Common Grounds Online

Priorities

ALEX SIMS; ACTORS, MODELS, AND ATHLETES

At Glenn’s recommendation, I recently read a helpful book entitled Unfashionable: Making a Difference in the World by Being Different by Tullian Tchividjian (pronounced cha-vi-jin). It’s a good book, and I’m glad I read it.  Tchividjian describes the Church’s mission as extending Christ’s Kingdom in our culture by living as an unfashionable community. To be clear, the author doesn’t use the word “unfashionable” in the sense of dressing funny. Rather, as I understand it, the term “unfashionable” refers to our standards and priorities. For instance, Christians should prioritize service over selfish ambition. I won’t belabor the details of the book because Glenn’s already reviewed it on this website. I just wanted to set the context for a question that this book prompted me to ask.

 

The question that I have is this: how do Christians seek to redeem culture in fields where compromise is required from Day One?

PAUL YANOSY: GOOD NEWS ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL ABUSE

The title of this post borrows from Gary Haugen's path-breaking book, Good News About Injustice  (one of 3 or 4 books that set the course of my life).  At bottom, the good news about injustice is that God is against it - and calls us to join him in His efforts.  I am coming to believe there is something similar going on with our care for creation as well.  The good news about environmental abuse and poor stewardship of the creation is that God is against it, and we should be too. 

This past year, I left a law firm job to join with some friends to launch a "green" company.  (More on that another time).  It is fascinating how this can change people's perspective of you (entrepreneur, environmentalist, lawyer?).  I am also finding many people have a desired access point to the conversation on the environment, as well as certain triggers on which the walls immediately go up.  For some, it’s okay to be in this space to bring to market cool new technologies (and they will associate with you on this ground), as long as you are not using apocalyptic language (at which they will tune you out).  For others, it's good that you want to "save the world," but when you approach it as a "business" they get a sour taste.  I'll be honest, I am still learning some of the nuances in this space, and I am sure there are more land mines to come. 

So how do you step into the conversation on environmental stewardship?  (1)  It's about time.  (2)  What's the big deal?  (3)  This is the greatest issue facing our generation, and we need to stop climate change before we pass the tipping point.  (4)  Environmental stewardship = Al Gore / global warming / ice caps melting / scare tactics / media frenzy / the latest fad doomsday scenario.  No matter your present opinion, I want to challenge you:  this is an issue with which we, as believers, need to do business in our generation.  To treat it as a superficial conversation is unwise, ignorant, and abandons the field to differently motivated actors.  And I am just as guilty of all these.  It also ignores a great issue on which to find common cause.  

Les Newsom, In Praise of...Leviticus?

Of all the convictions that unite Common Grounds readers and writers, it is a hope to speak to the questions being asked by those outside the boundaries of Jesus’ followers that I appreciate the most. Different kinds of questions emerge as we seek to bring insight from Scripture to the skeptic, but are we being a “blessing to the Gentiles” if we refuse to entertain those questions?

Lately, I have noted a handful of persistent questions coming from those watching Christianity from the outside in. First, I keep hearing questions about the Bible’s blood and gore. “Why all the messy need for death and bloodshed in Christianity’s teaching about salvation? Why can’t God just wave his hand and forgive?” Second, I had my umpteenth conversation recently about conservative Christianity’s opposition to same sex relationships. Almost on cue, the comment was offered, “Really? Do you wear a poly-cotton blend in your shirt? Because the Bible forbids wearing a garment that mixes two different kinds of threads.” Finally, our own President during his campaign last summer worked to debunk simplistic understandings of how religion and politics work by saying, “Which passages of Scripture should guide our public policy? [Some] suggest slavery is okay, and that eating shellfish is an abomination?”

Crepe Murder by Judy Nelson

On the first day of school as a child, my sisters and I got our picture taken in front the pink crepe myrtle in front of our Virginia home. Fresh new book bag, sharpened pencils, new outfit and the crepe myrtle. Ever since, I’ve been a fan of the frothy tree. 

Here in Orlando, they’re everywhere. In fact, when I saw the single myrtle in front of my new place, I thought of it as a kiss from God. Ah, home. There seems to be some controversy as to how and when to prune these pretty things. I often see them cut back so far I fear that they will never recover. Indeed, one nursery says cutting them below the “knuckle” has poor results: 

 Reduces the number of blooms; 

 The new branches cannot support the weight of the blooms; 

   In rain, the new branches weep over and often break because they have not    been prepared for the blooms. 

If the pruning is done correctly, you can expect double the blooms and branches that can bear the weight of it’s fruit. Today, I was talking to a friend about her lime tree. She says she was talking to it (I can picture this; she’s a very compassionate woman): “Oh, sweet tree, I see your little leaf. I know that all these months you’ve looked dead, you were really working . I’m so proud of you. It’s hard to have hope in the dark.” 

 Doesn’t my friend have the kind of voice you’d like to hear from God: I see you there in the dark. I am doing something wonderful in you. Although it feels painful to be pruned, I’m preparing you to carry the weight of your beauty. I’m so proud of you. I see your little bloom. And I will bring you a double portion of beauty because I see you can bear it, even in the rain.

Esther L. Meek, Bandit

I keep an unusual photo on my work desk, where I can see it always. It’s a photo of me, just turned fifty, in my jammies and morning-face-blotchiness. I’m looking down and very near, at the little bird perched an inch from my cheek on my shoulder.

At the beginning of that year of 2003, I was mired in emotional pain from suffering in all quarters. Only the last in a minefield of sadnesses, my rabbit died (literally!) in my arms on Mother’s Day. About that time, I had coffee with a former student of mine, one who was about to graduate, taking his wife and two daughters back to the Southwest. Among many things we talked over, he shared with me stories of life the previous summer at an old-fashioned river-side community where he had served as chaplain, and where my family had vacationed in the past. The stories featured the endearing eccentricities of neighbors, and also a little cedar waxwing, fallen out of its nest, whom this family rescued.

Bandit was so named because waxwings, chestnut brown, crested, with tiny “drops” of red wax at the end of each wing, also are distinctive for their black Lone-Ranger mask. The entire family fell so in love with Bandit that, despite risking the ire of the environmentalist next-door, and the crabby gardener on the other side, and after a failed attempt to release Bandit to the wild (Bandit didn’t go), this family gave in to their hearts and brought him home with them to St. Louis for the school year.

Glenn Lucke, What Compels You?

What compels you? What impulses within, or what pressures without, prompt you to take action?

Appetite within me impels me to eat. Competitive spirit, as in getting hammered by my defender’s elbows in the paint, with no call by the ref, incites me to guard my opponent…aggressively…at the other of the basketball court. A recognition of my helpless need for communion with the Lord motivates me to study His Word and to pray and to join with other followers in worship.

External pressures also incline, and at times force, me to act.  I contribute a significant percentage of my income to an organization in Washington, DC, that I probably wouldn’t support apart from the legal coercion that the organization enjoys. I wear suits to weddings and funerals, and other occasions, even during summer months in Texas, not because I like suits, or sweating through my suit, but because I bow to social convention in seeking to honor the people I am with.

What compels you?

The Apostle Paul tells the Corinthians about what motivates him, and Paul’s finely threads his account. This assembly of Christ-followers in Corinth had come into being when Paul first preached the Gospel of the Kingdom there in approximately AD 51-52. Paul had left Corinth on mission to other cities, but had written them a letter (First Epistle to the Corinthians) responding to a number of questions they had sent him by messenger.

Now Paul is writing again to these Christ-followers who frustrate him but still thrill him, because of their shared love in Christ.

"For the love of Christ controls (or compels) us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised." 2 Corinthians 5:14-15

When you wake up, what compels you? In your commute to work, what compels you? At work? In recreation?

When you think about what your hopes for the summer, for the year, for the next block of years, what compels you?

How does the love of Christ work in and through you in everyday life? What does it look like in your life as the love of Christ compels you?

Summer Reading List, 2009 (Fiction and Non-Fiction)

For previous years CGO Summer Reading lists, see:

2005 Summer Reading List, Fiction
2005 Summer Reaading List, Non-Fiction

2008 Summer Reading List, Fiction
2008 Summer Reading List, Non-Fiction

The 2009 CGO Contributors' summer reading suggestions:

From Alex Sims

Non-Fiction

The Gospel & Personal Evangelism by Mark Dever
I imagine that this book will become an evangelism classic, and rightly so. Here’s a sample: "It's not manipulative or insensitive to bring up the urgent nature of salvation. It's simply the truth. The time of opportunity will end. As Christians, we've come alive to the truth that history isn't cyclical, always repeating itself in an endless rotation of events, spinning till any given part of it becomes meaningless. No! We know that God has created this world, and that he will bring it to a close at the judgment. We know that he gives us life, and he takes it away. The time that we have is limited; the amount is uncertain, but the use of it is up to us. So Paul tells us in Ephesians to 'make the most of every opportunity (5:16).'" (Page 58)

Fiction

100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson
I've only recently been turned on to fantasy literature, as I'm looking for books that I can read to my daughter while also being entertained. 100 Cupboards fits that bill perfectly. It's the kind of book where I'll read a chapter to my daughter and then read another chapter after she's gone to sleep. The author combines an impressive imagination with crystal clear prose. This book is first in a trilogy that also includes Dandelion Fire and Chestnut King.
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From Aaron Menikoff

Fiction

The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy

The Mayor of Casterbridge (a nineteenth-century work) was the first Hardy novel I read and remains my favorite. The plot is fast-paced-enough to hold one's interest. The story asks some hard questions about life that have to do with regret and suffering and pain and providence. It is a story about Thomas Henchard, a simple hay-trusser who does the unthinkable, sells his wife! She is a woman of noble of character but is presented as too simple-minded to object to her husband's atrocious transaction. Henchard's subsequent rise to prominence in Casterbridge is extraordinary and is due in part to his innate skill and, in part, notwithstanding his innate faults. A portion of the last line of the book illustrates the story's charm: ". . . happiness was but the occasional episode in a general drama of pain." Hardy was a master at presenting the dark truths of humanity and this book is a tragedy along the lines of Oedipus Rex. Tragedies are good for Christians to read for it is Christians, acutely aware of what life should be like, who can best reflect on what life is actually like.

Non-Fiction

Big Truths for Young Hearts by Bruce Ware

I have three kids, ages 7, 6, and 3. Ware's book is a treasure for me as I seek to expose them to the wonders of God's Word. The chapters are very short. He uses concrete language. It is easy to put the book down, expand on one of Ware's ideas with my kids, and then pick it up again. He also has good questions at the end of the chapter. My wife noticed that not only were the kids learning theology--the parents were, too.
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From Matt Kleberg

Non-Fiction

O Death, Where is Thy Sting? by Alexander Schmemann

In this brief collection of radio broadcasts Father Schememann, coming out of the Orthodox tradition in Russia, addresses what the Apostle Paul calls "the last enemy." Why does Jesus weep at the grave of His friend, Lazarus? "How and from where did death arise, and why has it become stronger than life?" Such a small, seemingly simple book tackles the question of death with profound and aggressive beauty. It is both refreshing and enlightening to hear such an articulate word from a brother in a tradition largely foreign to most of us.

Fiction

The River Why by David James Duncan

Duncan (who reads like a mixture of Wendell Berry, Norman Maclean, and Dave Eggers) tells a coming-of-age tale about Gus Orviston, fly-fishing romantic and quasi-philosopher, who embarks on a quest for the ideal life, where Providence and antics lead him to encounter God, love, and fish.
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From Esther Meek

Theology

Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies Studies in the Gospels by Kenneth E. Bailey

This is on my summer reading list, which means I have yet to read it, except for an excerpt, at Christmas, about Jesus' birth. But I have encountered Bailey's handling of several biblical passages now, either aurally, in ancient video-cassettes, or second-hand through N.T. Wright's references to him. The man was born, and grew up, and pastored for four decades in the Middle East—see a recent review of this book in Books and Culture. His signature, thus, is skewering our preformed Western cultural readings of biblical texts with his account of what would be implied by them in the culture in which they were written. My 100-percent reaction is…OH. OH-H-H-H…. How could our churches be exegeting and preaching in the absence of this critical information, or in the absence even of raising a question concerning these matters? Bailey's work on the biblical passages on women, for example, holds radical import for roughly 50% of the church. Or maybe closer to 100%.

Better-than-fiction

The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton

This was my summer reading last summer, and it was a vacation in itself. Recommended to me by a member of my former, beloved, St. Louis book club, a person with impeccable taste, the book is really about architecture and really about happiness—I mean, the title isn't metaphorically intended. And de Botton writes so poetically and allusively that reading it is itself an artistic experience. He explores the subtle complexity of humans' interface with architecture—the irony that beautiful buildings have witnessed horrors, but that ugly buildings uglify the spirit. "Belief in the significance of architecture is premised on the notion that we are, for better or for worse, different people in different places—on the conviction that it is architecture’s task to render vivid to us who we might ideally be," he writes. Take this book to the most beautiful corner (literally!) of your life, and let The Architecture of Happiness lead you to savor it.
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From Zoe Sandvig

Bringing Heaven Down to Earth by Nathan Bierma

This book transformed the way I look at heaven. In it, young journalist Nathan Bierma peels back the layers of misconception about the Kingdom to come. Describing a future Kingdom that builds itself off of the enduring good from this earth, Bierma crafts a vision of the New Heaven that's more like attending the unveiling of a glorious cultural center than a frolic in the clouds. He says, "To live in the hope of heaven … is to live in tow worlds at once: the world as it is and the world as it was meant to be—and will be again. It is to see shades of both creation and new creation in daily life—the present visited by the future. It is to see heaven creeping into our natural environment and social lives and to want more of it."

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From Paul Yanosy

Non-Fiction

Culture Making: Recovering our Creative Calling by Andy Crouch

How do Christians relate to culture, and how should we relate?  Classics like H. Richard Niebuhr's, Christ and Culture have explored this question.  Crouch's answer is better -- at once fresh and "how could it be any other way?"  It is not enough for Christians to condemn culture, copy culture, or even (which we have gotten fairly good at) critique culture.  Made in the image of God, we are made to be cultivators and creators of culture -- creating cultural goods whose very existence change the conversation. 

Total Church:  A Radical Reshaping Around Gospel and Community by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis

Co-founders of The Crowded House, a church-plant in Sheffield, UK, brings some fresh perspective to the debate between conservative evangelical churches, and the emerging church movement.  Chester and Timmis present the argument the church must be both gospel-centered (meaning word-centered and mission-centered) and community-centered, carrying the “gospel in community” argument through a number of practical applications.  While you or I may not agree with everything said in the book, this is a book that is worth doing business with.

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, by Jared Diamond

A great companion to Tom Friedman's Hot, Flat and Crowded, Diamond asks the question of how certain societies choose to fail, from the Vikings of Greenland to the occupants of Easter Island.  An accessible, reasoned and compelling discussion of human environmental impact.  Diamond is author of the Pulitzer Prize winner, Guns, Germs and Steel.
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From Catherine Claire Larson

Theology

Unfashionable, Tullian Tchividjian

Tullian's Unfashionable is a shot of good medicine right when we need it most. The book reminds us that it isn't our attempts to be relevant or acceptable that draw people to the Gospel. It is the transcendence, the mystery, and the absolute otherness of the Christian faith that will attract people to our churches. At a time when even the faithful are hedging on deeply held truths to fit in, we need this book more than ever.

Fiction

Daisy Chain, Mary DeMuth

I don't read a lot of modern fiction. When I do, I try (as a general rule of thumb) to stay away from what's on the best-seller shelf at the Christian bookstore. Mary DeMuth's work is a delightful exception to the usual one-dimensional characters, the predictable story-lines, the moral-bludgeoning of readers, (okay I'm getting carried away). DeMuth gives us multi-faceted characters and she doesn't shy away from the darker themes which are a part of the fallen world in which we live. Her writing is evocative, and her story-telling keeps you turning pages. Daisy Chain is her most recent novel, and an excellent one.
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From Les Newsom

Non Fiction

God's Way of Peace by Horatius Bonar

Now available for free via Google books, this little classic is a gem of applied theology. The book follows one side of a conversation a pastor has with a questioning new convert struggling with why the wash of joy and peace that seems so readily promised in Scripture is so absent from them. The answer to the struggler's objections are gloriously encouraging.

Non-fiction

The Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose

While not a piece of fiction, per se, there are few books that I have read in the last few months that have been more engaging than this book. Kevin Roose leaves Brown for a semester at one of America's foremost "Bible Boot Camps," Liberty University. His deep graciousness in engaging with a culture so wildly different from his own makes this read well worth the time of a Christian to see how it is that they come across to the average secular person in America.
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From Cody Chambers

From Human to Posthuman: Christian Theology And Technology in a Postmodern World, by Brent Waters

Though this book is geared more to a graduate student audience, the layperson will benefit from Human to Posthuman's eye-opening look at how modern technologies are redefining humanity.  The book gives a behind-the-scenes look at what some philosophers are saying about a new "posthuman" era where technology is used to modify the brain/mind and human body.  It seems like sci-fi, but it is a very real issue that requires a Christian response.  Waters critiques posthuman ideas using Christian theology, pointing out errors and offering insight into what it means to be a human being.

Mark Twain - Essays and Sketches of Mark Twain (Stuart Miller - Intro, Selection)

I know this looks like a book from your Jr. High summer reading list.  You think you've had your fill of Connecticut Yankees, Hucks, and Paupers.  But you need to pick up Mark Twain because he's just flat-out funny.  His wit will strike you as contemporary and his skewed perspectives as clever.  Pick it up and enjoy some nice little tidbits of humor to chew on ... and some social commentary and serious reflection to boot.
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From Glenn Lucke

Fiction

The Wild Birds, by Wendell Berry

If you have read any of Berry's stories about the fictional Port William membership, such as the sublime Jayber Crow, you're in for a treat. The Wild Birds is a collection of short stories about this imagined community. In this tiny Kentucky town and surrounding area,  Berry depicts life at a different pace, where people have sunk into the land and one another, and the land and the community have sunk into the people. It's as magical as Narnia.

Non-fiction

Christ and Culture Revisited, by D.A. Carson

Carson joins a chorus of critics claiming that Richard Niebuhr's classic work on Christ and Culture confuses these categories and ultimately provides unsatisfactory perspectives. Carson is persuasive. One contribution is tracing biblical theology and insisting that Christian thinking about these matters must not pit one part of Scripture against another, but rather comprehend the sweep of redemptive history. While I would like to ask Carson questions about some of his contentions, this is a smart, helpful book.

Glenn Lucke, Round Sunglasses: A Case Study in a Trend

I read an interesting piece in the New York Times today about how multiple designers, without collusion, brought forth round sunglasses this year. And given that such artifacts have about a one year gestation period before coming to market, the writer, Eric Wilson, digs into what happened a year ago to bring about this state of affairs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/fashion/11SUNGLASSES.html?_r=1&8dpc

While I find this case study intriguing, probably all stories about fashion bring up similar questions for me:

Do people buy artifacts BECAUSE they're trendy? If so, why?

Related, given that fashion is at least significantly about creating obsolesence so as to separate you from your money, why play ball? I once asked a guy attending my church's high school summer "Beach Retreat" what the difference was between his $165 designer-of-the-moment sunglasses and the $10 sunglasses I brought for the object lessson. I had purposely picked cheap sunglasses that looked exactly like one of the popular versions of the Oakley sunglasses that were "in" at the moment.

I asked him, given that the lenses are the same, the frames look the same, and they accomplish the same function of blocking UV rays from the sun, what did you get for your EXTRA $155 that I didn't get?

His answer: Mine are cool.

Why? The brand. Identical look minus the brand.

In my estimation the kid had coughed up $155 from his wallet to place in various Oakley employee wallets. For what? For cool.

If it were my money, I still wouldn't spend the $155 on cool. But it's not my money, it's God's money. Is this the best way to steward God's money, purchasing cool? I think of messages I've heard from Tim Keller and Mark Driscoll recently about idolatry, and I don't know how Christians square their stewardship of God's money with playing ball with the idol of being cool and being fashionable.

Gentlemen, start your objections. I'll listen. :)

Demotivating Humor

I was recently with some fellow church planters and for kicks one night, we turned to www.despair.com for some fantastic laughs.  If you have not yet visited this place, what are you waiting for?  Despair.com was started as a cynical response to all the “successories” of the 1980s and 1990s (you know, the picture of the crew team working hard together under the name “Teamwork” with a pithy, motivating cliché to boot). 

I sometimes wonder (though not very often, to be honest) why the demented and twisted humor is so, well, funny.  I have always found The Far Side to be fantastically creative and eccentric.  Perhaps it stems from a need to see the world from a strange vantage point, I don’t know.  Like I said, I haven’t thought much about this.

Still, grab a friend and work your way through all of the site’s “Demotivator” posters (which you can really buy…I’ve got a few) and enjoy a few laughs at the expense of our pop culture.  The best one?  Check out the one on blogging (http://despair.com/blogging.htm).

Glenn Lucke, Why "Good Will Hinton" Is Good For Us

A friend of mine, Will Hinton, endeavors to live out the ideal of listening to multiple points of view about subjects, particularly difficult subjects.  I notice other men and women working at this same ideal, but not many. While my perception may be incorrect, it seems to me that fewer people are doing this.

My ideal: assessing matters rationally, thinking through the implications, and adjusting myself to truth no matter the consequence.  If a belief or practice is not in accord with truth, I want to adjust my belief or practice to be in accord with the truth.  Adjusting myself to truth "no matter the consequence" has resulted in many painful deprivations over the years. Sometimes there is a real cost to abandoning a false belief or practice. But why would anyone who cares about truth want to hold on to falsehood in belief or practice? 

Will Hinton cares about truth. He runs a blog and leads a life that is about seeking out personal relationships with people from different points of view. If you read today's column by New York Times writer Nicholas Kristoff you will see that it's not enough to expose yourself to contrary points of view. For common ground to develop an embodied relationship, preferably occurring in part over a shared meal, is important.

Zoe Sandvig, Friendship and Incarnation

Friendship is a morsel of the Incarnation. As we partake of the bread and the wine, so friendship plays out Christ’s physicality in our lives.

Last week, one of my best friends moved 3,000 horrible miles across the country. Several months of unemployment, ambiguity about the future, and an increasing desire to live out west tugged my friend away from this place, and away from me. I hated to see her to go, but felt even more uneasy about her staying.

There seems to come a time with most good things for an ending to arrive, and resistance to that appropriate ending only prolongs the inevitable. The time had come for Rachel to leave, and I had to let her go.