The purpose of this blog

            The original purpose of this blog is more than just rambling about what is on my mind, although I occasionally do that.  I became a believer in Jesus in the summer of 1968, the week after the Democratic Party’s convention in Chicago, and concurrent protest over the Vietnam War and rioting.  During the summer of 2008, I had a business that eventually turned into using every free moment of my time on Saturdays and Sundays, which didn’t work well with being involved with a fellowship of other believers.  I tried to find a church that met on weekdays, and in the course of doing so, ran into books such as Barna & Viola’s Pagan Christianity and Simson’s Houses That Change the World.  While that scholarship changed the way I approached following Jesus, I was aware that many of my fellow believers don’t read such serious readings, and that this flavor of what God is doing gets nearly zero attention in the Christian media (for obvious reasons—there’s minimal money and human power in it).  To that effect, over time, I wrote a group of two minute commentaries, with the audience in mind as youth oriented Christian radio.  At the time, I didn’t have the money to put them on a local station, and, as of now, still do not.  In December, 2010, I posted the transcripts of these on this site, appearing with the title Simple Church Minute, numbered 1 through 100.  During May through December 2011, I have posted five and one minute versions of the same subjects, which appear with numbers in the 1000’s for one minute versions, and 2000’s for five minute versions at the beginning of the titles. 

      I have posted footnotes from where this information comes from. The research is important so one can see that the idea behind these statements isn’t just to be different, or controversial.  It is to show that what Jesus taught the disciples, who as apostles taught the early church is different than what centuries of traditions have morphed the meanings of the words of the Bible.  Over the Middle Ages and later, our previous brothers and sisters may not have been able to know better, but today there is no excuse to misunderstand the scriptures, just because it threatens what some persons (sometimes not necessarily believers) feel comfortable with.
        Lastly, one reason I do not have as many five minute transcripts posted is that, over time, I have run across various writings of others who, from their journey with Jesus, have been able to write about certain issues far better than I could, so, if or when I ever get the commentaries on radio, I will read these writings (sometimes edited for time) in certain time spots, with their permission.  The following writings fit the context of the five minute series:

Author              blog (or writing)                    date                                title

George Barna    georgebarna.com                  5/8/2011    Measuring the fruit of wholeness

Felicity Dale     simplychurch.com                7/1/2011      The financial transition from…

Felicity Dale                                                   7/5/2011      Stories of financial transition…

Keith Giles       subversive1.blogspot.com     6/7/2011      Sympathy for the Pharisee?

Keith Giles                                                      6/21/2011    Now Open: The New Temple ...

Keith Giles                                                     5/28/2011    Pitfalls of Organic Church 3

Keith Giles                                                     5/30/2011    Pitfalls of Organic Church 5

Keith Giles                                                     6/22/2011   Confessions of a Selfish Mind

Keith Giles                                                     7/19/2011    We ARE the Church

Keith Giles                                                     7/21/2011     Salvation is a Process, Not a …

Keith Giles                                                     7/29/2011    When Should We Meet Toget...

Keith Giles                                                     8/2/2011      Our Idea vs. God’s Idea

Keith Giles                                                     8/29/2011   The Gospel: For Here or To Go

Milt Rodriguez miltrodriguez.wordpress.com 5/13/2011  River Crossers

Ross Rohde      thejesusvirus.org                    5/30/2011    I Don’t Want to Die

Ross Rohde                                                      6/30/2011   Don’t Forsake Fellowship

Jon Zens          searching together.org                               The New Testament is Plural, Not Si...        

                         Prelude to Jon’s book, The Pastor Has No Clothes
                         This writing also appears on frankviola.com, 1/22/11, as a guest writing

Also, about eight of the five minute talks are based on Steven S. Lyzenga’s dissertation, “Assessing the State of Simple Churches in the USA Regarding Releasing Resources Toward Finishing the Great Commission”.  Go to any of the five minute commentaries numbered in the 2150’s, and in the footnotes is a link to that work.

             Lastly, the list above might make you think that I may be overly enamored with Keith Giles’ work.  The reason for so many is that his writings happen to fit the five minute format I was working with, and his experience brings life to the subjects touched in those writings.

A soft sell introduction to the idea of organic church from afar

Before about three years ago, I was not aware of the existance of simple, organic church. I found it because I was looking for it, as traditional church didn't fit into my business schedule, and, more importantly, it wasn't adding to my life, and I didn't feel that I was adding to others', just showing up to a service, unable to be involved in anything, as where I was was geared to Monday through Friday working persons, and, at that time, I was a "work all day Saturday and Sunday" person. I know some people that may not be aware of this flavor of the Body of Jesus' existance, and today, I stumbled upon an idea that is in the form of a "What do you think?" approach that, I hope, doesn't imply an expected answer. I sent a few brothers who now live far away this message, thanks to the technological everywhereness of Facebook:

On 3/5/2012, on Felicity Dale's blog, www.simplychurch.com, she mentions 7 changes she is seeing in the believers of this culture. From where I am, I cannot tell, as I am in the same branch of the tree of forms of honoring Jesus as from where she is. When I look at Christian media, even more than secular media, I don't see any signs of these things, as a general rule. What's your perspective?

Corporate logo tattoos

            Although I heard this a few days ago, I reheard the news that one of the new points of the new bargaining agreement between Major League Baseball and the players union is a ban on players getting corporate logo tattoos.  Doing a little research, it appears that there is one player with tattoos who may have such a tattoo among all the body art on his upper torso. 

            I write on this in that, as a believer in Jesus, I realize that the admonition on tattoos in the Old Testament was connected to the religious significance that some of the peoples near Israel had in their use, therefore meaning some form of idol worship.  As a sports fan, I am familiar with an NFL Films piece on the Raiders, which shows a man in a leather vest opening it up to show a picture of the recently departed head man Al Davis on his chest.  I couldn’t help but think that, in a unthinking way, that was somewhat like idol worship again.

            I decided to do a little research on the net and stumbled across the following article:  http://csrn.camden.rutgers.edu/newsletters/5-1/Orend.htm .  In  Corporate Logo Tattoos: Literal Corporate Branding? by Angela Orend-Cunningham of University of Louisville, she writes about the trend towards persons getting corporate logos on their body as a connection between postmodern society and persons relating corporate branding, although not necessarily product, to their life.  She speaks particularly of the relationship between the Nike swoosh and their catch phrase “Just Do It”, which, of course, is full of postmodern philosophical meaning.  One aspect of our society is the muddying of the waters between serious thought and unthinking impulse masquerading as serious thoughts.

            One of the blogs I get a feed on is Felicity Dale’s www.simplychurch.com .  On her December 12, 2011 entry, she credits some persons whose writings have taught her, and she mentions a missionary named David L. Watson (www.davidlwatson.org).  I went there, where appeared his latest entry, dated November 1, 2011. Watson makes an interesting point of comparing aspects of secular western society to animism, and traditional parts of our society, particularly capitalism, to a creative worldview.  Conversely, though, I could argue the exact opposite point as he is attempting to make.  First, until less than two centuries ago, within “Christian cultures”, the word “creative” was reserved for God’s acts in Genesis 1, and never used for human acts of discovery, be it scientific or artistic. Second, because of the change in our culture, capitalism in its most powerful forms acts as the worship of money, and honest, moral persons are passed over for advancement over the persons who will do anything to advance sales.  One must remember that “sales specialists” only go back to the snake oil salesmen of the 1850’s.  Each generation of persons getting burned by sales lies, then half-truths, then carefully worded phrases, hasn’t improved the honesty of sales organizations, only their subtlety.  Conversely, the Occupy Wall Street movement is made up, in part, with intelligent, honest, and many times homeless persons who know the people with money and power have shafted them in favor of the unethical. 

            It appears Watson lives in San Jose, CA, so I would imagine that he is aware of what I just said.  I also recognize that, given what he does, my point may be that important to him, while I, as a person who has worked at bottom level jobs for my career since college, see this point as being of great importance.  Also, we are both correct.  We are just looking at different aspects of the same issue in a complex world.     

2014--Felicity Dale 070511

           

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.  Last blip, I read from the blog of Felicity Dale on persons living on church payrolls transitioning to a more scriptural form of caring for the financial needs of their family so as to encourage other believers in organic worship.  In her blog, www.simplychurch.com, on July 5, 2011 she continued.

(blog, in its entirety.   The way her blog is set up, one has to go back the number of months for when you are reading this to July, 2011 to read, and July 5 will be next to last on the page.)

  You can communicate with me at simplechurchminute@yahoo.com or by phone at 757-735-xxxx.  For more information on simple, organic worship in this area, visit www.hrscn.org.

Just a personal note:  As much as it might seem crazy to some persons, I believe that I am soon to be transitioning to a situation whereby it will be no problem in giving out my personal number, even, as this script implies, on the radio.  I just don’t know whether I’ll have the same number by the time I get these on.  Congruent with these previous two blogs, I have been dealing with the problem of employment ever since sensing the Lord’s direction not to move towards vocational ministry many years ago.

2013--from Felicity Dale 070111

           

            My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute, Today, a reading from Felicity Dale, from her blog, www.simplychurch.com, from July 1, 2011:

(www.simplychurch.com/, July 1 entry in its entirety except for the last sentence that is a tie in to the next blog. You will have to scan down to the month of July, 2011 to see article, as it appears that page number within address line changes each month. )

(what I said afterward:)

In the Bible, only those believers who were going to communicate the message of Jesus where it has not been heard were supported.  This isn’t a problem that just began with the New Covenant.  The reason that Paul learned tentmaking was that Old Testament priests at times had a difficult time making ends meet when large amounts of the children of Israel fell away to follow other gods, and then didn’t give the tithes the priests were to live on, so the Pharisees demanded their students to learn a trade, which was why Paul could do tentmaking while on his missionary journeys.  Some of us today know former pastors who struggle today when something happens such that they can’t get a church job. 

That western culture has created a system that is contrary to the example we have in the New Testament has been a problem for our leaders for generations, albeit oftentimes not spoken of within earshot of those of us not on a church corporation’s payroll.   More on this tomorrow.

You can contact me at simplechurchminute@yahoo.com or by phone at 757-735-xxxx.

A transcript of this is posted at tevyebird.blogspot.com, dated July 23, 2011. 

For more information about simple, being the church in this area, visit www.hrscn.org.