"How does God knowing you "inside and out" affect how you pray? When was the last time you went to God for guidance before a big decision? What happened? Would you feel comfortable casting lots or drawing straws to determine God's will on an issue? Why or why not?"
The reading of lectio divina. "There's no secret formula to the first step of lectio divina, but it's a bit like savoring that one bite of food. Just read the passage slowly and repeatedly. Let it sink in. Read it out loud, and read it silently. Become familiar with the rhythms of the text, its ebbs and flows. Read it over and over again."
"The kind of meditation to which God calls Joshua, and the kind of meditation to which the psalmist calls all of us, is more like a dog chewing a bone, or a lion working over a carcass, than what we usually think of as meditation."
"Biblical and non-biblical examples abound of praying with ardor and vehemence. In fact, our willingness to really and deeply engage God in fervent prayer may well be an indication of how seriously we take our relationship with God."
"For Christians, contemplation is a discipline in which we don't give up our bodies, but we temporarily quiet our bodies and minds for one purpose: to rest in God's love."
"Evangelicalism will not settle the debate over the atonement, in my view, until it grasps the fact that not only is it the product of the narrative, it remains subject to the narrative. As long as it insists in deal with abstractions, it remains a sub-biblical movement."
"We live in an culture, in America at least, that is both child-centric and nurture-obsessed. Interestingly, American Christianity has fully embraced these cultural emphases. American Christianity has made the parental nurture of children its defining witness to the world. This is a strange move to make given Jesus's consistent marginalization of family love."
"It is remarkable to me that the theologically most fertile parts of the Bible are all, yes all, set in the context of the people of God facing significant danger and chaos." Looks at institutional churches in the Christendom model in light of their drive to avoid chaos, and what this does.
"Web professionals are often expected to be “always on”—always working, absorbing information, and honing new skills. Unless our work and personal lives are carefully balanced, however, the physical and mental effects of an "always on" life can be debilitating."
"Often, people lack the language or understanding of the work to accurately express their opinions. Consequently, we use simple terms of the way an object 'looks' or how it 'feels'. Speaking in terms of these qualities does a disservice to the design. We cheapen the value of the work by paying attention only to the superficial aspects."
Great words on the epistemology of the "new atheists" compared with the epistemology of faith. It often occurs to me that this new atheism has lagged behind postmodernism just as much as religious fundamentalism.
Amnesty International's Tear It Down – an interactive design to support the closing of Guantánamo. You can also get information on their campaign to Counter Terror with Justice.
If you can, you should go to the Christianity21 event in Minneapolis this fall. It will be a fantastic example of how Emergent is genuinely achieving something different.
"You will notice how the NYT defines torture when it comes to foreign governments – isolation, sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation. Much milder than anything the US did to one of its own citizens, Jose Padilla."
Jonathan Stegall is a web designer and emergent / emerging follower of Jesus currently living in Atlanta, seeking to abide in the creative tension between theology, spirituality, design, and justice.