Saddleback Showdown: What happened to religion being a private matter?

Posted by Elizabeth on Monday, August 18th, 2008

Saturday Rick Warren hosted what has been called the Saddleback Showdown with presidential candidates taking the stage and answering questions about faith. I was unable to view the program live, so I started looking to see if it might be available to view online. The Fox website was a dead end (though video clips are available now), but YouTube offered many hits. While searching the YouTube videos on the subject I stumbled across a young mans posting of his concern over having the candidates in a faith forum saying he felt uncomfortable with faith talk because of his view of the separation of church and state. You can view the video entitled, “OBAMA & McCAIN TALK FAITH W/ PASTOR RICK WARREN - YIKES!!!” here:

In the video he says, “Why do the evangelicals have so much power? We shouldn’t give them this power.” The Born Again Church Tour asks, “What do they think about our involvement in politics?” Well, this young man thinks evangelicals have too much power. Others agree. What about you?

Join the Conversation...

Posted by Elizabeth on Tuesday, August 5th, 2008

In the next weeks we will be interviewing some of the speakers for this years Off the Map Live and posting those interviews here. Here’s your chance to join the conversation. If you have a question or topic of interest you would like addressed in an interview, please post that here. List whether the question or topic is addressed to a specific speaker or one you would like addressed to all speakers.

At Off The Map Live you’ll hear

  • David Kinnaman - President of the Barna Group and Author of UnChristian
  • Christine Wicker - Journalist and Author of The Fall of The Evangelical Nation
  • Todd Hunter- Past President of Vineyard Churches and Alpha USA current President of Three is Enough
  • Jim Henderson- Co Author of Jim and Casper Go to Church and front man for Off The Map
  • Rose Swetman - Pastor and Missional Entrepreneur
  • Matt Casper - Co Author of Jim and Casper Go to Church and a practicing Atheist
  • Randy Siever - Director of Doable Evangelism & What if Evangelism Meant Just Being Yourself
  • Kathy Escobar – Missional Pastor, artist and provocateur

Christianity Corrupted?

Posted by Elizabeth on Saturday, July 26th, 2008

I read David Kinnaman’s UnChristian earlier this year and I agree with Kinnaman, “Christianity has an image problem.” If we are projecting an image of Christ that is not a faithful representation of who Christ is to the world, then WE need to change it. And as Jim Henderson has suggested with this year’s Off the Map Live Tour, WE need to be Born Again.

Kinnaman reminds that “as we work to change the negative perceptions of outsiders, we need to avoid an opposite and equally dangerous extreme. Some Christians respond to outsiders’ negativity by promoting a less offensive faith.” But then he goes on to say, “Softening or reshaping the gospel is an utterly wrong response to the objections people raise.” While I agree we need to offer a faithful representation of the gospel, I do believe we may need to do some reshaping of the gospel if we have distorted it and deformed it so it is no longer recognizable as Jesus’ gospel of the kingdom. Read More…

Born Again INTO What?

Posted by Elizabeth on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008

After I first heard of The Born Again Church Tour 2008 I wondered, how can “born agains” be born again? JIm responded,

“Born agains” can get born again - and again- we’ve made it a passive concrete term but it is an active term which is why Jesus used water and wind to help round out the meaning of it all.

So, WE can be born again, but what are we being born INTO? Our church culture has been so focused on the act of conversion that perhaps we have forgotten the life we are hoping to be born INTO. While birth is important, birth is for life. Over the last fifty or so years, Christianity has come to be defined by conversion (being born again) instead of by the life we are being born into - a life of active participation in the commonwealth of God. Read More…