Journeys In Between

Top 10 Religion Stories of 2007?

With new year's eve upon us I thought I'd take a walk through some of the top religion stories of 2007 in the eyes of the media.

Time Magazine list their top 10 as:

1. The Mother Theresa Revelations
2. Democrats Embrace Religion and Mitt Romney Channels JFK
3. The Reverend Jerry Falwell Dies
4. The Pope's Moto Proprio
5. The Episcopal Church At Odds Over Gays
6. The Greening of Evangelicalism
7. The Roar of Atheist Books
8. The Trials of New Life Church
9. The Creation Museum Opens
10. South Korean Christian Missionaries Kidnapped in Afghanistan

Christianity Today list their top 10 as:

1. Taliban takes Korean short-term mission team hostage, killing two
2. Atheism tops the bestseller charts
3. Presidential campaigns start early, with some faith surprises
4. Ruth Graham promoted to glory
5. Anglican Communion fractures over Scripture, homosexuality
6. Three Christians tortured and killed in eastern Turkey
7. Lions of the Religious Right, Falwell and Kennedy, pass away
8. Francis Beckwith returns to Catholicism
9. Campaign to oust NAE's Richard Cizik fails
10. Supreme Court upholds 2003 federal partial-birth abortion ban

What are your thoughts?

Over all I felt both these lists were overly focussed on American evangelicalism but given their origin I suppose that's to be expected. So, as influential as America is, which of these stories are truly newsworthy beyond America? What do you think?

From an Australian perspective I would have to say the Atheist books and Anglican strife stories have had the biggest impact down under, but then, that's a local perspective too. I am hopeful that the greening of evangelicalism will become a bigger story but so far its more of a background one. If I was to go real local, I would have to mention the rise and rise of Hillsong, but that doesn't effect so many people beyond Australia.

Thinking more globally I think I should single out the stories that highlight the ongoing tensions between Islamic militants and global market economies, as those tensions continue to be a background buzz behind everything these days, and when the history books are written I think that's what we'll find in them. Maybe that's hard to reduce down to a single catchy story but, still, can we talk of religion in 2007 without it?

But, as far as this blog goes I have to single out the killing of the three Christians in eastern Turkey. You may recall I have a connection with friends of those who were murdered and forwarded a prayer request from friends of the Turkish martyrs back in April. As you reflect on 2007, maybe you might consider praying for the ongoing situation there: for the trial that is still to come; for more tolerance of Christians in Turkey, and ultimately, for reconciliation between Christians and Muslims; and for the family and friends of the three who were killed, for the impact of 2007 will be with them for the rest of their lives.

I Am Legend

Being a Vampire flick fan from way back I was interested in Christianity Today's recent review of I Am Legend. Staring  Will Smith, this latest remake of the 1954 horror novella by Richard Matheson is being released in Sydney on January 3rd, and according to Christianity Today, contains some "jarring" God references that raise questions on the relationship between science and spirituality. I expect I'll be seeing it in due course in January.

For more, go to the full review of I Am Legend.

Merry Christmas

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." - From the gospel of Luke.

I would just like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a merry Christmas and blessings for the year ahead. Now, go celebrate!

PS. The above picture of the nativity is by He Qi

Australia Day Synchroblog

If you're an Aussie blogger I have a question for you. Are you interested in doing a spot of synchronized blogging on Australia Day in 2008?

Christianity in Australia
The proposed topic is "Christianity in Australia" and the idea would be for each person participating to write a post (or more if you like) on what "Christianity in Australia" brings to mind for you.

It could be about your own personal experiences as a Christian in Oz or about the broader challenges you feel the Christian movement faces down under. How do you see the challenges of secular culture and religious pluralism and shifts in church participation? Is there anything unique about Aussie Christianity and our spiritual identity? What are your personal dreams and struggles? You could limit your musings to your own tradition or stream or talk about something completely different. Really, what you write on is up to you as long as it fits broadly into this reflective Australia Day theme.

Interested?
If you are interested leave a comment here. I will be producing a list of all participants so we can each add this to our posts, so everyone links everyone on the day.

Also, if you have friends who may possibly be interested, please pass this onto them as I would like to get as many Aussie Christian bloggers involved in this "Christianity in Australia" conversation as possible. Hope to see you in January.

Oh, and expats are welcome.

MySpace and MyChurch: How to feed your blog content into them with minimal effort

Want to extend your reach in cyberspace?
After setting up a feed to channel content from this blog into my Facebook page some weeks ago, I started wondering, could I do the same thing for other social media networks, to broaden my cyberspace footprint and maximize the conversational possibilities? Well the answer is yes, and being the generous sort of guy I am I am going to share it with you all.

RSS Feed
The first thing you need to do, if you haven't already done so long ago, is to set up an RSS feed for your blog. To do that simply go to FeedBurner and follow the instructions.

Feeding into Facebook
Well many people seem to have already figured out how to do this for themselves, but just in case you haven't, both the BlogFriends and the FlogBlog applications you'll find on Facebook will do the job nicely. You will find me using both these applications on my Facebook page to mirror posts from here over there. To do the same just click on the applications and sign up, but don't forget to list me as a blog friend, nudge, nudge.

Feeding into MyChurch
I figured this one out a few weeks back. The trick is:

1. Click on "blog"
2. Click on "new blog entry"
3. Click on "edit feed"
4. Add your feed

I have set one up on my MyChurch profile here.

The only problem is, it seems you have to "refresh" each time to get the system to recognize fresh content has been posted. Not sure if there is a work around for that yet so how much of a pain this is depends on your frequency of natural use and whether you can tolerate leaving the content unrefreshed in the interum.

But the good news is, it all just got a whole lot easier as there is now a MyChurch application on Facebook, which can be used to link these together. Have another look at my Facebook page.

Feeding into MySpace
This one I figured out today. There is a neat application called SpringWidgets which you can use to create a widget for your MySpace blog. The size is totally customizable. So what you do is you launch a single MySpace blog post with this widget as the content. Then never blog there ever again. You will find an example at my MySpace. 

The Outcome
You can now sit back and relax as your blog feeds content into the Facebook, MySpace and MyChurch networks for you. At this point, if you wanted to, you could just forget about these social media networks and never visit again, simply leaving these blogs as an advertisement for your real blog. But of course, I'd say a little socializing doesn't go astray, I mean, that's what they're there for after all :-)

Might we call this "incarnating" your blog into multiple contexts?

Purpose Driven Synagogue?

Rick Warren is sure to leave a few church growth exponents scratching their heads after this  latest speaking engagement of his: Rick Warren Counsels Jews on Recruiting Congregants. Thanks to Jeff for the heads up.
 

The Nativity

Here's a scene for The Nativity Story. I still haven't seen the movie yet but I think I'll have to after seeing this and some of the other trailers. Seems like there is a reasonable degree of creative license but Joseph and Mary are also more Jewish looking that I've seen them look in some other films. Have any of you seen it? Want to offer up a review?

Flirty Fished at Mars Hill

I have an amusing tale to tell.

I was having a coffee outside Mars Hill Cafe in Parramatta Saturday night with fellow bloggers Paul Teusner (Fishers, Surfers and Casters) and Lindsay Cullen (Random Murmurings) when we were interrupted by a dozen girls dancing in not so fluffy Santa's helper outfits.

It was a warm enough evening as we dipped into the coffee and conversations on blogging, emerging church, Lindsay's move and how Paul was going with his research on Emerging Church Bloggers in Australia, and as you can imagine we were loath to have our attention drawn away from such deep discussion, but upon Paul being reassured this was all for a charitable cause, being sacrificially minded Christians, we joined in the Christmas cheer with the other patrons.

A CD was bought for $15 by one of us and all was smiles, when up came a cry, "Oh my Lord, they're the Family, I've just supported the Family, I'll be excommunicated!" 

We all read the CD label and brochure and I spake, indeed, we had been flirty fished. We'll not me, I didn't buy anything, it wasn't me, or at least that's my excuse, I'm sticking to it.

Just goes to show, we don't always get to choose when we encounter New Religious Movements, and even I get caught unawares sometimes. The irony of the location, given it's not called Mars Hill by accident, should not be lost on the astute.

It was amusing ... but then again ...

For related information see:

• The Family International (Official Website)
• The Children of God / The Family International (Wikipedia)
• Flirty Fishing (XFamily)

Christmas Photography Tips

Came across an interesting podcast on how to photograph Christmas lights here. Thought this was cool as I am planning to take my young sons out to see the Christmas lights around the area with their cousins tomorrow evening and we just put up a Christmas star in our window this evening. Hopping with excitement, little feet rushed to see what it looked like from outside. We had fun talking about what the star pointed to after. It would be nice to capture a few photos of them, squeeling with delight, as they search out the stars and angels and wise men and nativity scenes and the rest.

Edgar Cayce - American Shaman

Interesting podcast over at "A Glimpse Through The Veil" on a new screenplay that has been written by writer / producer Scott Lindquist on Edgar Cayce called "American Shaman".

• Listen to the interview of Scott Lindquist on "American Shaman" here on A Glimpse Through The Veil.
• The script is available for viewing and downloading at www.inktip.com.

Quite appropriately the writer seems to have relied primary on channeled material for the screenplay. For those of you who have no idea who Edgar Cayce is see these sites:

• Sleeping Prophet - Who was Edgar Cayce
• Edgar Cayce - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Edgar Cayce (1877-1945)