... Americans, you may give your goods to feed the poor. You may give great gifts to charity. You may tower high in philanthropy. But if you have not love it means nothing.

- Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in his speech, "Paul's Letter to American Christians," Nov. 4, 1956.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.

(Mat 23:23 NASB)

Amid Rubble, Seeking a Refuge in Faith

...and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,

(1Pe 1:8 NASB)

Small blessings: Microchurches growing trend in area, nation

Microchurches have been around since New Testament days but have become more popular in the past decade. Though the groups differ widely in their practices, the majority serve less than 100 members, typically don't own the building where they meet, often practice nondenominational evangelism and intentionally offer believers a worship atmosphere unlike that of established churches. Many of the groups wish to remain small and will plant a new congregation if numbers grow too large.

Can Megachurches Bridge the Racial Divide?

In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. famously declared that "11 o'clock Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of the week ... And the Sunday school is still the most segregated school." That largely remains true today.

Signs of life

In these times when there's so much hysteria and heresay, it's encouraging to see there are some more realistic thinkers out there:

"For Rawles, survivalism isn't about preparing for a post-apocalyptic future that may never arrive. It's about reconnecting with other people and embracing the skills needed to cope with the very real world that our grandparents and great-grandparents lived in. Rawles is one of a number of voices, including economist Gary North, who have long argued that the world we've built since then isn't as sturdy as we'd like to think."

And further on:

"Rawles, for example, doesn't hoard food so that he can have a one-year supply for himself. Rather, his goal is to have a three-month supply for four families. "As a Christian, I think it's my responsibility, my biblical responsibility, to provide for both my family and my neighbors to the best of my ability," Rawles says."

But wait, there's more:

"Call it Christian, communitarian or just old-fashioned.

Survival writer Joel Skousen recommends taking old-fashioned steps, like getting to know the neighbors and being ready to provide shelter to friends and family when disaster strikes their region. "Develop a network of like-minded people or relatives," Skousen says."

Fear of the apocalypse is not new, we just have a new villain. Remember 'Twilight Zone' ?:

IMDb: The Twilight Zone - The Shelter (1961)

C. Michael Patton on the state of "The Evangelical Mind"

According to Michael; Bill Hybels, leader of Willow Creek and the seeker-sensitive movement had this to say, among other things:

“We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ’self feeders.’ We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their bible between service, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.”

He makes a valid point, I think. The message at church this morning was the same: we need the 'Word'

Tim Burton and Belief

On Jim Wallis' God's Politics blog, an interview with Tim Burton by Becky Garrison

No Strangers

We hunger to be known and understood. We hunger to be loved. We hunger to be at peace inside our own skins. We hunger not just to be fed these things but, often without realizing it, we hunger to feed others these things because they too are starving for them. We hunger not just to be loved but to love, not just to be forgiven but to forgive, not just to be known and understood for all the good times and bad times that for better or for worse have made us who we are, but to know and understand each other to the same point of seeing that, in the last analysis, we all have the same good times, the same bad times, and that for that very reason there is no such thing in all the world as anyone who is really a stranger.

- Frederick Buechner
from Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons

Observation

You know how when tragedy strikes people put aside their differences and come together—even former enemies? Their present situation is bigger than all of that; makes it all seem so petty and juvenile. Their former differences haven't changed, only the context. Why does tragedy have to be the impetus for the reconciliation?