the nytimes has an article about evangelical churches participating in mixed martial arts fighting. cute stuff like churches named 'xtreme ministries' doubling as fight academy's and stuff.
we here at salina will be starting our fighting academy soon, centering around making devastatingly snarky comments.
thanks cass...
Entered by taylor on 02.03.2010 at 18:09
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sermon catch up time. sorry for the terrible delay...
sermon, 2009.12.13 on mark 9:14-29 (notes) is here.
the sermon, 2009.12.20 on mark 10:1-12, is here.
no idea where the sermons for 2009.12.27 (mark 10:1-12)and 2010.1.3 (mark 10:13-30; i have those notes at least) are though. perhaps the angel ordered them sealed until the end or something.
but, back to the system, the sermon for 2010.1.10 on mark 10:32-52 is here.
then, the sermon for 2010.1.17 on mark 11:1-14 is here.
and the sermon for 2010.1.24, on mark 11:15-33 (notes), is here.
whew.
Entered by taylor on 02.03.2010 at 17:58
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robert park on human rights and evangelism
required reading for our church: it would be worth comparing the tone of the comments in the metafilter post with those following the Reuters interview. we should be praying for this guy and for those he is trying to reach. "But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead."
Entered by jeff ronk on 01.03.2010 at 8:11
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graphic showing the breakdown of america's religious affiliations.
Entered by taylor on 01.01.2010 at 16:48
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mint.com has a nice image breakdown on the giving, covering americans generosity and where to give.
Entered by taylor on 12.12.2009 at 22:11
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rocky (editing), andy (filming), and carrie (interviewing) made a little 'man on the street' video in austin, asking folks questions about their spiritual beliefs.
update: well...if you want to see it, you'll have to ask permission as it turns out. so, do that or don't, whatever.
Entered by taylor on 12.08.2009 at 17:09
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the transfiguration occurred vicariously in our midst sunday, as we looked at mark 9:1-13.
relive the event at home with the sermon here. also, if you haven't heard it yet, here's the song by sufjan stevens.
Entered by taylor on 12.08.2009 at 12:55
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mark 8:27-38; peter identifies jesus, then offers some rather misplaced advice and gets smacked down. jesus then talks about the cost of discipleship; good reading for any disciple.
the sermon is here.
Entered by taylor on 11.30.2009 at 13:40
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the end of the first section of mark; review the outline if you need to brush up on the layout.
jesus feeds some gentiles, rejects some pharisees, then offers a picture of understanding; mark 8:1-26.
sermon available here.
Entered by taylor on 11.30.2009 at 13:00
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tried to ignore this on interwebs but failed as it's everywhere now. christians rapping about how you should side-hug to avoid having too much of your body touch someone of the opposite sex.
i will be having none of this.
Entered by taylor on 11.24.2009 at 8:17
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jesus does some mixing with some gentile types in mark 7:24-37.
the sermon is available here.
Entered by taylor on 11.13.2009 at 9:56
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another sunday on the fancy recording machine; the fantastic passage of mark 7:1-23.
the sermon is here.
Entered by taylor on 11.03.2009 at 10:38
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mark 6:45-56, including the fantastic story of jesus walking on the water. this was recorded on a new fancy recording device (zoom h4n), then tweaked and mastered by a real music genius. we're gonna start doing sermons only though; hopefully that'll be ok with you folks in internet land.
sermon here, notes here
Entered by taylor on 10.28.2009 at 19:54
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mark 6:30-44, as taught by the newly ordained hurley. jesus feeds the 5000...
the whole service is here, and the sermon is here.
also...the audio has been compressed this week, but not well. sort of a hack job; lemme know if this is better or worse than the usual trash recording. on the positive side, we bought a new fancy recording device that should work much better.
Entered by taylor on 10.23.2009 at 10:06
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mark 6:14-29; the section in which john the baptist's beheading is recounted, covered by jeff.
the full service is here, and the sermon by itself is here.
Entered by taylor on 10.12.2009 at 8:35
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huuurrley, rollin through mark 6:1-6 (jesus gets dissed by his homies in nazareth). recording is available.
the full event is here, and the sermon by its lonesome is here.
Entered by taylor on 10.02.2009 at 15:09
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well, we're on a bit of a streak at this point. two weeks in a row with no recording... we did cover mark 5:21-43 however, and the notes are available here if you're curious.
Entered by taylor on 09.28.2009 at 13:32
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had some recording device troubles this week, so there's nothing to listen to on this past sunday's service over mark 5:1-20 (the gerasene demoniac).
sorry...
Entered by taylor on 09.16.2009 at 14:48
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we finished the parables in mark 4 (v26-34) sunday, covering the parable of the growing seed and the parable of the mustard seed.
the full service is here, the sermon is here, and the notes are here.
Entered by taylor on 08.31.2009 at 21:23
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well. technical details bedevil us again, and we have no recording of this past sunday's service. you will have to imagine it, in your head, like in the old days when people used to sit around fires and say, "oh that little bit of fire looks like what sunday looked like at salina street church".
we covered mark 4:1-25. on the parable of the sower. make sure you imagine that bit.
Entered by taylor on 08.27.2009 at 15:42
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jesus was accused of healing by the power of 'satan', spoke about the unforgivable sin, and talked about his true family. if you're thinking to yourself, "my that sounds like mark 3:20-35.", go ahead and take another cookie.
the full service is here, and the sermon only is here.
Entered by taylor on 08.18.2009 at 17:16
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well...no recording this week. but the text was mark 3:7-19, and it's entirely possible that the notes will be posted here at some point.
Entered by taylor on 08.18.2009 at 17:03
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mark 2:23-3:6, in which jesus disputes with some pharisees regarding the sabbath.
the full service is here, the sermon alone is here, and the notes are here.
Entered by taylor on 08.18.2009 at 16:58
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mark 2:13-22 this week; jesus calls levi, refers to himself as the bridegroom, and talks about fasting. brother hurley had the helm so we taped the pink recording device to the music stand.
the full service is here, the sermon alone is here.
Entered by taylor on 07.29.2009 at 19:36
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exactly one week off on the posting here; last week's service is now available. we covered mark 2:1-12, in which jesus heals the paralytic who is lowered through the roof (great story).
here, the sermon is here, and the sermon notes are here.
Entered by taylor on 07.26.2009 at 8:53
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so...our top secret pink recording device was assidentally left at home by yours truly, which means you'll have to use your imagination to hear the service from the 12th. but the notes at least are available, so you can follow along with jeff's teaching on mark 1:29-1:45 (the compassion of god illustrated, as jesus heals several, including a leper).
sorry for the lack of audio...
Entered by taylor on 07.26.2009 at 8:52
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codex sinaiticus goes online
from B&C bibleology: "Sinaiticus is perhaps the single most important text of the New Testament in existence today. It is a 4th Century Codex of the Greek Bible (including the Old Testament, though not all of the Old Testament has survived." now you can read it online. The manuscript was 'discovered' by the noted scholar Dr. Tischendorf at the monastery of St. Catharine on Mount Sinai. During a journey to the monestary in 1853, he was shown the manuscript by the steward of the monastery; he attempted to buy the manuscript, but without success. Later, Tischendorf convinced the monks to send the manuscript to the Czar of Russia, who (as Protector of the Orthodox Church) could be influential in selecting the next head of the monestary. There is some question to the validity of this deal however, as the monks allege that Tischendorf promised that the manuscript would be returned to them. Needless to say, the manuscript did never make its way to Sinai again, being sold by the USSR to the British Museum in 1933, where it resides today.
Entered by jeff ronk on 07.06.2009 at 17:36
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mixed things up with the service order this week; cut the break out and put the announcements first (per a request). coincidentally, we astally have the whole service up for you to listen to, if you like barely hearing things via our amazing recording technology.
in more relevant news, the sermon was on mark 1:16-28.
full service here, sermon only here, notes here.
Entered by taylor on 07.05.2009 at 19:54
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a new gameshow in turkey is attempting to convert atheists to religion. the show will pit rabbis, imans, monks, and priests against each other in an attempt to woe the atheist(s) to their respective religions.
Entered by taylor on 07.03.2009 at 22:03
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apologies in advance, sermon only this week (again). jeff covered mark 1:1-15 (notes here).
sermon is available here.
Entered by taylor on 07.02.2009 at 16:24
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the website for evangel cathedral is certainly showing our sorry selves up.
make sure your speakers are on and the volume is set to 11.
thanks to shaun for the link...
Entered by taylor on 06.29.2009 at 16:45
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brother hurley had his first day of teaching since moving back to austin, tx, and covered an intro and overview of mark. he's rather high energy, so beware of the multiple times when he knocks the pink recording device off of the music stand.
also, we don't have the full service available this week do to some technical difficulties, but the sermon is here, and his notes are here.
Entered by taylor on 06.27.2009 at 20:08
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a cheater's new testament introduction
i have been working on compiling some useful internet study resources. this is the first in what i hope will be a larger more exhaustive collection of links to sites that will contribute to your biblical education.
Entered by jeff ronk on 06.18.2009 at 17:17
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jeff has put together a schedule to help you read through the new testament in a month. my family is signed on for the project, and that means my 7 year old son is doing the reading, so no excuses.
Entered by taylor on 06.09.2009 at 16:48
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hebrews has been completed; jeff finished the book this week, hitting heb 13:18-25. next week we'll read through the book as a group (probably no posting of the service next week), then we'll be on to mark.
the full service is here, the sermon all alone is here.
Entered by taylor on 06.08.2009 at 13:48
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hebrews 13:7-17, an encouragement to stay true to the truth they were established with initially.
the full service esta aqui, and the sermon is here, and the notes are here.
Entered by taylor on 06.08.2009 at 13:35
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yes, we're just playing catch up here...i've been a out of town quite a bit lately, so please forgive the delays. anyway, without further ado, here's the full service and here's just the sermon (covering heb 13:1-6).
Entered by taylor on 06.08.2009 at 13:23
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MHC downtown
so, as part of our little excursion to seattle, laurie and i visited one of the mars hill church campuses today. i wanted to put down some observations and solicit some discussion.

by way of background, mars hill is a megachurch in seattle started by a guy named mark driscoll. it has grown from a bible study to a HUGE multi-campus church in about 10 years. (guessing here: see their site for the real history). as it is now, they have several campuses in addition to the main one in the ballard neighborhood north of downtown seattle. each of the sites has its own pastoral/elder leadership, but the preaching is driscoll piped in. not sure about the nuts and bolts of how that works but he is there on the screen at the campuses.

laurie and i visited the downtown campus (linked above) for a couple of reasons:

• it was with in walking distance
• i wanted to see how the campus model functioned in a real life service
• that location supports our friends over at austin city life, an acts 29 network plant that meets over on 6th st.

we hit the 9:00 service and were pleasantly surprised to see that they also have a hard time starting on time, though not quite as late as we do. the interior had a nice minimalist modern-ish vibe: lots of black, coffee from storyville coffee. the band leading worship was on the bluegrass side of indie; nicely done, not too loud. over all the feel was just comfortable. i liked it.

now for some observations:

• worship: not overdone; the setting provided a nice atmosphere for reflection/contemplation/meditation of the truths of scripture or songs. it was not emotionally conjured as we sometimes see, it was just nice to have a time to dwell on the passage that was read and projected as the back drop. the music was god focused, biblically based, and well presented. i think that as a church we could tighten this up a bit- work harder to provide an atmosphere that facilitated dwelling or meditation on scripture or our musical expression of worship.
• as far as the campus model: there does seem to be some legitimate campus pastoral leadership at the sites: i am not sure how this plays out during the rest of the week, or in terms of decision making but it seemed to work. re: piping in driscoll- i am ambivalent here; for one thing it relies on tech- it can be glitchy. we had a rough start this morning. it is less strange to watch the sermon on a screen than i thought it would be, but i worry about the teaching opportunities of the local pastors/elders.
• they use a lot of house done media- video, print, music, so there is a nice degree of cohesiveness across campuses. to my untrained eye, the quality is pretty good. the video intro to II peter today was quite catchy.

overall it was one of the more pleasant church experiences that i have had: comfortable and unpretentious, well done with out being cheesy. on a downside- they were not overly friendly- same as any church. not unfriendly- just not outgoing to a couple of new faces. of course- laurie and i are not exactly outgoing ourselves so we were happy to just blend in with the scenery.

lets have some questions/comments here. fire away. use this as an opportunity for what we can do to make salina street church more engaging and useful.

i will use this chance to get a little, como se dice, sentimental: i love the church- i love our church; it is my greatest desire to see it built up and strengthened. may god use our efforts to do just that. may we all work together to present every person complete in christ, remembering ii peter 1:1-4 "Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: 2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; 3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust." amen.
Entered by jeff ronk on 05.31.2009 at 17:48
Comments : 1            

this past sunday we covered hebrews 12:18-29, the very last warning of hebrews. no more stern, scary stuff in the book from here...
the full shebang is here, the sermon is here, and...notes are here.
heads up, this sermon is waaay to long, rolling in at 50 minutes. ouch.
Entered by taylor on 05.21.2009 at 19:30
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well...jeff taught on hebrews 12:14-17, which is a fantastic section. but our dandy little pink recording device pooped out about halfway through the prayer section of our service, so there really isn't anything to listen to.
apologies to you, dear reader, and may such difficulties be few and far between. jeff's notes are available here. feel free to tweet questions or email to elders-at-salinastreetchurch-dot-com.
Entered by taylor on 05.11.2009 at 23:22
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