject is very much unwelcome among many Evangelicals.   As I wrote last year,

…Of all the things that we could NOT do when I was younger — card playing, Sunday shopping, dancing, etc. that we now CAN DO; it’s interesting that there is this one unique area where we COULD do something years ago that now Evangelicals feel we can NOT do…

So I guess we’re going to turn off the lights — hard to do when Halloween falls within Daylight Savings Time* — and hope the kids don’t throw eggs over the freshly painted aluminum siding.

If you missed last year’s more informative post about tomorrow’s special day, All Saints Day, you can read it here.   This year All Saints Sunday coincides with the day itself.

*Daylight Saving Time actually ends tonight, or more correctly, tomorrow morning, November 1st at 2 AM.   Maybe one of my UK readers can tell me when “Summer Time” ends over the pond.  If you’re reading this on Sunday morning, it may be earlier than you think, so you can still make it to church!