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I think nation and country are also in some sense Powers that are both good but certainly fallen. America, the UK, Iraq, Israel, China, Iran, you name it. Good, but imperfect and fallen.

Again, there's room I think to be proud of where you hail from, but it can't be elevated above the first and second commandments -- Love God and Love People. So, when we're so proud of being Americans that it makes us a-holes to other people, then we've got a problem and granted this "Power" too much power over us. Our allegiance to King Jesus must be above any other allegiance.

Rather than list out my own list of Honors and Critiques, I thought it'd be fun to hear from you all what you consider some Honors and Critiques of your own nation/country/heritage/whatever.

While I expect that most will share about their nationality, I'll share some at the state/regional level from the area I hail from: the Pacific Northwest of America, also called Cascadia. So, here goes:

I honor and am proud of Cascadia's heritage of idealistic pragmatism and populism, embodied in our legislative legacy of the Initiative, Referrendum, the Bottle Bill, land-use planning, and public beaches laws..

I am ashamed of our region for being founded on racism, environmental devastation, and imperial hubris.

OK, ding ding ding, your turn! :)

"I looked and beheld a Green Horse, and the name that it said on him was Mammon, and Hell followed with him." (Book of Brandon 84:38)

The final Power that I'll focus on is the Market -- variously called "The Economy", "the Invisible Hand", "Capitalism", and "the free excange of goods and services." And I think some old ragamuffin rabbi once called it "Mammon." I believe it is the idol of our age, and I fear that we are sacrificing the lives and livability of our children to it. Thus, Jesus' ultimatum of choosing between "God and Mammon" will be the fateful question for this generation. Indeed, the fate of the world may hinge on our responding rightly to the God-ordained, fallen, and meant-for-our-good Power that is The Market.

Let me explain. :)

In Romans 12 (vv. 9-21), Paul unpacks a beautiful model for prayerful community among citizens of the Kingdom of God.

Life under the lordship of King Jesus demands that people pray for each other. I really can't say it any simpler than that -- and these words convict me as one who has often neglected this obligation.

Paul calls us to "[continue] steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints" (Rom. 12:12). We're also to "restore [a man overtaken] in a spirit of gentleness" and in the same breath, to "bear one another's burdens" (Gal. 6:2).

In these verses, Paul identifies prayer and action as necessarily concomitant. It is essential, he argues, that believers lift up each other's concerns to God and simultaneously strive to meet the needs of their brothers and sisters with the resources given to them.

On Sunday, I took a critical look at my own prayer life and recognized some dangerous trends. Tongue planted firmly in cheek, I have created a system for managing relationships and prayer requests.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Form 6431PR: "Prayer Request for Individuals Desiring Intercession on Behalf of Themselves or One Other Individual."

There has been some curiousity as to the meaning of this site's subtitle, "Imagining the Kingdom of God in an age of Less". The peculiar phrase is in reference to the kind of future that many prominent politicians, former presidents, world-class financial gurus, physicists, geologists, the Department of Energy, military analysts, intelligence officials, and prominent thinkers have been telling us to expect: one charactarized by less of everything -- beginning with less oil.

It spirals out from there to meaning less food, less money, less driving, less cool stuff, less geopolitical strength, less security, less water, less growth, and (most germane for this blog) less of the kind of Christianity that contemporary Americans have been raised in. Indeed, the way we do church and kingdom business these days has been dramatically defined by the age of cheap and abundant fossil fuels.

Confused? Think this is all just wishy-washy Chicken-Little fearmongering? Dare to take the red pill with us as we crawl deeper down the rabbit hole of Peak Oil and its consequents. Let's take a closer look at "the age of Less."

(now may be a good time to grab a little extra, ehm, "communion wine": you'll need it!)

For my final summer living in Eugene, Oregon, I started bicycling to church. It is a great blue-collar faith community, but was seven miles away. I went to the 9am service, so it was never too hot by the time I got there. Still, my decision to do this got some attention from fellow churchgoers. Their responses were never mean or discouraging, but they were certainly varied. “Hard ride, huh?” “It isn’t that hot out there already is it? Oh, you biked, I see.” “Why in the world…” “Good for you!” “Sure you don’t want a ride next week? I have room in my truck.” “Sweating already? Worship hasn’t even started yet!” I didn’t mind it, and thankfully it wasn’t a continued point of discussion or anything. I don’t particularly hate living without a car, and this was no different.

Still, it wasn’t too long before I decided I’d much prefer to attend a church closer to home. As much as I loved that church, if I had to bike that far year-round, I’d get pretty tired of it and want to attend somewhere closer. Especially as the Pacific Northwest’s de facto weather, rain, comes back into season this fall and winter. Unfortunately there aren’t many churches that are any closer that I like. They’re too big, or I don’t agree with their theology, or they’re not missional enough, or too Pentecostal, or not Pentecostal enough, or they’re too old, or they get really weird about certain parts of the Bible. Since I knew I’d be moving soon, I easily resolved to continue biking to that church.

But all this got me thinking: the 20th-century American church has been radically changed by the tremendous convenience of the automobile.

As we've been talking about, the era of affordable automobile use and all its amenities is about to end – including the Commuter Church and Ringtone Christianity. The era of cheap oil, it seems, is rapidly coming to a close, and we're now entering an age of Less.

Everything will relocalize as our easy-motoring way of life persistently constricts after Peak Oil, including how we do church. Just as motorization fundamentally altered how we get to work, get our food, and get our entertainment, it has also changed church. As outlined in my last post, I believe this has done more bad than good. Whether my criticisms are correct is of little importance, though. The bigger question for the faithful is, how will a church thus conformed respond to Peak Oil? What will the Post-Carbon Church look like?

Apologies for the delay in completing this series. If you're catching up, check out parts [1] and [2].

Here are a few concluding thoughts:

1) Prayer is effective.
2) Prayer is implicative.
3) Prayer tenderizes.
4) Prayer is transformative.

Read on for a little explanation and a few stories.

Evangelicals Look Ahead

Christianity Today is running a great series of articles called "What's Next," outlining key issues that the church must face over the next fifty years.

Thus far, the magazine has explored a variety of topics - remaining "relevant," producing and engaging art and culture, defending the authority of scripture in a post-everything society, responding to feminism while also increasing male participation...and many more. Read them here: [1] [2] [3].

At the root of this project, however, lies an earnest desire seek answers to deep questions. Rather than focusing our energy on what it means to be a Christian at this particular moment, many evangelicals are looking forward to the Kingdom of God and asking, "Where is the narrow road, and what must we do along the way?"

If you enjoy discussions about the relationship of the church with creation, check out this article over at Open Source Theology: "How should the emerging church respond to the prospect of 'large-scale ecosystem collapse'?"

Andrew's central idea: "The theological basis of a constructive response to the environmental crisis lies in the understanding of the ‘church’ as an expression of authentic humanity."

The article asks a lot of good questions and offers a few thoughts. I've shared mine - feel free to do the same.

This is the second part of an earlier article responding to Christianity Today's "What's Next" series. Read it here.

Toward a Christian response to Peak Oil

Church history is a messy business, and generalizing statements inevitably oversimplify. There are many, many black spots which we must not deny. But at many points in history, God has moved individuals in His Church to cry out, "speaking truth to power."