The Modern World

To help my thinking, here are some notes on "A New Kind of Christian" by Brian McLaren.

This is a summary of what his character Neo says regarding the Modern world.
It was the Era or Age of:

1. Conquest and Control
2. Machine
3. Analysis
4. Secular Science
5. Aspiration to and Confidence in Objectivity
6. Criticism: where you must debunk the others' misperception of what you know to be absolutely and objectively true
7. Modern Nation-State and the Organization
8. Individualism
9. Protestantism and Institutional Religion
10. Consumerism

G. W. "Chick" Allison - 60 years of Preaching

My Dad preached his first sermon about this time sixty years ago. Here is something I've written about him. (Update note: It has now been published in the Arkansas Christian Herald Vol. 28, No. 11, page 4, November 2008)

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Sixty years ago this November 7, G. W. Allison hitchhiked from Searcy to Dover to preach his first sermon. Also recognized by the nickname "Chick" and "George", he is a Church of Christ minister known throughout Northeast AR. He was raised in Pocahontas where at age ten, he nearly drowned in Mansker Creek. Later, he was baptized there. Later still, he performed his first baptism at that site. He declined a football scholarship at Arkansas State University to study the ministry at Harding University. Between terms, while working in Michigan, he met his wife, Frances Van Hooser. They have four children (Stephen W., Ronald M., Paula R., and Timothy S.) and nine grandchildren. The couple served several congregations in Oklahoma and Michigan from 1951-1958. They returned permanently to Arkansas, working with churches in Pocahontas, Rector, Searcy, Corning, Nettleton, Lepanto, and now completing his ministry in Egypt, where he was born.

He was the original host and is a frequent speaker for “Speaking the Truth in Love” on KAIT-TV. He has held over 350 gospel meetings across the eastern U. S. It is evidence of respect and appreciation for him that he has officiated at well over 1,000 funerals in Northeast Arkansas. G. W. has baptized a similar number in baptistries, creeks, and rivers. As you drive along highway 25 near the town of Strawberry, Arkansas look to your north as you pass over the Strawberry River bridge. In Aug of 1960 that was the site where cars pulled up to illuminate the river so that about two dozen souls could be baptized by him. He is unpretentious and free of affectation. He has no interest in nor places a value on status. For him, each human being is a precious child of God and is special. He has counseled many people. His experiences include wrestling a gun away from a man intent on suicide, preaching love and equality to a local African American church in a way that was ahead of his time , and later, helping to integrate them into his congregation.

One way G. W. has reached thousands of people has been through those he brought to Christ and who in turn are spreading the gospel . A well known example is Jimmy Allen, evangelist and long time faculty member of Harding University. Jimmy credits him as a model that one could be a Christian and still be an athlete and a real man. And, referring to him by nickname he says in his autobiography Fire in my Bones:

“One day before chapel began Chick asked me if I were a Christian ... He was the only one who talked to me personally about my salvation. We became friends and have stayed that way nearly fifty-five years.”

G. W. is also noted for his passion and accomplishments in athletics. He was voted Most Valuable Player on his high school football team, achieved All-State in basketball, and started for the Jonesboro American Legion baseball team that included eventual major league star, Wally Moon. Jimmy Allen who played basketball with him at Harding wrote in the above reference “He was as fast as doubled-greased lightning.” Unfortunately, a tragic car accident in 1960 ended G. W.'s sports participation at age 30. That same year, he began coaching his sons and other youngsters, continuing for many years in all these sports. He always brought out the best in his young athletes by his enthusiasm and positive style. This has been another avenue of his Christian influence. Oh yes, he is a lifelong St. Louis Cardinals fan.

The Semiotic Project - from GloboChrist

Picked up Carl Raschke's GloboChrist: The Great Commission takes a Postmodern Turn. Here's something interesting form a section titled The Semiotic Project.

Western theology has historically been joined at the hip with Greek philosophy, which in turn is built on the Indo-European language structure with its subject-predicate sentence construction, inferential logic, and conceptual classification system.
....

human language is far richer and does far more than the heirs of Aristotle, with their focus on propositions and categories used in rational system building, could envision.

This is exciting to me. It is exciting because it opens up the possibility that there is more to learn and there is room for hope. I kinda think it is this rational system building and language structure that leads to the Dawkins/Hitchens/Bertrand Russells of the world, a world that is a mechanical dead end.

I've struggled enough with German and Greek to know that the language one speaks and knows deeply affects one's World View. The quote and the postmodern turn with its emphasis on language and metaphor provide a new angle that there is more mystery out there.

The Gospel According to Starbucks

The Gospel According to Starbucks by Leonard Sweet is a fun read. Here are some quotes from the book:

The powers of a man's mind are directly
proportional to the quantity of coffee he drinks
---Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832)

Coffee, according to the women of
Denmark, is to the body what the
Word of the Lord is to the soul,
-- Isak Dinesen

A cup of coffee commits one
to forty years of friendship
-- Turkish Proverb

Starbucks is less about coffee
and more about community
-- Market Researcher Wendy Liebmann

I'm scheduled to do the Wednesday night
devotional at church in Nov. and
plan to use this book as a guide in
preparation for that.

Victor Frankl Quote

I read this book when I was 23 or 24. It was great. I wish I had remembered this tidbit. For too many of my middle years did I long for a release from stress, thinking the struggle was for nought.

The quote was in an email from Metanexus.

“What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.”

– Victor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

Cao Fang sings the magical GE Olympic Commercial

This music is simply precious. From the commercial where the guy crashes the local market while he is mesmerized by a woman doctor.

Loving the Storm Drenched

No one changed his mind on an issue because he was humiliated into it.

This is a quote from an article titled "Loving the Storm-Drenched" by Frederica Mathewes-Green. It is lifted from The Best American Spiritual Writing of 2007, edited by P. Zaleski.

This reminds me of a Kirkegaard quote I noted earlier here.

In Memory of Ada Eddins 1915-2008

Thank you for coming to help us celebrate the life of Ada Winters Eddins. Who was Ada and what was she like? She started life as part of a large family, the middle child of 11 surviving children. They lived on a large farm in Arkansas and they had to be self-sufficient. This was especially the case since they lost their mother when Ada was only 11 years old. The children divided the chores. Ada rose early every morning to milk the cows and operate the milk processing machinery. She later left home to attend the University of Arkansas for almost 2 years. It was not as common for women in those days as now. Mother lived in the 4-H club facility and paid for her fees by providing canned goods that she prepared herself. Her pictures as a young woman show an endearing vulnerability and humility. Her virtues attracted Tilman Eddins and they were married in 1942. They shared their early years in different locations in the states as he was in the armed forces. The war ended and following his honorable discharge they made Memphis their home some time in 1946.

It was in Memphis that they remained and where they raised their 3 children. Throughout those 62 years, she faithfully served and ministered at the Berclair Church of Christ. Mother was unpretentious, always upbeat, a positive example to all. Mother may have lived in the mid-South’s largest city for all that time but her farm-girl connection to the earth never ceased. She was a lifelong gardener. Mother loved working out of doors with flowers and vegetables. Mother had a specific genius for certain domestic things. For example, her green beans are unmatched by any one anywhere.

She was always there for her family. Mother lived for loving her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren and helped as long as she was able. Only a few weeks ago she rocked her youngest great-grandchild to sleep. And recently, during her last hospital stay, upon hearing that one of her adult grandchildren was under the weather and a little bit sick, she said “He should come over to my house and I’ll take care of him.” That was so typical and characteristic of her. Mother was always taking care of us and providing support and stability. And she will continue to do so as she lives in our hearts and memories.
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I read the above at my mother-in-law's funeral on Saturday.