Lars and the Real Girl 2

One of the most telling lines in the movie is when Lars says to Bianca (his doll "girlfriend") that the fake flowers are beautiful. He says they are great because since they are not real, they can never die. For Lars, real life community has been hard because his parents died, his brother moved away and everyone abandoned him. Therefore, Bianca is perfect because she is not real, so she can never abandon him.

Lars is so paralyzed by the fear of being abandoned that he won't engage socially with anyone. Today, the youth pastor at my church was telling me that his High School Kids fear abandonment more than anything else. That fear suppresses authenticity, because if they are real and vulnerable, then they will likely be rejected and abandoned. Just like Lars, when people let us down, we run after things that are not real in order to satisfy us. We justify it by saying, at least they can never let us down. I am so thankful that we don't have to run after futility and instead can run to God who says that "I will never leave you, nor forsake you."

Lars and the Real Girl

On Friday night, I saw Lars and the Real Girl because of Cheryl Fletcher's recommendation. She lives in L.A. now so her movie recommendations are that much cooler. I definitely recommend the movie. At first it looks really weird and it will make you squirm a little bit with some painfully awkward moments. But it truly gets to the need for community and the power of community. The messiness in Lars' life is pretty out there, but it reminds us that living in community involves loving each other despite the messiness. The ultimate message of the movie is pretty redemptive. And it is playing at Alamo Draft House, which is definitely the coolest place to watch a film here in Austin.

a must read

Talk about a resource. Tim Keller's book is coming out early 2008. I can't wait. I think it will be a great read and an especially great read for the skeptics out there. It is called "The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism. Someone told me that they read that it was designed to be the Mere Christianity for a Postmodern World. Here is the table of contents:

Introduction – All doubts are leaps of faith
PART 1 - The Leap of Doubt
1. There can’t be just one true religion.
2. A good God could not allow suffering.
3. Christianity is a straitjacket.
4. The church is responsible for so much injustice.
5. A loving God would not send people to hell.
6. Science has disproved Christianity.
7. You can’t take the Bible literally.
Intermission
PART 2 - The Grounds for Faith
8. The clues of God
9. The knowledge of God
10. The problem of sin
11. Religion and the gospel
12. The (true) story of the cross
13. The reality of the resurrection
14. The Dance of God
Epilogue – Where do we go from here?

God Grew Tired of Us

I watched the documentary God Grew Tired of Us on Wednesday night and then went to see John Bul Dau at St. Edwards University. He is one of the Lost Boys from the Sudanese Civil War. Our church is doing a lot of work in Southern Sudan with education, health awareness, community development and we are planning to start a biblical institue in April to help train national pastors. In the Didinga Hills there are 100,000 people and there is one church with 100 Christians.

I highly recommend the documentary to learn more about Sudan and the story of the Lost Boys and their transition from a refugee camp in Kenya to the United States. Last night John Bul Dau highlighted the importance of perseverance, community and faith in Jesus Christ in his story. But what struck me was that when he reached a place of influence (America) he did not hesitate to take care of his people still living in the refugee camp in Kenya. He has now started a foundation that is using his influence to seek the welfare of Southern Sudan.

Willow Creek says "We made a mistake"

This is an interesting article written about one of the largest and most influential churches in the last 30 years. I find it really interesting what they found from their research within in their church. It seems so simple, but so profound for the American Christian and the American church. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Their book is called "Reveal" where they highlighted their findings.

urban influence

My friend gave me an article by Marvin Olasky from World Magazine. Olasky is currently living in NYC, but usually lives in Austin from what I understand. It is pretty obvious that he, like others is being influenced by Tim Keller's theology of the city by Olasky's article entitled "urban calling." He said in this article:

"Today, sadly, the pattern is reversed: Christians are mostly in the countryside, and city dwelling pagani (pagans) dominate journalism, education, the arts, and so on."

I lament the fact that for the most part these disciplines such as art, journalism, education are not driven by the gospel. And I think we have missed our calling if we think it is our job as Christians to stay out of those arenas. I think it is the opposite. We need Christians who are artists, song writers, journalists, educators, engineers, doctors, etc.

He quotes one of my favorite verses about the city from Jeremiah 29. We have been talking about this passage in our Exiles series at the Gathering on the book of Esther. Jeremiah denounces the idea that it will all get better and that we shouldn't move into these arenas. Instead he says "build houses and live in them...seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare."

I look into our community and I see doctors, engineers, artists, writers, musicians, business people, non-profit starters who motivated by the gospel are ready to play a redemptive role in this city. The post on our Gathering blog asked the real practical question and I ask it here: what is the first step for us to start influencing the city?

exiles

We just started a new series at the Gathering called "Exiles." We are looking at Esther to learn how to influence our culture while living as an exile.

Exiles by definition are people living in a culture with different language, convictions, practices and narratives than their own. We, the church, are living as exiles in a culture that does not reflect the gospel narrative, but has all-together different values. As exiles we can either linger in nostalgia of what used to be or to choose to live like missionaries advancing the Kingdom of God in our culture.

I am excited about us moving from nostalgia and maintenance in the Spiritual Life to a real sense of mission for the city.

Grooving

Sorry. I couldn't resist. Here is Caroline shaking her rump on Mandy's blog. Click here to see it.

man crush

I think it is perfectly ok to have a "man crush." Mine for 2007 and probably of 2008 is Tim Keller. He is the pastor of Redeemer Pres in NYC. If you have not read some of his stuff or heard from him, I highly recommend it. He is doing some of the best thinking on the gospel and our culture.

But I also think that his article on all of life is repentance is one of the best things that I have read on the subject. It is pretty short and an important read. I recommended it to someone a few weeks ago and they said that it has radically transformed their view of repentance and the spiritual life.

Here is one quote from it: "In religion our only hope is to live a good enough life for God to bless us. Therefore every instance of sin and repentance is traumatic, unnatural, and horribly threatening.... But in the gospel the knowledge of our acceptance in Christ makes it easier to admit we are flawed. Our hope is Christ's righteousness, not our own -so it is not so traumatic to admit our weakneesses and our lapses."

Enjoy.