Culture


31
Oct 07

“Christian” t-shirts that make me smile

Spreadshirt is one of my three favorite t-shirt sites (the other two are Threadless and ThinkGeek, rather predictably), and they’re having a contest that ends today, so this is my entry. I’m always up for a contest, especially one that has relatively few entries (and don’t you all go entering and ruining my odds, hear?!). :)

I use the term “Christian” pretty loosely in the case because I really only consider one of the shirts to have a message that actually represents Christianity accurately, but the other two are funny to me and would have a good chance of sparking conversations, which is my primary goal in wearing unique t-shirts.

First, the funny ones:
Come to church, we have cookies
I find this particularly amusing as I’ve attended “church with cookies” since I was about 14 (with a 4-year exception while going to college; I still went to church, they just didn’t offer cookies). One of my favorite things about The Experience is that there’s a meal after each service; it makes it a lot easier to get to know people better, since that seems to happen naturally over food. But it’s not the whole point!

Angel & Devil
This one has an angel on one sleeve and a devil on the other. The concept makes me smile because in our culture that’s almost universally recognized (though more likely from cartoons than anything else!). I’d probably get the cookie one first, because though this one could land me in a conversation about influences, etc., more likely it would just get smiles. I could get this for my friend, Cindy, though; she claims I’m her conscience.

And the more serious one:
Love never fails.
Humans fail, though. Interesting point, and one of the better-designed shirts I found (the downside of “crowdsourcing”: the crowd often has appalling taste… in my hardly-ever-humble opinion).

If I win one of the gift certificates, you may see me sporting one or more of these in the future. :)


2
May 07

If you want gas prices to go down, use less gas

Gas pump photo by B TalI’m both amused and annoyed by the various schemes going around by email to lower gas prices. I got two today: one that’s calling for a don’t-buy-gas day and one that’s calling for a boycott of a specific chain.

Clearly people don’t really get the whole supply-and-demand thing. Demand is still demand, regardless of what day it is or where you do your demanding. The market is not going to reduce costs of a limited-supply commodity unless demand goes down.

Though it certainly wouldn’t be popular, I think the best long term outcome for the US would happen if gas prices continue to rise. I’d be in favor of pretty drastic measures to get people to stop using so much gas. So much of what we do use is wasteful (seriously, why do you need an Expedition for a commuter vehicle?), and maybe we could positively impact one of our other “great outrages”, the cost of health care, if people actually started walking and biking more (not to mention reducing the long term effects of city pollution).

Enough ranting for me. If you’re bored, go replace your incandescents with CFLs.


15
Nov 06

Doing life together

Be advised: this post is pretty long and a bit “out there.” Now you can’t say I didn’t warn you.

I have a few random things that I get excited about, things that make everyone else think I’m crazy. One of these things is the concept of communes. I don’t mean communes in the hippy-dippy sense. :) More the idea of making good use of financial and talent/interest resources, and recapturing some of the joys of community that have sort of disappeared along with small, tight-woven groups.

This commune idea has been on my mind for several years, but lately there have been other things that have penetrated my consciousness. One is the way that Christians are perceived in the secular world. (I know, you’re thinking that my commune obsession isn’t likely to help that! But give me a chance to explain…)

At church last week, Brian played a video where a guy stopped random people on the street and played a little word association with them. “What do you think of when I say ‘Christian’?” and “What comes to mind when I say ‘Jesus’?” were two of the main ones. The answers were sadly predictable: “weird,” “judgmental,” and even “bad.”

This reaction from the secular world tells me a lot of things. One, Christians are really doing a lousy job of communicating the Gospel. I have this fantasy of people responding with “weird, but the nicest people I’ve ever met”. Which is my second point: it seems obvious that either the respondents don’t know any Christians, or the Christians they know aren’t really following Christ. Yes, that sounds a little harsh and judgmental, but it’s not really a judgment because it’s self-evident. If we were truly following Christ, the responses would be different.

I’ve also been reading lots of books that point out that most Christians don’t have non-believing friends. This is partly because it’s easier to be with “people like me,” partly because many just don’t encounter a lot of non-believers in daily life, and partly because of the “Christian ghetto” that everyone’s always talking about.

So what do all these things have to do with each other? Well, I was standing in the shower, and it hit me (isn’t the shower the location of all eureka moments?): what if we had a commune of sorts that solved some of the perception and relationship problems at the same time? A structure that actually makes it more likely that Christians would hang out with secular folks (rather than becoming even more of a Christian ghetto, as the commune idea might imply to some)?

Here’s what I’m thinking: an apartment building owned by a local church, in the general vicinity of the church. The intention would be to have about half to two-thirds of the apartments occupied by people involved in the church. The other half to one-third would be intentionally filled with secular people in the church’s target market (in my church, this is families; in other churches, this could be young singles, professionals, whatever).

Social and “felt need” interactions would be intentional and central to the success of this plan. For instance, with our target, this would mean things like child care, homework help, dinner get-togethers, and anything that would help a young family make connections and get a little less stressed. For this to work, it is essential that the church people step up and lead community interactions.

In my ideal world, this would accomplish a few things:

  1. It would foster meaningful relationships between Christians and non-believers. Not “we’re here to convert you” relationships, but true friendships. This is essential if we’re ever going to overcome the stereotypes about Christians (and get down to doing the work Jesus told us to do, already!).
  2. It would give us the opportunity to show God’s love to people in a way that matters. It’s good to tell people that Jesus loves them, but how about showing them through service that meets actual needs?
  3. It would help us grow as Christians. This would happen both through fellowship with other church folks, and especially through actually following the Great Commission.
  4. It would be fun and fulfilling! I think most people long for real community, and some of us find it in the Church, but still feel lonely most of the time.
  5. It makes financial sense. We could pool our resources (both financial and in terms of talent and interests) to create a community that is more than the sum of its parts. For instance, maybe someone gets free rent in exchange for childcare or meal prep for the community, while others pay rent that benefits the community.

Is this the end-all, be-all solution? Of course not! There would be plenty of problems to solve (how do you get church people on board for such a big commitment? what happens if there’s tension in the church—or the apartment? how do you attract your target audience without making them feel like pawns?). But I think as an idea, it has a lot of potential.

I have no idea if this is something that anyone’s doing already, or if any church would get behind it, but it’s on my mind, something I’m passionate about, and I believe that it’s God that’s keeping it in my mind and heart. I’m not sure what He wants me to do with this idea (our church doesn’t have the resources at this point to make this happen); maybe I’m just suppose to throw it out there. Any thoughts? (Do you all think I’m nuts now?)


16
Oct 06

Microlending and the Nobel Peace Prize

Long time readers will remember that I’m a big fan of microlending, so you won’t be surprised when I say I’m excited about this news: Muhammad Yunus (who Tom Peters calls “the father of microlending”) has just been declared the winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.

(Hat tip to The Thinklings)