I'm reading through the newest issue of Relevant and wanna share some of this stuff. So here are some random, thoughtful, insighful, interesting blurbs...

from "Jesus Wrecked My Life" by Shane Claiborne:
"I know there are people out there who say, 'My life was such a mess. I was drinking, partying, sleeping around . . .then I met Jesus, and my whole life came together.' God bless those people. But me I had it together. I used to be cool. And then I met Jesus, and He wrecked my life. The more I read the Gospel, the more it messed me up, turning everything I believed in, valued and hoped for upside down."

from "7 Big Questions," which was an interview with "seven core leaders of faith."
This first one is Lauren Winner's response to the question "What is a negative tendency of this generation as it relates to the faith?":
"Our failure to tithe. I hear it all the time: 'I just can't afford to give right now.' I hear that from my middle-class American peers. I wonder, if we 'can't afford' to give now, why not? And if we 'can't afford' to give now, when will we be able to afford to give? I know of nothing that will transform someone's spiritual life more abruptly than beginning to tithe. If we want to learn about dependence on God, tithe. If we want to have our treasure in heaven, tithe. If we want to have any hope of having solidarity with the poor, tithe." (This struck me hard because of the financial state of my church in Waco, UBC. Every Sunday they put in the bulliten how much money is needed to keep the place running and how much money was recieved in the offering the last Sunday. The numbers are embarassing. Like this past week "tithe: $4873.50, needed weekly: $6600." And that's actually more tithe than I've seen in the last couple weeks. Rarely every does it hit the amount that's needed weekly.)

This is Mark Driscoll's response to the question "What do you see as the greatest challenge for young Christians in the next 10 years?":
"There is a strong drift toward the hard theological left. Some emergent types [want] to recast Jesus as a limp-wrist hippie in a dress with a lot of product in His hair, who drank decaf and made pithy Zen statements about life while shopping for the perfect pair of shoes. In Revelation, Jesus is a pride fighter with a tatto down His leg, a sword in His hand and the commitment to make someone bleed. That is a guy I can worship. I cannot worship the hippie, diaper, halo Christ because I cannot worship a guy I can bet up. I fear some are becoming more cultural than Christian, and without a big Jesus who has authority and hates sin as revealed in the Bible, we will have less and less Christians, and more and more confused, spiritually self-righteous blogger critics of Christianity." (I agree in the danger of being a "cultural Christian," because I feel the tendency to do it myself. But at the same time, I know a lot of people who find it easier to worship a "hippie" Jesus making "pithy Zen statments about life" than one with a "commitment to make people bleed")

Relevant is amazing. And they also had a feature article on Ben Folds this issue. That was pretty sweet.