Category: life

The above reading is from WorshipGod06. I’ve only watched the first couple of minutes (because my dodgy-dial-up cut out!) – but it’s fantastic! It is easy to understand and the Word of God is clearly heard. I think that by nature the passage is visual – but Ryan does a marvellous job of reciting it.

What do you think? (If someone has a better internet connection – let me know how it finishes!)

For those waiting for the Thursday post announced on Tuesday – you’ll have to wait until next week.

Are you sick of life??? Are you EMO??? If you’ve stumbled here via google and have no idea what ‘evangelism’ is… go and check out THIS SITE to find out what Jesus has done to fix this sucky world…

Last week in Youth Ministry: Emo Evangelism I shared some thoughts on why Emo’s are ripe for the picking when it comes to evangelism. The mantra of the EMO could almost be summed in this: “The world’s bad, my life is bad, pretty much everything is bad!” At church on Sunday night I spoke on Romans 12:1-2 as part of our Romans series. During the talk I did a brief overview of Romans 1-11. Romans 1-3 are the ‘EMO’ chapters! The picture is dark, terrible and without hope.

Romans 1:21-23

“21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.”

The Gentiles have not treated God as God. Therefore, further on in the chapter (v24,26,28) God gave them over to their sin.
Gentiles are bad.

Romans 2:5

5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

The Jews are stubborn, unrepentant and deserving of God’s wrath because of their wickedness.
Jews are bad.

Romans 3:10-12

10 as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”

THERE IS NO-ONE GOOD. All of us have sinned (Romans 3:23)
ALL of us are bad!

“Jews are bad, Gentiles are bad, ALL of us are bad.” Sounds pretty similar to the EMO mantra…

I would love the opportunity to read these chapters with some EMO’s and then read on to the beautiful big BUT verses here (and maybe even to the end of the book).

I think I’m on to something…

My brother pretty much blogs once a month. Here is his latest post. It’s about buying 4 U2 albums on iTunes with a voucher that Row and I gave to him for his birthday. Go check his blog out… you could maybe even comment and say that you think he should post more often!

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I had today off. I have piles of stuff to do at the moment… but thought it would be good to have a break. I worked out that over a two month period from mid-October to mid-December I would only have 2 Saturdays off. So… in order not to die – today was wonderful! Here’s a quick summary: read Mark 6-8; prayed; ate food; went to my dentist for the 3rd time in 8 days (I really enjoy going to the dentist… I look forward to going again in 6 months time!!); read David Wells’ Above All Earthly Pow’rs in Gloria Jeans; went for a 1 hour walk and listened to Songs for the Cross-Centred Life; bought a whipper-snipper (or weed-whacker for the kiwi’s); mowed the lawn; went to the beach with Row; and now about to have growth group. Great day! Praise God.

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The week ahead on eternal weight of glory:

>Wednesday: EMO Evangelism II
>Thursday: Review of Revive‘s latest album
>Friday: Prayer Friday #12

Very exciting…

Super-brief this week, thanks for praying:

Praise:
>Adrian and Kelly getting married today
>Romans 3:21-26

Prayer:
>Sermon this Sunday night – Romans 12
>Emo Evangelism

Last week’s competition still hasn’t been won… Any takers?? (There’s big money on the line.) Have a good weekend.

Are you sick of life??? Are you EMO??? If you’ve stumbled here via google and have no idea what ‘evangelism’ is… go and check out THIS SITE to find out what Jesus has done to fix this sucky world…
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Recently, Rowena and I have been thinking a bit about evangelism to teenagers that belong to the EMO subculture. One of my conclusions for any subculture is that Christians who are from that subculture go back into it to reach their friends. Surfers. Skaters. Emos. Goths. (Here’s a long list). Whoever. Why? The reasons are obvious enough: they understand the culture and will therefore be able to relate to peers in that culture better than someone external to the culture.

Today in year 9 scripture I had a great time talking to some self-confessed Emo’s and had the opportunity to ask them about the characteristics of their subculture. It was a fantastic time. They spoke of the roots in emo punk music but also the culture that goes with that. At one point one of them spoke about how the wearing of tight black jeans might lead to emo guys not being able to have children. Astutely, one of the others said that emo’s don’t really want to bring children into such a messed up world! We had a great time talking and their questions seemed genuine.

This arvo I did a bit of web-surfing to read more about EMO. I found this great site where (presumably) teenagers write the definitions for different words. It’s called Urban Dictionary. The entry on EMO (mild language warning) is hilarious! (There’s also 400+ photos such as the Emo-Nemo one). Each entry has a definition and a made up emo-quote. Here’s a few:

>>>Like a Goth, only much less dark and much more Harry Potter. “My life sucks, I want to cry.”
>>>Emu spelled incorrectly. “That emo sure is fast!”
>>>If scenes were soda, Emo could be Diet Goth. “Emo: I’m so sad. I’m going to cut myself… Goth: I’m nothing. I’m going to cut everyone.”
(These are some of the shorter ones – go to the site to read the longer ones.)

The EMO subculture is traced back (by one of the emo’s in class today, wikipedia and here) to the EMOtional Punk-rock of the 1980s. Today in a blog post, Chris Mayes described Albert Camus as: “the patron saint of depressed youths”. So we can probably trace the EMO culture back to him and other big-question-asking thinkers throughout the 20th Century (and earlier).

I believe in the gospel: that it’s God’s power for the salvation of everyone who believes. I believe that God has his people in our city and will save them as they hear the gospel. I believe that peer to peer evangelism is an effective way to reach different subcultures.

BUT…

I wonder if the emo tree is ripe for the picking?

On the Central Coast (and on Coasts around the world) there is an organisation called Christian Surfers. Their aim is to build a bridge between surfers and the church. I wonder if it is time for CHRISTIAN EMOS??? Maybe we could aim evangelistic endeavours at them, their subculture and the questions they’re asking.

EMO’s know they suck
EMO’s know the world sucks and is messed up
EMO’s don’t mind being different
EMO’s persevere through bullying
EMO’s are not afraid to show emotions (dir!)
EMO’s question the world
EMO’s seem open to exploring spiritual questions

I haven’t yet ventured onto MySpace to find out more about them – but if you’re interested I’m sure you could find lots of emotional MySpace pages!

Has anyone else thought about this stuff much???
If not for emos – for other subcultural groups???
Is EMO EVANGELISM worth a shot???
What do you think???
I would love to hear your thoughts…

Mike and Christine have just announced they are going to tie the knot… Wow! I wrote about the beginning of their going out faze here. It’s been fun watching them talk about each other over the past few months. Mike went over to the US only a week or so ago… and within a week of meeting each other physically… they’re engaged!! But obviously they knew each other well from online stuff plus skype. I think it’s not a bad thing for Christians to meet online. Young Christians it may not be good for… but mature, honest, well-thought out Christians can get to know each other pretty well.

I wonder if their meeting was like Kip and LaFawnduh’s in Napoleon Dynamite! As long as their wedding is as marvellous as the one in the movie!!

Last time I wrote the following…

We were talking with a friend last night about finding good single guys who are Christian. She said whenever she spoke to different guys they’d either be married or not Christian. So here’s a proposal. Either on your blog or on your forehead – if you are an available Christian single – put an ‘X’. I think this will solve lots of problems. What do you think?

What do you think?

No time to write today. So if you’ve missed the last two Picture Comps you can find them here and here. This is pretty much the best photo I’ve ever taken! What do you think?

Now for the money – YEN3000 for the first correct answer: Where was this photo taken?