{"id":747,"date":"2006-10-21T09:37:12","date_gmt":"2006-10-21T17:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/archives\/2006\/10\/21\/as-the-worlds-number-one-speaker-on-the-subject-of-humility\/"},"modified":"2006-10-21T09:37:12","modified_gmt":"2006-10-21T17:37:12","slug":"as-the-worlds-number-one-speaker-on-the-subject-of-humility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2006\/10\/21\/as-the-worlds-number-one-speaker-on-the-subject-of-humility","title":{"rendered":"As The World\u2019s Number One Speaker On The Subject of Humility\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Off-Road<\/a>As the world\u2019s num\u00adber one speak\u00ader on the sub\u00adject of humil\u00adi\u00adty, I\u2019d like to draw your atten\u00adtion to a book in which I am a recur\u00adring char\u00adac\u00adter.<\/p>\n

Earl Creps<\/a> has just writ\u00adten Off-Road Dis\u00adci\u00adplines<\/a>, a book for church lead\u00aders try\u00ading to nav\u00adi\u00adgate all the change our cul\u00adture keeps throw\u00ading at us.<\/p>\n

I was pleas\u00adant\u00adly sur\u00adprised to dis\u00adcov\u00ader that I am quot\u00aded many times through\u00adout the book. If you have nev\u00ader read your\u00adself quot\u00aded in a book before, let me assure that it can be dis\u00adcon\u00adcert\u00ading.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no way I can be objec\u00adtive about this book. It\u2019s writ\u00adten by a friend and almost all the recur\u00adring char\u00adac\u00adters are friends.<\/p>\n

So I will sim\u00adply say that I enjoyed it and I think I would have enjoyed it whether or not it was by a friend. It\u2019s just filled with fas\u00adci\u00adnat\u00ading lit\u00adtle snip\u00adpets.<\/p>\n

The His\u00adto\u00adry Chan\u00adnel recent\u00adly offered me part of the answer in a doc\u00adu\u00admen\u00adtary about the researchers who devote their lives to dis\u00adcov\u00ader\u00ading Atlantis. These pas\u00adsion\u00adate and sin\u00adcere peo\u00adple con\u00adsid\u00ader them\u00adselves con\u00adsum\u00admate pro\u00adfes\u00adsion\u00adals in their field. They employ expen\u00adsive, high-tech equip\u00adment and sac\u00adri\u00adfice the respect of main\u00adstream sci\u00adence to live on the per\u00adpet\u00adu\u00adal verge of one of the great\u00adest dis\u00adcov\u00ader\u00adies of all time. Spurred on by an ancient text (Pla\u00adto, in this case), they spend years sur\u00advey\u00ading vast stretch\u00ades of ocean in a quest to assem\u00adble clues to cat\u00ada\u00adclysmic events in the dis\u00adtant past. The dis\u00addain of their sci\u00aden\u00adtif\u00adic peers only increas\u00ades their fer\u00advor by mak\u00ading these faith\u00adful into pro\u00adfes\u00adsion\u00adal mar\u00adtyrs. Some\u00adtime before the last com\u00admer\u00adcial on the TV pro\u00adgram, I grasped the par\u00adal\u00adlel to the post-Chris\u00adt\u00adian expe\u00adri\u00adence of the Church: ancient texts, out\u00adra\u00adgeous the\u00ado\u00adries, huge expense, per\u00adse\u00adcu\u00adtion com\u00adplex, and a pas\u00adsion\u00adate devo\u00adtion to things that mat\u00adter only to insid\u00aders. (page 21)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have to believe I would find that grip\u00adping no mat\u00adter who wrote it. Or con\u00adsid\u00ader this sim\u00adple evi\u00addence that demon\u00adstrates a truth I have long believed but been unable to show data for:<\/p>\n

\u2026in a sur\u00advey of mag\u00ada\u00adzine indices I found that the first ref\u00ader\u00adences to post\u00admod\u00adernism<\/i> in Chris\u00adt\u00adian peri\u00adod\u00adi\u00adcals did not appear until four to thir\u00adteen years after the first ref\u00ader\u00adences are indexed in sec\u00adu\u00adlar jour\u00adnals.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That\u2019s the most con\u00adcrete, data-based illus\u00adtra\u00adtion I\u2019ve ever seen of the cul\u00adture lag in which the church is trapped.<\/p>\n

Plus he coins two phras\u00ades that I love: \u201cover\u00adchurched under\u00adachiev\u00ader\u201d (so busy with church stuff they have no time for real stuff) and \u201cortho\u00addoxy creep\u201d (a ten\u00adden\u00adcy to doc\u00adtri\u00adnal\u00adize every opin\u00adion).<\/p>\n

Any\u00adway, on to the impor\u00adtant stuff: me.<\/p>\n

My first appear\u00adance in the book is on page 45: <\/p>\n

After hear\u00ading a talk sup\u00adport\u00aded by Pow\u00ader\u00adPoint, Glen (half my age) said polite\u00adly, \u201cI thought you had a degree in com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adca\u00adtion.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ouch. The words hurt Earl the first time and me the sec\u00adond.<\/p>\n

I am fea\u00adtured again five pages lat\u00ader: \u201cGlen helps me with tech\u00adnol\u00ado\u00adgy and the Inter\u00adnet.\u201d<\/p>\n

My best role, how\u00adev\u00ader, comes in the chap\u00adter on humil\u00adi\u00adty.<\/p>\n

No, real\u00adly.<\/p>\n

A [min\u00adis\u00adte\u00adr\u00adi\u00adal] life rep\u00adre\u00adsent\u00ading an atti\u00adtude of \u201cI know!\u201d \u201cYou\u2019re wrong!\u201d and \u201cYou need me!\u201d serves as what my friend Glen calls a \u201cblock\u00ader,\u201d stand\u00ading in the way of the spir\u00adi\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly hun\u00adgry rather than moti\u00advat\u00ading them to inves\u00adti\u00adgate Jesus fur\u00adther. (page 83)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At last, I am por\u00adtrayed as the hum\u00adble sage I know and love.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019ll stop quot\u00ading from the book before I paint myself in an unflat\u00adter\u00ading light again. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the world\u2019s num\u00adber one speak\u00ader on the sub\u00adject of humil\u00adi\u00adty, I\u2019d like to draw your atten\u00adtion to a book in which I am a recur\u00adring char\u00adac\u00adter. Earl Creps has just writ\u00adten Off-Road Dis\u00adci\u00adplines, a book for church lead\u00aders try\u00ading to nav\u00adi\u00adgate all the change our cul\u00adture keeps throw\u00ading at us. I was pleas\u00adant\u00adly sur\u00adprised \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cAs The World\u2019s Num\u00adber One Speak\u00ader On The Sub\u00adject of Humil\u00adi\u00adty\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-of-random-interest","category-personal-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-c3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}