It’s Wednesday. The thermometer reads -6ºF.
If that’s not enough to make you philosophical, I don’t know what is.
So here are various unrelated thoughts, opinions, helps, and factoids to warm up your brain, even if the rest of you is longing for a space heater.
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I recently wrote about Christianity Today‘s Book of the Year, God’s Forever Family: The Jesus People Movement in America.
A few things in that book that struck me:
1. The Jesus People movement, at first, was comprised mostly of unchurched hippies. When they became believers, they read the Bible and believed that anything was possible for God, because He could do anything or make anything seemingly impossible become reality. It was only later, after more traditional church people started discipling the Jesus People methodically, that the idea that God can do anything and that Christians were not limited or restrained started to vanish. I don’t know about you, but I see that as a sobering indictment of faithlessness—not among the hippies, but among the church people who discipled them.
2. The book notes that one of the primary social realities that doomed the Jesus People Movement was marriage and family. Once the Jesus People paired up and had kids, the movement died. Curiously, the Apostle Paul predicted this in 1 Corinthians 7:33-35. It makes me wonder if the only way we’ll see revival come again will be if it’s driven by and for single people. Singles may be the Church’s best hope for renewal. How strange that they continue to be treated as pariahs in many churches.
3. This is a bit controversial, but hey: It was startling to read how many of the hippies had experiences of God while using drugs. I wonder if we have become a society that is so über-rational that we have to have our overdriven rationality restrained before we can be open to the Lord. I’m not advocating recreational drug use as a means to lower our reliance on rational thought, only that extreme rationalism may be its own disease, one that short circuits the natural centers of the brain that connect with religious experience. Again, I don’t want to reduce conversion to a set of physical correlations, but I’ve got to believe we are out of balance with God’s created order if we flee to the intellect to explain every aspect of the human experience.
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Speaking of amped rationality interfering with spirituality, here’s an intriguing article on why young people become atheists: Listening to Young Atheists: Lessons for a Stronger Christianity.
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Oh, that Jesus People Movement thing? Here’s a mapping project that seeks to note all the hotspots of the movement. Feel free to add locations you know of. (Ohio, which was actually a hotbed of movement activity, seems to be lacking input at the moment.)
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So much for learning: 23% of Americans did not read a book (or even listen to an audiobook) last year. What does that mean for Christianity, which relies so much on the written word to communicate truth and wisdom?
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If you read this blog regularly, then you’ve heard me unpack some of my own ideas on why megachurches may be doomed. “7 Reasons Why Church Worship Centers Will Get Smaller” at Outreach Magazine online adds further insights.
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Brendt Waters douses some Strange Fire Conference “logic”: “A ‘Critic’ Answers Back.”
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Over at The J Letters, some whack-job talks about truth, magic, and changing the world.
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If you’ve been to the movie theater lately, you may be feeling this sense of déjà vu when it comes to the movie’s plotline and themes. It’s not you. There may be a real reason why all movies seem the same anymore.
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Is a Christian apologetic dead in the U.K.? Not if you listen to the podcast Unbelievable, a hard-hitting, intellectual look at difficult issues from both Christian and non-Christian perspectives that is very unlike “family friendly, positive, Christian radio” here in the States. (Website here.)
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Discouraged? Find freedom in Christ—for free! K.P. Yohannan of Gospel for Asia brings the truth in his no-cost e-booklet on how to triumph over discouragement.