November 24, 2009
Why I Love Fuller
Check out the course description and required reading for the Theology & Pop Culture class I’m about to begin at Fuller:
DESCRIPTION: This multi-disciplinary course will strengthen students’ cultural literacy by helping them understand the ways pop culture is created, marketed, consumed, received and critiqued. The course will examine pop culture artifacts as works/texts, consumer products, and pervasive agents of spiritual formation. Students will develop biblical/theological, historical, and economic understandings of music, film, TV, radio, periodicals, books, advertising, and the Internet.
SIGNIFICANCE FOR LIFE AND MINISTRY: In this course students will reassess pop culture’s relevance to their lives, their ministry, and the church’s engagement with mainstream culture.
LEARNING OUTCOMES: Pop culture is pervasive and influential. Students successfully completing this course will:
- Develop a theology of culture and pop culture that helps them analyze their own culture consumption, prepare them for meaningful and effective ministry in a media-saturated age, and address culture’s role in their own spiritual growth and that of those for whom they care;
- Understand how pop culture products are created, disseminated, used and abused;
- Evaluate the varied economic, social and spiritual impacts of mass media and products;
- Assess evangelicals’ historic responses to popular culture in order to develop more effective ways of impacting and engaging both culture and those who create it.
- Develop strategies and activities for teaching cultural literacy to others.
REQUIRED READING:
- Beaujon, Andrew. Body Piercing Saved My Life: Inside the Phenomenon of Christian Rock. (DeCapo Press, 2006), 291 pp.
- Hipps, Shane. Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Faith and Culture. Zondervan, 2009. 208 pp.
- Lewerenz, Spencer and Nicolosi, Barbara, eds. Behind the Screen: Hollywood Insiders on Faith, Film and Culture. (Baker Books, 2005), 216 pp.
- Lynch, Gordon. Understanding Theology and Popular Culture. Blackwell Publishing, Inc., 2004, 195 pp.
- Schaeffer, Francis. Art and the Bible (InterVarsity Press, 1973), 63 pp.
- Vanhoozer, Kevin, Charles Anderson, and Michael Sleasman (editors). Everyday Theology: How to Read Cultural Texts and Interpret Trends. Baker Academic, 2007. Introduction and two case studies. (roughly 250 pgs)
- You must also purchase, read and bring to class a recent issue of Entertainment Weekly magazine. Selected articles, videos, audio recordings, and other materials to be distributed in class.
This is in addition to the film class I’m hoping to get into at City College of San Francisco.
Right up my alley I tell ya! I love it!
I truly believe every Jesus-follower is called to be a missionary regardless of where they live.
These words of Jesus come to mind. When praying to His Father He said:
“As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” John 17:18
Followers of Jesus have been ”sent into the world” for a reason, and it’s not to hide.
If you really want to influence culture, learn to engage it.
Constantly throwing rocks is the easy way out, and it’s often not very helpful.
November 23, 2009
Dropping the F-Bomb Without Opening Your Mouth
The posted video was shot by someone from Dry Bones Denver – a ministry serving homeless youth in Denver, CO. I’m a fan.
Check it out:
Starting at 4:15 in … speaking of the homeless:
“You know, cuz we’re just people too … you know, and most people are on the street cuz they feel unloved, unwanted, and rejected. And just be aware that even when you pull up to an intersection and there’s that guy with the sign that’s drunk off his butt with the the flat, broke-in [fbi?] sign – ‘raaah, give me a quarter’ – You know that your reaction to him … you know, you’re not obligated to give him that quarter. You’re not obligated to do a darn thing. But you don’t have to look with your eyes or you body movements in a way that uses profanity to that person.
“What I notice is a lot of Christians will not say the F-bomb with their mouth, but they’ll say it with their eyes and their spirit and their heart. They’ll F-bomb you all day long because you are not what they see as a child of God. So, you know … I don’t know, you’re not obligated to give me a buck or a cigarette or a meal if I ask, but don’t drop the F-bomb. You know?”
He’s right, isn’t he?
November 20, 2009
Berkeley Student Protesters Take Over Building
November 19, 2009
Near Riot at UCLA over Tuition Hikes
The entire state of California is a financial mess, and college students and professors are being negatively affected as a result.
First, the unversities were forced to fire professors and omit classes to pay the bills (two of the graduate programs I was interested in at SFSU are gone!). Now, they’re greatly hiking tuition costs further burdening the already-in-debt-up-to-their-eyeballs students.
As a result, UC students from all over the state descended upon Los Angeles and UCLA to protest the additional $2,500 per semester full-timers will be charged starting next summer. Read all about it here, and check out this video of the demonstration:
As you can see, anger is in the air.
November 18, 2009
“Less Banter, More Mission” – Jesus
Acts 1:1-8
1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach
2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.
3 After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.
4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.
5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
6 So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
(NIV)
The first eight verses of Acts are loaded.
Jesus was crucified, resurrected, then appeared to (at least) a few hundred people convincing them He really was alive. In the days following, He continued teaching about the Kingdom of God, and shortly before His final ascension into heaven instructed the disciples to stay in Jerusalem until “the gift my Father promised” – the Holy Spirit – came upon them.
It was at this point that the disciples wanted to have a theological discussion about the restoration of Israel … they still didn’t get it.
They asked when Israel would be fully restored, and Jesus responds to their question with something like this: “Stop worrying about that – the Father will take care of it! After you receive the Holy Spirit, your job will be to serve as my witnesses all over the world … THAT is what you need to be concerned with!”
And if you read further into Acts, you learn that they listened.
In the very next chapter of the book 3,000 gave their lives to Jesus. A couple of chapters later, 5,000. By the end, all of Jerusalem, Samaria, and the surrounding areas had heard about Jesus, and thousands upon thousands had committed to following Him.
Jesus called the disciples to serve as His witnesses. This wasn’t a command just for the Twelve Apostles – it was then, and is today, for all disciples of Jesus.
Witness. Share with others what you’ve seen and experienced in Christ. Share with others what Jesus is all about. As they say in our beloved black churches – TESTIFY!
That was the disciples’ mission then – it’s the disciples’ mission today.
Less theological banter regarding non-essentials, more mission.
Witness.
November 16, 2009
Favorite proverb
Proverbs 16:3
3 Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.
(NIV)
That’s mine, and I’m meditating on it today.
What’s yours?
November 14, 2009
Thanks for reading westcoastwitness.com
Just a quick post to say thanks for reading westcoastwitness.com. In early September this blog recorded it’s 20,000th hit after a little over a year in existence.
Today, two months later, it’s 30,000th hit was recorded.
Daily readership continues to increase, and for that I say ‘thank you.’
You make posting here worth it. 
