adam moore | blog

Pretty sweet poster from David Bazan.

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 02:57:00 -0600

Pretty sweet poster from David Bazan.

Snow Day

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 08:44:00 -0600

A New Kind of Christianity

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:52:00 -0600

I recently had the opportunity to read Brian McLaren’s new book, “A New Kind of Christianity.” As I’ve posted before, the book addresses the following questions that McLaren believes are shaping the future of the faith today:

1. The Narrative Question: What Is the Overarching Storyline of the Bible?
2. The Authority Question: How Should the Bible Be Understood?
3. The God Question: Is God Violent?
4. The Jesus Question: Who is Jesus and Why is He Important?
5. The Gospel Question: What Is the Gospel?
6. The Church Question: What Do We Do About the Church?
7. The Sex Question: Can We Find a Way to Address Sexuality Without Fighting About It?
8. The Future Question: Can We Find a Better Way of View the Future?
9. The Pluralism Question: How Should Followers of Jesus Relate to People of Other Religions?
10. The What Do We Do Now Question: How Can We Translate Our Quest into Action?

This book, along with “Everything Must Change,” is clearly the culmination of McLaren’s previous books. Whether you like it or not—and it appears there are quite a few who don’t—this is where McLaren has ended up. I appreciated that McLaren does really lay it out in this book. He pretty much says where he stands on these questions right now. And as always, he does it in a gracious manner.

So here’s the deal, I’m not really going to write a proper review of this book. All in all, I didn’t find the book to be particularly new. It’s a good book and I can recommend it, but primarily for those who are really struggling with the questions listed above, and are looking for an entry point into a conversation around those questions. I’ve thought about these questions a lot. But for whatever reason, I’m not feeling the need to think about these questions very much right now. Maybe I’m just taking a break. Or maybe I have it all figured out.

What I most appreciated about this book is that it brought me back to McLaren. I just can’t say enough positive things about this man. I want to be just a little like him. He really cares about these questions and he really cares about helping people to consider these questions, even if they disagree with him. I think there is so much to learn from McLaren as a person - his commitment to people, to the church, to Christianity, to the good of the world are evident in all he does. I can’t praise him enough. I hope that in reading this book some of him has rubbed off on me.

Sara Miles, author of "Jesus Freak"

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 10:57:00 -0600

[HT: Michael Morrell]

VOID | I Confess (1/31/2010)

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:42:49 -0600

[Originally posted at the VOID collective blog]

Photos by Jackson Griggs

View all the images from VOID | I Confess

Follow VOID on Twitter

[via: Creating a Visual Culture]

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:56:39 -0600

[via: Creating a Visual Culture]

[via: Brian McLaren]

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 09:03:09 -0600

[via: Brian McLaren]

VOID | I Confess

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 09:32:56 -0600

Check out the Facebook event

Follow VOID on Twitter

A New Kind of Christianity

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 09:08:00 -0600

I’m looking forward to Brian McLaren’s upcoming book, A New Kind of Christianity. McLaren has been very helpful to me over the years, so I’m looking forward to reading where his thoughts are going these days. And he’ll be coming to Waco/Baylor in March, so hopefully I’ll have the chance to interact with him personally. Here are the ten questions McLaren explores in the new book - questions he believes are shaping the faith today.

1. The Narrative Question: What Is the Overarching Storyline of the Bible?

2. The Authority Question: How Should the Bible Be Understood?

3. The God Question: Is God Violent?

4. The Jesus Question: Who is Jesus and Why is He Important?

5. The Gospel Question: What Is the Gospel?

6. The Church Question: What Do We Do About the Church?

7. The Sex Question: Can We Find a Way to Address Sexuality Without Fighting About It?

8. The Future Question: Can We Find a Better Way of View the Future?

9. The Pluralism Question: How Should Followers of Jesus Relate to People of Other Religions?

10. The What Do We Do Now Question: How Can We Translate Our Quest into Action?

[via: Dave Walker]

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 09:37:28 -0600

[via: Dave Walker]

[via: jonnybaker]

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 09:31:31 -0600

[via: jonnybaker]

Interview with Sara Miles

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 11:51:19 -0600

Great interview with Sara Miles. I’m looking forward to her new book.

I turn 30 years old this month (January 18, to be exact). I’m not exactly sure how I’m...

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:45:00 -0600

I turn 30 years old this month (January 18, to be exact). I’m not exactly sure how I’m supposed to think about this, but I’d like to think of it as the beginning of a new time of life. In fact, there are a lot of reasons to think this way right now. It’s the beginning of a new decade, both Brooke and I are turning 30 this month, and we will celebrate our 10 year anniversary in July of this year. Along with these 10 year markers, I think we ended a phase of life with the birth of Lila last September. We now have two children and are thinking, at least for now, that this might be the completion of our family. So much of the 2000s, and our 20s, were spent pursuing children. I’d say that along with beginning a marriage together, this was the most significant theme of the past decade. The thought of putting this period behind us - a period that was difficult in many ways - is quite attractive. I feel a certain sense of excitement that we can now focus our energies on growing our existing family, rather than pursuing more children. Our 20s were also devoted to completing school (well, kind of…), finding a real job/career, buying a home, and basically establishing ourselves financially. While I’m still trying to figure out the whole career thing, at least we’re in a fairly stable place from which to consider the future. My hope is that I am entering a fertile period of generativity. While my 20s were primarily a time of becoming established, whatever that means, I hope my 30s are about bringing to fruition some dreams of what I might be able to contribute in this world. Not just in my work/career, but also in my marriage and role as a father. I’m not exactly sure what this means, or what the future holds, but I’m excited to move into this time.

"Prayer has to do with hearing, heeding, and hearkening to a provocation that draws us out of..."

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 15:19:35 -0600

“Prayer has to do with hearing, heeding, and hearkening to a provocation that draws us out of ourselves.”

- John Caputo [via @adamdmoore]

"…a new heaven and a new earth. Is such a thing possible? Not for us alone. But it is not..."

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 11:25:53 -0600

“…a new heaven and a new earth. Is such a thing possible? Not for us alone. But it is not impossible to God - if we help God to become God. How? By opening ourselves to the ‘loving possible,’ by acting each moment to make the impossible that bit more possible.”

- Richard Kearney

Great article up at Salon: “I am a closet Christian” [HT: @knightopia]

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:29:36 -0600

Great article up at Salon: “I am a closet Christian”

[HT: @knightopia]

The Game

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:07:55 -0600

Great post over at Peter Rollins’ blog: Engaging in a game that no-one believes in

You’ll find my thoughts in the comments. I have been thinking about this a lot lately.

Hard to Be - David Bazan (Live House Show)

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:33:10 -0600

Favorite Christmas Songs

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:37:00 -0600

(Mis)telling Mary's Story

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:12:00 -0600

[Originally posted at the VOID collective blog]

The following readings were developed by Brandon Morgan for the VOID event “Mothers of God” (December 6, 2009).

The introductory reading was offered at the very beginning of the event:

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.’ But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a child. This child will be great, and will be called God and of God’s kingdom there will be no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ The angel said to her, ‘The power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; and will be called God.

The three concluding readings were offered one after the other (read by three different individuals) toward the end of the event:

Reading 1

The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son. This child will be great, and will be called God and of God’s kingdom there will be no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ The angel said to her, ‘The power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; and will be called God.

Then Mary said, “I’m sorry, but I am not the servant of the Lord. I cannot do what you have asked because I do not believe that what you say can happen.” The angel, surprised and perplexed, said to Mary, “But you have found favor in the eyes of God? If you do not let the Most High overshadow you, then God will not be born and God’s kingdom will not begin.” Mary said, “I don’t have the strength or the will to conceive God as you have asked. I don’t desire for God to be here as you have mistakenly hoped. I do not want to be the mother of this God. My womb is closed.” Then the angel said sadly, “Let it be with you according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

Reading 2

The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a child. This child will be great, and will be called God and of God’s kingdom there will be no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ The angel said to her, ‘The power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; and will be called God.

Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her. Joseph, her husband, went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem. He went with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. But while they were there, Mary ceased to feel the child alive inside of her womb. There was no longer any kicking or moving, as if the child was no longer alive. When the time came for her to give birth to her firstborn child, the baby came without breath and was dead. Mary wept bitterly because the God that she had hoped to birth did not survive. She wrapped the child in bands of cloth, and laid the child in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

Reading 3

The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a child. The child will be great, and will be called God and of God’s kingdom there will be no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ The angel said to her, ‘The power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called God.

Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her. Joseph went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem. He went with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. But during the birth, Mary’s body could not bear the labor. The pain and anguish overtook her body. Though she was willing to birth God, she was not strong enough to survive. Mary died giving birth to God. And Joseph wept bitterly because the child lived and Mary did not. He wrapped the child in bands of cloth, and laid the child in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.