Exploring Choice and Finding Dignity » media

Jennifer Knapp on Larry King Live

ryanwoods — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 23:34:23 +0000

No matter what you believe concerning homosexuality and being a follower of Christ you have to be impressed by Jennifer Knapp’s dialog with Larry King. You can tell she makes a strong effort to not make large sweeping generalizations about people and groups, its interesting that she practiced abstinence up to her first (and only) female relationship, and in general she just speaks so candidly and honest. So whatever you believe about the matter, Jennifer Knapp should be applauded for being kind, gracious, and open in her nationally televised interview. (go here to see all eight segments of the interview: http://www.jenniferknapp.com/in-the-press/larry-king-live-interview)

Double Rainbow Excellence. What does this mean?

ryanwoods — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:04:05 +0000

I feel like I should be able to make some deep spiritual application about joy or something. But I just can’t do it. I just can’t.
Double rainbow. Double awesome.

Stones and Glass Houses

ryanwoods — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 04:52:11 +0000

I absolutely loved this. The whole video is funny, but if you skip to 2:45 you’ll see the most glorious part about people in glass houses throwing stones.

Jewel Dupes Crowd at Karaoke Bar

ryanwoods — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 03:18:45 +0000

This is awesome

Undercover Karaoke with Jewel from Jewel

The Death of the Cool Church

ryanwoods — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 22:32:02 +0000

If you’re going to start a church there are a lot of dumb things you can do. At Renovatus we’ve done many of them, and I think I’ve written that blog post before. But more and more I am becoming convinced that one of the worst things you can do is aim to be cool. Being a cool church is a terrible idea. It sounds fun, it is most definitely appealing, and it could possibly feel very successful. Local Christian college students will flock to your church if you’re cool enough. Depending on your definition of cool you’ll attract decent crowds from different demographics. We all want to be cool, so we are drawn to join and be a part of a cool church. It’s like being invited as an 8^th grader to hang out with a senior. I’m pretty sure it’s a subplot to every episode of Glee. It’s a part of our broken nature, we want to find acceptance and dignity through those that live and act as if they own it. In other words, we want to hang out with the cool kids. So if you have the choice between two churches on your street, and one of them is filled with cool soul patches, cool artwork, and cool pastors that wear sunglasses inside the building like Bono part of us wants to be involved in that church…because if we’re a part of a cool church then we might be considered cool right? It’s Jr. High all over again.

I don’t claim to be able to identify which churches are trying to be cool churches. It’s not that easy. There are some really cool churches that actually have little vested interest in being cool, it is actually a byproduct of their commitment to mission and justice. (There’s always something appealing and kind of cool about a person or group who is confident and sure about who they are and what they’re about…even if it’s an “uncool” thing like loving poor people) As far as I am aware, there are only two definite ways of knowing if a church is seriously trying to be cool:

You name yourself Cool Church
You make your website www.coolchurch.com (Sorry Abundant Life Church but…well…you chose the url!)

Anyway, the reality is that following Jesus is not cool. Dying to yourself is not cool. Loving the unlovely is not cool. Caring for orphans and widows is not cool. Eating meals with those living on the streets is not cool. Following the child of a teenage mom who grew up as a peasant refuge and claimed to be a king only to be murdered as a criminal is not cool. It just isn’t.

When we try to make church cool, we water down what makes us unique, we begin to lose our voice. The Christ follower is invited to be different. And, no, we’re not different because we listen to Michael W. Smith music, we’re not different because we make T-shirts that play off already made products, we’re not different because we don’t sleep in on Sunday mornings, we’re not different because we don’t say cuss words, we’re not different because we don’t smoke cigarettes. I’m sorry, but I just don’t believe that Jesus died so that we could be free from smoking cigarettes. I’m sorry, I just don’t believe that Jesus died so that we could go to church on Sundays. I’m sorry, I don’t believe that Jesus died so that we could say “darn” instead of “damn”. I’m sorry, I don’t believe that Jesus died so that we could listen to poor quality and less innovative music (Oops, I’ve got an obvious bias here). Those are all fine and dandy things, but they have very little to do with following Jesus! (though I do believe that the Sunday gathering CAN and should break this mold). When we make our aim to be cool we shift our focus from trying to please God to trying to please people. There’s a difference between pleasing people and loving, accepting, and caring for people. God invites us to be radical. Cool invites us to be mainstream. Mustard seed is not cool, it’s noxious, it’s an annoying weed, its invasive, and it’s the metaphor Jesus uses for his kingdom. Nope, joining in Jesus’ kingdom movement means that you’re going to be an awkward and annoyingly passionate lover of people. It means that you’re going to choose the path of sacrifice and generosity over the path of power and prestige. It means you love the unlovely (including yourself) it means you love people regardless of whether they are considered cool or un-cool.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

Pursuit of cool and pursuit of crucifixion don’t really mesh. I wish they did because it’s always been my secret dream to be cool. I want it like the desert wants the rain. I grew up a poor black child …I mean, a preachers kid, a homeschooler, I married the only girl I ever kissed…while my experiences cause me to have a different definition of cool than most, it has always been my dream to be cool. But the more I fall in love with Jesus, the more I get to know him, the more I find myself being freed from the oppression of cool.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Galatians 5:1

A Day in the life of a photo a day

ryanwoods — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 06:13:22 +0000

The last few days I have been intrigued by a few photographers who took a photo of themselves every single day. The most amazing story is of Jamie Livingston who took a polaroid of himself every day for 18 years until he died of cancer in 1997. You’ve got to check out the website that has posted all of his photos: http://photooftheday.hughcrawford.com/ its sad to see him slowly deteriorate in his final year of life.

More recently you can see Noah Kalina take a digital photo of himself everyday starting back in 2000: http://everyday.noahkalina.com/ You can see his youtube video that has gone viral below. This video only chronicles six years (some 2300 days!) worth but is a fascinating watch!

I’m intrigued by one main thing. One, is how valuable and powerful a steady and consistent routine can be. If we commit to doing something every single day it becomes something more than it ever would have been on its own. This fits positive things like saying something you appreciate about your spouse every night at bedtime, to negative things like drinking a couple glasses of wine. You do either of those things every single day for 10 years and something changes. It becomes something more.

Will we commit to anything? If we don’t…haven’t we then already done so?

Garden, Backyard, and Burning my Face Off

ryanwoods — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 06:06:25 +0000

Just some more updates about our garden, our backyard, and a fire that nearly burnt my face off. You can click on the images to enlarge (some facebookers might not be able to view image. If so, go to www.downtown.renovatus.com)

Charlie Korsmo Vs. Ben Savage

ryanwoods — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 01:15:09 +0000

Remember Charlie Korsmo? Does the name ring a bell? Oh, you cannot forget little Jack in the movie Hook can you? How about Dick Tracy or What About Bob? The kid was cute as kittens (yes, I did just type that) and was supposed to win the Oscar for his Hook performance. Instead Gene Hackman won the coveted best supporting actor award for his work in Unforgiven (as a side note, umm, remember Curly from City Slickers? Yeah, he won best supporting actor the year before. Something is wrong with America) But little Charlie has not been seen or heard from since his performance in Can’t Hardly Wait back in ’98. All in all, despite his acting prowess Charlie was only in a total of seven movies.

Ben Savage was known for his work in Boy Meets World. While he garnered significantly more film and television roles he was really only known because of his seven year run as Corey on Boy Meets World and as the real life younger brother of Fred Savage from the Wonder Years. Oh Ben, you and Topanga were the perfect couple and I in no way felt awkward watching your love develop through your post-pubescent years.

Today Ben and Charlie find themselves as bitter enemies. Why? Why, you might ask? Well Charlie graduated from Yale law school and spends his time fighting for the Republican party while Ben graduated from Stanford University and for a period of time was an intern to Arlen Specter the well known Democrat. While they are brothers when it comes to the childhood acting ring, the are bitter enemies when it comes to their adult responsibilities. Ben drinks Sprite while Charlie drinks rootbeer. Charlies likes to ski while Ben snowboards. They have become the bitterest of enemies despite their amazing similarities.

The exciting reality is that it will all come down to a fight, a fight to the death, a fight to celebrity death. My money is on Charlie. While he didn’t really get the ladies, he does have sword fighting experience, not to mention the fact that he’s friends with Thudbutt who has that killer roll thing he does. That’s the one rule I live my life by, never bet against a dude who has a friend who can curl himself up into an impenetrable ball and roll around and knock people (including, but not limited to pirates) over.

Countdown

ryanwoods — Thu, 27 May 2010 20:47:03 +0000

Eagerly counting down…only a couple more weeks to go.

Viral.

ryanwoods — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:39:59 +0000

Paper Tiger Coffee, chocolate rain, and church. The three are, or should be connected. We’ve developed this new verbiage in our internet centered world of something “going viral”. The goofy video of Tay Zonday awkwardly singing “Chocolate Rain” on youtube became one of the most watched videos of all time. There was no marketing campaign, there was no advertising, there was no plea to the world around to share his video. Instead, people shared, people linked, people talked and laughed and told their friends about chocolate rain. It spread. Viral. Paper Tiger is a coffee shop that I frequent. They’re not in my direct neighborhood so I have to drive there instead of walk. But they have good great coffee, they have a good feel, they are a hub of community. When I go there I get to know people. I’d prefer to be in a coffee shop in my neighborhood, I’d prefer a coffee shop with a different variety of pastries (sorry), but I find myself coming back because they know what they are, they’re comfortable with who they are, and I like how I connect with those things. Here’s the connection, I don’t just go to Paper Tiger, but I tell my friends about it! I actually talk about their coffee shop in my every day life. I tell people to go there, I tell people about their coffee, I meet people there, I carry the torch for Paper Tiger just like thousands carried the torch (so to speak) for Chocolate Rain.

Church. Churches spend a lot of time and money trying to sell themselves to the world. They send out mass mailers, they advertise on the radio, put up billboards, and they do events that give them name recognition among other things. In other words, they try to carry the torch themselves. Churches have a good enough message, a potentially good enough medium, and a good enough base to “go viral” in our communities.* What would happen if churches clarified what they were all about, what they were not about, and developed a sense of comfort with those things. What if we tried to cultivate a culture that empowered people to carry the torch? I think the word that the Bible uses is “evangelism”.

* “good enough” is kind of a poor term to choose with regard to the message and medium of Christianity. If it is only ”good enough” then I think we’ve got some problems!