Happy Reformation Day!
October 31st, 2008 | 
October 31 marks the date in 1517 that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to a church door in Wittenburg, Germany in protest of several practices of the Catholic church.
This event sparked what is now known as the Protestant Reformation, and is why we celebrate today as Reformation Day.
So, I thought I’d post a few things from around the web to aid in your celebration of that pivotal day in Christian (and world) history.
Homebrewed Christianity has a Reformation Day Podcast which featured Craig Atwood telling Luther’s story. You can also subscribe to the Homebrewed Christianity podcast on iTunes.
If you happen to be good at math, you’ll realize that 2017 will be the 500th anniversary of the original Reformation Day. Reformation 500 is currently blogging all of the “anniversaries” leading up to it, including the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s bachelor degree.
Halloween: More Than a Time of Darkness and Partying reminds us that “Halloween is short for All Hallow’s Eve and marks the night before All Saints’ Day. Christians, in an effort to counter pagan rituals to death and evil spirits, created an alternative tradition – All Hallow’s Day on Nov. 1.” A good, succinct article about Halloween/All Hallow’s Eve.
And, of course, no Reformation Day would be complete without some sort of Martin Luther rap. You can watch/listen to “95 Theses” below (It’s funnier if you’ve heard Jay-Z’s “99 Problems”, but still funny even if you haven’t). [ht: Blake]
- Bruce Reyes-Chow is in cahoots with the folks at Apple and their new Worship Market Team. “So here is the deal. Apple has decided that the church worship market might be a great place for Apple’s interface to well… interface. Everything from podcasting to presentation to marketing to church management, they are looking at ways that Apple can be part of the church/worship experience. It sounds like this is mostly applications at this point with some hardware integration.” Sounds awesome. And he’s taking suggestions to bring to Apple, so leave a comment if you have some ideas. 10/27/2008
The Monday brief: Secret Siblings edition
Highlight of the week: The Reclaiming Paul conference rocked my world.
Book(s) I’m reading: I’m inbetween books now… not sure what to read next. I’ll probably read Coffeehouse Theology: Reflecting on God in Everyday Life, but I’ve heard good things about The White Tiger (one Amazon-ian titled their review “A Voice Like Dave Eggers”. Uh.. Yes, please.), and I haven’t read any fiction for a while.
Music I’m digging: Mike Crawford and his Secret Siblings present Songs from Jacob’s Well, Volumes I & II: Even the Darkness Will Not Be Dark To You.
Something(s) that blew my mind: Mike Crawford and his Secret Siblings present Songs from Jacob’s Well, Volumes I & II: Even the Darkness Will Not Be Dark To You.
Ministry update: We’re starting a morning devotional/breakfast gathering at Panera for the high school students. I’m am the diametric opposite of a morning person, so it’s pretty much the dumbest idea I’ve ever had. It’s called Arista, from the Greek word for “to eat breakfast”. Here’s a sneek peek at the promotional poster. It doesn’t start for a few weeks, so until then I’ll make sure to enjoy sleeping in on Thursday mornings.
Seminary/ordination update: Same as last week. Next up: a 45 — 60 minute phone interview with someone in admissions; date and time to be determined.
Looking forward to: I’m going to see Copeland in Minneapolis this Friday evening with Brandon Mick. As I mentioned last week, Copeland is one of the few bands I love that I’ve yet to see live.
That’s it for the Monday brief. Feel free to leave a comment, and if you’re feeling extra frisky, check out the Monday brief archives.
Reclaiming Paul, days two and three
I dug the list format of the day one post, so I’m going to do it again here.
1) The first workshop I went to yesterday was with John Franke (pictured above), in which he explained the basic themes of his forthcoming book Manifold Witness: The Plurality of Truth. I actually recorded the whole thing using my phone, but I can’t get the audio from the phone to my computer (yet). I took lots of notes, though. If you’d like them let me know. For now, I’ll just post this juicy quote:
Affirming plurality [of truth] is not an excuse for “anything goes.” There are still things that are wrong. Plurality doesn’t say everything goes, but in the framework of what “goes”, we should expect plurality — so that the body of Christ will fill the earth.
2) During a break I had a great conversation with Mike Crawford about his album, songwriting process, etc. He even gave me a tour of the sound studio in the basement of Jacob’s Well. Just as a teaser, I think his album is one of the best worship albums in the past 5 years, if not the best. Tim Keel, the pastor of Jacob’s Well, has a great writeup about the album here. Anyway, I’ll be reconnecting with Mike soon for an interview on this blog, so stay tuned.
3) The second workshop I attended yesterday was with Tim Keel, author of Intuitive Leadership: Embracing a Paradigm of Narrative, Metaphor, and Chaos. He’s a smart dude, and provided a few really good metaphors to aid in thinking about the state and structure of the church and its leaders.
4) Erik and I had an extended dinner at Chili’s, where we engaged in a potentially life-altering conversation. Afterward we met up with Danielle Shroyer and some other folks at Harry’s Country Club.
5) This morning, Kathy Grieb referenced a suh-weet poem that many people found really helpful when thinking about our theologies.
6) I ate lunch today with Troy Bronsink, Mike Stavlund, and others at Jack Stack BBQ. Good food and good people. It’s impossible to overstate the greatness of the conversations I had with these and other people over the course of the last three days.
7) After publishing this post, I’m heading back to Des Moines. If I had to sum up my experience during the last three days in two words: So good.
Reclaiming Paul, day one
It’s late and I’m pretty tired, so I’m gonna do this post as a list.
1) As I write this, I’m listening to Mike Crawford and his Secret Siblings present Songs from Jacob’s Well, Volumes I & II: Even the Darkness Will Not Be Dark To You. I’m two songs in and my mind is blown. Mike is the Worship/Arts Pastor at Jacob’s Well, and I hope to connect with him tomorrow or Friday.
2) I was the chauffeur for Tim Ghali and Daniel Kirk this evening. Besides being a ridiculously high-volume Twitter user (he pretty much posted the opening session word-for-word; an impressive feat), Daniel is the first Ph.D. to ever ride shotgun in my car.
3) I live-streamed the audio from the first session here, and I’ll try to do it for other general sessions (check the schedule) as long as my laptop battery holds up — there are very, very few outlets in the Jacob’s Well sanctuary.
4) Apparently Tony Jones missed the memo. You can follow the whole Reclaiming Paul conversation that’s happening on Twitter here.
5) Erik and I hung out with Don Heatley tonight. He’s a super cool dude. A while back I posted a link to this post Don wrote on his blog.
6) Steve Knight has a good roundup Reclaiming Paul-oriented online happenings on the Emergent Village blog.
7) Money quote of the day:
“The impending failure of Protestant mainline denominations is their desire to create bureaucratic superstructures where people discuss theological issues in large convention centers and take votes on what we believe.” – Tony Jones
8) That is all. For now.
The Monday brief
Highlight of the week: I’m gonna go with people in general. I had a great lunch with a student on Wednesday, had a surprisingly good time at a cross country meet on Thursday, met Brandon Barker for lunch at Taco Bell on Friday, and ran into a long-lost friend on Friday night. I love people.
Book(s) I’m reading: I read Phyllis Tickle’s The Great Emergence this weekend. Awesome. I’ll be writing up a blog post for it soon-ish. And as always, I’m still working on Tom Friedman’s Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution — and How It Can Renew America for the nerd book club.
Music I’m digging: Copeland, You Are My Sunshine (link opens in iTunes). Currently, Copeland is my #4 most played artist of all time (well, all-last.fm time), and of the top 8, only Copeland and Coldplay are artists I haven’t seen live. That will be remedied if I can make it up to Minneapolis to see them on the 31st.
Something(s) that blew my mind: My alma mater, Luther College, was one of only twelve U.S. colleges selected to collaborate “in a search for breakthroughs in the fight against climate change”. Take that, Wartburg.
Ministry update: I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed, but LOTS of good stuff is happening at St. Mark. Also, I love ambiguity.
Seminary/ordination update: Next up: 45 — 60 minute phone interview with someone in admissions; date and time to be determined.
Looking forward to: Reclaiming Paul.
That’s it for the Monday brief. Feel free to leave a comment, and if you’re feeling extra frisky, check out the Monday brief archives.
- Why Bill Maher Gets a “C” in My Introduction to Religion Class. “In other words, Religulous fails to understand the actual context and realities in which religious people live. This is why the film is actually not a documentary; a documentary at least purports to get at the realities of its subjects. Maher shows himself ultimately to verge on the inhuman in his inability to understand people.” As a side note, ReligionDispatches is quickly climbing the ranks of my favorite religious websites/blogs. 10/18/2008
- 20 Ways to Smoke Cigars to the Glory of God. “18. Pick a spot in your Bible. Light your cigar. Start reading and don’t stop until you’re smoking a nub. Beats using an hourglass or timer.” 10/18/2008
- A couple of recent articles about Christian persecution: Hindu Threat to Christians: Convert or Flee and Hanged for being a Christian in Iran. We’ll be talking (and praying) about this in Eikon this week. 10/14/2008
The Monday brief: Flub A Dub Chub edition
Highlight of the week: I spent Thursday through Saturday in Chicago with a good friend of mine. We visited The Bean at Millennium Park, ate Chicago dogs at Flub A Dub Chub, saw Hiromi rock out at the Jazz Showcase, did some shopping, went to a movie, and so on. It was good people and a great time.
Book(s) I’m reading: I’ll be finishing up Reading Paul by Michael Gorman this week (in preparation for the Reclaiming Paul conference). Still working on Tom Friedman’s Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution — and How It Can Renew America (it’s for a book club, so it will take a while…).
Music I’m digging: Still loving William Fitzsimmons’ The Sparrow and the Crow (link opens in iTunes). Seriously; Get it. Now.
Something(s) that blew my mind: This parable, called “No Conviction” by Pete Rollins.
Ministry update: This past Sunday in Eikon, we started a new weekly ritual of ending our gatherings with prayer candles. Students can choose to offer a prayer and then light a candle. I wasn’t sure how it would go over, but it ended up being really, really great. Here’s a picture of the candles in a sweet mirrored serving plate thingy we got. Also, we’re about done with our first fundraiser for next summer’s trip, which is nice.
Seminary/ordination update: Again, once I mail my personal essay into Luther Seminary, I’m done with the application. I should get on that.
Looking forward to: Honestly, I’m looking forward to relaxing, reading, and enjoying the cool(er) fall weather this week (after I get all of my work done, of course).
That’s it for the Monday brief. Feel free to leave a comment, and if you’re feeling extra frisky, check out the Monday brief archives.
No feed reader? No problem! Subscribe by email to receive daily updates featuring the freshest content from JakeBouma.com!
