Blah Guy

Linked are the last two messages from our Friday night Bible Study on Purpose and Trembling.

Click here.

I have for years been fearful of the educated.

There is a general fear as well among Christians at the University of Oregon where I serve that a PhD stands for “Personally hate deity”. A recent study by Harvard attempted to show the higher the level of atheism the higher one moves in academia, in particular the realm of Psychology and Biology. This is not surprising.

Yes, 23.4% of professors profess no definite faith, but that means that 76.6% of professors do. Regardless of the content of their faith, it blows my mind that so many educated folks find faith a reasonable and viable option particularly in the realm of the academic institution.

It is very dangerous to equate education with athiesm. It does not appear that anyone is trying to do that in this study, but the statistics speak loudly. The dangerous thing to me isn’t that academia appears to be somewhat un-Christian, it worries me that most Christians don’t go to those specific institutions, but opt for a “Christian” education. It makes education Christian and not, so bifurcated and, unfortunately, keeps brilliant Christians out of secular Universities, and likewise brilliant athiests are kept out of Christian Universities. They could teach us a ton.

I came across an awesome idea about Preach-Texting. Read this article to see what I am talking about. During a sermon, the pastor invited folks to text him questions about prayer (which the sermon was about).

This is interesting to me for two reasons. First, it is becoming more and more clear to me that preaching, and church services in general, must be more dialogical than monological. The church seems to be returning to its roots of “interactive”. Early chapters of Acts portrays a church that, yes is full of sinners, but appears to feed off of each other in dialogue and connection.

Secondly, there appears to be an evolving world of “church services” which I would argue is a must. The set song, prayer, announcements, word formula appears to be losing its novelty. How it must change and what it will be come is unclear, but one things is sure, Christianity and its services must change to reach a different set of people.