One of the things I love about the internet, blogging and social media is the friendships built. I ran into Julie through a mutual friend and online conversations about worship. Julie is a worship leader and director of children's worship arts at Lynn Haven UMC in Panama City, Florida. She is also a mother of three AND a zombie lover. I asked her to contribute to the blog and she came through with flying colors. Thanks Julie!

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My friend Ryan Kocak pointed me to this video earlier today. In it, we hear some great ideas about how zombies just fit our culture. Scott Poole wrote Monsters in America and has a great perspective on the subject. I enjoyed the video and I hope you will.

Earlier this week I asked the questions "Why Zombies?" and offered a few brief reflections. While it might be obvious, I think the first answer is because people are talking about them. We play games on our cell phones, kids have cartoon t-shirts, adults are watching "The Walking Dead" and they have entered some level of cultural popularity.

While it might be cliched for churches and pastors to talk about zombies just for popularity's sake, they should recognize some level of conciseness is manifesting. Zombie's are popular because they allow us to casually work out some fears and internal commentary regarding society.

For secular society, zombie movies let us joke about deep fears. Categorically, zombie fiction best inhabits a true secular eschatology in how it analyzes destruction and the human nature. In many zombie movies and stories, there is the idea that the disease/virus is the result of divine judgement and the survivors either recognizing or at least mentioning it. Inside of this judgement, humans are allowed to completely consume themselves. It is as though God as stepped away, reversed the incarnation and took away prevenient grace. 

The desires of materialism, lust, power, food, and other flaws have disintegrated society and turned us into consumptive monsters that have reached the ultimate of sins. In our final grasp, we begin to literally feed on each other, and the remaining few metaphorically understand the ills of society and run from being consumed by them.

To best understand why people are talking about zombies, we need to best understand the emotions that make them relevant.

Next we are going to look at how the story of the church can offer an alternative to the story of destruction and consumption.

Glory be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit:
As it was in the beginning, is now, and shall ever be, world without end.

This past Sunday, great television returned to primetime. I, along with plenty others, watched the 2nd season premiere of The Walking Dead (I wrote about the first season here). The western world is taken up with Zombies, they are a pop culture phenom. 

Over the next couple of days, I want to look at the topic "Why Zombies", especially in relation to the way Christians interact within the world. The quick version is that zombies provide a place for our culture to both recognize own our destructive nature while maintaining cooperation in what we see is a flawed society. Zombie fiction inhabits a true secular eschatology, and analyze destruction and human nature. For the church, we must understand how our story functions as an alternative timeline to the story of the world.

So stay tuned over the next week and lets think about zombies together. Till then, check out this post from the past.

3 Reasons the Church should understand the zombie apocalypse

Yesterday in my sermon I challenged folks to become "imagining storytellers in the great Drama of Scripture." Nice words....they sound pretty nice changed together like that. But I am straight serious. To be Christians in the 21st century, participating in God's mission for the world, we have to understand the Bible as something that actually effects our life.

In the past, we understood its effects as knowledge and moral priority. We read the Bible to find more knowledge about God and to learn the do's and don'ts of the Christian life. These still apply, but perhaps not in the same order or priority. We need to get past a mechanistic understand of the Bible. Instead of it being something we hang on a tool belt, it instead becomes part of our mind and body. With this mindset, the idea of knowledge and behavior come into play, but understood because we are in a relationship with God instead of religious obligation.

Scripture belongs to the life we live now. We learn to talk about ourselves in terms of the actions of Christ, the deliverance from Egypt in the Old Testament and the hymns of hope in Revelation. The people of God have a story. It has been the same story since Abraham was called. The creator of the universe wants to draw all of the world into a redeemed relationship. He Himself came down, and Jesus took care of everything. While Jesus now sits at the right hand of the Father, the Holy Spirit now speaks the words of God to us.

The practical side of storytelling means that we need to read scripture. We read it slow, fast, with deep intentions and at a glance. In all points of time the word of God is with us. It means we might have times where we read huge stretches or it might be the verses we memorized as a child. Through reading, we take it in as part of our lives and are then able to tell it to others...as something we own.

In several places in scripture, God challenges a prophet to eat a scroll. As Christians, we ingest scripture, letting it become part of our body. We do this as individuals and we do this as corporate bodes. Scripture becomes as natural as an organ, influncing our life in ways that we don't even realize.

Inside Methodist theology, folks have always looked at what John Wesley might have believed about the end times. In reading this morning sermon 26 (I read one of the standard 52 a week), I came across this snippet. Click here to read the entire sermon on The Lord's Prayer.

I appreciate how Wesley doesn't allow his eschatology to take over. Clearly, it forms a very important part of his thoughts on the Lord's Prayer. The segment that I am interested in was part of the section on the phrase "thy kingdom come." Wesley see's that the thoughts about The End can only be placed in the perspective of the kingdom.

When therefore God shall "give his Son the Heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession;" when "all kingdoms shall bow before him, and all nations shall do him service;" when "the mountain of the Lord's house," the Church of Christ, "shall be established in the top of the mountains;" when "the fullness of the Gentiles shall come in, and all Israel shall be saved;" then shall it be seen, that "the Lord is King, and hath put on glorious apparel," appearing to every soul of man as King of kings, and Lord of lords. And it is meet for all those who love his appearing, to pray that he would hasten the time; that this his kingdom, the kingdom of grace, may come quickly, and swallow up all the kingdoms of the earth; that all mankind, receiving him for their King, truly believing in his name, may be filled with righteousness, and peace, and joy, with holiness and happiness, -- till they are removed hence into his heavenly kingdom, there to reign with him for ever and ever.

For this also we pray in those words, "Thy kingdom come:" We pray for the coming of his everlasting kingdom, the kingdom of glory in heaven, which is the continuation and perfection of the kingdom of grace on earth. Consequently this, as well as the preceding petition, is offered up for the whole intelligent creation, who are all interested in this grand event, the final renovation of all things, by God's putting an end to misery and sin, to infirmity and death, taking all things into his own hands, and setting up the kingdom which endureth throughout all ages.

I bolded the few interesting passages. From a cursory read, it would appear that Mr. Wesley seemed to favor some sort of post-millennial view. What do you think?

Earlier this week I posted about how local churches need to engage with Revelation. To some, this might be an insurmountable task.

The character of Revelation makes an auditory involvement necessary. In country terms; We need to HEAR Revelation.

Those in the company of preachers must learn to call the church to its eschatological dwelling place.  In the enterprise of the earthly church taking Revelation back, local pastors serve both as truck drivers and road crew.  We direct the energy as well as take care of the movement so that the laity can travel alongside. Intentionally preaching eschatologically means a deliberate admonition of the end that comes across as assured as the deliberate notions of beginning. Our role is to theologically play the childhood game of “connect the dots”. We are story-tellers, not date-setters.   

As pastors we must tell people about the other world,  living in the the subversive act of preached hope. Instead of romantic historical meanderings that lament morals gone amuck, we focus on preached time. Preached time creates the path to New Jerusalem.  This alternate narrative answers the question of who really is in charge.

Whenever I teach Revelation to a new group of people, I start with a question. It goes something like this; "I am going to let you make a decision as to how we will read this book and how I will teach it to you. We can either let Revelation be a book that only pertains to a distinct group of people at only one time in the history of the world or we can read it as though it has informed the church for 2000 years and will continue to speak to us."

I have never had a group take option A. Even if they are hardcore Left Behinders, the second choice just sounds better. If teaching Revelation freaks you out, let the congregation make the first choice. Present to them a basic reading strategy. It will allow you to stay away from so many testy issues.

Revelation doesn't work in a passive setting. We have to be intentional and deliberate with it, but shouldn't we with all scripture?

Related Posts:
The Apocalyptic Pastor
Preaching, Mindmapping and the Apocalypse of John
Christian Time and the End of Times

Glory be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit:
As it was in the beginning, is now, and shall ever be, world without end.

So it didn't happen. The internet is abound with jokes, judgements and taunting. Alot of it comes from the mouths (and fingers) of Christians, critiquing what was rightfully an ill found theology.

Several of my readers asked me last week why I was absent from speculation, linking and commentary. I was actually really busy these last few weeks, but as Saturday grew closer and closer, I felt the pit of my stomach aching for what was going to be a bad weekend for Christians. It was bad for those who hoped Camping was correct and it was a bad weekend for those who will now be lumped in with the disappointed. It will also be a bad weekend because many other Christians are slowly showing our stripes, and earning the the stereotypes of judgemental, arrogant and know it all.

The simple fact: It is easier to make fun of a bad eschatology than a developing a good eschatology.

While many pointed out that Camping was wrong, I did not see many good theological contributions as to why he is wrong. We can point our fingers, but the task of eschatological leadership is hard. While the church (and society) can postmodern away the stickier pieces of eschatology, those in it for the long haul must roll their sleeves up.

We need to learn to talk about judgement.
We need to learn to talk about finality.
We need to relate to secular apocalyptic vision.
We need to understand the actions of immanence pertaining to the words of Christ.
We need pastors who teach about eschatology.

In the words of Robert Jenson, "We need to become fiercely eschatological."

Eschatology is the orientation of the church. Without the promised 2nd coming, we have a worthless faith. We essentially sit around talking about Christmas while it is December 27th. Instead, let this infatuation with the return of Christ stay on our minds.

Glory be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit:
As it was in the beginning, is now, and shall ever be, world without end.

When running in a multiple vehicle caravan, you have several different types of vehicles needed. A couple of self sufficient larger trucks. An armored school bus for carrying people. An RV can serve as the mobile command center. You might want to lash a few motorcycles to the back of the bus for recon missions or to gather supplies. To think that a random assemblage of running cars and trucks will work sounds like a quick way to become one of the undead.

In the infancy of WWZ, one of the key pieces to any successful roving tribe of the alive is the point vehicle. You have to have one. All anyone needs to do is watch the Road Warrior to see what a carefully driven post apocalyptic hot rod can do.

This prime example sits in my favorite used car lot, where several of our Zombie Trucks of the Week have been found. I secretly think the owner is doing some pre-planning.

When choosing a your point vehicle, several qualifications need to be looked for.

1. Popular model. You don't want to be scavenging for parts for a Ford Pantera while evading the undead. It simply isn't a good decision. The popularity of the mullet mobile in America probably is linked to the popularity for Bon Jovi. Wherever there are rednecks, you will find plenty of Trans Ams. Trust me.

2. Easily accessible engine. A mid 80's Nissan 300 ZX could fit most of the bill. But good old fashioned American Heavy Metal means an engine compartment that can actually be accessed. Unless your tribe resembles the carefully selected cast of Discovery's The Colony, you probably won't have an automotive engineer and three grease monkeys back in the armored bus.

3. Heavy Frame. You will want some options here. Attaching a cattle guard to the front of your point vehicle allows it to clear a path for itself. It doesn't need to be massive, just enough to easily get in and out.

4. T-Tops. This Trans Am doesn't have them, but any mullet mobile with a poor mans convertible will help you gain several shooting positions in case you get into a hairy situation.

With all this in mind, what vehicle would you choose to run point in YOUR zombie caravan?