welcome to the story.

Best Music of 2003 in my uneducated opinion Damien Rice - O Jason Mraz - Waiting For My Rocket To Come Jack Johnson - On and On Ben Harper - Diamonds On The Inside David Crowder Band - Illuminate Nada Surf - Let Go The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots The Royal Tenebaums Soundtrack (a year too late) Josh Kelley - For The Ride Home Pete Yorn - Day I Forgot Radiohead - Hail To The Thief" Fountains of Wayne - Welcome Interstate Managers Gavin DeGraw - Chariot

Another excerpt from the same article. A second trend which challenges our call to the cross is the temptation to see political power as the Church's primary means of influence in the world. Such a temptation arises in contexts where Christians are permitted to participate in the governing processes of Nation-States. The American context is an obvious example. There, many Evangelical Christians have closely identified with the political agenda of the Republican Party and organizations like “Moral Majority” or the "Christian Coalition." They have then attempted to mobilize the church to lobby legislation to reflect the views and morality of Christians. The Church has thus grown passionate about influencing their culture for Christ by "winning" political struggles with the opposition. The problem, of course, is that the democratic process itself is built on the assumption of power struggle. The entire political process therefore legitimizes the use of power and coercion of the majority over the minority. Thus when Christians take up such methods "in the name of God" (and in the attempt to be politically realistic) they are easily labeled for what they are – forms of self-serving power used to coerce others who do not agree with them. In adopting such political agendas, the church is interpreted by the postmodern world as the "enemy" seeking to exert its control over "us." The clear result has been further entrenchment and increasing counter-attack. In its attempt to win the "culture war," the church has tragically lost much of its ability to speak meaningfully about love, servanthood and the cross of Christ to the postmodern world. Instead of trying to get hold of the "reins" of culture for a good cause or confusing political power with the witness of the church, we must reject the temptation to obtain or influence power in order to do something good. Such attempts to be "realistic about the way the world works" serve only to compromise the unique witness of the church to the power of God. As Hauerwas says, "Christian ethics is precisely a way of behaving in the world where the good are weak – or to say the same thing in other words, where the only power of the gospel is the power of God." This does not constitute a "turning away" from the world nor silence regarding injustice or other "political" issues. Instead it is to affirm that the Church, rather than primarily contributing to a secular social strategy, is itself a social strategy. As a community of people interacting with each other the church constitutes a distinct polis. Through its practice and speech, it applies a hermeneutical critique to the cultures in which it lives and engages in new patterns which demonstrates to the world a new way of living. It may humbly participate in the broader strategies of the world, but it must see this as secondary contribution. It must especially guard against the temptation to contribute to these strategies if it means a "realistic" compromise regarding oneness of the Body of Christ or the call to the cross.

Will Thou bring guard to us now in our time of need? Water against rock O Lord our Keep. Availing with unbending tear Echoes of Thee Expansive we doth hear. Sheltered in the Shadow of the High Clinging for the drawing of nigh.

O come, O come, Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel, That mourns in lonely exile here Until the Son of God appear. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel. O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer Our spirits by Thine advent here; Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, And death's dark shadows put to flight. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel. O come, Thou Key of David, come, And open wide our heavenly home; O come, Thou Root of Jesse's tree, An ensign of Thy people be; He has come Emmanuel has come He has come O come, Desire of Nations, bind In one the hearts of all mankind; Bid Thou our sad divisions cease, And by thyself our King of Peace. He's coming toward you He's coming toward us now He's coming toward you He's coming toward you my friend He's coming toward you And He's always been.

Excerpts from a paper by Dr. Wayne Johnson of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. One such trend is the rise of Triumphalism and the Church Growth movement. It has, for example, become common to hear bold proclamations that God is about to do "something great" through the Church which will "win" or "take" whole societies for Christ. Not unrelated are the pervasive assumptions of "Church Growth" philosophies which seek to increase influence through increased size of churches. At the heart of both of these is the assumption that the glory of the church is measured by its influence over society and its size. In contrast, the "theology of the cross" tells us that the Church's glory does not lie in its size or its influence over society but in its faithfulness to God. As Hays insightfully notes, "The death of Jesus carries with it the promise of the resurrection, but the power of the resurrection is in God’s hands, not ours. Our actions are therefore judged not by their calculable efficacy in producing desirable results but by their correspondence to Jesus’ example" (p. 197). Growth and influence, therefore tell us little about the faithfulness of our churches. Even more to the point, the desire for growth and influence can lead to a valuation of "technique" over faithfulness. Such utilitarianism is a direct threat to the way of the cross because "what works" is simply another way of speaking about power. Prioritizing techniques is just a subtle (and well researched) form of the "will-to-power". Instead, as we examine the practice and speech of our churches we must ask questions like: Do we understand and practice the priority of reconciliation? Do we speak the truth in love? Do we see frequent examples of the "strong" deferring to the "weak" among us? Are the leaders themselves eschewing worldly models of leadership ("lording over") and embracing Jesus model of servanthood? Are enemies (either internal or external) being used as means for consolidation of power and influence or are they the objects of our benevolence and reconciliation?

Peggis4JC: heyhey Peggis4JC: but josh does not respond Peggis4JC: because little does peggi know Peggis4JC: he is out saving the world...ONE COPY CRISIS AT A TIME! Peggis4JC: running the mail at lightening speed Peggis4JC: designing duratrans that will attract the attention of millions Peggis4JC: folding brochures and battling the evil god of the paper cuts Peggis4JC: bloody and wounded at the end of the day he will pack up Peggis4JC: just to come and do it all again tomorrow Peggis4JC: its just one more day in... Peggis4JC: THE ADVENTURES OF JOSHUA DAVID BROWN... Peggis4JC: copyboy, design master, lyrical gangsta, cowboy/pirate/ninja/surfer/wizard extraordinaire!!!

Scene - Josh and Peggi enter room. Peggi sees a plethora of her nursery kids. Josh and Peggi enter stage left. Peggi: Awwwwwww! I miss my babies! I want a baby! Josh: I'll give you one. Peggi: Where are you going to steal one from? Josh: No . . . I'm going to give you one. Peggi: Sweet. Josh: The real question though is when am I going to get everything done . . . homework, eating, The O.C., decorating? Peggi: I don't know. Lets just scratch everything and you impregnate me. Josh: Which is always at the top of my agenda. Peggi: Interesting. Josh and Peggi exit stage right. Scene.

What I'm Listening To This Week: Damien Rice, Starsailor, Cake, Nada Surf, The Flaming Lips, Royal Tenebaums Soundtrack, etc, etc, etc. What I'm Reading This Week: absolutely nothing - finals week

another nugget of cool from sharon of seattle. "today is your birthday josh brown. i will not call you today and wish you a merry birthday. why? it's too predictable. how mundane of me to call you:"hey josh! happy birthday, how are you? oh good. what are you going to do today? oh cool...have you gotten any gifts? what? no way...alligator boots. you've got to be kidding..what!!!1 purple alligator boots!!@@!! where on earth did your grandmammy find them?" and so on and on and on and on. josh, you are above the ordinary. you have spent 23 years fine tuning the wonderfullybeautimous unpredictabilityness of you and there is no man, nana or snail that is going to make me spoil it today. no way no how. yes, there will be a merry birthday call and yes there will be a merry birthday gift, but the day is unknown, the gift a mystery, i have no knowledge as to what or when , but i keep coming back to the color purple...hmnnnnn. and so my gift to you today is no gift today but a gift on an unknown today to give you not today."

One thing that I'm learning to do which runs countercurrent to isogesis and I believe is a higher form of exegesis is to allow the Sacred Scriptures to read me, reading into me the heart of God and reading out of me my sin and biases. Which places me and my lifestyle as the object to be studied and critiqued instead of the text.