I'm just testing out my new little digg.com button.

So that means from now on if you think what I write is cool, you can let others know, more specifically other people over at digg.com

digg.com

Tonight I'm off to see Jesus Camp.

I don't know if you've heard about this movie (documentary) or not. Dan Kimball posted a while ago about it here and that's where I first heard about it.

I'm going to save my comments until after I watch the movie. Though I do encourage you to look into it yourself.

movie Jesus+Camp christianity Jesus camps ministry

Uh...ah,..garble...babble...ghaakal...diddly...grunt...ghakd...alljas...hhaaahska...owwwalak...jimmny...
what...iiii...doodidly...doh...eat...moe...shaorts...jaldks...wislsk...ralf...woaksls...mmmm...beer...
hakdska...zxnalsk...woohoo...

I think I just peed...pooped...something my pants...

I'm...too excited to tipe...(passed out)





































LINK (just click it)

HUGE HT (hat tip) to Bob Hyatt
Simpsons internet website complete+seasons

AJ and I were watching Ebert and Roper tonight on TV and Fred Willard was the guest host with Roper.

Two things shocked me, one right after the other.

In case you didn't know Jackass: Number Two came out friday. Guess what Willard and Roper gave it?

(wrong)

or maybe right

Yep...2 thumbs UP.

I will see this movie. There's just something funny about that stuff.

The other movie that they reviewed was Michle Gondry's (think Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) new movie The Science of Sleep, which I'm really looking forward to. It looks a bit surreal, but really inventive especially in the way Gondry uses very basic ways to create amazing effects.

But both Roper and Willard gave it a thumbs down. Boo on them...I'm still going to see it.

So two movies, two different directions of thumbs, but I will see them both.

movies Ebert+and+Roper Jackass+number+two The+Science+of+Sleep

The title stands for "Who Would Jesus Be?"

Marko was given this letter (read first) by someone, which tells the signs, that would make a student a "goth".

I posted this response on his blog.

If I read this correct Jesus was a Goth too.
1 Associates with other people that dress, act or speak eccentrically.
2 Drinks alcohol.
3 Is suicidal and/or depressed. (was very burdened/saddened by what he had to do, ie cross)
4 Is excessively awake during the night.
5 Spends large amounts of time alone
6 Requests time alone and quietness.
7 Insists on spending time with friends while unaccompanied by an adult.
8 Disregards authority figures; teachers, ministers and elders are but a few examples of this.
9 Misbehaves at school. (at temple alone when a child)
10 Misbehaves at home. (Jesus' quote about who are my mother and brothers?)
11 Plays videos games that contains violence or are of a role-playing nature. (Would Jesus play the Left Behind video game?)

Well maybe we should reform Jesus.

What do you think?
italics mine

church stupid christianity youth+ministry goth students

Well folks today is the day...we finally get to learn the release date for the new Nintendo Wii system. (also wii.com is finally up - look for the North America section to work later today)

There is a press conference in New York at approximately 9am est. We expect to finally get a release date and final pricing for the system.


Yesterday 10p pst we watched as Nintendo held their Japanese conference where a 12/2 release date was announced with a price point of 25000 yen or about 220 us.

My prediction is that the US date will be far earlier than dec, perhaps early Nov but probably not as late as the rumored 19th of Nov. I also hope for a US price of around 200, but that is purely speculation. I'd love to see the game Wii Sports included in the US package as well as 2 wimotes (controllers) and 2 nunchuck attachments. But we'll see.

I'll update later once the conference is done.

I can't tell you how exciting this is.

Go to either
wii.ign.com
or
gwn.com
for updates as the press conference happens and summaries afterwards.

----------
update 1
5:45a
go to http://www.gwn.com/news/story.php/id/10317/ for live blogging from the press conference

---------
update 2
6:20a
2nd source for live blogging
http://wii.ign.com/articles/732/732707p1.html

---------
update 3
6:57a
OK SO THIS IS OFFICIAL NEWS
Release date: Nov 19th - not what I'd hoped for, I wanted it earlier but will give me time to save my pennies
Price: 249.99
Contents: Console, 1 wimote, 1 nunchuck attachment, sensor bar, cables, and Wii Sports!!! - I had hoped for 2 controllers but that just means another 30 for the wimote and 15 for a nunchuck attachment.

There are a few other details. But that's the big things. About 15 games will be available on launch day and up to 15 more by the end of the launch window.

*update 7:02a the Q & A just started and the US prices were released 39.99 for the wimote and 19.99 for the nunchuck. - I'm not happy about this. 60 bucks is almost 1/3 of the total price of the entire system. If you ever want to have 4 player fun that's a total of 180 more on top of your 250. Boo Nintendo. Yeah Wii.

---------
update 4
7:11a
Looks like Metroid Prime 3 won't be out until 2007, looks like I'm getting Zelda at launch.

---------
update 5
7:13a
Looks like the conference has ended. See above links for recap of the live blogging. The ing one seems to be a bit more comprehensive.
The question that I have is what about pre-orders. I guess that's on a store by store basis. One way or another I'll be camped out for a good day or so. I won't be surprised if I do something crazy and camp out for more than a 24 hour period.

----------
update 6
7:19a
here's the official press release

nintendo wii north+america press+conference release+date price Sept+14

Thinking about church life and such I've come to a question that I need help dealing with.

Is there a difference between what a church supports and what a church does?

Thinking broadly to issues like social justice, homelessness, poverty, missions, missionaries, community involvement, and many other areas.

Churches seem to often "support" many causes, some financially, some with promotion and even some with physical resources such as volunteers. Then there are churches who intentionally seek out the needs of the community and the world and develop their own programs and efforts that are developed, staffed, run, and funded by that particular church.

Is one better than the other? Is our goal to involve people from our congregations? Or is simply to have places/opportunities for our members to point towards and say my church/I support(s) _____?

How do we reconcile the difference between what we do individually/as a local congregation and what we see as good causes that were developed by someone else?

church emerging+church missions support local congregations

No I'm not talking about the new show that's on Fox.

But more about justice and injustice and what that has to do with God.

This past summer I had our youth at church work through the idea of injustice, what it is, where it happens, who it happens to, how that affects them and what God has to say on the whole matter.

We used the curriculum that's put out by Youth Specialties and comes from the folks at the International Justice Mission (IJM).

At the end of the summer we capped it all off my hosting a showing of the DVD Invisible Children (IC). (see here for other showings or just buy a copy of the DVD from the site)

This post isn't really about what was learned or not learned, it more stems from something that someone said to me at the end of the screening. Though I must applaud the students for helping to make a difference and in the end helping to raise a substantial amount of money to be split between IJM and IC.

What was said to me in a conversation, summed up, was a question more or less if these two organizations (IJM and IC) we affiliated with a church or even the Church (with a big C) and if they directly spent their time "evangalizing" or sharing "gospel" (meaning conversion) as either a pre or post requisite for receiving aid from either IJM or IC.

This conversation has stuck with me for almost 2 weeks now.

The question that boils in my mind is: "When we are engaged in Jesus work or gospel work, do we need to explicitly share "salvation"?"

Part of me struggles with the mere fact that "salvation" or no salvation we are helping people. And the desire to help is a direct result of our relationship with Jesus and God. As I read it, the Bible talks so much about helping others, standing up for what is just and making sure injustice does not occur. What I do not find is a requisite to then share "salvation" with the people we are helping. Yes, I hope that through our actions as Christians people stop and wonder why it is what we are doing, and then maybe we have an opportunity. But should it be our motivation to help people, so that we can then share salvation with them later?

Has much of the church has become so focused on "saving" people that we no longer know how to engage in service without bringing salvation?

I must clarify here, I am intentionally using the word salvation instead of gospel, because I feel that "the gospel" is so much more than just salvation or a personal relationship. I use salvation in the sense that many people use gospel to mean salvation or faith in Jesus.

This is not to say that I ignore the "great commission" to make disciples of all people. I highly regard that as a good command of Jesus. BUT...he says so much more about caring for people than he says about converting people.

Where does this leave us?

Is this just an issue of a single person or a congregation or is it a wider issue within the spectrum of Christianity?

I see what we did to be helping people from a Christian perspective. Not only did we financially support organizations that help people in injust situations, we also drastically raised the awareness of people about the injustices that go on around the world. These people are now (hopefully) more aware of the situation and are now empowered to tell others about the situations and then also to share their experiences with other people.

So if you want my 2cents (and you probably do since you are reading this), I don't have a problem with an organization helping people and not sharing "salvation". I would hope that there comes opportunities as relationships develop between the people helping and those who they help, for the gospel to be shared, both salvation and a way of life that involves Christ. But I do not see myself being critical of these organizations because what they do/don't do.

As I go about my life and my ministry, I find myself more and more intrigued with a Jesus who was not about agendas or motives, but about love. A love that fully expressed what it means to follow God. A love that is greater than saying the right words or doing the right thing. I'm in love with a Jesus who tells me straight how it is, then tells me to go and sin no more. I'm in love with a Jesus who tells me to sell everything I have, give everything that means something to me, and to come and follow him.

I hope that in my ministry I am asking people to do the same. I don't require that they are a certain way or meet some standard. I ask that they are honest where they are at and that they desire to do things out of love. A love for a God who is just proud to call us his own.

church emerging+church youth+ministry justice injustice International+Justice+Mission IJM invisible+children

pt 1

Well it looks like ebible.com has come out of beta into a full version. So that means if you didn't get one of the invites that I had to give, you can just go over and register for yourself. It's free and a pretty nice online bible app.

ebible.com bible online web+2.0

Just to let you know. The SoCal cohort of Emergent has a new website.

You can find it at emergentsocal.com

Go check it out. Aaron has put a lot of work into it.

PS
I saw Idiocracy today. I'll update the other post soon.

new+website emergent+socal emergent

I've watched a few movies over the last few weeks and I thought I'd share my thoughts with you. Some of them are new, one is one that I talked a lot about some time ago, and one was one that I just wanted to see (just cause) and one is one I will most likely see this week.

First.
Yes I saw it (of course I saw it). Unfortunately I didn't get to see it opening day like I would have wanted. But I got to see it with Rachelle and AJ. It was everything I had hoped it would be. We saw it at a Saturday morning matinee, so it wasn't exactly the right crowd. We laughed throughout the entire movie, but it didn't seem like the whole theatre was into it. I, myself found EVERYTHING, ANYONE said to be completely hilarious. Let's put it this way: if you go in and take it seriously, then you will be disappointed. If you go in not expecting much but want to laugh at everything, then you are going to have a blast. It was worth all the hype!!! And I saw a headline from digg.com that said "Let me save you $12: Why 98% of people want to see Snakes on a Plane" which lead to this (caution language), which completely sums up the entire snakes experience.

Next.

Let me say I think this may be one of the best films I will see all year. I had actually gotten tickets to a free screening earlier this summer but for a number of different reasons I wasn't able to go. But it has been on my list and I am really glad that I got to see it. I thought the whole entire film was really put together well. The story was great and captured a realism that I enjoy. The acting was more than fantastic, EVERYONE was great. Each performance was unique and personal. The characters were people I could identify with and felt a strong connection to. It is movies like these that continue to give me hope that not all of hollywood has sold out. The only thing that bugged me about this film was a small continuity issue. I just happen to be good at picking these things up. For a lot of the film we find the family stuck together in a small old VW bus. And in these shots often the camera is placed near the front windshield facing back giving a clear view of the entire cabin and views out the back. I did notice that even though the family was headed from Arizona to California, most of the shots were done on Hwy 14 in CA. That didn't really bug me too much, but what did was I was able to pick out in most of the shots that there were usually 1 or 2 CHP cars in the background running traffic breaks so that too many cars wouldn't be in the shot. It was kinda annoying since the CHP cars weren't even fully in a lane. All aside I highly recommend this film and I hope that one or more of the actors gets nominated for something in the upcoming awards season.

Here's one that I should have seen a long time ago, but I didn't.
I finally sat down and watched it this past week. I had wanted to see it when it came out and I had talked about it here over 2 years ago. Let me say it wasn't bad. The story isn't exactly what I'd call a masterpiece but it does its job. Ultimately it provides what it was supposed to, being that of some pretty amazing visual effects. Being shot almost entirely on blue screen, the animators worked for more than 2 years to complete over 2000 digital shots. The movie is stylized. Looking like an old serial movie of the film noir era. The color schemes are great and add a depth to the film. Over all the movie drags a little and it takes some wiliness to intentionally immerse one's self into the world that has been created. The acting was par, nothing spectacular. If you have some time and haven't seen it, I would definitely recommend renting a copy, if only to admire the hard work in completing this project. (Watch the making of, special feature (caution it's kinda long (2 parts)) and you will gain a deep respect for the makers of the film.)

Just tonight I rented:

This movie got delayed so many times that by the time it finally came out most people had written it off (of those who actually wanted to see it). Let me give you some background info about this before you write it off. You see when this movie went into production the Farrelly brothers (Peter and Bobby) (the producers) (think Dumb and Dumber, Something About Mary and Me, Myself & Irene) wanted to make sure that they wouldn't offend anyone, since the plot revolved around the Special Olympics and many mentally challenged people. So the Farrelly brother approached the big wigs at the Special Olympics and had them come on as consultants and the Farrelly brothers gave them a lot of control to say yea or nay to many of the elements of the film. The Farrelly brothers wanted to make sure that they were portraying the mentally handicapped community in a positive light. All said and done, with the largest cast of mentally handicapped people ever, the Special Olympics gave a healthy approval of the movie. With a combo of the Farrelly brothers and Johnny Knoxville in a movie you would almost expect every scene to be either a sex joke, a fart joke or someone getting hit in the balls. While there is a good scene involving Johnny Knoxville's crotch and some waterballoon this is hardly the case. It was a fun movie with a great story line which in the end shows great character in the lessons the characters learn through out the course of the movie. It provides plenty of funny moments, many involving the fantastic cast of mentally handicapped performers. It's definitely one of those, I don't really care what I watch kind of movies but once again I'd say give it a chance and you may be surprised.

Lastly.
We have Mike Judge's (Beavis and Butthead, Office Space and King of the Hill) long anticipated 3rd full length movie. It's called Idiocracy. You may have never heard about this movie, but it is the reason that Office Space at the beginning of the summer started showing up in blockbuster on a shelf that said see the original before you see the sequel. Which left many people perplexed since there had been no mention to Office Space having a sequel or (god forbid) a prequel. We later found out that the reason Office Space was put on the shelf was due to the fact that Mike Judge was working on a new movie. Months and months past with little to no information about the film. I myself had forgotten about it until I finally read an online article stating that it had been released. What!?!?!? I said to myself. I hadn't seen a single ad or preview for it. Glad, yes. But still perplexed. Well it came out this past Friday the 1st of Sept. in limited release (which means if you don't live in a major city you're more than likely out of luck). The movie's premise is that America is getting stupider and stupider as our culture progresses. The government coaxes an "average" guy (played by Luke Wilson) to be involved in a hibernation experiment. Wilson's character wakes up either 500 or 1000 years in the future and finds himself surrounded by a society of idiots, leaving him by far the smartest man on earth. And I can only assume hilarity ensues. The cast is rounded out by Mike Judge favorites, Stephen Root (Milton from Office Space, Bill from King of the Hill and Gordon from Dodgeball) and David Herman (Michael Bolton from Office Space), it also features some funny people like Maya Rudolph and Justin Long to name few. The reason that this movie has secretly been released is apparently (from article above) that Fox who is distributing the movie has given up on it and doesn't want to promote it and thinks it will do more than poorly. That to me is a shame. Especially since Office Space was such a cult classic that went on to do a decent sum of money in DVD sales and even made cultural history as Swingline (the stapler company) now produces a limited edition red stapler all due to Office Space. I'm excited for this movie even if no one else is. Do me a favor and see the movie and spread the word. I'll let you know what I think of it in an update once I see it, so check back in a week or so.

---------
Update 6:20p
Idiocracy was pretty good. It definitely has it's moments, and Luke Wilson lives up to his talent. Maya Rudolph gives a fairly good performance, but resembles many of her SNL characters. The satire factor was through the roof and provides the backbone for the film. I must say that Mike Judge has great talent in his writing ability.

Honestly this film may setback his career a few years. Not because I think it wasn't a good movie. But because it definitely isn't a mainline movie or it isn't a movie that will find great acceptance with the majority of the culture. Especially since there is NO promotion for the film, I fear that not enough people will see the movie until a quiet DVD release. And even then I fear that it will be a small cult following of people who will see through the shotty CGI and the overall dumpy/indie feel of the movie and recognize it for what it is.

I do suggest you see the movie. Much of the great stuff is in the background. From the signs to the little pieces of set that speak volumes of commentary. Some of the highlights for me were, Stephen Root's performance, Thomas Hayden Church's performance, as well as pot shots at some of the nation's leading corporations.

So there you go. If you see it let me know what you think.

movies movie+review Snakes+on+a+Plane Little+Miss+Sunshine Sky+Captain+and+the+World+of+Tomorrow The+Ringer Idiocracy