Did I mention how great Alicia Keys was the other night? Took me to a whole new level of fanfare. I had always taken her as an "unplugged" type of musician, sitting at the piano, singing, playing, and talking. Au contraire mu fraire! She was up dancing, running around, quite simply putting on an astonishing show. I can't wait until she comes around again.

I started reading this book called "Reformission" the other day by Mark Driscoll. He is kind of one of the invented of post-modern ministry, or so I've heard. Anyway, I really expected it to be very liberal with some good ideas, yet the Gospel would not be present. Keeping with the theme of the day, au contraire mu fraire. I am very impressed with Driscoll's balance on cultural and theological issues. One of his statements is that the goal is to be culturally liberal while theologically conservative. Cultually liberal could be taken out of context, he doesn't say that what our culture is going through is right or just alternative, it's wrong but he advocates building relationships with these people and ultimately, hopefully leading them to Christ and allowing His transforming power to mold their lives into submission and obedience to Him. It's that that whole behave-believe-belong model vs. belong-believe-behave.

Some other good comments from the book include:
- the only thing worse than dying is living a boring life
- The first and most important statistic is that there are a lot of Americans who don't go to church-and their numbers are increasing
- The mission is to be close to Jesus. This transforms our hearts to love what He loves, hates what He hates, and to pursue relationships with lost people in hopes of connecting with them and, subsequently, connecting them with Him.
-There has never been a "good old day" since the Great Thud in Eden
- Anytime that Jesus is used as a means to an end, a false Gospel has been introduced and the thing improperly focused on becomes a false god
- I used to dislike minivans, because they are the product of a vast feminist conspiracy to inflict a dignity vasectomy upon men.

My thoughts exactly!

I'll end with this, he notes some questions he has been asked on Christian radio from recent converts (I'll leave out the more crass ones):
- Can I pierce a part of my body in an attempt to look like a spinning rack displaying fishing lures at a tackle shop?
- Can I tattoo the body God has given me?
- If I am an HIV-positive new Christian, can I still get married someday?
- Can I get a sex-change because I feel like God made me the wrong gender?
- What words count as swearing, who decides this, and if I disagree, can I cuss them out?
- Can I continue to make a living by being a professional blackjack player now that I am a Christian?
- Why are smoking cigarettes, drinking coffee, or taking a prescription mood-altering medications okay, but smoking pot is considered a sin?

Contact me for the full list if you are interested.