my christmas prayer

Do you remember me
I sat upon your knee
I wrote to you with childhood fantasies
Well, I'm all grown up now
Can you still help somehow
I'm not a child but my heart still can dream

So here's my lifelong wish
My grown-up Christmas list
Not for myself but for a world in need

No more lives torn apart
That wars would never start
And time would heal all hearts
Every man would have a friend
That right would always win
And love would never end
This is my grown-up Christmas list

What is this illusion called the innocence of youth
Maybe only in their blind belief can we ever find the truth

(There'd be)
No more lives torn apart
And wars would never start
And time would heal all hearts
Every man would have a friend
And right would always win
And love would never end

This is my grown-up Christmas list
This is my only lifelong wish
This is my grown-up Christmas list

(Produced: David Foster, Vocal: Natalie Cole)

my sweetheart blogged!

emergence

buzz word? or legitimate term?

those of us rethinking church use this term a lot - but get tired when it gets bandied about too much. many others wish to join the conversation - but feel they still don't understand the idea of emergence. others use emergence as a brand name - like it's the new hipper "blended worship". some, who even claim to be spokespersons for the emerging church, think they understand that term - but clearly don't.

my thesis has continued to be that emergence is a fully accurate notion to describe the current church phenomena - but we have already begun repeating the Christian Ghetto that Brian Mclaren warned us we were living in before - by thinking of emergence only in terms of a church movement. when we do this - we isolate ourselves - and we loose the richness of a larger community or body of ideas that we can draw from.

the most obvious example is this (emerging church) wikipedia link. we should simply be part of this (emergence) entry, or at the very least link from the emergence entry to the emerging church entry the way Postmodern does to (the four entries under Postmodern Theology such as) Postmodern Christianity! but i digress...

what i really want to do is encourage folk who are interested in understanding emergence (which is not, in any way, a prerequisite for doing / being involved in church - or even emerging church) - to look at emergence from a multi-disciplinary approach. if we're going to embrace this idea, and i think we should, i'd like to see us to bridge back into the richness of this term -

and this is so doable - emergence is everywhere - and i bet is exists in nearly every discipline.

this flickr group is one of those paths.

peace on earth

... about a month back we were having a discussion in our pub about, in my characterization, "fear of the unknown" - or in the words of my fellow publican, "I think the root enemy here is ignorance. This author is showing off his ignorance and most unfortunately many people believe him without thinking it through. Without asking any questions. That's my huge beef with most of this crap is the unquestioning acceptance of prejudice."

"Unquestioning acceptance of prejudice." is kind of where we settled...

but that's a pretty scary place...

particularly when the unknown is people dealing with people - because the "fight or flight" animal instinct can start to take over - and when you feel you're backed into a corner, the normal belief system someone may adhere to goes right out the window in favor of survival.

so i guess what I would suggest, is we ought to be intentionally disarming such unquestioning, such acceptance, and such prejudice... and to do so is a moral imperative, and gift to the world.

i've never had better words for why i think world peace could be achieved by, each country inviting the other over for dinner - but such has been my belief for a long time now.

and i'm wondering what are some other ideas to disarm such unquestioning, such acceptance, and such prejudice, wherever the exist?