It looks like one of those video-sharing sites that's not GooTube. It even ends in ".tv", the way the cool sites do now. An embedded video window beckons you to click Play.
When you do, you'll see a news clip from Miami television station WBFX telling you that a serial killer is on the loose. As people in hazmat suits clean up a bloody crime scene, a youthful reporter describes the demographics of the victims, and they're all remarkably like you -- same gender, age, even occupation.
And then your intestines freeze: on the wall of the crime scene, written in blood, is your name, with the warning that you are next. The reporter says the cops are hoping to find that person before the serial killer does. The video ends, and the only part of your brain that still functions is the part trying to decide whether you should call 911 and have the police take you into protective custody, or if you should just drive to the police station yourself.
But then comes the real punchline: you've been hoaxed. The website and video are part of a viral promotion for Dexter, a show on FXUK about, wouldn't you just guess, a serial killer. Someone you know -- probably one of your closest friends -- entered your name, demographics, and email into the website, which then generated the video and sent you a link. And now that you're in on the gag, you're offered the opportunity to scare it forward by providing someone else's info. Even though, in a world in which a major city can be paralyzed with fear by a few strategically placed Lite-Brites, a website that cranks out serial killer threats is wrong in too many ways to count.
Of course, I sent one to everyone I know. (read the rest here)
So far the responses I've gotten have been muted: real death threats, charges of assault, social ostracism (my brother's email read simply: "You are no longer my brother."). Even when they later claim to notice the anomalies in the video -- a Miami tv station would never call a parking lot a "car park", the "handwritten" message is written in Helvetica type, the security camera footage is all wrong -- seeing their name in blood was terrifying to every one of my victims. They calmed their fears by promptly sending a video to everyone they know.
The next step: some moron will send one of these to an elected official, and wind up on the receiving end of some Secret Service lovin'.
"I was resolute in my determination to avoid even a whiff of moralizing in terms of applying the stories. The absolute last thing I ever wanted to ask a child was: “And what can we learn from David about how God wants us to behave?” The story isn’t there to be an example for us to follow. If that were the point, Jesus would never needed to have come. We could have saved ourselves.The story is there because it’s true and because it’s telling the bigger story—of the greater David who is coming. To do for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves, to fight the battle we could never fight. To be the Hero we all need. To be our Rescuer.
I wanted children to know this Story—and to meet this wonderful Hero in the pages of this book. Because rules don’t change you. But a story can."
-Bob Hyatt, link
| “ | First of all, I don't write science fiction. I've only done one science fiction book and that's Fahrenheit 451, based on reality. Science fiction is a depiction of the real. Fantasy is a depiction of the unreal. So Martian Chronicles is not science fiction, it's fantasy. It couldn't happen, you see? That's the reason it's going to be around a long time—because it's a Greek myth, and myths have staying power.[4] |
"God must have a lot of confidence in you to put you on the planet at just this time. It was his sovereign decision to insert you onto planet earth during a time of huge transition. It takes incredible faith to lead during hinge points of history. " -Reggie McNeal,"The Present Future"
"When the old wineskin is dying, the new wineskin is created by people who are not afraid to be vulnerable. "
"When the forms of an old culture are dying, the new culture is created by a few people who are not afraid to be insecure"
the mallebility of history..So, again, If I had to pick an answer, it would be yes..missiology tends to precede and produce ecclesiology; philosophically, epistemologically, and practically speaking. I find quantum physics hugely helpful here; especially 'reverse causality," which accords with what Ladd has well emphasized about the Kingdom entering this age "from" the future; time working 'backwards," etc. This will be fleshed out (incarcarnated) in smaller, organic, networked and non-hierarchical (all lessons from physics again; the universe is such) ways and means...
...Meaning that counterintuitively to our modern mindset, doing can precede being; missiology can even (creatively) create ecclesiology.
I asked a friend today the question at hand. She immediately answered, "Missiology, of course. God told Moses he was being sent; before God even told Moses what his (God's) name was."
Holy smoke, she's right!
Bono nails it again (in a sermon he has preached around the world); "God may be with us in our mansions on the hill...I hope so....but God is with the poor. And God is with us, if we are with the poor."
We find our ecclesiology as we find and follow our missiological tug.
In the process, we might even find God.
Our Christology leads to missiology which leads to ecclesiology..In other words, who Jesus is gives us our mission, and our mission prescribes what church should be. How many of us in the west have that exactly backwards? We need to reboot, as Al calls it. We need to return to our primary source documents--the Gospels--and figure out who this Jesus was. Or, as we put it in our faith community:We need to get to know Jesus again for the first time -link
"I have argued strongly against the view (of computational functionalism) in which it is merely computational activity that gives rise to conscious mentality), and I have indeed suggested that consciousness actually depends on (emerges from) the missing gravitational OR theory." -The Road to Reality : A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe , p. 1033)
The current spiritual awakening in North America lacks Christian content and file systems. This is the scary part of it. Left to their own imagination people will devise all sorts of crazy stuff about God, from New Age crystals to self-enlightenment. But this is also the opportunity of the current spiritual landscape. People are open to revealed truth of God if they can get it. Unfortunately, the North American church has lost its influence at this critical juncture. It has lost its influence because it has lost its identity. It has lost its identity because it has lost is mission.
The correct response, then, to the collapse of the church culture is not to try to become better at doing church. The need is not for a methodological fix. The need is for a missional fix.
The appropriate response to the emerging world is a rebooting of the mission, a radical obedience to an ancient command, a loss of self rather than self preoccupation, concern about service and sacrifice rather than concern about style.
The collapse of the church culture is God's gracious invitation to the church to rediscover itself. It will do this by dying to itself and coming alive to God's mission.link
