“While past generations may have described their developmental hopes for teenagers through words such as holiness, faithfulness, and maturity, there seems to be a contemporary preference for authenticity. We want teenagers to be real.”

Pizza Cheese and Christianity: Everybody Wants to be Real

In the 1980s Domino’s Pizza rose to national prominence based upon a combination of factors including the pledge of using “100% real cheese.” I have to admit that before Domino’s advertising campaign I had never stopped to consider whether the cheese at our town’s homegrown pizzeria was authentic, but Domino’s had convinced me in a 30-second ad spot that what I wanted was 100% real.

What is true for our pizza is true for the rest of our lives as well. We may have no idea what we mean by “authentic” or “authenticity” but we are convinced that, whatever it is, we want it. There simply are not many places in life where being the opposite is desirable. The possible antonyms of authentic — fake, pseudo, bogus, counterfeit, and phony — become public relations nightmares (and commercial failures) when applied to products. They become terrible insults when applied to people. Adolescents naturally have picked up on this, and modern epithets employed by teenagers reflect the trend. While the monikers with which teenagers commonly berate one another may sting (think: asshole, fucker, bitch, and bastard) these do not have nearly the emotional and psychological effects as other teenage favorites such as poser, two-faced, and phony. Read the rest of this entry »

When my wife gave birth last month she received a copy of Anne Lamott’s Operating Instructions as a gift and took to reading it while feeding the baby.  You have to know my wife, but I figured she’d hate it.  Swearing doesn’t go far with her, whereas Lamott sprinkles the expletives like table salt.  But the shared misery joy of motherhood must have won my wife over because she can’t stop raving about Lamott, telling me endless stories about Sam.  I have no idea what she’s talking about.  You have to understand, I’d love to read Lamott, but I read slow and the pile of Ph.D. books isn’t getting smaller.  So until sometime in early 2012, Lamott is off my reading list.  She’s on my wife’s list, however, and Kristina was thrilled this morning when she came home from walking the mall to report that Lamott will be signing books here in Princeton next month.  Here are the details for those of you in central Jersey:

Anne Lamott will read from and sign her new book, Grace (Eventually), Feb. 28, 7:30 p.m., Barnes & Noble, Princeton MarketFair Mall, 3535 US Route 1 South. (609) 716-1570

That’s the headline this afternoon on an undoubtedly sensationalized Marketwire press release with a dateline of Jerusalem, Israel. Actually the full headline is:

Princeton Conference Vindicates Associated Producers James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici on “Lost Tomb of Jesus”

(Which is actually significantly different and somewhat more comical, but wouldn’t fit in my headline space.)

The article claims renewed consideration by 50 top scholars that the Talpiot tomb may in fact be that of Jesus Christ or the holy family. Interesting. (Additionally, it’s interesting that I haven’t heard a whisper about this conference while living on the Princeton campus.) Also, the article concludes with mention that PTS professor James Charlesworth has been selected to lead a “re-investigation” of the tomb. Here’s the press release in its entirety:

Late Wednesday, at the closing session of a conference sponsored by the Princeton Theological Seminary which considered the headline grabbing claims made last year in a documentary film and book that the tomb of Jesus and his family have been found, the widow of archaeologist Yosef Gat, Ruth, rocked the proceedings.Ruth Gat attended the Princeton conference to accept a posthumous lifetime achievement award for her husband, a major figure in Biblical archaeology. As top scholars from around the world listened she stated, “My husband, the lead archaeologist of the East Talpiot tomb in southern Jerusalem, believed that the tomb he excavated in 1980 was, indeed, the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth and his family.”

Read the rest of this entry »

On Friday, for the first time in 100 years, snow fell in Baghdad.  Apparently violence in the city nearly ceased Friday as well. I’m in the middle of writing final papers, so postings will continue to be sparse in the days to come.  But my paper-induced doldrums were lifted for a moment when I read this story and saw the pictures coming out of Iraq.  A Personal Reflection /Associated Press / Boston Globe / Yahoo News / Fox News Video.

I picked up a copy of Bill Hybels small group Bible study, Authenticity, this morning. I’m currently researching the Christian fascination (or infatuation) with the word authenticity. Hybels’ Bible study seemed like one obvious avenue to explore in trying to figure out how Christians employ the word with variety.

But before I got to the study I was struck by the introduction to the series, “In just three years, almost a half million copies of these small group study guides were being used in churches around the world.” And those words were penned ten years ago, imagine how many copies are in print today.

That’s insanity, because the stuff isn’t bad, but it’s not that great. Especially at the youth ministry level the stuff coming out of Saddleback and Willow is often sappy — and there are a bunch of other adjectives I could use.

So, why are people so addicted to megachurch resources? There aren’t many other resources on the market; they’re not as bad as the denominational crap that comes out; the list could go on. But overall, let me suggest that we buy these Bible studies and employ them as Christian totems. I mean, maybe a little Willow karma will rub off on my church. Maybe Saddleback magic or Willow pixie dust is pre-packaged in these Bible studies and if I use them, maybe my ministry will grow, too. This stuff must be good, almost magical, right? Of course, there are plenty of us who buy Willow and Saddleback because it makes our work easy. But deep down our love for everything Purpose-Driven and Willow-ized is a form of evangelical voodoo. Admit it. We purchase this stuff not because it’s good, but because it must be good, and maybe it will make us good, too. I’m guilty as charged of having done this when I was a youth pastor. Anyone else willing to fess up?

Maybe I finally found a resolution for this new year: Apply a bit more critique to brand names and theolo-hype.

I wonder what we’d be using as resources in ministry if we weren’t swayed by the celebrity and voodoo?

Update: The entire documentary is now available for online viewing!

Rarely do I get excited about documentaries, but last night I stumbled across one that is a “must watch” for youth ministers. 21 Up in America is the third installment of a little-known documentary project following the lives of 14 young Americans. The first documentary was produced in 1991 when the children were just seven years old. The filmakers revisited the children at age 14, and now again at 21 years of age. The project is scheduled to continue every seven years indefinitely. Read the rest of this entry »

I have to admit this commercial is terribly funny and rather brilliant (props to YSMarko). And, yet, how odd it is that we all get the cultural references being made; it’s still further evidence that pop culture has been transformed by YouTube.

Meanwhile, I’m intrigued that this is a commercial for a news service. Really? In a year where a record number died in Iraq, mass disaster struck in the form of California wildfires and an Asian typhoon, mortgages failed, and people died at Virginia Tech, are you telling me that the way to advertise the quality of AOL’s news service is by spoofing viral videos? Who knew that YouTube was news?!

Author and pundit Neal Gabler wouldn’t be surprised; he predicted in 1998 that we are increasingly moving into a world where “the news has become a continuous stream of what one might call ‘lifies’ — movies written in the medium of life, projected on the screen of life and exhibited in the multiplexes of the traditional media which are increasingly dependent upon the life medium.”¹ News continues to degrade to entertainment, argues Gabler, because the overriding objective of all our lives has become getting and satisfying an audience.² And indeed that’s exactly what every “news story” spoofed in this commercial did. Read the rest of this entry »

1. Neal Gabler, Life: The Movie (New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1998), pg. 5. [↩]
2. Gabler, pg. 5 [↩]

Andy Rowell posted an interesting commentary yesterday noting that pollsters did not take measure of how many evangelical Christians voted in the Democratic Caucus in Iowa. Of course, we all know this was a major question on the Republican side of things. Now, Rowell’s question is important but a tad premature because the main question pollsters are trying to answer this early in the race is, “Which demographic groups are pushing candidates to caucus victory?” It’s a pretty safe bet (although less safe than in the past) that evangelical Christians as a voting bloc didn’t make a whopping difference in the Iowa Democratic Caucus. In fact, we know who made the big difference and why there was a nine-point spread between Obama and Clinton. Quite simply, the answer is the youth vote. Read the rest of this entry »

I lost my cell number a few weeks ago (long story) and have been wondering what number to tell people to call me on. Number portability is nice, but not always the perfect solution, and I’ve been wanting to give people a number that won’t change in six months. Problem solved.  I received an invite to Google’s new exclusive Grand Central service this afternoon, and now I have invitations to pass along to the first three people to comment on this post.

Grand Central is to phone service and voicemail what Gmail is to email. Grand Central allows you to choose a “number for life” in any area code and then connect that number to all your actual phone lines. So, I can set the order in which a caller should be connected to my various phones (cell, followed by home, etc.) and even send different callers to different phones. Mom calling? Send her to my home phone. Boss calling? Send him direct to voicemail. And manage a single voicemail box for all these phones instead of multiple voicemail and answering machines.

Plus, there are a slew of amazing features; take for example ListenIn that allow you to listen as callers record voicemail. If you decide the call is worth taking you can break in and begin a conversation at any time. If you want an invite, be among the first three people to comment to this post.

This personal reflection on the Lord’s Supper served to jumpstart my interest in Communion and forms the basis for research I’m currently doing on youth, young adults and the Eucharist.

Fast Food: Running with Jesus

We waited and salivated as we watched the huge chunks of soft French bread being unloaded from the wooden trays. I was eight, the year was 1982, and it was communion Sunday at West Hills Covenant Church — one of the few Sundays each month to which my friends and I looked forward. We knew that after the communion service the leftover loaves of bread would be portioned out to any kid who wanted a chunk — a chunk of the body of Christ — to tide us over until we got home for lunch. Read the rest of this entry »