Twitter
Facebook
RSS
Admit it: even as an adult, you still love animated movies. Oh sure, you went through that stage where it wasn't "cool" to like them, and you pretended they didn't exist, but now you're not ashamed to admit you watch them.
Am I projecting here? Heh.
Anyway, if you match that description and, like me, you like animated movies (having kids has given me an excuse to watch them again!), this Top 5 Tuesday is for you! So dust off those Broadway-lite songs, the caricatured bad guys, and the sidekicks thrown in for comic relief and tell me your Top Five Animated Movies!
Here's mine:
5) Anastasia - Anastasia has some of the best music for an animated film around. Plus, this is a true story. Well, okay, it's based on a true story. Kind of. All right, a dude named Rasputin lived once. That counts, right?
4) The Hunchback of Notre Dame - One of Disney's best, in my opinion. The music is top notch, the character development is great, the comic relief sidekicks are multiplied times three, and the main character doesn't get the girl at the end. It's not a faithful adaptation of the original story, but this one is good enough to stand on it's own as a powerful narrative of religious corruption and beauty in unexpected places.
3) Toy Story - This is one of the Disney/Pixar team's best. It is the original completely CGI animated movie, and it's great. Memorable characters? Check. Smart dialog? Check. Innovative storyline? Check. Good balance of jokes to keep kids and parents interested? Check. It's not appropriate for Eli yet, but I'm looking forward to watching it with him when he's older!
2) Cars - Okay, I admit it. I tear up every time I watch the ending of this movie. It is such a beautiful depiction of the sacrificial love of the gospel it just makes me cry. The rest of the movie is great, too... a yearning for slower, simpler times. And the attention to detail means you catch things on the 27th viewing you missed the 26 times before. :) Love it.
1) The Emperor's New Groove - I think this remains the funniest animated movie I've seen. I don't remember laughing so hard or so often as I did while watching this under-appreciated flick! David Spade is great as Kuzco, and Patrick Warburton (think Putty from Seinfeld) kills it as Krunk. Fantastic movie!
Honorable Mention: Transformers: The Movie (the original - and dark - 1986 one, not the summer blockbuster crap out these days); Up (so sweet and powerful!); The Incredibles (just a lot of fun!); and Beauty and the Beast (one of the seminal American animated movies).
What's your top five?
Mar 1, 2011
Jan 24, 2011
The Blogs, They Are A-Changin'
Good morning!
Over the weekend, The Welcome Matt changed its name, its look, and its address.
Come join the conversation over at my new blog, Reflected Riddles!
http://reflectedriddles.blogspot.com
If you are reading the RSS feed of this blog, point your reader to http://feeds.feedburner.com/ReflectedRiddles instead to make sure you don't miss anything!
I've been blogging at The Welcome Matt for over two years now, and it's been awesome. But let's face it - the name is cheesy and the address is too hard to remember. The new blog title, Reflected Riddles, is a better fit for what I'm trying to accomplish all the way around.
So head on over and check it out. See you there!
Over the weekend, The Welcome Matt changed its name, its look, and its address.
Come join the conversation over at my new blog, Reflected Riddles!
http://reflectedriddles.blogspot.com
If you are reading the RSS feed of this blog, point your reader to http://feeds.feedburner.com/ReflectedRiddles instead to make sure you don't miss anything!
I've been blogging at The Welcome Matt for over two years now, and it's been awesome. But let's face it - the name is cheesy and the address is too hard to remember. The new blog title, Reflected Riddles, is a better fit for what I'm trying to accomplish all the way around.
So head on over and check it out. See you there!
Jan 22, 2011
Starbucks Now Accepts Payment Via Cell Phone
The future is here. :)
Seriously, this is some cool stuff and I could see many companies making use of this technology in the very near future. It's a quick, painless way to pay for stuff - easier than a check (which hardly any stores take any more anyways), better than carrying around cash with you, and quicker and easier than a credit card.
It's another step forward into the convergent era of technology where devices are no longer fragmented -- the fewer devices you need, the better. I can't wait to try this out. The app is currently available for Apple and Blackberry and is coming soon for Android.
Jan 21, 2011
Horrendously Awful Football Picks, Round Three
I'm bringing my dead sexy 2-6 record for picks this year into the Conference championships with no hope of getting above .500 this year. So if you're the betting type, take note: bet against every team I pick. You've been warned.
Sunday, 1:00 pm ET, FOX
Green Bay Packers at Chicago Bears -- Okay, so I severely underestimated the Green Bay Packers. I'll give Aaron Rodgers some more credit. Maybe he is the "elite" quarterback everyone seems to think he is. If that's true, he should have no problem dispatching the weakest playoff team left: the Chicago Bears, with Crybaby Cutler at QB. Again, Chicago had the weakest strength of schedule and strength of victory this year, and they got ridiculously lucky getting to play Seattle last weekend. This weekend, Green Bay will show them what a true playoff team looks like.
Sunday, 4:30 pm ET, CBS
New York Jets at Pittsburgh Steelers -- This one is pretty much a tossup (Pittsburgh is less than a three point favorite), but I'm picking Pittsburgh based solely on the fact that I just cannot bring myself to believe a team filled with such hubris and dysfunction as the Jets can possibly make it to the Superbowl. I would like nothing more than to watch Rex Ryan walk off the field in defeat before the Superbowl, and Pittsburgh is the last remaining team possible to make that happen.
So I guess that means I'm picking a Steelers/Packers Superbowl. In other words, Bears and Jets fans, start booking your tickets to Dallas now.
Sunday, 1:00 pm ET, FOX
Green Bay Packers at Chicago Bears -- Okay, so I severely underestimated the Green Bay Packers. I'll give Aaron Rodgers some more credit. Maybe he is the "elite" quarterback everyone seems to think he is. If that's true, he should have no problem dispatching the weakest playoff team left: the Chicago Bears, with Crybaby Cutler at QB. Again, Chicago had the weakest strength of schedule and strength of victory this year, and they got ridiculously lucky getting to play Seattle last weekend. This weekend, Green Bay will show them what a true playoff team looks like.
Sunday, 4:30 pm ET, CBS
New York Jets at Pittsburgh Steelers -- This one is pretty much a tossup (Pittsburgh is less than a three point favorite), but I'm picking Pittsburgh based solely on the fact that I just cannot bring myself to believe a team filled with such hubris and dysfunction as the Jets can possibly make it to the Superbowl. I would like nothing more than to watch Rex Ryan walk off the field in defeat before the Superbowl, and Pittsburgh is the last remaining team possible to make that happen.
So I guess that means I'm picking a Steelers/Packers Superbowl. In other words, Bears and Jets fans, start booking your tickets to Dallas now.
Jan 19, 2011
Tough Conversations About Race
You guys are some of the most mature readers in the blogosphere, I think. So I think we can handle touching on the sensitive subject of race. I pray this doesn't offend, but if it does, it does so for all the right reasons.
I was born in a city where the population was greater than 97% white people. I went to junior high and high school in a city that was more than 90% white. I currently live in the most racially diverse town in Wyoming, and it is still 90% white.
I grew up in an upper middle class white family. I am white. I've been surrounded by white people my entire life. I am probably not the best person to talk about issues of race. But maybe if we get a small conversation going here, other people might realize it's okay to talk about race. In real ways, not in self-censored, half-frightened, hushed tones.
When it comes to talking about race, I'm really torn. Part of me agrees with one of my favorite actors, Morgan Freeman, who five years ago famously said, "How are we going to get rid of racism? Stop talking about it." But there's another part of me who loves things like the movie Crash and the feelings and emotions they stir up simply because they bring things like race to the surface and force people to deal with the awkward discomfort it carries with it.
It seems that race conversations in America are generally driven by one of two things: white guilt and political correctness. (And one is probably related to the other.) These two things make it nearly impossible to have a real conversation about race.
Stop Talking About It
Let's say we follow Morgan Freeman's advice. I think it's pretty wise in a lot of ways, and here's an example why: my three year old son.
One of Eli's best friends was adopted from Africa and happens to be black. (Quite literally, an African-American.) We have never told Eli his friend is black or talked to Eli about him being a different skin color.
And you know what? Eli's never noticed and never asked.
To Eli, he is just another three year old boy who is his friend. And that, to me, is beautiful. Why in the world would I want to ruin that innocence by pointing out his skin color?
But some kids in that same age group have noticed. Some kids have said mean things about his skin color. And it makes me wonder: who pointed it out to them? Did somebody tell them a "black boy" was going to be in their class? Did a well-meaning parent tell them to be nice to the new "black kid"?
Who opened their eyes to the fact that he was somehow "different" than they were?
This is what I love about Morgan Freeman's stance: people are just people. If you want to live in a colorblind world, it seems to me we should start treating people like their color honestly doesn't matter.
Instead of having a classroom where we see black children and white children and brown children, let's just see children. Instead of labeling someone as a "black CEO" or a "Hispanic coach", let's let them be a CEO or a coach.
If we'd stop pointing out our differences in the name of equality, we might find we focus less on those differences and more on the equality.
That's why I tend to believe things like "Black History Month" in schools or the "Rooney Rule" in the NFL are silly inventions by people who are riddled with their own guilt and want to transfer that weight to someone else. Again, I agree with Morgan Freeman and a slew of other activists on this point: important historical figures who happened to be black should be covered every month in history class. Limiting it to students writing essays about peanut butter every February diminishes, rather than exalts, the important role black people played in American history.
The Rooney Rule seems even sillier to me. The NFL instituted a rule seven years ago that teams must interview at least one black candidate for head coaching opportunities. This has led to a slew of token sham interviews with minority candidates who were never actually considered for the job, just to fulfill the requirements. Time, money, and resources are wasted, and once again the focus is on race.
Didn't Martin Luther King, Jr advocate for judging someone by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin? Who cares what color an NFL coach is? When the Colts played the Bears in the Superbowl a few years back, all the pundits were so excited because the game was guaranteed to give us the first black coach with a Superbowl ring. But honestly, why should we care about that? If Morgan Freeman is right, shouldn't we just celebrate the fact that these two men were great football coaches, instead of great black football coaches?
Should we celebrate when a Hispanic justice gets nominated to the Supreme Court? Shouldn't we follow Martin Luther King Jr's example and judge them by the content of their character instead?
Talking about color all the time in the name of equality makes it more and more difficult to become a truly equal and colorblind society. I am not a German-American or a Norwegian-American or any other kind of hyphenated American. I am simply an American. On some level, I don't understand the need for people to describe themselves in hyphenated ways. Just be an American. My race does not define who I am, and I think that is why I want to like Morgan Freeman's advice.
No, Let's Talk About It
On the other hand, my race does define who I am in subtle but very real ways. Because I am white, as much as I hate it and do not want it to be true, I do have opportunities other people do not have. And so your race, if you are black or Hispanic or Asian or whatever, defines who you are at some level, too. It might simply be impossible to ignore that.
There is a history of racism in this country, and so we do celebrate when Barack Obama gets elected President. Not because he's a good President (more than half the country has woken up to the fact that he's not), but because of what it means symbolically to this country.
Does celebrating this give a nod of ascent to white guilt? Probably. I'd like to think systemic racism does not exist in America any longer. I think that's fairly accurate. But then again, I'm living my white life in my 90% white world. What do I know about systemic racism?
Do cops really stop black or brown people more than white people? I don't know. Statistics can be made to say all sorts of things, and everyone's got personal anecdotes that don't mean anything in the context of larger trends. There are more black and brown people in jail than white people, but is that because of racism, or just the bum luck that the folks in jail are the ones who committed crimes? I find it difficult to believe there's a systemic, racist policy in place where cops or courts consistently let someone go because they're white.
50 years ago? Sure. Today? Not so much.
But maybe the economic systems we have in place lead to those trends. Maybe the lack of opportunities in inner cities lead to those trends. Maybe there is something unintentionally systemic that creates a non-level playing field.
There was a reason Black History Month was started: the history of blacks in America had been ignored. There was a reason the Rooney Rule was instituted in the NFL: minority candidates were being passed over for top positions.
As much as I hate to admit it, maybe there is a place in our society for things like those.
But maybe only as a starting point... because schools having Black History Month is like Christians having a "quiet time." You start to feel like the only place you can meet God is during a structured, 10 minute time in the mornings. You lose sight of the fact you can meet and talk to God anywhere, anytime. A quiet time is a fragmented, rather than a holistic, approach to spiritual life. But if you aren't hanging out with God at all, you need someplace to start and maybe a "quiet time" can give you a kick start in that direction.
So having a quiet time should never be an end goal; rather, it should be the means to an end.
Likewise, we shouldn't applaud ourselves for having Black History Month. Hopefully we can (and maybe we have?) move past the need for it as we integrate a more holistic teaching of history.
So maybe Morgan Freeman is wrong. Maybe we do need to talk about it. At least for a little while longer.
One of the reasons I love the movie Crash so much is because it forces us to look at racism in shades of gray, rather than black-and-white (pun intended). The question, "Are you a racist?" is the wrong question to ask. One of the purposes of the movie is to show that everyone, at some level, has to deal with some ugly racial tensions within themselves.
Living here in Wyoming, I don't have to deal with that too often. Part of me is really sad about that. I wonder how I would react in a city like Los Angeles.
But maybe Crash displays exactly why we do need to talk about race. We've got a lot of history together as black people and white people and brown people. Maybe eventually, sometime in the future when the world is redeemed a little more, we will be at a place where we can stop talking about it. Until then, maybe we've got a lot of conversations to have so we can understand one another better.
Let's trade stories, rather than cheap political insults, to get there. Let's share our heritages and histories instead of hurling barbs at each other. And maybe, just maybe, there will come a time when we can just be the people God created us to be.
I was born in a city where the population was greater than 97% white people. I went to junior high and high school in a city that was more than 90% white. I currently live in the most racially diverse town in Wyoming, and it is still 90% white.
I grew up in an upper middle class white family. I am white. I've been surrounded by white people my entire life. I am probably not the best person to talk about issues of race. But maybe if we get a small conversation going here, other people might realize it's okay to talk about race. In real ways, not in self-censored, half-frightened, hushed tones.
When it comes to talking about race, I'm really torn. Part of me agrees with one of my favorite actors, Morgan Freeman, who five years ago famously said, "How are we going to get rid of racism? Stop talking about it." But there's another part of me who loves things like the movie Crash and the feelings and emotions they stir up simply because they bring things like race to the surface and force people to deal with the awkward discomfort it carries with it.
It seems that race conversations in America are generally driven by one of two things: white guilt and political correctness. (And one is probably related to the other.) These two things make it nearly impossible to have a real conversation about race.
Stop Talking About It
Let's say we follow Morgan Freeman's advice. I think it's pretty wise in a lot of ways, and here's an example why: my three year old son.
One of Eli's best friends was adopted from Africa and happens to be black. (Quite literally, an African-American.) We have never told Eli his friend is black or talked to Eli about him being a different skin color.
And you know what? Eli's never noticed and never asked.
To Eli, he is just another three year old boy who is his friend. And that, to me, is beautiful. Why in the world would I want to ruin that innocence by pointing out his skin color?
But some kids in that same age group have noticed. Some kids have said mean things about his skin color. And it makes me wonder: who pointed it out to them? Did somebody tell them a "black boy" was going to be in their class? Did a well-meaning parent tell them to be nice to the new "black kid"?
Who opened their eyes to the fact that he was somehow "different" than they were?
This is what I love about Morgan Freeman's stance: people are just people. If you want to live in a colorblind world, it seems to me we should start treating people like their color honestly doesn't matter.
Instead of having a classroom where we see black children and white children and brown children, let's just see children. Instead of labeling someone as a "black CEO" or a "Hispanic coach", let's let them be a CEO or a coach.
If we'd stop pointing out our differences in the name of equality, we might find we focus less on those differences and more on the equality.
That's why I tend to believe things like "Black History Month" in schools or the "Rooney Rule" in the NFL are silly inventions by people who are riddled with their own guilt and want to transfer that weight to someone else. Again, I agree with Morgan Freeman and a slew of other activists on this point: important historical figures who happened to be black should be covered every month in history class. Limiting it to students writing essays about peanut butter every February diminishes, rather than exalts, the important role black people played in American history.
The Rooney Rule seems even sillier to me. The NFL instituted a rule seven years ago that teams must interview at least one black candidate for head coaching opportunities. This has led to a slew of token sham interviews with minority candidates who were never actually considered for the job, just to fulfill the requirements. Time, money, and resources are wasted, and once again the focus is on race.
Didn't Martin Luther King, Jr advocate for judging someone by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin? Who cares what color an NFL coach is? When the Colts played the Bears in the Superbowl a few years back, all the pundits were so excited because the game was guaranteed to give us the first black coach with a Superbowl ring. But honestly, why should we care about that? If Morgan Freeman is right, shouldn't we just celebrate the fact that these two men were great football coaches, instead of great black football coaches?
Should we celebrate when a Hispanic justice gets nominated to the Supreme Court? Shouldn't we follow Martin Luther King Jr's example and judge them by the content of their character instead?
Talking about color all the time in the name of equality makes it more and more difficult to become a truly equal and colorblind society. I am not a German-American or a Norwegian-American or any other kind of hyphenated American. I am simply an American. On some level, I don't understand the need for people to describe themselves in hyphenated ways. Just be an American. My race does not define who I am, and I think that is why I want to like Morgan Freeman's advice.
No, Let's Talk About It
On the other hand, my race does define who I am in subtle but very real ways. Because I am white, as much as I hate it and do not want it to be true, I do have opportunities other people do not have. And so your race, if you are black or Hispanic or Asian or whatever, defines who you are at some level, too. It might simply be impossible to ignore that.
There is a history of racism in this country, and so we do celebrate when Barack Obama gets elected President. Not because he's a good President (more than half the country has woken up to the fact that he's not), but because of what it means symbolically to this country.
Does celebrating this give a nod of ascent to white guilt? Probably. I'd like to think systemic racism does not exist in America any longer. I think that's fairly accurate. But then again, I'm living my white life in my 90% white world. What do I know about systemic racism?
Do cops really stop black or brown people more than white people? I don't know. Statistics can be made to say all sorts of things, and everyone's got personal anecdotes that don't mean anything in the context of larger trends. There are more black and brown people in jail than white people, but is that because of racism, or just the bum luck that the folks in jail are the ones who committed crimes? I find it difficult to believe there's a systemic, racist policy in place where cops or courts consistently let someone go because they're white.
50 years ago? Sure. Today? Not so much.
But maybe the economic systems we have in place lead to those trends. Maybe the lack of opportunities in inner cities lead to those trends. Maybe there is something unintentionally systemic that creates a non-level playing field.
There was a reason Black History Month was started: the history of blacks in America had been ignored. There was a reason the Rooney Rule was instituted in the NFL: minority candidates were being passed over for top positions.
As much as I hate to admit it, maybe there is a place in our society for things like those.
But maybe only as a starting point... because schools having Black History Month is like Christians having a "quiet time." You start to feel like the only place you can meet God is during a structured, 10 minute time in the mornings. You lose sight of the fact you can meet and talk to God anywhere, anytime. A quiet time is a fragmented, rather than a holistic, approach to spiritual life. But if you aren't hanging out with God at all, you need someplace to start and maybe a "quiet time" can give you a kick start in that direction.
So having a quiet time should never be an end goal; rather, it should be the means to an end.
Likewise, we shouldn't applaud ourselves for having Black History Month. Hopefully we can (and maybe we have?) move past the need for it as we integrate a more holistic teaching of history.
So maybe Morgan Freeman is wrong. Maybe we do need to talk about it. At least for a little while longer.
One of the reasons I love the movie Crash so much is because it forces us to look at racism in shades of gray, rather than black-and-white (pun intended). The question, "Are you a racist?" is the wrong question to ask. One of the purposes of the movie is to show that everyone, at some level, has to deal with some ugly racial tensions within themselves.
Living here in Wyoming, I don't have to deal with that too often. Part of me is really sad about that. I wonder how I would react in a city like Los Angeles.
But maybe Crash displays exactly why we do need to talk about race. We've got a lot of history together as black people and white people and brown people. Maybe eventually, sometime in the future when the world is redeemed a little more, we will be at a place where we can stop talking about it. Until then, maybe we've got a lot of conversations to have so we can understand one another better.
Let's trade stories, rather than cheap political insults, to get there. Let's share our heritages and histories instead of hurling barbs at each other. And maybe, just maybe, there will come a time when we can just be the people God created us to be.
Jan 18, 2011
Top 5 Tuesdays: Movies You Watch More Than Once
Maybe it's because I'm cheap, but I have a hard time shelling out $9 to see a movie in the theater. Very few movies are worth that kind of dough to me, and fewer still are worth seeing more than once, whether that be in the theater, as a rental, or purchasing it to watch over and over again at home.
But there are those select few movies that are amazing enough to watch more than once. And not in the, "I'm laying on the couch sick and need a movie to occupy my time" sense. In the "that movie was freaking awesome and I need to watch it again" sense.
So here's this week's Top 5 Tuesday category: Movies You'll Watch More Than Once.
Here's mine:
1. 300 -- This movie is the epitome of what man movies were made to be, and it has some of the coolest graphic effects to go along with it, too. I could watch this movie a hundred times and never be bored.
2. The Lord of the Rings -- I'm bending the rules and throwing the whole trilogy on here. It's not any great twist in the plot that makes these movies so re-watchable, it's the overall superior quality to any other film in its genre that keeps me coming back to these classics-to-be.
3. Crash -- After seeing how intricately all the story lines weave together the first time you see this film, you'll want to go back and watch it again to fully appreciate the script and all of the themes and undertones. This one was brilliantly done, and deserved all the awards it won and more.
4. Arlington Road -- I know I will get made fun of by at least one person for putting this on the list, but it is here anyway because it is an awesome movie. Any aspiring movie-maker needs to watch this movie for its lessons in cinematic foreshadowing. And once you catch the unsettling ending, you'll have to go back and watch it again to absorb how it is all put together.
5. The Sixth Sense -- Of course this has to be on the list. I don't care what you say or who you are, you did not guess the ending the first time you saw this movie. :) Everyone watched this at least twice to get the full effect.
Honorable mention: The Prestige.
There's mine. What are the best movies you watched (or will watch) more than once?
But there are those select few movies that are amazing enough to watch more than once. And not in the, "I'm laying on the couch sick and need a movie to occupy my time" sense. In the "that movie was freaking awesome and I need to watch it again" sense.
So here's this week's Top 5 Tuesday category: Movies You'll Watch More Than Once.
Here's mine:
1. 300 -- This movie is the epitome of what man movies were made to be, and it has some of the coolest graphic effects to go along with it, too. I could watch this movie a hundred times and never be bored.
2. The Lord of the Rings -- I'm bending the rules and throwing the whole trilogy on here. It's not any great twist in the plot that makes these movies so re-watchable, it's the overall superior quality to any other film in its genre that keeps me coming back to these classics-to-be.
3. Crash -- After seeing how intricately all the story lines weave together the first time you see this film, you'll want to go back and watch it again to fully appreciate the script and all of the themes and undertones. This one was brilliantly done, and deserved all the awards it won and more.
4. Arlington Road -- I know I will get made fun of by at least one person for putting this on the list, but it is here anyway because it is an awesome movie. Any aspiring movie-maker needs to watch this movie for its lessons in cinematic foreshadowing. And once you catch the unsettling ending, you'll have to go back and watch it again to absorb how it is all put together.
5. The Sixth Sense -- Of course this has to be on the list. I don't care what you say or who you are, you did not guess the ending the first time you saw this movie. :) Everyone watched this at least twice to get the full effect.
Honorable mention: The Prestige.
There's mine. What are the best movies you watched (or will watch) more than once?
Jan 17, 2011
Sneak Peek: Chapter Titles
My book is coming along really nicely, and I hope to have it finished up here in the next month or two. As a special sneak peek, I thought I'd show you, my faithful readers, what I've tentatively outlined for the chapters in the book.
Conversation one is the interweaving of two stories: (1) our history as humanity through the five major culture shifts we've experienced (or are experiencing), and (2) my own personal history and background (chapters 3, 5, 7, and 9). This section comes to a climax as we shift into postmodernity -- something that is currently underway. The chapters in conversation one are shorter than those in conversation two.
Conversation two uses the backdrop of that culture shift as an opportunity to reimagine our faith and rediscover the message and heart of God in order to reach the people around us. I've thrown in some section headings to kind of flesh out what these chapters will look like a little more.
None of these chapter titles are set in stone, obviously, and some are more likely to change than others (chapter seven, for instance). But this should give you guys a pretty good idea of what the book is about and what I've been working on writing over the past year!
Conversation one is the interweaving of two stories: (1) our history as humanity through the five major culture shifts we've experienced (or are experiencing), and (2) my own personal history and background (chapters 3, 5, 7, and 9). This section comes to a climax as we shift into postmodernity -- something that is currently underway. The chapters in conversation one are shorter than those in conversation two.
Conversation two uses the backdrop of that culture shift as an opportunity to reimagine our faith and rediscover the message and heart of God in order to reach the people around us. I've thrown in some section headings to kind of flesh out what these chapters will look like a little more.
Introduction
Conversation ONE: Where We've Been
Chapter 1: A Look Back
Chapter 2: This is Sparta (Ancient Culture to Hellenism)
Chapter 3: Religion By Process of Elimination
Chapter 4: Unification of Church and State (Hellenism to Medievalism)
Chapter 5: I'm On Fire
Chapter 6: Respect the Classics, Man (Medievalism to the Renaissance)
Chapter 7: Being a Jackass for Jesus
Chapter 8: Pride Before the Fall (The Renaissance to Modernity)
Chapter 9: It is for Freedom
Chapter 10: Philosophical Mumbo Jumbo (Modernity to Postmodernity)
Conversation TWO: Where We Can Go
Chapter 11: God
*God is Love
*Black and White and Shades of Grey
*Useless and Obsolete Rules
Chapter 12: Scripture
*God's Breath
*Literally
*Rediscovering Narrative
Chapter 13: Heaven and Hell
*Our Heaven Fetish
*The Fear-Driven Life
*The End
Chapter 14: The Gospel
*Anchovy Prices
*The Kingdom
*Evangelii
Chapter 15: Discipleship
*Fishermen and Tax Collectors
*Lovin' Us Some Hierarchy
*Of Life and Love
Chapter 16: The Church
*Candles
*Doubt
*God is Love
None of these chapter titles are set in stone, obviously, and some are more likely to change than others (chapter seven, for instance). But this should give you guys a pretty good idea of what the book is about and what I've been working on writing over the past year!
