Asbury Revival

The Asbury Revival has been trending on social media and religious newspapers for a couple of weeks. I mentioned it Saturday only to say that I had no comment but maybe later. That story has been well covered, it has the nation’s collective attention, every armchair theologian has weighed in. The response to the Asbury Revival has become its own story. Everyone with internet seems to either be a critic or a supporter of what is being done and how. Jimmy Humphrey wrote a post and made that the subject of his weekly podcast and I finally did reply to his comment. Without looking back that went something like this:

Satur-deja Vu

Pastor, author Tony Evans – I wrote Tuesday morning that I was in Augusta, GA for the bicentennial meeting of the Georgia Baptist Convention. There had already been a missionary sending service on Sunday evening, a preaching conference Monday afternoon and the first session of convention meetings Monday evening. The Tuesday afternoon session features the convention sermon each year, brought this year by pastor, author, orator and radio/television host Tony Evans from Dallas, Texas. I don’t know the official seating capacity of Warren Baptist Church in Augusta but the attendance Tuesday afternoon exceeded that. I did have a seat in the sanctuary, in a row of chairs put out for the overflow crowd. The room was stuffed and I retreated to the lobby where I found a much more comfortable chair parked in front of a flat screen. A small group of us watched together and listened in to the remote broadcast and each time the crowd in the room broke into applause we could hear that for real. I did step into the back of the sanctuary to take part in the standing ovation at the very end. Anyone can stream individual sessions or the entire 3 day meeting from the GBC website.

Killing Cupid?

For every two or three friends I see on social media wishing others a Happy Valentine’s Day or posting a couples pic, there is another posting about gross candy in heart shaped boxes and $70 roses. I tend to think of Valentine’s Day in the same way as St. Patrick’s Day and Halloween. In our culture those days have a lot of activities for children but adults need to grow out of them. If you live in New York and have Irish heritage I’m not asking you to give that up but most of us are not Irish, not Catholic, and only talk about shamrocks and leprechauns one day each year. It makes something of a spectacle of people’s actual heritage. Adult Halloween parties send up red flags for me. Even Thanksgiving is a day for adults give thanks and spend time with family around a feast but it’s the kids that are making paper hats with buckles and learning about Pilgrims and Puritans.

Satur-deja Vu

The Internet Monk Archives contain over 7,000 posts from 20 years of Internet Monk. Michael Spencer started blogging around the time of the 2000 election (remember hanging chads?) and continued as the Internet Monk until his passing in 2010. He turned the reigns of the website over to Chaplain Mike Mercer, a kindred spirit he believed to be on the same spiritual journey. Most of you know this story. I met Michael in 2003 but didn’t start blogging myself until after he started the iMonk Radio podcast in 2007.

I Just Want My Blessing

A post from guest blogger Jimmy Humphrey. 

I think we could all agree that we want to live lives that feel “blessed.”

We want to feel that God’s fortune shines upon our lives. We want to feel favored. We want to feel like we lack for nothing.

Yet, many of us do not in fact feel that way.