Trying to clean out my RSS reader and give you some things to read …

• Keith Brenton puts some old school CoC rants in perspective in Call Me Contrary.
• Gary Petersen links to this Instapundit post on Al Gore’s hypocrisy. I gotta give Al props for preaching what he believes in. He’s doing all he can to get that message out. I’m more convinced than before that he has a point. That said, calling average people to change but then polluting more than they do and being unwilling to change yourself makes it harder to buy what you’re selling.
• Jeff (or is it Danny? I can’t keep up.) at Nothing Important takes on the issue as well, comparing Al with W in terms of a ‘green home’.
• Soup began Lent with this scripture from Joel 2 that moved my heart at the time:
  

  Yet even now, says the Lord,
  return to me with all your heart,
  with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
  rend your hearts and not your clothing.
  Return to the Lord, your God,
  for he is gracious and merciful,
  slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
  and relents from punishing.

  I needed to hear that.

• Wade Hodges and Greg Taylor share in Christianity Today about their work in transforming a one mega-church into a community focused church. I can relate a little to their struggle to see their church envision a new way to be.
• Milton Stanley, in his new blog Milton’s Daily Dose, takes on 3 whoppers: Premillennialism or amillennialism, Predestination or free will and faith and works. Best quote from these soundbite sized posts is from the premil-amil post:”Who cares. Let’s stop arguing over which doctrinal position employs the Official Decoder Ring for the book of Revelation.“

That’s all for now.

I meant to do this more often when I started, but oh well.
All my ICOC or former ICOC friends should go check out codepoke’s unfortunately now closed blog, The Familyhood Church and read his series called ‘The Church of Tomorrow’. It’s 14 parts (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14), and each is pretty long, but it’s worth a read.
Here are some highlights, some of which reminded me a bit too much of the old ICOC.
From post #2:

I drool to think that all of the Christians in Columbus might buy up every available house in the most depressed part of inner Columbus. It would give us something to do that could make a difference. It would give us good cause to materially help each other with some home repair at the very least! It would send a clear message to Columbus that the church is a real thing, and really cares. And we would be close enough to real people to love them. Mostly, though, we would be close enough to each other to really love one another. That is worth its weight in diamonds.
But what about our witness to our neighbors?
Seriously? What witness to our neighbors?
No individual can really be a witness to his neighbors. Even if his witness is perfect, the neighbors cannot help but ascribe his loving deeds to his nature. But when a church steps out, that is a witness!

Cool thought, eh?
From there, a couple posts later he introduces Jim from 2026 and he’s looking for a church home. He visits a couple of churches and falls in love with Corner Church. After a few times, he brings his wife Brenda along. They got what amounts to discipling partners and were put in a small group lead by a ‘den mother’. Brenda’s reaction to the visit is in post #10:

“Tell me,” she went on with a pleasant smile, “that you know that’s no church at all, but a cult.”
Jim felt his face turning red, as he backed the car into the flow of traffic, and merged into the little queue to enter the street.
“We were just love-bombed in there! Don’t you know cults do that? My father told me about cults all the time, and how to watch out for them. He said since I didn’t know the Lord, I would be easy prey for any cult – any time.” Her voice was sharp, but her face composed. Jim’s face was growing redder by the second. “He said cults get people to come back by making them feel totally loved from the moment they hit the door, but it’s all an act. Can’t you see it’s not normal for people to be that nice to us the first time they meet us?”

That hits home. Of course, not all ‘love bombing’ is cult behavior. They decide to get some advice on Corner Church from Brenda’s dad. He gives them some and then ends with this:

“I’ll tell you this. If they ever say, ‘We are the work of God on earth. Everyone else has fallen by the wayside, and God is working through us,’ don’t walk away – run! I don’t care how ‘right’ anyone is. If they can say those words, their heart has gone rancid.”

That sent chills up my spine. I think that when we in the ICOC started believing that we were the One True Church (TM), that was the beginning of the end. That was years before the HKL.
Back on codepokes blog, in post #11 Derek, the leader of Corner Church calls the church back to ‘holiness’, to repent of it’s worldliness so that God will once again work through them. He’s not now because they are too worldly. Sound familiar?
In post #12, Jim is fired up about Derek’s passion and vision, Brenda is not. Jim talks to Thom about it. I think Thom is an elder. Thom is dubious of Derek’s plan too. Jim’s incredulous at Thom’s skepticism. Thom tells him:

“Look Jim, I’m the dumb one of the bunch here. I don’t know theology or all those things that people study to get the truth out of the scripture. All I know is what I see, and I don’t see it. Derek is calling for something I don’t see my scriptures calling for.
“I can’t tell the future, but I can tell you the past,” Thom continued. “I’ve seen men call for ‘commitment’ before, and nothing good comes of it. Nothing good will come of this.”

Yep.
Post #13 was the Big Decision for Jim and Brenda and for Corner Church. The elders spoke their hearts on Derek’s proposal. Most were enthusiastic. One elder, Jim, spoke against it:

I would caution you there is a risk in going where holiness leads.
Holiness leads to police work – thought police work. It leads to one brother confronting another about things on which scripture is silent. Scripture says that one man can observe a day as holy to the Lord, and another can ignore the same day equally to the Lord. One can eat what another cannot, and both still have holy mouths to the Lord. But policemen never say things like that. Thought police always have to say the same thing together. Either it is holy to watch a football vid or it is unholy. Policemen cannot see that what is degrading for one can be inspiring for another.

More words were spoken and the elders made a decision and so did Jim and Brenda, helped by a timely phone call from their ‘den mother’, or at least a member of their small group. Go read it, I can’t do it justice. In fact, if you can, make some time to read the entire series, the snippets I’ve posted don’t do it justice. It’s powerful stuff and a little close to home in spots. In the very least, read the few posts that I’ve quoted here.
Next Blogwalking will include more variety, I promise. 😛
EDIT: Make sure you read post #14 too, where the comments actually get around to the good ole ICoC.

I’ve been gathering all these links in my newsreader, thinking I was going to post something about each one. Silly me, instead I just keep gathering links without posting.
So, taking a cue from JP Manzi’s Weekly Blog Roundup, I decided to post regular lists of blog linkage that I found interesting or inspiring. So here’s the first installment of “BlogWalking’.

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Back in November, Patrick Mead made two powerful posts at Tent Pegs. The first is called Faith Insurance and is a powerful story of what happens when someone who poured their lives into their church family gets struck by tragedy. Faith Insurance. Are you making your deposits?

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Later, he posed the question Act or React? in relation to Hebrews 11:

These people did not merely believe (as some weak form of intellectual assent), but they matched that faith to a verb and so became great heroes.

In regards to someone treating him badly on the golf course one day and why he refused to respond in kind, he said this:

I decided before I left my house this morning what kind of person I was going to be. He doesn’t get to change that decision.

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Also in November, Mick of Unveiled Face posted observations from Alexander Strauch’s Biblical Eldership. In it, Strauch challenges the notion that you can’t expect men to have careers, families and to shepherd the church. Strauch quotes R. Paul Stevens:

And for tentmakers to survive three full-time jobs (work, family, and ministry), they must also adopt a sacrificial lifestyle. Tentmakers must live a pruned life and literally find leisure and rest in the rhythm of serving Christ (Matt 11:28). They must be willing to forgo a measure of career achievement and private leisure for the privilege of gaining the prize (Phil 3:14). Many would like to be tentmakers if they could be wealthy and live a leisurely and cultural lifestyle. But the truth is that a significant ministry in the church and the community can only come by sacrifice.

As one who aspires to shepherd, this one hit home.

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At the end of last year, Patrick Mead also posted at his main blog) reflections on his own private vs. public persona. I took quite a bit of comfort from the fact that he is content with a relationship with God and his wife that doesn’t match the Christian stereotypes. He’s not a prayer warrior and he and his wife don’t even talk much when alone. But they love each other and everyone knows it, and he loves his God and it is clearly evident.

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One more from Patrick – at Tent Pegs he tells the story of how God made him buy a guitar, and the man (Bubba Angel he calls him) who’s ministry is in a music store and why the store owner lets him come day after day to share his faith. Amazing, inspiring stuff. What are you doing with the hobbies God has given you interest in?
As my wife and I enjoy our evenings together, frequently in silence (and separate rooms), and as my prayer times and Bible study fluctuates, I am encouraged to see a respected leader of a large, influential and effective congregation say that he’s a lot like me and he’s just fine with that.

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Earlier this month, Keith Brenton observed that God created us to journey with Him, not settle down.

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Also this month, Dan at Cerulean Sanctum weighed in on John Piper’s use of the impolite word for Donkey. To be exact, he said that sometimes “God kicks our ass.” Dan’s comments were more on how so many others were in a tizzy over his use of a ‘bad word’. Now, I’m certainly not comfortable throwing certain words around carelessly, but like Dan, I think to laser beam focus on three letters missed the point.

All this hoopla comes off as just another case of Evangelicals missing the point in their rush to appear holy. Do we think that 80 years of never uttering a “dirty word” is going to look good in heaven when every day we tear down another person with our supposedly clean words?

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Later in the month, Dan manages to turn his son’s distress in receiving the ‘girl toy’ in his happy meal into a powerful lesson on the use of pain in our lives.

Your tragedy carries meaning for someone else. God never intends for us to squander pain. Be wise in knowing how to use yours to the benefit of another grieving soul.

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That’s enough for now (Yeah, I’ve got more for later).