Keith Brenton has been recruiting guest editors for Wineskins this year due to Greg Taylor’s one-year sabbatical. The year is nearly over, and so they’ve gotten to the bottom of the barrel and asked me to handle one of the last two issues of 2010. And it’s quite an honor, I suppose, but I just have no clue about a theme for the issue.
I guess we’ve covered such a broad range of topics here, some several times, that I’m just coming up dry. It’s not that I’m out of ideas for One In Jesus, but a daily blog is different. It just is. I can strike out for several posts — and often do — and it’s no big deal. If a monthly magazine strikes out for one issue, it’s an entire month of disappointed readers. And if I do a terrible job here, well I’ve messed up my own blog. Wineskins is not my own, and so the standard has to be a bit higher.
So I’ve been trying to think a little outside the box, you know. But I just run into bigger boxes. I guess I could try coloring outside the lines next, but I think clichés won’t solve the problem. I just don’t feel the urge.
Now, it may be in part this accursed infection thing I’ve been fighting for the last couple of week. The doctors just put me on a different antibiotic — just to be sure. And the Greek for “antibiotic” is “against life” — and that’s how I feel. I don’t do well with antibiotics.
So I’m hoping the readers will have some brilliantly creative ideas for topics for a good progressive church periodical. I mean, I could fill the pages for several years just from existing posts, but that would hardly seem right. I can’t just recycle old material.
And so, dear readers, what topics have not been adequately addressed in the progressive Church of Christ literature or evangelical literature or the Church of Christ literature or whatever? What do you desperately want to hear, learn about, or talk about? (But not so desperate you can’t wait until November or December!)
Jay,
I'm confident you'll come up with something brilliant. As many ideas as you have, and great blogs you do each week I know the well is not dry. True, your blog and some else's online magazine is different, but you know what people like to read. Now if you can mix that with what they "need" to read you'll have a winner.
Can't wait to see what happens.
Royce
Brokenness! lol
i don't read wineskins, so i'm not sure what they've covered recently, etc.
however, it seems you would be especially qualified, jay, (and do a really good job) to serve as editor for an issue on eldership or church leadership and the like?
Would appreciate your perspective on the 'wretched man' of Romans 7. In the context, is Paul talking about his struggles between flesh and spirit as a believer or is he describing life apart from Christ?
Jay,
i think about how many religious people were unaware that they were on the wrong side of the prejudice-based issues in the 19th and 20th centuries. Is it possible there are still prejudices present in and accepted by the church which the church largely doesn't identify as prejudice?
i think it would be interesting to see a study on precisely how scripture portrays prejudice and perhaps suggestions about things that are prejudices that we don't typically identify as such. For instance, some religious people do act hateful towards homosexuals but don't see it as prejudice. And i encounter mildly-hostile sentiments against Hispanics with some frequency even among Christians.
(i got to thinking about this based on Bill Hybels interview of Bono about the Aids relief issue–did you see that video?)
–guy
An item that I think has been ignored (to our shame) by Churches of Christ for much too long – Gluttony.
See this map of obesity in the U.S.: http://bigthink.com/ideas/21349
See this map of religions in the U.S.: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1989…
Note the similarity?
Why is the sin of gluttony so prevalent in fundamental, Bible-preaching churches?
.over-eating isn't as bad as drug use
.over-eating isn't as bad as drinking (or is it that there is a lot of high-calorie drinking going on in the closets?)
.we went from poor to rich in 50 years so we are still celebrating
What concerns me is that when someone is addicted to one thing, and we are addicted to eating, they are usually addicted to something else as well. What are our second and third addictions?
Depending on the venue, of course, our folks have had plenty to say about all the other groups who "followeth not with us." Perhaps you might solicit a few short essays from followers in other circles who may be doing a better job in bridging divides between Christians.
Or maybe highlight some of our own bridge builders. Do you remember the group of elders from Indiana (I think) who spoke at Elderlink in Atlanta last year? They talked about working ecumenically on a food bank and homeless shelter in their community. You could collect a series of stories like that.
Jay, I think there's merit in all of these ideas! I have faith in you … you're hardly a 'bottom-of-the-barrel' choice!
I'm linking my name above to the New Wineskins site for those who haven't been there – or noticed your faithful link to it for all these years.
The posts you've done on what are disputable matters have been the ones that have helped me the most along with the baptism posts.
Agree with Dwayne. I once asked our Sunday am Bible class teacher (who has been in the church for more than 50 years) how many sermons he could recall on the topic of "gluttony". He replied, "None".
Jay,
I'd tie into Dwayne's thoughts and suggest an issue on food: gluttony, fasting, food as fellowship, the role of food in biblical worship, etc.
Grace and peace,
Tim Archer
If you are going to do food, a look at Jesus' use of food as a tool for inclusion and against prejudice would be interesting as well.
Said another way, Jesus' politics as exemplified through his use of the table (eucharistic shadings intentional).
Interesting tying food and prejudice together. i wonder how many Christians these days would invite muslims and hispanics over for dinner. i sure hear a lot of people in my neck of the woods complaining about both.
–guy