Reflecting on Q Conference – Session 2 – Post 3

Environmentalist, Bill McKibben – “More vs. Better”

He wrote the book The End of Nature which is considered an important contribution in this discussion and now considered ahead of its time. He has a new book Deep Economy is out now – took time and lived off the fruit of local farm.

His first argument was from science:

- “How can we have grown large enough as a species to affect the planet?”

- “Science went to work on that issue.”

- We dramatically underestimated the pace of our growth

- The earth is more finely balanced then we thought …

- There were 275 parts/million of CO2 in atmosphere before the Industrial Revolution.

- We now have 385 parts/million of CO2 in atmosphere after the IR.  And we need to get it down to 350 parts/million of CO2 immediately. He said James Hansen, “greatest climatologist in the world”, endorsed this.

In his second point entitled, “Argument from Hebrew Bible”, he said:

-  “4% of world population (us) produces 25% of CO2 …

- “We are not the good samaritan, we’re not even the levite.  We’re the suv driver that backs up to run over the pediastrian.”

            - “We are not loving our neighbors, we are drowning our neighbors” - (what a line).

He endorsed the Evangelical Climate Document and urged everyone to check out www.350.org which is an effort to build first global grassroots, open sourced plan to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere.  It’s a great site, they talk about the Q Conference and there’s a ton of stats and other necessary info. Also, 350 calls for a rise of artists, all types of speakers, and peaceful protests.

When I say he “pleaded”, I don’t want to make him out to sound whiney.  He wasn’t at all.  I would tell you he was more angry.  I was happy to see Q have him.

This is something I need to work on.  I have been and have been making some progress but I survey my lifestyle and am convicted.  I’ll probably blog more about this later but I wanted to post something today and wanted to get these names and sites out.

Q Conference Post 2 – Jon Tyson session

The first speaker of the Q Conference was church planter, Jon Tyson.  Born and raised in Australia, he was the young adult pastor in a mega-church in Orlando and a couple of years ago started Origins Church in Manhattan. 

I’ve met Jon a couple of times (even brought my youth group to see him, and yeah, I know, our kids are so lucky, I mean blessed, to have a guy like me taking them to a guy like Jon.)  and really appreciate his humility.  He speaks with a lot of wisdom and brings great ideas and insights to his audience whether it be on Sunday mornings or to a group of fellow leaders at a gathering like this.

Here are a couple things he said that got me thinking:

“We have incredible fruit in our churches on an individual level but there is little cultural fruit”

-       So true.  The success of our churches have been on that individual level.  We all know people who have radically changed their lives through the power of the Gospel and through the discipleship and encouragement of their local church.  What we haven’t heard nearly as much are the stories of churches that have had similar impacts on their communities.

-       Thus the long-term causality has been the minimal effect the church has had on the culture.  We’ve retreated from it, been told it was evil or worldly.  For a long time, the church was only a refuge and not an agent of transformation and now many of them are becoming monuments.

“There needs to be a return of the city

                        Return where cultures are created.

                        We have a mandate – we’ve been commissioned … (gospel)

                        Accept our responsibility – Christ did this like spiritual acupuncture, he took those moments                         and points …           

                       Engage the world …“

-       Jon and later fellow NYC pastor Tim Keller, called for a return to the “city”.  This was more then an anti-suburban cheer but was more of a vision-casting of the hope and need of a city.  I’ve always loved many parts the city, (and I enjoy certain parts of the burbs too.  Who knows what is in store for us? But back to Tyson and Keller.) but the idea was to be a part of the city.  To see it for it’s potential, to see it’s not only worth saving, but worth loving.  They didn’t say this, but all the emphasis that we put on the burbs, maybe we can be as faithful in the city (or attempt to be). 

-       We read things like this and we react because the cities do not have the best public schools, have more crime, polluted, crowded and expensive.  But we all know that at the end of the day, generally speaking, we live where we want to live.  We don’t want to live in the city.  I found myself convicted on this yet again.

-       Cultures are created in the city.  That line alone is a lot to think about.

 

 

He called for the need to create “a holistic theology relevant to our time”.

- Not sure I can put these thoughts into words yet.  I find myself nodding ‘amen’ but that’s all I got so far.  Yes, things need to change.

Reflecting on the Q Conference

I was fortunate enough to attend the Q Conference in NYC put on by Gabe Lyons’ (co-author of UnChristian) Ferni Project.  Truth be told, I was really impressed.  The theme was Culture.Future.Church.Gospel.

Seemed very balanced to me.  Chuck Colson and Jim Wallis were both speakers, need I say more?  Some of the speakers were Tim Keller, Andy Crouch (who was friggin awesome), Os Guiness, Shane Hipps (the second coolest guy named Shane) and a bunch of others.

Sitting in round tables in Gotham Hall in Herald Square (in between Time Square and Madison Square Garden), they put a lot of thought into this.  For instance, each speaker was only given 18 minutes to give one big point.  There was a countdown clock left of the speaker.  No joke.  It helped keep everyone’s attention.  

There were “3 Minute” missional shorts to create awareness of projects, films, and causes.  There were talk-backs with the speakers, an AIDS Care assembly kit (where you actually pack the kit with supplies) and some music like The Fray who played some old and new tunes. 

Gabe Lyons is my latest hero.  (Yeah, he’s a fellow Liberty grad.  We’re not all lame you know).  I hope to highlight some of the speakers’ points as I bring a blog post once each month.  So, yeah, maybe you should just register for next year.  It will be in Austin next year April 27-29. Here is the link.

 

Listen to Derek Webb … on his podcast

 I’ve been trying to catch up with the Derek Webb podcast lately.  Really appreciating it.  He’s been doing it for a while.  If you are one who enjoys his music, most likely you’ll enjoy the podcast as well.   

In the third podcast, he is summarizing good art and the Christian involvement. He insists that it’s his (like all artists) job to produce bold and truthful art.  Derek also says that too many Christian artists want to be popular and sell a lot of cds as opposed to making great art.   We have all heard that a million times before but what I appreciate about it is that it’s

coming from someone who actually is selling records.  Someone who has enjoyed the royalty checks from the Christian music industry and someone who turned his back on it.

 He also mentions his appreciate for Dylan and Wilco – can’t wrong with that.  

Check him out here.

Empty Legacy – MTV Turns 25 by Chuck Colson

Empty Legacy
MTV Turns 25

August 28, 2006

MTV turned 25 this month—but with uncharacteristic modesty, the cable channel isn’t doing much celebrating. It’s been left mostly to the news media to honor MTV’s many accomplishments.

“Without MTV,” the Associated Press points out, “you might not have reality television. Commercials wouldn’t have vertigo-inducing quick cuts. Musicians wouldn’t need to look like models to survive. Kelly Osbourne [of the reality show The Osbournes] wouldn’t have gotten near a recording studio. And only seamstresses would know about wardrobe malfunctions.”

If that were my legacy, I’m not sure I’d want to call attention to it either. But that’s not really the reason MTV is playing down its anniversary. As the Associated Press says, “When your average viewer is 20 years old . . . perhaps it’s wise not to mention you’re 25. MTV wants to be the perpetual adolescent.” The Washington Post puts it more succinctly: “At MTV, it is always about the now.”

Perpetual adolescence and living only for the moment are just a couple of the twisted values that MTV has foisted upon us over the past twenty-five years. There’s also exhibitionism, voyeurism, promiscuity, greed, and a host of other vices. Through its style as well as its content, MTV has done all it can to promote the cheap, the vulgar, and the flashy over the good, the true, and the beautiful.

I’m not saying that MTV has added anything to the culture that wasn’t already present. All these elements have always been part of sinful human nature. Where MTV distinguished itself was in glorifying these things—moreover, glorifying them for a young audience.

The Art of Being David Bazan

An interview with the always controversial Pedro the Lion frontman.

Pat Robertson on Global Warming

“And it is getting hotter, and the ice caps are melting, and there is a buildup of carbon dioxide in the air. And I think we really need to address the burning of fossil fuels. If we are contributing to the destruction of this planet, we need to do something about it.”

- Pat Robertson, admitting on his television show, The 700 Club, that recent heat waves have convinced him of the reality of global warming.

The rumor (that I just started) is that Robertson will make a cameo in Al Gore’s upcoming sequel, “False Actualities”.

Teens Coping With Unwanted Pregnancies Dr. Prisci…

Teens Coping With Unwanted Pregnancies

Dr. Priscilla Coleman, a research psychologist at Bowling Green State University, led a study which found that adolescent girls who have an abortion are five times more likely to seek help for psychological and emotional problems than those who keep their baby, reports LifeNews.com.

A 2004 survey found that 64 percent of American women reported that they felt pressured into abortion. “When women feel forced into abortion by others or by life circumstances, negative post-abortion outcomes become more common,” Coleman wrote. “Adolescents are generally much less prepared to assume the responsibility of parenthood and are logically the recipients of pressure to abort.”

Coleman feels that the scientific evidence is strong and compelling that abortion poses more risks to women than giving birth.