Month: May 2006

26
May
2006

Ok – So How Am I Spending My Time?

Here I am nearly two months after retiring from Boeing and I’ve been silent here for a couple of weeks. I guess it’s time I gave a report. I had intended to be more frequent with my posts but obviously have not been. I tend to be overly cautious about my words and how they might be interpreted (read ‘misinterpreted’). I also want my paragraphs to be grammatically correct and come acrosss as reasonably intelligent. So it takes me a while to complete a sentence. This realization becomes an inertia that must be overcome before I can convince myself to place my fingers on home row and just start typing. Usually the inertia breaker takes the form of guilt over how long I’ve gone without writing.

To avoid dragging this out all day I’ll continue in outline form.

So, what have I been doing?

  • Reading
    • Scripture (currently reading through the Gospels)
    • The Da Vinci Code (see below)
    • 20/20 Vision, Bill & Amy Stearns – great description of what God is doing around the world
    • Breaking the Da Vinci Code, Darrell L. Bock (skimming)
    • Secrets of the Code, Dan Burnstein (selections)
    • The Habits of Highly Effective Churches, George Barna
  • Listening to sermons
    I download these to my MP3 player and listen while doing manual stuff
    • Da Vinci Code series at Southwest Church, Indian Wells (Bob Thune, Senior Pastor)
    • Core Doubts series at Rock Harbor
    • The Theology Program at Bible.org
  • Researching
    • Emerging Church
    • Gnostic gospels
    • Early Church
  • Thinking & note taking
  • Tipping Point – This is the new “Life Group” for post-college age adults
    • I’m taking on a role as a resource, mentor or catalyst
    • We have just begun a six week discussion of The Da Vinci Code
  • Bethany Web Site
    • I’ve met with several of the team members and reviewed the process of posting to the site
    • Ephesians Sermons on line
  • Celebration Videos
    • Currently developing an approximately 9 minute DVD for a 50th birthday
  • Exercise
    • Yard work
    • Walking
  • My To Do List
    • Reading stack (not necessarily in this order)
      • Wild at Heart, John Eldredge
      • The Barbarian Way, Erwin Raphael McManus
      • Velvet Elvis
      • Global Partnerships, Hank Paulson
      • Unveiled At Last, Bob Sjogren
      • Finding God in Unexpected Places, Philip Yancey
    • Bethany Web Site
      • Needs major cleanup. Over the years its file arrangement and the page formatting have evolved rather
      • Needs to be moved to more versatile server
      • Add podcasting of sermons
      • Add leader & member communication tools
      • Add more efficient calendar
    • This Blog
      • Post my thoughts on various topics
        • Search for Truth
        • Theology
        • Marriage
        • Science
      • I may just start posting what I have with minimal editing, just to get it out there.

I know there is more, but I need to get to work on some of it now. I’m resisting the probable need to review and edit what’s here before sending it.

Gary

Posted by gary in Journal, 0 comments
12
May
2006

The Da Vinci Code – Should you read it? … See it?

I began reading The Da Vinci Code the other day. Since we’ll be discussing it in the Tipping Point Sunday School class over the next few weeks, I needed to read it first hand. It certainly is one of those books that is hard to put down. I’d probably have it finished by now if I did nothing else. (Most readers would probably have finished it in the time I’ve spent so far. I’m a very slow reader.)

Would I recommend it? I’m torn here. So I need to qualify my answer.
I don’t want to add to the hype. Dan Brown, Doubleday and Sony have got to be loving all the attention we’re giving it in the Christian community — the old “crying all the way to the bank” smirk. And the movie won’t be out for another week! I really don’t want to contribute to their wealth.

Unfortunately, this book has presented misinformation that is being believed and is undermining the faith of many since few of us have studied the history of the early church well enough to refute it out of hand. Hopefully this will force us to a better understanding of the grounding of our faith in history.

We need to know what is being fed to our culture. We need to be able to give an answer – a thoughtful, reasoned answer to the questions posed to us about our faith, and the history of our faith. We need to know and be able to defend the fact that the Christian faith can stand up to the scrutiny of history, reason and science. We need to be able to discern what is fact from fiction in a story, no matter how well written or how well presented it is.
So should you read it? Should you see the movie? That depends.

It depends on how you interact with books and movies. How well are you able to separate yourself, at least when the book is closed or the credits roll from the emotions and captivation of the story? That is, when it’s all over do you come away having accepted the stories premises as part of your new reality, or are you able to set it aside as just a story – a fictional story? Because, regardless of the implications made on the “Fact” page, it is a fictional story with fictional history.
It has been really easy for me to visualize Robert Langon as Tom Hanks as I read the book. I like Tom Hanks. I like Ron Howard. Who doesn’t? What perfect choices of actor and producer to soften our resistence to the claims of the story! Hollywood is so good at getting us to root for a character or cause in a movie even though it is polar opposite to our own beliefs and convictions.

My suggestion then, if you feel you need to get involved with The Da Vinci Code is that you do so with your eyes wide open and your mind prepared for further investigation of its underlying claims. Treat page 1 (“Facts”) as part of the novel itself. (I wonder if the numbering of the “facts” page as page 1 is Dan Brown’s way of including it as part of the novel itself.)
If you decide to read it I suggest that you borrow a copy from a friend or the library. Or buy it used. If you feel you need or want to see the movie, try a matinee. I don’t know if that affects royalties or not, but it’ll be less out of your pocket.

By all means don’t read or see it to gain any historical knowledge. “…As history, one academician put it like this: ‘It’s the only book I know that after you’ve read it, you’re dumber than you were when you started.'” (Rev. John Ortberg, Menlo Park Presbyterian Church).

In the days ahead I’ll be posting links and some of the information I’ve been gleaning over the last several weeks as I’ve dug into this.

Gary

Posted by gary in Notes & Comments, 0 comments
08
May
2006

Learning a bit about RSS

I’m a long way from really understanding it all, but I’ve begun the learning process for setting up the reading of an RSS feed.  This actually is a bit of a test of that.

Posted by gary, 0 comments
03
May
2006

First Month’s Highlights

It’s been more than two weeks since I’ve given an update and that has brought me into my second month since ‘retiring’. It has certainly not been a lazy month.

Reading: I have read, or am at various stages of reading several books.

  1. Breaking Tradition to Accomplish Vision by Paul R. Gupta and Sherwood G. Lingenfelter. This is a ‘must read’ for anyone interested in missions. Bethany Bible Fellowship has copies available at a reduced price ($10). I have only a few pages left to finish.
  2. The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey. I finished this one. I highly recommend it. Yancey was recommended to me by a young man at Bethany and is now one of those authors whose works I want to devour.
  3. The Habits of Highly Effective Churches by George Barna. Another good one, but it has been set aside for the others.
  4. Discussing the Da Vinci Code by Lee Strobel & Garry Poole. This is more of a workbook to go along with a discussion group I’ll be mentoring with the 20’s at Bethany (see below).
  5. Exploring the Da Vinci Code by Lee Strobel & Garry Poole. “Investigating the issues raised by the book & movie.” This is also part of the curriculum for the group.

Research: I’ve spent quite a bit of time on the Internet looking up stuff on the Gospel of Judas, other early Christian writings, The Da Vinci Code, Tiktaalik Roseae, and how to do stuff on the Internet.
Jury Duty (described in 4/18 update): This has started me thinking about all the judical terminology related to Christianity and apologetics. I hope to comment on some of these elsewhere on this site.
Men’s retreat at Verdugo Pines, near Wrightwood, CA and atop the San Andreas Fault.
See www.bethanybiblefellowship.org/images/Men/06MensRetreat/index.html.

20’s ministry: Last Sunday morning we held our first meeting with key leaders of a new 20’s ministry being started at Bethany. One of our first topics will be a discussion of The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. This will give us an opportunity to discuss the reliability of the Gospels, the role of women in Christianity and whether Jesus is the Son of God.

Posted by gary in Journal, 0 comments
03
May
2006

New Blog — a real one now!

I have just set up an actual blog on CrockerMedia.com. If you’re reading this you already should know how to get here. I’m just learning how to use it, so it may take a bit to get it (or me) up to speed.

Posted by gary in Journal, 0 comments
03
May
2006

Moved from earlier Blog start

Updates

4/18/06. Well, jury duty was interesting. I had the opportunity to visit with a former team mate from Boeing, who also got on a case. Mine was the fourth criminal case I’ve heard. (I’ve also been on two civil cases.) I consider myself a lightning rod for jury duty — one that will probably attract even more strikes now that I am ‘retired’. This most recent case was over $1.32 worth of nails. Since this is on the World Wide Web, I won’t discuss the details here, although I might be able to keep myself off future cases, were I to do so.

I read the ‘Gospel of Judas’ last weekend and find all the hype rather silly. It is quite clear in my mind why it never made it past the first cuts in the early church’s determination of which of the early writings were scripture. And it has nothing to do with claims that Jesus instructed Judas to betray him. It is quite clearly a Gnostic document. Gnosticism was an early offshoot of Christianity that is well known and was considered heresy by the early church. The Gospel of Judas was not unknown, though it had been lost. It was dismissed as heresy by Iraneus (A.D. 180). To read it for yourself go to http://www9.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel/document.html. I strongly suggest that you download the pdf and compare it to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John. To read Biola’s comments check out Biola Responds to the Gospel of Judas.

More thoughts later on Tiktaalik roseae, The Da Vinci Code and other topics, as I have time.

4/11/06. My first week hilights: new lawnmower, 1/2 day of prayer, Children’s Network International (Bible drive), meeting with Pastor Leckie, meeting with focal for a new 20’s ministry, weekend with grandkids. This week I have jury duty and am on a case.

In the news were stories about Jesus walking on ice – not water, Tiktaalik and the ‘Gospel of Judas.’ I’m working on comments about each of these to put into the “Topical Links” on the left.

I’ve moved the explanation of our step of faith to a link on the right.

Posted by gary in Journal, 0 comments