hiatus

i like the word hiatus. go ahead and say it..... it's kind of fun. there will be a hiatus to the blog series of "religion saves and nine other misconceptions." the reason being, i will be headed to the Lake of the Ozarks with a group of my students for a conference. it's called the Warrior Leadership Summit. i am very excited about it. tomorrow at 6:30 pm i will board a charter bus and go through the night to hopefully wake up in time for registration. i've already been told by a few of my students that they aren't going to allow me to sleep. oh well. hopefully i can dive into the book and crank out a few blog entries. i am unsure if i will have internet. we'll see. until then, make sure you follow me on twitter. i will keep you posted there with photos and short comments about the trip.

in other news, it's a very sad day for music. michael jackson has died at age 50. there's no denying that he could dance and sing. and there's no denying that you can't even come close to his dance moves no matter how hard you try. my friends call me b-ditt and the song "beat it" kind of became my theme song at camp.

goodbye michael jackson

an introduction....

it’s a three page introduction to the book but it’s worth it’s own blog. how on earth was this book formulated? well, mark driscoll was preaching through the book of 1 corinthians in a sermon series called, “christians gone wild.” note to self: a catchy sermon title like that probably will get people in the door. mark driscoll noticed that in the letter to the corinthian church, paul answered a lot of their questions. but how often does the church answer the questions of people? questions they really want answers to. sadly, this doesn’t happen very often.

mars hills church’s answer to this problem was genius. they opened up a page on their website for people to ask questions, comment on questions, and vote for the answers they would like to see in the sermon series. “And in the end, 893 questions were asked, 5,524 comments were made, and 343,203 votes were cast.”

another genius thing at mars hill church was an experiment with live questions from people in the late Sunday evening service. those people were able to anonymously text message questions. having no time to prep, mark driscoll would answer those on the spot.

A sample can be viewed here.

and here.

and so the blog series has begun.

9 “religious” questions and the answers. but before you read the upcoming blogs and are under 18 (i have no idea who reads this blog), get your parents’ permission. three of the chapters are about sex.... yes I said that word.

lastly, i leave you with a quote that i’m curious if you agree or disagree.

“Religious people are prone to go beyond the teaching of the Bible to argue for positions that are not clearly taught in Scripture. They are further prone to go beyond the biblical principles on these issues and seek to impose their method on others, as if they are alone are truly biblical. Religious people tend to have very strong and vocal opinions about the issues we will examine.”

for further reading about the difference between the gospel and religion... click here

it's here!

Yesterday I received Religion Saves and Nine other Misconceptions. This means I have homework and some serious blogging to do. Here is an excerpt from the letter I received from Crossway Books and Mike Anderson.

Dear Bryant,

You are one of the 80 chosen out of hundreds of bloggers who signed up to review Religion Saves. We chose you because we felt your blog is authentic, sincere, and you're likely to write a thoughtful response to Religion Saves.

----------------------------

I was shocked and delighted that I was chosen. I didn't think my blog would be chosen because of my lack of consistent blogging. Also, my blog doesn't have a consistent theme. However, they just must know my potential.

So here it comes. I have 10 blogs coming. The introduction and the nine misconceptions. So lastly, I'll leave you with a great quote.

"Religious people mistakenly think that they are saving people from such things as a fruitless life, sinful sex, bad relationships, unholy humor, wayward churches, evil birth control, and what they call 'strange fire.' However, religion never saved anyone, and religious answers to complex questions are simply misconceptions."

-Mark Driscoll

vbs

this week is vacation bible school. it's a time where we pack the church full of kids from 3 years old to sixth grade and teach them all about Jesus. i am in charge of games. i start my day on the road of 7 am to pick up all of my great students who volunteered to work. it's honestly been great to get up that early. i love it.

i would love to hear your stories from vbs!

Religion Saves......not!

I am sorry. I need to blog more. I have so many things I want to share. But this morning, I got another reason to blog. I was chosen to review the book, "Religion Saves and Nine Other Misconceptions" by Mark Driscoll. Which means I get a free copy of it! Also, I get it before everyone else! I'm super pumped about this.

In the book, Driscoll writes about the fact that religion cannot save anyone. Doing good things, going to a Christian church, or being "spiritual" does not make you a Christian at all. I'm not even a fan of using the word, "saved" due to the movie and the negative reactions to the word. Then, Driscoll addresses the nine issues: birth control, humor, predestination, grace, sexual sin, faith and works, dating, the emerging church, and the regulative principle.

My goal for this week is to blog every weekday. If I don't blog, make sure you give me hard time.