I have to say I loved Constantine, no matter what the reviewers think. The actress who played Gabriel and the actor who played Satan were particularly good.
And its theology, while off, wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected it to be.
disciple, husband, father, college minister
I have to say I loved Constantine, no matter what the reviewers think. The actress who played Gabriel and the actor who played Satan were particularly good.
And its theology, while off, wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected it to be.
Gene Scott died yesterday, and I feel obliged to say something for some strange reason. I guess it’s because I’m always struck by the vaguely overlapping areas of our lives.
First, he was at one time an Assemblies of God minister in my district. He left the denomination years back (in good standing, surprisingly enough), but the connection is still there.
Second, Dr. Scott had a connection with Stanford University–he earned his doctorate here in 1957 and was apparently once profiled for the cover story of the Stanford alumni magazine (this seems to be an undigitized issue or else I would link to it).
Third, his ministry was by its nature a money-asking sort. His methods were way over the line (some allege immoral and illegal), although he was pretty funny about it: “I sometimes get asked about what happens to all the money that comes in to this ministry. Let me tell you what happens to it. I spend it!”
Fourth, he was eccentric. That’s putting it mildly. If you’ve seen his show you know what I mean, and if you haven’t there’s no way you would believe me–for instance, one of his peculiar worship songs was Kill a Pissant for Jesus (I do not, sadly, have the lyrics). While I applaud the use of the underutilized word pissant , the song gives me pause. If you’ve got a few minutes, read over this old article from the LA Times: The Shock Jock of Television to get a feel for his unique ministry style.
The Assemblies of God, Stanford, fundraising, and eccentricity. That’s really all we had in common as far as I can determine (that, and we were both California white males). In some ways I admire him tremendously, and in other ways I shudder when I think of him. Either way, I consider him a distant cousin in ministry.
I hope he’s in heaven. If so, I imagine there are a lot of surprised people having some very unusual conversations with him.
Today’s Stanford Daily was replete with God-talk.
Front page: Scotty McLennan tells profs they need to address religious issues in the classroom.
Page 3: an favorable article on Mosaic’s Extreme Makeover service project.
Page 8: Frosh Tabitha Yim bears witness to Christ in her gymnastics profile.
Interesting, no?
I just read Upon This Rock, an absolutely phenomenal article by an ex-Christian who goes to a Christian music festival and writes about it for GQ.
If you are a college or youth pastor you really need to read the article in its entirety. I mean it–all the way to the end.
(thanks to GetReligion for drawing my attention to this)
I just got a phone call from Will Klier, Chi Alpha leader in Bozeman, MT. A phone call from Will, one of Chi Alpha’s most inventive leaders, is always a treat.
Anyway, he was telling me that they’ve been having unseasonably warm weather in Montana (in the 50s) and they’ve also been trying to drum up publicity for Chi Alpha, so they decided to stage a mock protest.
Actual slogans chanted:
What do we want? Winter! When do we want it? Now!
Heck no, we want snow, global warming’s got to go!
Powder to the people!
The protest wound up being covered by the media and made it into the AP wire, so that the picture you see above was copied from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Now that’s a creative (and successful) publicity stunt.
Be sure to let me know if you ever have any ideas like that for our group.
this software helps you find musicians similar to those you love (courtesy The Long Tail)–and they know all the cool Christian artists, too.
Earl Creps just sent me a link to the article Revitalizing Religion In The Academy. Pretty boring unless you’re thinking about the role of religion in university settings (but interesting if you are).
Anyway, one stat leapt out at me: Campus Crusade for Christ reported a 73% increase in student attendance between the 95–96 school year and the 98–99 school year.
One of my favorite websites, Church Marketing Sucks, has hit the nail on the head with the Dr. Dobson vs Spongebob brouhaha.
My phone rang just after 10:00am. What follows is a rough transcript of the ensuing conversation.
Her: Hi, is this the right number to call if I have a question about Chi Alpha?
Me: Yes, I’m Glen Davis, the director of the ministry.
Her: This is probably going to be the most random question you get today, but did you guys have a meeting last night?
Me: Yes we did.
Her: And were you selling tacos there?
Me: No. Why do you ask?
Her: My friends told me that you were and I said that was stupid. You were a Christian group and why would you be selling tacos?
Me: Precisely. There were no tacos for sale at our meeting.
Her: That’s what I thought.
Me: May I ask you a question in return?
Her: Sure.
Me: Were we doing anything to lead your friends to believe that we had tacos for sale?
Her: Not that I could see.
Me: That’s reasurring.
Her: Yeah, two guys had just made some totally inappropriate comment to me and my friends explained it by saying that your group was selling tacos.
Me: *pause* Did these two gentlemen seem to be connected with our ministry?
Her: Oh no, definitely not.
Me: Okay.
Her: Anyway, thanks for helping!
Me: Sure thing. Feel free to call me if you have any more questions.
How random was that?