Pacific Highlander

Tony Jones on the Road

Tony Jones, national director of Emergent in the USA, has started up a video series on YouTube, featuring some of the people and thinking found in his book, “The New Christians”. The first features Trucker Frank, a guy who tells it like it is. Frank discovered that Jesus focused on what we do now rather than life after death. Frank got kicked out of the church he was pastoring for talking to the people who had left. The act that tipped the scales was throwing down a fake plant, in its pot, and telling the remnant that they were as fake as that plant…

Being a prophet is an exciting calling but it’s hard to find people who will pay you to live it out.

Tony will be in Australia in October, for Black Stump Festival in Sydney. We’re in conversation about the possibility of a visit to Queensland.

Tags: Emergent, Emerging Church, Reading, Theology, Tony Jones

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Rob Bell Too Sexy For My Church

Rob Bell, pastor at Mars Hill Bible Church, presenter in the Nooma audiovisual series, is taken to town for a ride in Zooma, a spoof performed by Steve Gray of Steve and Kathy Gray Show.

This was the video that got Steve and Kathy banned from GodTube. The senior pastors of World Revival Church of Kansas City (formerly The Smithton Outpouring) have cut out a niche in spoofing the excesses or potential hypocrisies of the Christian churches in the United States. Of course, now that their work is booming on YouTube, the couple themselves are vulnerable to the same ego-related excesses faced by any high profile speakers and writers.

Rob Bell is author of Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith, and Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality And Spirituality. He’s known for his tours of the United States: Everything is Spiritual, and The God’s Aren’t Angry.

Tags: Culture, Emerging Church, Humour, Nooma, Reading, Rob Bell

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Supply Side Jesus

Here’s a cutting critique of the attempted capture of Jesus by neo-conservative economists who believe that the answers to the world’s problems can be solved by encouraging production and decreasing taxes.

Wes Ball took parts of a comic strip (art by Don Simpson) from Al Franken’s book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, and animated the panels set to the author’s narration. Working with Wes was Adrian Loudermilk who died in tragic car accident not long after.

Tags: economics, Jesus, Politics, Spirituality

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