Sean Witty

Why I like atheists

2009-11-11T09:54:25-05:00

...and why I am friends with the part of my psyche that is an atheist.

From the NYTimes article on Samir Selmanovic's new book “It’s Really All About God” (Jossey-Bass).

“atheism at its best,” he writes, “grabs us by the collar and throws us to the ground, demanding to see lives well lived, forcing us to dig deeper and live up to the best of our own religions.”
And in a memorable phrase: “Atheists are God’s whistleblowers.”

HT: Hillary Bercovici

Restart with a Poem

2009-11-02T11:10:03-05:00

Time to admit that (1) I'm not going to post the next part of the Toby Mac post (but that I learned something important in the process of NOT doing it...one being that i like to START conversations not FINISH them) and (2) I want to blog for me, to catalog ideas and leave open the possibility of connecting with others who resonate with what I post.

And so...

From a good poetry site: Black Cat Poems

We Wander

by: William B. Tappan (1794-1849)

We wander in a thorny maze,
A vale of doubts and fears;
A night illumed with sickly rays,
A wilderness of tears:
We wander, bound to empty show,
The slaves of boasted will;
We wander, dupes to hope untrue,
And love to wander still.

We wander--while unfading joy
The heart will not approve,
The bliss that sparkles to destroy,
Secures its warmest love:
Some syren leads our steps astray,
But speaks no peace within;
We wander in a flowery way,
We wander, heirs of sin.

We wander--but though oft we roam,
Led by allurement strong,
Yet from our heavenly Father's home,
We would not wander long:
Cleanse us, O Saviour! from this stain
In mercy's living flood;
Restore the lost, and bring again
The wanderer back to GOD.

tobyMac Meets Christ at Camp

2009-06-22T11:27:30-04:00

I've been receiving an e-newsletter lately from Youth Ministry Today which comes from The Center for Youth Ministry Training where Mark DeVries is the Chairman of the Board of Directors. I've spent a chunk of time with Mark at the Princeton Forums and he is a terrific guy.

A headline in the most recent e-newsletter reads,"tobyMac meets Christ at Camp. Why camp is the best place for students to meet Jesus."

I want to articulate some of my thinking about students and ministry by writing a series of posts that reflect on youth ministry and use this article as a springboard. My intent is to critique the assumptions and theology that underlie the article.

Christian Camping

The Christian Camp and Conference Association reported in 2006 that they represented roughly 1000 camps and that 7.5 million children, youth, and adults participate annually. These camps do not represent the kind of places we saw on the movie Jesus Camp, according to this press release.

So, "Christian Camping" is a significant piece of the American landscape. We have students in our area who have been significantly impacted by their experiences at Christian Camps; places like Young Life properties, Deer Run and Brookwoods (New Hampshire), Dudley (New York), and others.

There is solid theology and developmental psychology behind Christian Camping that goes much farther back than our 20th century American version. There are also some opportunities to rethink/reimagine the way we engage in camping with students that can improve the value of a camping experience. In my next post, I will look desired outcomes of a camping experience.

Here is the tobyMac article

Here's the wiki on tobyMac

iPod Touch

2009-06-12T19:20:27-04:00

Some sik friends have given me one for my birthday! I am writing this post com the free Typepad app.

Nic Paton quote

2009-05-20T13:01:00-04:00

HT emergent village

"See yourself as a Poet, appointed by God, no matter how limited your use of language. Avoid rote words, and shun all cliché. Don’t be trivial or insincere, but nevertheless flirt with words, and laugh a lot, for God delights in play."

Nic Paton