Sacred Digital: Chuckk Gerwig

When Christians talk to "not Christians" about Jesus it's often understood about this clearly...

Sometimes we don't understand what "not Christians" are saying to us Jesus-folk. Worse yet is the fact that the language of the Christian subculture is often indecipherable by those outside the subculture. Listen to this week's sermon at your local church and pretend you've never read the Bible or been in church before …notice all the words and phrases that we use that have no meaning to "not Christians" …“we're washed in the blood of the Lamb”.

Listen to the songs; what concepts are embedded in them that are unknowable to the uninitiated…”there is a fountain filled with blood” or “longing just to bring something that's of worth that will bless your heart” or my fav – “here I raise my Ebenezer”.

How do these terms and concepts become part of our DAILY secret language as we leave the church parking lot and talk to “not Christians” at school, work and the gym? How can we better use words to communicate meaning to those who aren’t part of our club?

Tomorrow night we'll host our nonlinear high school fun event called The Gathering 4.0 : Viking Wars. The idea is there is NO schedule of what comes when - we provide all the funstuff and students come make the evening they choose.

If you missed my RAZZ multimedia announcement by the Mexican Vikings on MySpace... that’s probably a good thing.

ANYWAY

In the mix for the evening: big screen Guitar Hero II contest, introducing the indoor death cage dodge ball arena with strobes and smoke machines, 1 million video games, the unveiling of our new Living room and chillzone, Karaoke embarrassment, Viking sumo fights, DDR MAX Viking disco room, a professional race car driving simulator, night climbing on the 30’ outdoor rockclimbing wall, skate ramps, pool, foosball, air hockey, board gaming, Viking firepit and some totally unhealthy food.

Beyond the curriculum there is GREAT application that could change the lives of many if you chose to jump in.

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I'll be away speaking at Mount Hermon Christian Camp this Friday Saturday and Sunday. It will be a fun time to share Jesus' excellence with a fresh bunch of high school students who I don't speak to weekly.

Camps are often special times in the spiritual journey of teenagers. If you are a person of prayer join me in praying for the students who will be attending this camp. Pray that in their time high above the wild static of their daily lives they'll hear His clear voice and be infected with His love and purpose.

On The iPod: Norah Jones - Come Away With Me

The Gathering : 4.0 Viking Wars event we had last week was muy fun! Here's a shot from behind the Dodge Ball Death Arena fencing towards the Mexican Viking Sumo Wrestling area and in the back you can see the Eye Toy on the video screen. Oh what fun; a few swollen faces from dodgeball and one broken exit sign were the only casualties. Amazing, they actually will pay you to do this for a living if you're lucky.

Youth Ministry Idea: If you have a Playstation2 get the Eye Toy camera and have kids play it during an event. To create a fun room vibe focus a video camera on them and live feed the people (without the eye toy game video graphics) to a big video screen. It 's really funny seeing people jump around on the screen without seeing the video game graphics that the players are interacting with.

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Away I go - I'm off to mount Hermon Camp for a weekend of speaking, fun and student hang time.

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If you do drugs it will make your mind...different. These folks must have had some high quality mushrooms around while they were programming. This is the strangest flash video game I've ever seen.

Play Samorost 2.

A product of the Czech Republic.

On the iPod; Yes - Fragile

This afternoon our staff / team selected 18 kids to come with me to Denmark this July. Calls are being made right now to alert everyone. Start praying for the mission now. This summer will be Epic!

Here's the Youth for Christ Project Serve official website

On the iPod: Steely Dan -Aja

This last weekend of guest speaking up at Mount Hermon Christian Camps was a fun time of hanging out with high schoolers, sharing God’s Word, playing Guitar Hero and reconnecting with some youth ministry friends. I love being the camp speaker, you get to go to camp with kids and be the good guy the whole time. As the speaker you never have to say things like, “hey you kids don’t light that raccoon on fire”, “hey guys please, please go to sleep now” or “which one of you antichrists left that unflushed python in the toilet”. Being the speaker means never having to choke a hyperactive 9th grade boy to sleep before you turn in for the night - I AM joking here.

I was super encouraged by THIS :: Mount Hermon has added a new free time activity to their insane fun-catalog that includes ocean kayaking, hiking in the redwoods, a skatepark, a climbing-wall, surfing in Santa Cruz, mountain biking, mountain boarding, mountain scooting, polar bear swimming, a great high ropes course and more. Now students can give up some of the afore mentioned camp recreation to… serve the poor! Students can sign up to help out at the Santa Cruz Homeless Garden Project or prepare and serve meals to the homeless in Downtown Santa Cruz at the Elm Street Mission.

I stopped in at the Mission Saturday night and was blessed to see these kids choose to serve the poor on the only full day of camp they had instead of just exercising their recreation instinct. These kids are the Schnitzel!

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When I drove back up to the Camp and sat down with my friend, Camp Director Kelly Burch, he informed me that signups to help the poor during camp fills up before the surfing option does now. Good news indeed.

Thought: The incoming generation often places great value in social justice, how might this power source be BETTER tapped into by local church Youth Ministries?

On The iPod: Jeff Beck - Wired

My friend, emerging church demigod and all around nice guy Dan Kimball just blogged about an interesting new book.

On the iPod: Djam Karet - Suspension and Displacement

What if the church was liquid? What if the church was less granite and more fluid to the shape of the communities it found itself poured into? What if Living Water chose to not lose its theological viscosity but flowed freer culturally?

One Punk Under God is a new reality show about Jay Bakker, tattooed-pastor, searcher and son of Jim and Tammy Bakker. One Punk Under God’s first episode is viewable commercial-free online. It’s a fascinating look at the messy nature of Christianity / humanity / family.

See One Punk Under God here.

Yes, Guitar Hero is a dangerous video game addiction, everyone should quit playing before they are badly injured. This will give me time to get better and beat you all!

Proof that Guitar Hero is a dangerous videogame.

On The iPod: Moby - Ambient

This Summer we're off to Odder Denmark on a little Mission from God. Here's the official city of Odder website

I'm concerned that most people who are unconvinced about Jesus and unconvinced about His Church have a new definition of the word Evangelical. The word is a cuss word and a word of worry to many people in the world. The word can mean fundamentalist in the same way people understand the words "Islamic Fundamentalist"...boom. Scot McKnight wrote a great post that you might enjoy regarding this new understanding of the term Evangelical.

On The iPod: Steely Dan - Pretzel Logic

This is what cosmic Santa Cruz-y types practice during the rainy winter months so they can entertain people walking along Pacific Avenue in the summer months. Here in S. Cruz they use a special variety of smoke for their bubbles....

2:13 of mindless entertainment follows.

What a cool idea, Granger Community Church in Granger Indiana is doing a U2 Christmas program. When Love Comes to Town indeed! Granger is an interesting evolution in the attraction based church model.

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People enjoyed the game Samorost Two so well I went and found Samorost One for your holiday gaming pleasure. Have a great Christmas you cosmic travelers.

If you get stuck while you’re out in space, here is a place to find answers

On The iPod: Frank Sinatra -Various Christmas Songs

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I was in Victoria’s Secret the other day- hey, it’s Christmas I wasn’t looking for myself (and they have almost no underwear there that fits me anyway)! Anyway, there’s this guy at the counter almost peeing his pants in glee because "he was FINALLY done with buying all his presents". I was thinking I’m like that sometimes at Christmas… thinking that gift giving and shopping is one more thing to do. I’ve been thinking about it, gift giving at Christmas can be different for me - if I chose.

I have decided that from now on I am shopping and gift giving at Christmas in a relaxed non-obligatory mind set. In fact I have decided that giving others gifts at can be a bit like taking Communion. Gift giving can be a Symbolic Remembrance, a secular sacrament. This year I am shopping and giving gifts to others in a symbolic remembrance of God’s gift of Christ to me. Every gift I give reminds me that God gave. As I shop and give I am worshipping as I remember the Gift of Grace and Life. I love this idea, it’s making shopping an act of worship. Merry Christmas my friends.

This album is my current fav Christmas Album!!!!

Frank Sinatra -Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Junior rock!

Planting-Missional-Churches by Ed Stetzer is a must read tome. Every now and again you read a book that costs you the ink of one full pen because you make so many marks, underlines, margin notes and asterisks; this is one of those books.

This book has value for current church leaders who are exploring how their church might better engage the cultures of un-churched un-convinced people; it’s not just for those looking to plan new churches. It's a great read if you are wondering how the mission of the church could be reevaluated, revisited and enhanced or directionally changed.

Also on the book pile beside my big overstuffed chair - Eragon by Christopher Paolini and Hurt : Inside the World of Today's Teenagers by Chap Clark

On the iPod: John Mayer – Continuum

Long before there was a show called American Chopper there were a handful of chopper builders that painted the landscape of the modern chopper canvas. Arlen Ness was their ancient gOD. Arlen is an innovator fo sho, if you've never seen his rolling art check it out today.

Check out Arlen's Bikes here

I was almost the New Year's Baby::born in the Bronx, New York::they told my mom to try to hold on till tomorrow and your child will be the New Year's Baby::she told them, suck monkey knuckles cause it hurt like a gut full of gnomes wielding drywall hammers:: I did arrive, hammer free to her surprise 47 years ago today.

My girls took me to my favorite Cheese Steak Place for lunch to celebrate. I played some Half Life 2 and enjoyed a Perdomo at sunset before jumping into our spa to warm up. For dinner my wife made homemade Louisiana Oyster Po-boys with Crystal hot sauce. Sopranos alert, ( I saw my first episode on DVD) - we rented and watched the Sopranos, yikes more "F" bombs than a night in an Indonesian enlistedmen's club and some unsavory stripbar scenes that make women something approaching meat - not a recommended viewing. I like The Godfather MUCH better, now that is recommended viewing!

Anyways Happy New Year my friends!

With luck 07 will be better than 06. 2006 pretty much sucked monkey knuckles, but I'm not complaining - life can be good if you let it.

On The iPod: Porcupine Tree: In Absentia