So, let’s conduct a little experiment and see what the world searches for when it comes to Christianity …

Want to know what people want to know about Christianity? There you go.

This was my first election as a non-Californian. It was a bit strange being on the outside looking in. Not only strange, but disappointing.

Nice Priorites

I read about your Prop 8 prayer vigils. Your fasting. The $35+ million you spent to promote the initiative. I read the website. But I still don’t get it.

I don’t get why I never heard about Prop 4 until the night of the election (as I was browsing latimes.com). It was never mentioned on the news here in Oregon. I never heard about protests. Or prayer vigils in football stadiums. Or controversial commercials. And, yet, Prop 4 only lost by four percentage points and change. Maybe you should have spent some of that money on educating people about why Prop 4 actually matters.

So, let me get this straight. It’s more important to you to stop gay people from getting a marriage certificate than it is knowing that your teenage daughter is going to get an abortion?

Protect Divor–errr … Marriage

The whole campaign of protecting marriage is interesting as well. Especially considering the dichotomy of views within the church on divorce and the fact born-again Christians are just as likely to divorce as non-believers. So, California Christian, exactly who or what are you trying to protect marriage from?

Let’s face it, biblical marriage and civil marriage are not the same. If you were to ask me, the biggest threat to biblical marriage in America isn’t gay people. It’s Christians.

Convince Me

I really don’t think I would have voted for Prop 8. To be honest, I probably would have left it blank.

Trust me, I understand your arguments. I just don’t think they’re very strong. I don’t think you don’t need to spend $35 million to keep first graders from attending a gay wedding. Kids don’t learn about marriage at school–they learn about marriage from their parents marriage. Do you feel me yet?

I have yet to hear a sound, logical argument on why Prop 8 was this important. Or why Prop 4 wasn’t as important. So, here’s your chance. Leave a comment.

I’m back at it now and I’ve got plenty of posts and ideas for the site. For now, enjoy this image of a perfect morning in Seattle.

In the center of the magazine Tom Chiarella writes an article entitled The 75 Things Every Man Should Do. For the most part, this checklist of essential experiences contains exactly what you would suspect: adrenaline-fueled adventures, feats of bravado, and sexual exploits. On the other hand, I was surprised to see a few items which parallel spiritual disciplines and fruit.

Most notable is Number 6: Fast for three days. Drink only water (compare with Ezra 8 and Matthew 6). In a checklist that also includes Overeat for a week in Italy, you would expect some sort of explanation for fasting. Unfortunately, Chiarella gives none. On the other hand, fasting is probably one of the least practiced spiritual disciplines among American Christians.

Quite a strange day when the modern, secular man is encouraged to practice a biblical discipline which Christians for the most part neglect.

Also notable on the list are Number 42: Sell everything you don’t need once and Number 54: Give a panhandler all of your money (compare both with Luke 12 and Luke 18).

It’s fascinating to see lists like this overlap with Biblical principles in some regards–while also being diametrically opposed in others (Number 62: Take long-lasting drugs and Number 33: Overspend).

The difference, of course, is obvious: what the Bible presents as a purposeful discipline, Esquire presents as simply a line-item on a list with little or no purpose. Personally, I think people like Chiarella know that there are deep spiritual components to practices such as fasting. They just don’t know how to explain it.

For the record, I’ve completed 21.5 of the items on the list.

But I insist that wherever you draw the lines, bounding lines must exist, beyond which your doctrine will cease either to be Anglican or to be Christian: and I suggest also that the lines come a great deal sooner than many modern priests may think.
from God in the Dock

While Lewis is speaking of differences between the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches, I think his point is still valid and worthy of contemplation.

As Christians, it’s important to have at least a vague idea of where these lines exist. Regarding the further of these lines (doctrines which cease to be Christian), Paul says this in his letter to the Galatians:

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.
Gal 1:6-8

making it fairly clear that a gospel other than one of grace through Christ falls outside the line.

Regarding doctrines between Christian churches (i.e. those that are inside the line of Christianity but lie on opposite sides of secondary doctrinal lines), I often see one of the two scenarios among American believers:

1. A believer has no grasp of their own church’s doctrine or that of surrounding churches. Their faith in Christ is real and fruitful, but their knowledge of basic doctrine is somewhat weak. There is a risk of being overly accepting of differing gospels (especially those that are not Christian).
2. A Christian places the two lines so close that another believer or church with slight doctrinal differences are treated as unbelievers. Other churches are deemed “dangerous” and other believers are denied fellowship.

Obviously, the balance is in the middle. There’s no need to get consumed with defining your doctrinal line between churches–doing so can get you caught in a sort of theological sorites paradox. But it’s important to know what you believe, what your church believes, and what others believe. Once you do this, and realize that doctrinal differences are not necessarily gospel differences, you’ll experience better fellowhsip and more effective evangelism.

Some questions for discussion:

Are you familiar with your own church’s statement of faith?

How confident are you in being able to identify those doctrines which are not Christian?

Have you ever treated another believer like an unbeliever simply because they had differing doctrinal views?

Do you agree with Lewis’s opinion that “the lines comes sooner than many think“? Why or why not?

Of course, this lead to people using their musical abilities for reasons other than serving Christ. Heck, even I aspired to be involved with worship at one time–even though I never felt called. Fortunately for everyone, there was never a need for a recorder on the worship team. If there was, they probably wouldn’t have called me anyway.

Now, it seems, being an author is the new hotness. Having a blog is almost as cool as playing guitar in a dark room with christmas lights on the ceiling. And getting your manuscript published–well, you’ve just made a CD and reserved a bus for a 24-church worship tour. People know you because they read you. You’re invited to speak at conferences. You have cool hair.

Just like there are quality, uplifting worship leaders who are following God’s call to make glorifying music, there are also quality, encouraging authors who are lead to publish encouraging words. Unfortunately, it also means people will start doing it for the wrong reasons. Namely, notoriety.

I suppose the Internet is partly to blame too. Any schmuck can buy a cool domain name, setup a blog, and start writing from a coffee shop (you’re reading one now). A few encouraging comments later and its easy to start dreaming about a book-signing tour. It seems every fifth Christian blogger I encounter is either working on a book or hopes to write a book one day.

Now, if this is you, don’t go crying in your moleskine. Just ask yourself why you want to do this.

I haven’t finished the entire show, but so far it’s been enlightening. The special includes a few vignettes inside churches and a brief interview with TD Jakes about the dangers children face when growing up without a father.

Here are some of the more grim realities facing black America:

• Nearly 70% of black children are born to single parents
• About half of pregnancies among black women are terminated
• Black Americans account for 50% of new HIV/AIDS cases in the U.S.
• AIDS is now the number one killer of black women aged 25-34
• 49% of homicide victims are black

I don’t quote these statistics for any reason other than to show a need. The government can’t address all these issues effectively and Jesse Jackson does more harm than good these days. So where does the church fit in? How can metropolitan and inner city churches demonstrate Christ’s compassion to those with AIDS or without fathers?

I don’t really know the answers. But I do know I serve a God of compassion and providence. A God who provides salvation and healing to all.

One of the greatest obstacles to living out “go and tell” is the tendency for Christians to spend all their time inside the physical walls of the church or inside the social walls of the Christian community. In my sermons, I call this temptation “living inside the bubble.” If Christ-followers only live inside the bubble, how will people outside the faith ever hear about Jesus?

I think Trey’s article is a fair and well-balanced admonishment, especially for those trapped in what Jonathan Leeman describes as the counterfeit gospel of formalism.

After some thought, what really strikes my curiosity is whether or not this is a uniquely American phenomenon. For those of you overseas, does Trey’s article apply to believers in your continent?

For those of you in the US, how often (per week) do you attend church services or functions? How do you find a balance between corporate worship, fellowship, evangelism, and service?

Maybe I should cut down to 2 potlucks a week.

In an effort to make this site more valuable–but without me having to do any extra work–I’m launching a little experiment I’m calling The Pulse (trendy name, eh?).

The Pulse is a social news site with a focus on christianity and faith. Since christians are often a few years behind the curve, I’ll explain what that means. A social news site is a news website where the readers both submit stories and vote on the their favorites. As a result, the most popular stories rise to the top. Good examples of general social news sites are Digg.com and Reddit.com.

The overall goal of a social news site (including this one) is to find new sources of information and encouragement, and foster discussion among users.

So, head over to pulse.ebispo.com, create an account and get started. You can visit the Recent tab to see the most recent articles/blog posts. Visit some links, vote them up or down, and leave some comments. If you write an informative or encouraging post on your blog, please submit it. We’re looking for christian news articles, topical or scriptural studies, interesting videos or images, and words of encouragement. Blog posts about what you had for lunch or pictures of your cat are strongly discouraged.

Participate and win some stuff

In order to encourage some participation, I’m going to give away some prizes. First, we’ll start with a couple $25 gift cards to the iTunes music store. Over the next 30 days, every time you submit a link or leave a comment on the pulse, you’ll be entered to win 1 of 2 iTunes cards. The more you participate, the better your chances of winning.

Visit pulse.ebispo.com today

• Got an extra iPod at home? Donate it to an African pastor (I’d remove that Miley Cyrus album first, though)
• LA Times explores several scientific theories behind why Americans are so fat? Couldn’t there be any spiritual factors?
• Man suing church due to injuries suffered while consumed by the spirit. Why not just sue the Holy Spirit?
• Is your church searching for a new pastor? Here’s one on eBay. What, no Buy It Now button?
• Apparently the Beatles were a christian band. Maybe Why Don’t we Do it in the Road was about praying in the street.