2008 August 08 » Baggas’ Blog

8th August 2008

Quick Blogs for 2008-08-08

Feeding Mia & watching a great Canadian show “Word Travels” which tells the stories of a couple of travel writers…. #
.. it’s a good show because they not only tell about the place but the process they go through in finding a story, as well as their hassles #
.. the episode I’m watching is set in Ethiopia … really makes me yearn to get back to Africa! #
Just testing out ping.fm, which enables me to update multiple sites at once, including Twitter, Facebook and many others #
Okay - so http://ping.fm seems to work well. If you want to try it, use the following beta code to sign up : “pingitlikeitshot” #
Just about to sit down and watch the Olympics opening, with a textbook, macbook air, glass of red wine, and some salt & vinegar chips #
Five minutes in and the Olympic ceremony is pretty cool - the kids have never watched one before and they are loving it! #

8th August 2008

The Global Ambition of Rick Warren

this is a great article from Time about Saddleback megachurch pastor Rick Warren, author of the Purpose Driven Life. Warren cops a bit of flack on the Christian web, both from conservative dogmatic types and from some emerging types, for being a bit of a lightweight, too compromising, not conservative enough, not liberal enough etc etc - but perhaps this is part of his success. He has managed to present the gospel message in a way that connects with the average person in a real and meaningful way. Although a very smart guy, he keeps his message simple and direct so as not to overwhelm people.

So I’ve always kinda liked Warren, but his story gets better. Not content with having a massive church and being a best selling writer (who gives away most of his earnings though), Warren is now moving more into the political sphere. Fortunately he’s not just becoming yet another of the divisive, condemnatory Religious Right - rather he seeks a more conciliatory, unifying approach to Christian involvement in politics. He seems to see the role of the church as being a force for good, making positive changes in the world, rather than just a defense against bad.

He says he is more interested in questions that he feels are “uniting,” such as “poverty, HIV/AIDS, climate change and human rights”

Interesting article about Warren, his global PEACE plan for Christian mobilization, and his upcoming political forum where he will have both Obama and McCain together for one of the first times this campaign.

Tags : Church, Politics

Categories : Church, Links, Politics | 0 Comments