On my way home today I encountered the beginnings of painful SXSW traffic on mopac in Austin.  I like to get information from a range of sources so I tune into NPR regularly.  Today's bit was an interview of Bart Ehrman by Terry Gross. 

Bart wrote an anti-Christian book in 2009 called "Jesus Interrupted" so naturally NPR gave him plenty of air time.  The original interview was done last year so I'm not sure why NPR re-aired it as Easter is still weeks away.

I spent most of the hour long segment laughing at Bart's elementary arguments against why the Bible isn't the inspired word of God.  His basic premise is the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John don't agree with each other.  Their tone, descriptions and details don't add up to a complete picture of Jesus.

Additionally Bart-man chastises the Bible for being filled with errors and not including important works like the Gnostic gospel of Peter.  Back in the day the Gnostics were the crazy sect of Christianity similar to the Universal Unitarians or Mormons today.

After fifteen minutes into the interview it became difficult to listen as it became repetitive.  However at the end it got really juicy.  Really worthwhile listening to.

Bart's story is he was a Christian and went to study the Bible in Seminary, eventually pursuing a PhD in Biblical studies at Princeton.  During his tenure he came to the conclusion the Bible was full of errors and not the word of God in any way.  But he kept on believing in Christianity for another 15 years. 

But that's not the interesting part.

The fun part is when the interviewer (Terry) asked Bart why he stopped believing.  He mentions he had been a devout Christian for years, going to church, confessing sins, believing in God and "all the rest."  Then he explains the reason he stopped believing is because he couldn't believe in a God that allows suffering into the world.

This guy spends at least 6-10 years studying the Bible and he isn't able to wrap his mind around the teachings of Jesus and God!  He isn't able to connect giant dots in the Bible to form an answer to that question!?!  I realize the topic of suffering is a common question but there are a plenty of good explanations from people much smarter than Bart.

At first I was surprised, but then his description of his walk with God came to mind.

Bart never mentions prayer and a relationship with God as an important part of his life.  He was all about studying the Bible for intellectual enjoyment and not experiencing the love of Jesus.  If you're not in relationship with God then you're doing it all on you're own and you'll never "get it".

I'm not sure if I'll read his book but I might.  It would make a good series of posts deconstructing his arguments from a realistic point of view.  On the other hand there's much better things I could be doing with my time like playing kickball and eating pizza.

Here's a brief excerpt from his book:

As we have just seen, the Gospels are filled with discrepancies large and small. Why are there so many differences among the four Gospels? These books are called Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John because they were traditionally thought to have been written by Matthew, a disciple who was a tax collector; John, the "Beloved Disciple" mentioned in the Fourth Gospel; Mark, the secretary of the disciple Peter; and Luke, the traveling companion of Paul. These traditions can be traced back to about a century after the books were written.

But if Matthew and John were both written by earthly disciples of Jesus, why are they so very different, on all sorts of levels? Why do they contain so many contradictions? Why do they have such fundamentally different views of who Jesus was? In Matthew, Jesus comes into being when he is conceived, or born, of a virgin; in John, Jesus is the incarnate Word of God who was with God in the beginning and through whom the universe was made. In Matthew, there is not a word about Jesus being God; in John, that's precisely who he is. In Matthew, Jesus teaches about the coming kingdom of God and almost never about himself (and never that he is divine); in John, Jesus teaches almost exclusively about himself, especially his divinity. In Matthew, Jesus refuses to perform miracles in order to prove his identity; in John, that is practically the only reason he does miracles.

Here's some tabs I still have open in my Firefox browser from last week:

Einstein's General Theory of Relativity was proven wrong. http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-First-Test-That-Proves-General-Theory-of-Relativity-Wrong-20259.shtml

The molecular structure of water was found to be more complex than thought by today's scientists, leading them to throw out their current views on how water works and revert to a model first found in 1938. http://www.physorg.com/news186417938.html

CNN declares people with higher IQs are less religous but admits their survey is worthless all in the same breath http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/26/liberals.atheists.sex.intelligence/index.html

Simba was found in the wild http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3149/2890569290_8f0f2d3c25_b.jpg

The Girl Scouts forgot how to bake good cookies http://www.slashfood.com/2010/02/26/girl-scout-cookies-recalled-for-weird-taste/

Red Sox fans have pea sized brains http://i.imgur.com/NwLMf.jpg

Fish fell from the sky in Australia http://www.news.com.au/national/its-raining-fish-in-the-northern-territory-report/story-e6frfkvr-1225835295781

The NY Times published an op-ed not flaming against Christianity http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/opinion/28kristof.html

The SF Weekly blog published an anti-Christian, anti-Jew, anti-hotdog message all rolled into one graphic http://blogs.sfweekly.com/foodie/hotdog.jpg

Earthquake hits Chile, the world yawns http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61Q0S920100227

I learned the phrase "coconut" is to hispanics what "oreo" is to blacks http://bigjournalism.com/hfontova/2010/02/27/donny-deutsch-coconuts/

Got the complete scoop on SXSW parties http://www.austin360.com/music/sxsw-on-the-side-official-and-unofficial-sxsw-165920.html

A three day call of prayer and fasting in Haiti.

Despite the atheist's pre-school level of Bible knowledge he makes a good point: nobody likes a preacher shouting at them as they try to cross the street.  It also seems if you're going to be thumping the Bible on a street corner you'd want a bigger Bible.  Or at least a Bible on a rope you can throw at people and then retract back to you, ninja style.

...so good

Last weekend I attended the Verge Conference in Austin, TX.  It brought together over 2,000 people from around the country to discuss and learn about missional communities.

The main concept behind a missional community is the merger between home churches and viral marketing. 

Home churches are a small group of people studying, worshiping and fellowshipping in Christ (an attempt to imitate the church in Acts).  They can meet anywhere and anyone can start a missional community without any formal theological training. 

Viral marketing is the spreading of an idea through one's social connections (family, friends, coworkers and neighbors) and then getting your social connections to tell their social connections and so on and so forth.

The two concepts come together by one person starting a missional community (small group) and once the group has grown a few members go out and start their own group.  Then those groups spawn more groups which spawn more groups, creating exponential growth.


Missional communities have worked extremely well in oppressive communist countries like Cuba and China where religion is hated because it competes with the government for the people's loyalty.  They work so well because you don't need church buildings and can go underground with the movement.  Similar to how terrorist cells work.

I'm not sure how impactful missional communities will be in the United States, but it's cool to see people fed up with the current state of Christianity and trying to make it better.  One church, The Austin Stone, has been doing missional communities for many years and has become one of the biggest churches in Austin.  Whether that's because they use missional communties or have an awesome pastor and worship leader is difficult to determine.

My only criticism of the conference was some of the speakers, especially the founder of the movement Alan Hirsch, was a bit anti-American.  There were one too many digs at suburban life, mega churches and how backwards the "west" is compared to everyone else.   But Alan has a British accent so I can understand his frustration with not being American.


Overall the conference was a lot fun; the speakers were inspirational, the worship was full of energy and you could feel the Spirit loving everyone there.  Immediately afterward I felt full of passion for the Kingdom, ready to serve God.  But then a few days later there was a dip in my excitement and I felt a little depressed.  Since this was my first Christian conference I think I was high on emotion while I was there and then boom, I was back to normal life with normal people and normal everything.

I've perked up since and am internalizing the best way to move forward with the missional community idea and how it can impact Zetify.  At the heart of missional communities in the USA is the concept of making Jesus part of your everyday life, not just something you do for an hour on Sunday. 

Planting the Gospel among young adults using technology will play an important part in the shaping of Christianity in America in the next 50 years.  It's just a question of how and when.

For more information on missional communities check out the Verge 2010 Web site or search Twitter for #verge10.

I'm happy to announce the following set of exciting enhancements to make your Zetify.com experience faster, easier and better:

• Facebook login & sign up: You no longer have to enter a bunch of information to join Zetify.  You can login with your Facebook account in one easy click.
   
• New profile page design: We've revamped the profile pages to look cleaner.
   
• New WTFDIB design updates: We updated the welcome banner and question form to make participating easier.
   
• What Up + Church Directory: We are using a beta version of the What Up widget to show the Christian Conversation Stream for specific churches or city pages.
   
• Feedback tab: We're testing out a new way to get your opinions using a feedback tab on the left hand side of the site.
   

This is only the beginning of good things to come.  We've got some exciting new apps in development and will have big news come March.

ABC News posted an article recounting Obama's lack of a church home since the infamous fallout with his hometown church of 20 years.  Personally I don't think it's a big deal.  If the President doesn't like any of the churches in D.C. it's not his fault.  In a city of politics I wonder how many of those traditional churches are rooted in biblical faith vs being tainted by their environment.

The burden of being President isolates a man and his family from American life.  Having fellowship with other believers in a town you just moved to where everyone wants your autograph or resignation can't be easy.  How do you share true confessions of the heart in a town of snakes?

In the grand scheme of things you don't have to go to church to pray, fellowship, worship or serve.  Going to church is not a determination of one's faith, just look at Michael Corleone.  I'm sure we all want Obama to have a church while serving America, but we don't need to condemn him over it.

I pray despite all the good & bad decisions Obama makes as President he is able to keep his belief in Jesus strong and walk the narrow path of truth.  

PS - Every president since James Madison has attended a service at St. Johns Episcopal, where pew 54 is designated as "The President's Pew."

That's Job as in the Bible's Job, not job.

ESPN published a phenomenal article about Tony Dungy, the former Indianapolis Colts head coach.

Tony Dungy is a lifelong Christian and a shining role model for living the Christian life.  He has a heart for prison ministry and grace.  The article goes on and on about how many athletes and people he's touched during his tenure in football.  It's amazing what Tony has done.

Most people know the Michael Vick story and how nobody wanted to touch him with a ten foot pole.  But at the urging of Tony's wife he applied the parables, stories and proverbs in the Bible to give Vick the second chance to walk a different path.

What befuddles most people about Tony is the stereotypes he shatters forcing them to evaluate truth.  Here's a snippet:

"In the world of 21st-century sports, Dungy cuts a unique figure. He is as close to power as any individual in the game. He is being courted by the Seattle Seahawks for a key front-office position, and is on the short list of virtually every club with a major job opening. Goodell works with him in connecting to the players. Dungy is the man in the boardroom, a valuable place to be.

Yet he connects to what could be described as the antithesis of power -- young African-American men, many at-risk, many in professional sports. He is rooted in the church, and thus, so are his politics. Consistent with his Christianity, he has publicly supported marriage as being defined only as a bond between a man and a woman, but he has contributed to the Indiana Democratic Party. His success and standing have created immense financial opportunities. He is in position, connected and popular, to become both an insider and a brand. As of yet, Dungy has largely shunned the endorsement route of some of his peers, appearing only in a Motorola advertisement when he was coaching."

Clearly the author seems shocked a well educated, Christian black man can be powerful, normal and want to help thugs.  I think Tony's able to bridge the gap because he sees thugs as normal people struggling with life, not heinous criminals. 

He's not enamored with himself, money or the trappings of success; he's in love with God.  Just like Job of the Bible, Tony has been blessed with monumental success and a loving family.  And just like Job he's had to endure unimaginable hardships, the burying of his son five years ago.

I think it's important not to idolize anyone, but Tony Dungy is one of the best public Christian role models any of us could hope for.  Go Tony.