A Different Perspective

Shout Out
I don’t know if it is just my computer, but the commenting system seemed to go away. I am trying to fix it. If you want to respond to a blog post, email me at alan@theooze.com.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 15th, 2004 at 4:53 pm and is filed under Faith. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Acting buzz
I am doing a scene from Good Will Hunting tomorrow in my acting class. I love that movie.

It’s time for new headshots. I have lost a lot of weight, and though I will need new headshots again after I lose my next 25 lbs, it is time. I can wait no longer. Carter Mason needs unleashed.

Emerging Church resources
I hear two different themes emerging from withing the movement. One, we desperately need resources which fit with the postmodern, emerging, reformational, whatever-u-want-2-call-it movement. The other, why should we tap into the marketing errors of the past? The latter is a call to caution.

Perhaps the emerging church movement should adapt an open source mentality to resources. The largest damper on this, of course, is there is no money in it for those producing the works. You may say, so what, but the time someone can invest in something greatly increases when there is a paycheck involved. Maybe this shouldn’t be so, maybe it should. It is.

I wonder if there is a way to integrate elements of the Open Source phenomenon into emerging church resources, while still allowing for some money to be made (as long as it doesn’t turn into a huge lopsided conglomeration). I think in an ideal world, this could happen. In our world, no way. Introduce money, and we will try to make more and more of it.

I myself am not of higher moral standards. I am working on a book proposal. I will gladly receive my advance and royalty checks. I know I could not take the time to write a book without the financial consideration. If what I have is worth being said, people will buy it.

I have considered making it a downloadable book and let people give voluntarily. I have a hard time believing a significant enough number of persons would give. Perhaps I am just a pessimist.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 12th, 2004 at 12:16 pm and is filed under Faith. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

In mourning…
As a die-hard Chiefs fan, I am in mourning. And the Colts no less. Grrrrrr

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 11th, 2004 at 1:54 pm and is filed under Faith. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

advancement of this blog
commenting has long been overdue on this blog. i never took the time to find out how incredibly simple it is. you can now comment on my thoughts, if you like. play nice, because you can be pretty much anonymous with the Shout Out system!!!

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 10th, 2004 at 9:34 pm and is filed under Faith. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Value-laden Information
I am working on an article on the information we receive. Prior to the telegraph, most ‘news’ was information which was informative for living life. It contained contextual information which would have action value for the recipients.

When space was eliminated for dissemination of news, the information became often quite useless. Take a look at any internet news site and ask yourself how many of the stories would change any action you are already planning on taking? Would it cause you to take any additional action? Outside of the occasional weather report or stock news for investors, I suggest you would take no action at all based on the news we receive.

This is not to say this information is all bad. It has, however, produced a culture which prizes information regardless of any practical value that information has. We see this now in the church. Many confess a fear of reading their bible because they don’t have the seminary training to understand it. Most churches center around a talk of about 30 minutes each week. What does the talk do? It disseminates information.

Sure, good homiletical approaches will tell you that ‘application’ is a key component to sermon structure. However, in a culture where most information does not hold action value, we become content with possessing the information rather than putting it into practice. Every once in awhile a message is preached and happens to line up with a circumstance for a handful of individuals in the church. However, most of the time the information will not be acted upon. Yet, the sermon still holds the central position for most evangelical churches.

We must find a way for the ‘information’ or perhaps, if you like, ‘good news’ to have action value for the body of Christ. Otherwise, we are just adding to the useless information already packed into our brains.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 10th, 2004 at 6:07 pm and is filed under Faith. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Shape up
Okay, I am getting closer to joining a health club again. This isn’t part of some New Year’s Resolution. Really.

I have been dieting and have lost some weight doing so. I am on a pretty healthy diet, and I feel better about my eating habits. However, I feel like I have maxed out the effects of a diet right now. I can continue to lose weight, but I will be unable to really shape up without getting back into the workout scene.

I dread it. It is so difficult for me to keep up good workout habits. Somehow, some way I need to do it. When I did the infomercial for Body by Jake, I felt great working out with the trainer and using the Ab Scissor (which I have started using again, and I still love it!). Now, I really need to be self-motivated (as opposed to cash-motivated, lol) to hit the workouts. I am going to be trying a free ten-day pass to 24 hour fitness. If I like them, I may just stick with them since I am a major creature of the night. If not, LA Fitness has a two-week guest pass. I was with them once before, not bad. But the one close to me now doesn’t have a pool. I looked at the Y, but too far away. Of course they did say something about financial assistance for low income local residents. I think I will qualify!

Okay, this isn’t the normal post for me as I am just sort of rambling about my life. No deep thoughts or acting tidbits from me today people…

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 8th, 2004 at 5:33 pm and is filed under Faith. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

A New Year
I am observant, aren’t I?

Resolutions have never been my cup of tea. Perhaps they actually work for some, but the few times I have tried them the results have been negligible. Now, this year, I am looking to start a healthclub membership again. Not because I need to make a resolution, but because I am woefully out of shape.

Sure, I have lost weight, but I can’t get healthy with just weight loss. I am now 30 years old, and let me tell you, it is much harder to get into shape then it used to be.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 5th, 2004 at 12:55 pm and is filed under Faith. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.