Dimly Lit

(Edited 3/3/05: Not writinng much cause I don’t know how to spell writinnnnng…)

Obviously, I haven’t written much lately. There are I think several reasons for this - busyness at work (where I have a T1 connection and a big monitor which makes anything online so much nicer!), stress, and that little bit of ADD that makes it hard for me to hold one thing still in my head long enough to actually write anything worthwhile. I suppose blogging is the ultimate ADD playground since it is almost perfectly set up for short thought bursts rather than long, sustained discourse, but then that leads me down yet another tangent and sort of proves the point about my not being able to hold to one thought or idea for a long period of time.

Anyway, all that to say that I’m still here and still planning on writing/commenting as time and attention span allows. In the meantime, here are a few things that are worth checking out, or that I plan to post on sometime in the near future.

1. It looks like there is a good discussion starting up from John Marstall’s article, “A Word Wrapped in Light” over at Firewheel Design. The response so far is here from Josh Sowen. John responded to Josh’s critique here. Both of these guys are very bright, engaging and knowledgable about the topic. And both have a stake in the discussion as they are both designers.

2. Another good discussion going on over at Touchstone Magazine’s Mere Comments on film reviews, pop-culture, and mass entertainment. To follow the discussion start here, then go here, then here, here, here, here, here, and finally here.
3. What do you know - Jonathon Edwards has a blog - sort of…
4. March Madness is just around the corner.
5. Spring training as started and the Cardinals officially have a closer

Spring training is under way down in Jupiter, Florida. Now Cardinal nation can at least begin to get a look at how the new lineup is going to look.

First update - Mike Lincoln apparently looks good following his Tommy John surgery last July.

This looks like it may have some potential.

Let’s see, we’ve known for a while that a moderate amount of wine can reduce heart disease, then we found out recently that wine, beer, or spirits every day can help prevent memory loss, and now it looks like may help prevent liver cancer. I’m getting healthier all the time! Next thing you know we’ll find out that donuts actually help build muscle tissue or prevent impotence.

I haven’t seen either of these films, but I have to agree with The Revealer that this is a very good example of a Christian criticism of film.

I posted this on the Old Orchard blog as well, but I’m going to try to spend a little more time on it here.

First I will acknowledge my own cynicism in that I am nearly always a little suspicious when I read about something that is happening within the church described as:

“a new evangelical awakening” happening primarily among young men and women. It’s influenced and guided by the “young in spirit” who sense the need for an evangelical revival.

I’m afraid I suspect new marketing opportunities aimed at whatever signifies this particular new awakening. I know, it is very cynical of me and I hope that I am wrong this time, because what is described in the article linked to above, is something that I believe is needed and has been bubbling just under the radar for at least a decade.

In the early nineties, when I was a college student, I began to hear about several evangelicals who were converting to Catholocism, or Orthodoxy in an effort to get away from the pop-culture mentality of the evangelical mainstream. At about the same time a rash of books was being published critiquing the evangelical church from within: Books by Michael Horton, J.I. Packer, Mark Noll, David Wells, D.A. Carson and others. Something was beginning to happen. These theologians all seemed to be looking at the state of the evangelical church, and wondering about its very survival. I think it was, to some degree, these voices that began turning the tide so that a decade later there is talk of an emerging church.

To me it seems that there was a sub-culture of people who wanted to be evangelical, but were frustrated by the “ahistorical, consumer-friendly, market-driven and therapeutic” christianity that surrounded them. Books like Made in America: The Shaping of Modern American Evangelicalism, and The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind validated these frustrations and encouraged a thoughtful re-evaluation of what the church should look like in late 20th and early 21st century America.

The fruit of this, as DeGroat puts it is:

The new, emerging church (2000-) led by the younger evangelicals involves a re-commitment to the depth and substance of historic Christianity, without the rigid fundamentalism or mindless liberalism that characterized much of the church in the twentieth century. Within these churches one is apt to see a focus on the Trinity and God’s transcendence (“it’s not about me”), a fondness of mystery (“don’t pretend you have all the answers”), a desire for honesty (“don’t make church a show”), space for lament (“I need to know God hears my cries”), the language of story (“don’t give me more principles…show me how I fit into God’s story”), and a craving for community (“size isn’t proof of God’s presence; love is”).

The table following this quote in the article is very interesting.

Maybe I’m a little biased, but I think that much of what is described in this article has been taking place at Old Orchard Church in varying degrees for 25 years and I truly hope this spreads and churches take up this cry - but this is also where my cynical nature rises up. I appreciated the cautious tone set near the end of the article when it is made clear that “the danger of a new form of pragmatism lurks behind every movement that aspires to be relevant.” The danger, I think lies in the temptation to try and create a “new movement” that speaks to those who desire a more liturgical, authentic church. I truly hope that we do see a return to the reformation principles and away from soli personal gratification (sorry no latin).

I suppose rather than cynical, I am encouraged, but cautious. Skeptical of new movements, but hopeful that this is a very old movement reinvigorated.

When I started this up in January I was posting several times a day about nothing and everything. The result has been what I had hoped for, that I would begin to hae a desire to write better, longer, more thoughtful pieces and to begin to see my focus become more refined. This has begun to happen, but the result has been that I have been posting less and reading more.

As the look of the site continues to evolve and change, I believe the content will evolve and change as well. I plan to still post on a variety of topics, but I’m going to begin to try to reign in my internet ADD and instead of bouncing from site to site just to try to keep up with all of the goings on in this world, I’ll try to be a bit more focused and write about the things that truly interest me.

What that means on a practical level, I don’t really know yet. We’ll see what happens…

7 days til ptichers and catchers report - Spring is on the way!

I thought I’d try my hand at modifying the site template. I walked through a CSS tutorial and pretty much borrowed the entire look from there. I do like the look though, and now that I am fairly confident in modifying it I will likely make more changes in the future.

John Marstall has a thought provoking article posted at Firewheel Design discussing ideographic and logographic systems communication. I feel a little like Winnie the Pooh with my hands to my head saying “think, think, think…”