Those of us who have grown up in the church have been programmed that this world is not our final home. We’ve been taught that heaven is our eventual destination. What if we were wrong?

In my informal survey this week, everyone I talked to about this agreed that ultimately heaven comes to earth. But we don’t talk that way, think that way, or act that way.

What if Belinda Carlisle was right? Ooh, Heaven is a place on earth! (“Now the dwelling place of God is with men…” Revelation 21)

Join the conversation, add your voice and your knowledge to the discussion, as we explore the thought that life after life will come to earth.

• If you had another life to live, what would you do differently this time?
• If God created earth for his own dwelling place, would you treat it any differently?
• What is the point of being a follower of Jesus?

Because of its long-standing place in civilized society as a staple food, bread has become the iconic symbol of the basic needs of life and living. It is the personification of provision and sustenance.

A person who earns the money in a household is called the “breadwinner.” Such a person is charged with “putting bread on the table.” The words “bread” or “dough” are used as euphemisms for money.

As an element of Holy Communion, the bread represents the body of Jesus which was broken for each of us. As we celebrate Communion, in addition to celebrating the sacrifice of Jesus, we also acknowledge our dependence on God for sustenance.

Join the conversation as we discuss the Sacraments of the Church.

• What does the smell of bread baking make you think of?
• What do you think of when you participate in Communion?
• How can we bring glory to God this week?

Before modern Chemistry and the Periodic Table of Elements the ancients believed that everything in creation was made up of the Four Classic Elements: Water, Wind, Earth, & Fire.

It is interesting that the Holy Scriptures represent God the Holy Spirit as three of these: Water, Wind, and Fire. The fourth classic element, Earth, is reserved for man. We are made from dust—from dust we came and to dust we shall return.

Jesus commanded that his followers (made from dust) be baptized (immersed) in water. This identification with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection is an outward manifestation of an inward transformation.

As a side note, it is interesting to realize that dust immersed in water becomes clay. Perhaps the obedient act of baptism is the beginning of our transformation into his likeness as we become clay in his hands.

• When and how were you baptized?
• Why did you choose to be baptized or why not?
• How did your baptism make you feel?

sorry to interrupt our regularly-scheduled Continuing Conversation posts, but I’m taking the liberty as self-described blog admin to throw out a few random things that are colliding around in my head this morning.

I’ve been doing a lot of emerging blog reading lately, and I came across this post by David Fitch about The Courage to Be Protestant - a book in which David Wells argues that emerging and mega-church-marketing are similar in that both contextualize or “water-down” the gospel to fit culture. a quote from Fitch:

Wells sees the answer to the current lacks in evangelicalism as a return to Classic Protestantism. I see most of the inherent lacks of evangelicalism as seeded in the very structure of Classical Protestantism. Evangelicalism, as I see it, is the outworking of the inherent contradictions latent in the Protestant reformation that allowed for the individualizing, interiorizing, privatizing of the Christian gospel that we have today.

I’m with Fitch on this, even more-so because I have lately been exploring a lot of Catholic theology and teaching, and have so far found it very attuned to my own spiritual (re-)discoveries. Read the rest of this entry »

Starbucks Corporation has become one of the largest businesses in the world by meeting one need—the need for a “third place.”

In 1998, sociologist Ray Oldenburg reported in his book The Great, Good Place the need for “third places” where people can gather, put aside the concerns of work and home, and hang out simply for the pleasures of good company and lively conversation.

Like Oldenburg found, there is an innate desire in all of us for true community. This need and the kingdom message of Jesus are inseparable. The Church was to be that true community.

Join the conversation and add your voice to the ideas as we try to Imagine a Community…

• Where is your favorite “third place?”
• What do you see as our common purpose as a community?
• What does the dandelion illustration say about enlarging the community?

Road Rage has become a serious problem even in middle America. Two weeks ago a young man lost his life as a result of the frenzy right here in Tulsa.

Anger can overtake us unless we use the power of self-control that we have. Anger isn’t always a bad thing. It is part of the “fight or flight” mechanism that helps us avoid the threat of impending pain.

Used and controlled, anger can help keep us and our families safe in a crisis. Properly channeled, anger can actually produce good in the world.

What makes you angry? Is it a rude hand gesture, or is it injustice?

Properly directed, could anger help rid the world—or at least our corner of it—of hunger, poverty, and inequities of all kinds?

• Who or what makes you angry?
• What are some things in the world right now—some larger issues—that make you angry?
• When you think about what you want to do with your life, are these things part of your consideration?
• What are some things we could do to ensure that our anger leads to making things better?

There are enough crime dramas on primetime television to last for 10,000 years of reruns in syndication. How many CSI’s or Law & Order’s do we really need?

The premise to every one of them is the same. A crime is committed. Evidence is collected, suspects are gathered, and we are given the job of assisting (if only in our heads) the players find the guilty.

On some of them, the story takes us into the courtroom and through the judicial process. Every step along the way, assumptions are formed and judgments are made.

In our every day lives, we follow the same process of assumptions and judgments. Unfortunately, some of us have made it a profession.

Today we conclude our study of the book UnChristian with the observation of outsiders that Christianity is filled with judgmentalism.

• What is you favorite police drama and why?
• What did you derive from the “guess the number” exercise?
• What should our “measuring stick” be?

Red State vs. Blue State, Democrat vs. Republican, Liberal vs. Conservative—America may be involved in another “Civil War.” However, this one is much more “civil” than the last one—so far.

It’s Politics as Usual in the 21st century.

The tragedy of the story is that “Christians” are major players (or “playas”) in the game. The news from the book UnChristian is that young outsiders consider Christianity and Christians too political. Worse than that—they “think of us as motivated primarily by political goals and as promoting a right-wing agenda.”

Politics are defined as the process by which groups of people make decisions on who gets what. Any way you look at it, political motivations are self-serving.

Certainly it is the right and the responsibility of every citizen to participate in a representative democracy. But, as followers of Jesus, how should we contribute to the political process?

And, as such, can Christianity thrive or survive in every form of government or diversity of culture?

• Who is your favorite President?
• Who or what runs the government of the United States of America?
• Why do people find it necessary to demonize others who hold a different viewpoint?
• How can we “live at peace” and “in harmony with one another?”

More than 3 decades ago, a young man named David Vetter lived in a plastic bubble known as “The Isolator.” David was born with a rare genetic disorder called Severe Combined Immunodeficiency or SCID. At that time it was incurable.

David lived only 12 years before an attempt to make him well actually killed him. But his celebrity and the daring (or arrogance) of his doctors have survived multiple attempts to honor or defame the legend of the “Bubble Boy.”

Unfortunately, “living in a bubble” is how many young outsiders see Christians and the church. They have rightfully perceived that we are too sheltered.

But Jesus never intended for us to remove ourselves from the world. In fact he touched the untouchables and ate with sinners and tax collectors.

As we dialogue about how to shed the sheltered label, join the conversation. Our current series is based on the book UnChristian, by Kinnaman and Lyons.

• What is your experience with hospital patients who have had to be quarantined or isolated?
• Why do you think Christians stay at arms length from non-Christians?
• How can we correct the perception that we are too sheltered?

If you listen to television and radio preachers (and I don’t), you will have a pretty distorted view of Jesus and of Christianity. They have discovered the same concept that sociologist and economist Edward Castronova has written about. Rallying around a common enemy drives players and money to the game.

And since Satan himself is invisible to the naked eye, they had to create another enemy—one with flesh and blood. Unfortunately, they have chosen abortion and homosexuality as their targets of wrath.

According to the research from the writers of UnChristian, 91% of all young outsiders believe Christianity to be anti-homosexual.

However, Jesus wasn’t anti- anyone, except maybe self-righteous, religious bigots.

To the victims of this bigotry, we want to apologize and have the chance to show you that a few loud mouths do not represent Jesus or us.

• What’s the dumbest thing you’ve ever heard from a radio or TV preacher?
• Do you ever find fault with others that are eerily similar to your own faults?
• Stereotypes destroy any chance for conversation. How do we get past them?

Dr. Susan Linn of Harvard University is the co-founder of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. She says that the consumerist mentality that runs rampant in the U.S. is taking away the childhood of our children. The fact that billions of advertising dollars are spent every year targeting children is a tragedy.

Advertisers and corporate giants spend billions of dollars researching the best ways to get into the heads of consumers before an advertising campaign even starts—especially the young. Hard Sell is alive and well in America.

Gimmicks and smoke may sell more products but it’s a pretty poor way to “sell” Jesus. However, there are those who advocate any means available to “reach the lost.”

We’re looking at the perceptions of outsiders that say that Christians are too concerned about winning converts. I can’t deny it.

Our response to the Great Commission is getting mixed reviews at best and really frustrating people who are targeted. Aren’t there better ways to share the message of Jesus?

• Have you ever been manipulated into buying something that you did not want or need? Explain.
• What is your experience with being coerced by a church, a Christian, or any other religion?
• What can we do to make people more at ease about their fears that we are going to try and convert them?

“Radical Transparency” is sweeping smart companies and boardrooms across the country. The theme of this trend is: Get Naked and Rule the World.

In a world where information spreads like a virus, trying to hide something—especially something illicit—is not a smart move. According to one expert, “Online is where reputations are made now.” A single Google search determines public perceptions more than a multimillion dollar ad campaign. So smart companies are sharing secrets with rivals, blogging about new products, and even admitting to their failures.

From the book UnChristian, “85% of young outsiders believe Christianity to be hypocritical.” It’s time for the church to “Get Naked” and become radically transparent.

In the words of the 17th century English churchman and historian Thomas Fuller: “He does not believe who does not live according to his belief.”

For discussion this week, here are the six tactics of transparent media from Chris Anderson:

• Show who we are
• Show what we’re working on
• “Process as Content”
• Privilege the crowd
• Let readers decide what’s best
• Wikify everything

What do you think about the Church using any of all of these tactics to be less hypocritical?