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if you know me you know I’m a pretty huge Vikings fan.
Well the Vikings are about to play in the NFC championship game, 1 game from the superbowl!
last time the Vikings made it this far I was a freshman in college. I remember it vividly, our kicker, who hadn’t missed a kick in 2 seasons missed a kick and we lost to the falcons. my friends thought it would be funny to run down the hall and taunt me (I was watching the game by myself // intense) well that was a bad idea, as they opened my dorm room door I turned and threw a Vikings Alarm clock helmet at them, as it shattered agaist the wall, quiet fell upon the dorm room and I was left alone for the next week.
we are hoping for a different ending this time around!
GO VIKINGS!!!
So, 2009 was a really slow year… in just about every way. I mean it ended strong (click here) but over all, pretty slow.
One of the ways i quantify this is via my reading list.
Most years i read a good list of books, or at least a good list of half read books and a few fully ready books. My goal in 09′ was to read 12 book, well to finish 12 books (one per month).
I DIDN’T SUCCEED.
(like i said, slow year)
In 09′ i read 7 books and 2 of them hardly even count.
:: My List ::
#1. The Holy Longing : the search for A Christian Spirituality
Ronald Rolheiser
#2. Life Together : The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#3. Flickering Pixels : How Technology Effects your Faith
Shane Hipps
#4. Take Your Best Shot : Do Something Bigger Than Yourself
Austin Gutwein
#5. Where the Wild Things Are
Marurice Sendak
#6. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
Don Miller
#7. My Secret: A PostSecret Book
Frank Warren
All these books were pretty good. I would note The Holy Longing and Million Miles, those 2 are must reads. And if your in youth ministry you MUST READ My Secret. There are few Post Secret books but this one focuses on youth and young adults. Startling, eye opening, and a book that evokes compassion for sure!
GO READ!
I also listened to a handful of books
(according to Brad Goode these books count :: i don’t think so)
#1 #2. #3. Chronicles of Narnia
C.S. Lewis
#4. Generous Orthodoxy
Brian McLaren
#5. Tribes
Seth Godin
SO… 2010 will be a better year. i’m already about through 1 book, (easy read and i had a 4 hour plane ride.)
There were also about a dozen half read books in 2009, i will read those early in 2010, start the year off right!
So yea, let’s get rolling, i mean reading!
Peace
Erik
Tonight I find myself sitting on my couch with my boy sleeping on my lap in a way that allows me to surf the net, read some blogs and articles and also write this little ditty. I hope he can’t see the computer screen though, I want to save his brain from the flickering mosaic of pixels this computer is generating that can potentially form and possibly misshape his little baby synapses. But that’s another blog… (thanks shane hipps)
As i read blogs and other Christian online publications I just realize how cheesy and cliché so much of the Christian culture and literature can be. But maybe that’s not all bad, right? Cliché doesn’t mean untrue, or unbiblical, heretical, or anything else that I would want to avoid as a follower of Jesus. I guess some times cliché is just saying what’s always been said in a way that it has always been said. Here’s the definition;
Dictionary.com :: Cliché
A trite, stereotyped expression; a sentence or phrase, usually expressing a popular or common thought or idea, that has lost originality, ingenuity, and impact by long overuse.
I think this definition hits at the reason why I don’t resonate with so much of Christian culture (which I would say is VERY cliché). This definition reminds me why I don’t want to be just another cliché spewing Christian.
Cliché is defined by being the unoriginal, by lacking ingenuity… that’s fine. It’s hard be “original” when your following a 2000 year old rabbi and a God who’s been around since before their was a before. Maybe original is overrated. But cliché is also defined by lacking impact. And in my experience and understanding, God is far from cliché in even the slightest of ways. God’s shadow has an impact! His presence, even in the most indirect ways, impacts everything it draws nears to, impacts in such a destructive way that nothing is the same when it has experienced the presence of God.
So yea, I don’t want to be cliché. And if impact is the measuring stick, I would say most of American Christian culture is extremely cliché. It has little too no impact on our culture and on our world.
So how do we as Jesus followers and proclaimers of the Gospel communicate a message that is thousands of years old in ways that impact people today?
NOT a new question, I realize that.
And most of times when people try being “relevant” they fail miserably and become either cheesy or just cliché. It seems this is a huge catch-22, right.
I don’t really have any answers but I think a lot of solution to avoid being just another Christian cliché lies in living. Living in honest, real, and engaged ways with culture and people.
We also might want to :: Avoiding the formula and engage our story (personal and communal). Avoiding the “right” answers and engage a fresh expression of our divine interaction.
I don’t know…
How do you avoid being cliché? How do you avoid lacking impact and instead radically following Jesus and impact your world with gospel?
DO ANSWER…
Grace and peace
Erik
Well i love me some football! And i really love me some fantasy football but admittedly i don’t often do well. I have set up a league the last 3 years and this was the first year that i made it to the league super bowl, and I would like to announce, I WON! I am the 2009 fantasy super bowl champion!!! In the championship game I beat Thomas McKenzie (convincingly i might add) who had named him team, “Nashville Throne of Blood” (hilarious).
This was my year!
I also played in 2 other leagues. I did ok in one and in the other, a salary camp league, I also won it all. And it wasn’t even close. I actually was in the top 2% of all the people world to play in this ESPN league. Pretty stoked about that.
So yea, it was a successful fantasy year. I look forward to the next!
BUT before that, we have the Minnesota Vikings.
For those of you who don’t know, I’m a huge Vikings fan.
THIS COULD BE THE YEAR!!!
GO Farve! GO VIKES!!!
Well I love doing top 5 lists in honor of my Number One all time favorite movie. So below is my top 5 albums of 09. I think most of these albums even came out in 09 but I at least started listening to them all in 09. And they are kinda in order but it’s REALLY hard to list them and order them and to even pick a top 5, so there are also some honorable mentions below.
#1. Switchfoot :: Hello Huricane 
#2. Urban Rescue :: Urban Rescue
#3. Kings of Leon :: Only By The Night
#4. Derek Webb :: Stockholm Syndrome
#5. Need to Breath :: The Outsiders
John Mayer :: Battle Studies | Future of Forestry :: Travel II | The Civil Wars :: Live at Eddies Attic | William Fitzsimmons :: Live from the Downtown Studios | Paper Route :: Absence | Bon Iver :: Blood Bank | Fiction Family :: Fiction Family
So that’s my list. What’s yours? I would love to hear.
Here are the top 5 albums [ of the decade ] according to Paste Magazine.
I’m gonna think about this a bit, I might try and post my own top 5 of the decade. But that is a pretty hard task. I’ll give it a shot one of these Monday’s soon.
PASTE
#1. Sufjan Stevens :: Illinois
#2. Wilco :: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
#3. Arcade Fire :: Funeral
#4. Radio Head :: Kid A
#5. Bright Eyes :: I’m Wide Awake, It’s Mornin
I’ve seen a lot of tweets and blogs about the New Year and the new decade. 2010 : twenty ten : or just TEN. I think we are all excited!
For me there are 2 things ::
I love starts / re:starts and firsts.
They offer a fresh start, a clean slate and times of reflection. Things I often need!
And second, God had given me a fresh perspective on this time of year. A perspective that has really challenged me and grown me. I preached a message last year about resolutions. The new perspective is that maybe resolutions are a list of things we are wanting freedom from. God’s people have a reputation for needing to be freed, for needing to be saved from our captivity. I think most of a resolution we make reflect the things or issues we want to be freed from.
When we want to stop smoking we are hoping to be freed from addiction. When we want to lose wait or get fit we are wanting to be freed from our laziness and our lack of discipline. When we are wanting to get out of debt we are trying to be freed from the chains of money, greed and possessions. I can’t think of a resolution that is made that doesn’t reflect a type of freedom being desired!
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.”
:: Galatians 5:1
Freedom is a pretty huge theme for the Christian. And the New Year is a perfect time to reflect on the ways Jesus wishes you to be freed, to live in his freedom.
I have also ran across a ton of great New Years blog posts.
Here are a few ::
Brad Goode
Tim Keel
Jedidiah | Kevin Murray
Ryan Goode
Pete Wilson
I found a few more but these were some good ones!
If you have run across any yourself let me know, i would love to read them.
Wish your a great 10!
Grace and peace
Erik