Tag: Future


Is Blogging a Revolution?

16
October

Welcome back.

One hundred thousand blogs are added to the blogosphere per day, according to the home page of the “blogon 2005 Social Media Summit.”

Yahoo Inc. announced on Monday, the 10th of October, that “it will begin featuring the work of self published bloggers side by side with the work of professional journalists, leveling the distinction between the two.”

Blogging is beginning to enter the consciousness of mainstream America, but can we be so enthused as to call blogging a revolution? Probably not. While Blogging is not a revolution, it is becoming another tool, a means, towards a greater end — human connection and conversation on a global scale.

For me, this kind of connectivity and conversation provides another place for telling the greatest of all human stories: how and where the story of Jesus intersects with the story of us. Moreover, the blogosphere also provides an unprecedented opportunity for discovering, developing and deploying leaders to “post threads” [i.e. code for "planting churches"] throughout the western world and beyond.

While blogging is not the revolution — Jesus is the revolution — blogs can certainly be use by revolutionaries compelled to advance the kingdom. In the same way, though not everyone will blog, blogging is an emerging 21st century tool with potential we musn’t ignore.

What do you think?

into the mystic…

Alex McManus

23 comments » | Church Planting, Culture, Featured, Our World

Following Christ or Culture? (1)

12
August

Welcome back.

I have two posts today. This one and another below. Here’s a question to get things going:

  • Is it a Christ following value to create wealth?

Sam Rima dropped by our place yesterday and inspired us to ask, what is our wealth for?

Also, check out “into the mystic…” reader and contributor Peter Kim’s blog for his pov on this: “Being Rich is Not Bad (August 11).

This is especially relevant today with the catastrophe in Niger happening before our very eyes.

What do you think?

Photograph moon rising over Cafe Santorini (photographer: Manus)

Into the mystic…

Alex McManus

46 comments » | Culture, Featured, Mission

On Death And Resurrection

27
March

Joyful Easter. Michael and I had a great conversation about the gospel this weekend. Fifty thousand years of accumulated experience by the 70 – 100 billion Humans who have lived on this planet have led us to know at least one thing: the dead don’t return. Accepted practices for disposing the corpse and expressing grief exist in every culture. [Yes, in some cultures the almost dead were buried.] These practices remind us that the dead are gone forever. This is what we know.

The gospel of Jesus is rooted in a reality that defies that which we – the entirety of the human race – have come to know with certainty. The dead are not raised. I love the last verse of Mark’s gospel: ”Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.” They ran as women in upside down worlds.

What if what we have come to know with certainty is certain no more?
Run, friends. Tremble. Christ is risen. Like he said.

Happy Birthday Erica. My little girl turns fifteen on March 28. For her birthday experience [to take place when I return from Germany] she’s taking her friends to China Town. Apparently, they will all be dressing in traditional Chinese garb, dining and shopping. Only Erica. You’re right, my love. Strange is not a crime.

This is a pic of Erica in London in February 2005 when she was only fourteen.

into the mystic…

Alex McManus
Munich, Germany
© 2005

Comment » | Culture, Featured

Tivo, Sex And You

8
March

los angeles, ca

what happens to sex when we have 100 hours of tivo to get through by the end of the week?

i’ve been thinking about adding tivo to my life, then i read this question in an article from a recent wired magazine sent to me by my friend jaime.

this article is a surface response to a much weightier article by christine rosen, senior editor of the new atlantis, titled the age of egocasting.

rosen suggests that technologies like the remote control, tivo and ipods contribute to what she calls “egocasting”, the highly personalized and narrow pursuit of one’s personal tastes.

in an interview on npr’s weekend edition, rosen pushed forward the idea that the danger we face is that we become so “enthusiastic” with the technologies themselves that we forget to ask what it is these technologies are for. [an excellent question that should not be forgotten by cultural architects].

she suggests that “these technologies risk making us incapable of ever being surprised. They cultivate not the cultivation of taste, but the numbing repetition of fetish.”

provocative suggestions. what do you think? is your technology helping you connect with others? is it freeing you to do what you need to do? or is it distancing you from those you love? has it become another master devouring your time? rosen’s interview on npr is nine minutes long and is definitely worth the time it takes to listen.

into the mystic…

© alex mcmanus, 2005

2 comments » | Culture, Featured

Los Angeles: City Of Faith

4
March

los angeles, ca
7.39 pm

i love la. it’s a city of faith. people move here from around the world believing they can “make it.” when a police officer stops you here, he doesn’t ask for your driver’s license. instead he asks for your headshots. The city of angels, a city of faith where everyone is gonna be a star.

my wife, niza, served tables and then managed a hip restaurant in la. practically everyone else serving tables with her was a hollywood hopeful. in cities across the planet people exchange business cards. in la we exchange demo cds. i say “we” because i’m in the middle of my own cd project now. did i mention my story, fat tuesday? one day my novel will become a screenplay that will be shot in brazil, then brought into the states as an independent foreign film, then remade into an english language feature film. i won’t have a prepared written speech when i win at the oscars either because i’ll be so surprised. i have it memorized instead.

this city breathes faith into you. it makes you believe in the impossible.

i love la. it’s a graveyard of broken dreams. wrinkled people slave away at meaningless jobs, dreams and hopes sucked right out of them. no callbacks. they seem old for their age even though in la, forty is the new thirty. i guess it makes sense that the young look old, if at thirty you’re really forty. but more than old, they look desperate. what if i don’t make it? i’m not going to make it. i didn’t make it.

dreams die in la. they’re buried here. what la needs is someone like jesus who called out lazarus’ name. a call back for the dead.

into the mystic…

© alex mcmanus, 2005

1 comment » | Culture, Featured

Red Carpet Room

28
February


this picture isn’t blurry. we were simply vibrating at a different frequency
when it was taken. afm
————————————————————-

London, England
4.44 PM

most of us believe we know what we think we see.

erica, my 14 year old daughter, and i were outbound on a mission into the heart of europe, and passed the time chatting as we walked through the los angeles international airport.

“it’s like drawing,” she said.

“yes, drawing is all about seeing,” i said. “most of us sketch by looking more at our work on the paper than the subject we are sketching. we try to draw by memory rather than by observation, by what we think we see rather than what we see. learning to draw is all about learning to see.” [yes, we often talk like this in the mcmanus home. like my daughter says, strange is not a crime].

before my turn towards seeing christ, i had no recollection of ever seeing church buildings. i was blind to their huge presence on the american landscape. after i saw christ, these new realities began to suddenly pop up and out of everywhere. i remember returning to college and seeing for the first time the immense methodist church building at the entrance of the property. i had never seen it before. had God built that church for me over the summer? no, he’d given me new eyes.

“for example, erica,” i said, “as we walked towards the gates. “most people in this airport don’t know about the red carpet rooms.”

“what’s that?”

“they’re lounges used by frequent flyers and business people,” i said. suddenly, as if coordinated by the finger of God, the wall to our left opened. “there,” i said feeling quite like a magician.

we looked through the wall into a room of comfortable chairs with a bar and tvs.

“whoa,” she said. the sliding doors closed. “what was that?”

the doors were painted in such a way that it blended with the walls on both sides well. one would have to “see it” to know it was there. [Or perhaps, one would have to know it was there to see it.]

i looked up to read the signs to make sure we’re going in the right direction.

gates 70-77
restrooms
red carpet room

suddenly all of the clues began to pop up and out. the world was new. she knew what she was seeing. a whole new world existed behind this wall that was not a wall but a door, a sliding door.

“red carpet room,” erica said.

i love it when she nods her head and gets this smile on her face, like she’s been let in on a little mystery. “red carpet room,” i said.

people draw what they think they see not what they’re looking at. learning to draw and learning to live have this in common: it’s all about learning to see.

into the mystic…

© alex mcmanus, 2005

2 comments » | Featured, Travel

Intersections

27
February

9.30 PM
London, England

he was standing at the moment of believing.

“it seems that lately all my conversations are about faith,” he said.

birger (pronounced beer-ga) and evelyn had invited him to travel with us to a party. although not a believer, he had asked this couple for prayer because he needed their “divine connections” to help him find a job.

“i pray you discover why you keep having discussions about faith,” i said.

“i know why. i keep coming here.”

he knew, it seems, that time and eternity, heaven and earth, the spiritual and material intersected in this couple and in this home. his request for prayer was not based on his faith. he believed in their faith. his request reminded me that everywhere the feet of the called touch the ground is an intersection. time and space are porous and God’s kingdom permeates everywhere, but around people like birger and ev, along with their teammates adaumir and andrea, the kingdom of God pours through in big drops.

i wrote a lyric years ago for a song called “sacred journey”:

everywhere our feet touch down
you have been there to be found
sacred paths of love entwined
intersections of divine embrace
on this sacred journey

this new friend sensed the density of God’s kingdom in birger’s house. he suspected these people were an intersection between the human and the divine. he feared without believing that dangerous and inexplicable things could happen at these kinds of crossroads.

often those who do not yet believe lean on our faith until they discover suddenly that they too believe.

into the mystic…

© alex mcmanus, 2005

1 comment » | Evangelism, Featured

Eurabia

25
February

9.00 PM
Dusseldorf, Germany

tonight we’ve ordered a favorite german meal, a turkish dish called döner kebab. according to my host, the turks are the largest minority in germany numbering over 6 million. he tells me that the largest turkish city in the world after Istanbul is about 30 minutes from where we’re sitting in the nearby city of duisburg.

something interesting is happening in europe. a new civilization seems to be emerging. parts of england aren’t england anymore, but a fusion of anglish and indian and pakistani. it is “anglitani”. europe in general isn’t just european anymore. it is also eurabian. not only is there a south north migration into this continent, but i understand that europeans born and bred also seem to adopting an arabic point of view on the world. i’m going to research this a bit. God, i love this planet.

into the mystic…

© alex mcmanus, 2005

1 comment » | Culture, Featured

Life In The 21st Century

24
February

5.45 AM
London, England

late last night i set up my mac isight camera for a live video chat with my friend mel in los angeles. the video didn’t work, but we were chatting via instant messaging. my daughter, erica, sat next to me.

amazed that i was chatting real time with a friend a third of the way around the world, i turned towards her, “isn’t this amazing?”

“dad,” she said affectionately condescending, “i was born during the age of the internet. this isn’t exactly ‘amazing’ to me.”

#15 on my son michael’s list of ways to know you live in the 21st century is: “you get up in the morning and go online before getting your coffee.” i’m afraid i’m going to have to declare #15 outdated. the new #15 is: you get up in the morning and go online before you’re even old enough to be drinking coffee. amazing.

into the mystic…

© alex mcmanus, 2005

1 comment » | Culture, Featured

Fish And Chips Meets Curry

23
February

8.14 PM
Kensington Hilton
London, England

Flew in this morning to one of the world’s most dynamic cities. The last time I was in London, I was impressed by the way the decisions made by nations and men have connected the peoples of the world in strange ways. The large south asian presence here is a constant reminder of the British presence in South India. The past made present. Cause effect.

Two great peoples creating what may be a new kind of civilization. Fish and chips meets curry. God, I love this planet.

Into the Mystic…

© alex mcmanus, 2005

——–

1 comment » | Culture, Featured

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