:: Cre8vE [creative] chaos ::

Facebook Manners & You

I Suck.

Kind of.

Today I made my blogging debut on ChurchMarketingSucks.com where I discuss "To Text or Not To Text."

Check it out!

I'm a Christian Hipster

A friend forwarded me a link to this blogpost from Brett McCracken (who has now been added to my GoogleReader). It's incredible and I've come to the conclusion I'm a Christian hipster. I've bolded everything that's true of me. This is funny and very telling of many of us.

Enjoy...

Are You a Christian Hipster?

As you know, I’m writing a book about Christian hipsters and “cool Christianity.” It’s coming along, but many people have asked me: what exactly is a Christian hipster? Am I one? Are you one?

Well, first of all: it’s just a funny label, and we all know that hipsters hate labels. So if you are still reading this post, eager to know what it all means, chances are you are not a Christian hipster. Or maybe you are, and you’re just intrigued by the whole thing (like I am!). In any case, the following is an excerpt from the last chapter I completed (Ch. 5: “Christian Hipsters Today”), and perhaps it will give you a bit of a better sense as to what Christian hipsters are all about…

Christian Hipster Likes and Dislikes (By No Means Exhaustive… Just a Sampling)

Things they don’t like:
Christian hipsters don’t like megachurches, altar calls, and door-to-door evangelism. They don’t really like John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart or youth pastors who talk too much about Braveheart. In general, they tend not to like Mel Gibson and have come to really dislike The Passion for being overly bloody and maybe a little sadistic. They don’t like people like Pat Robertson, who on The 700 Club famously said that America should “take Hugo Chavez out”; and they don’t particularly like The 700 Club either, except to make fun of it. They don’t like evangelical leaders who get too involved in politics, such as James Dobson or Jerry Falwell, who once said of terrorists that America should “blow them all away in the name of the Lord.” They don’t like TBN, PAX, or Joel Osteen. They do have a wry fondness for Benny Hinn, however.

Christian hipsters tend not to like contemporary Christian music (CCM), or Christian films (except ironically), or any non-book item sold at Family Christian Stores. They hate warehouse churches or churches with American flags on stage, or churches with any flag on stage, really. They prefer “Christ follower” to “Christian” and can’t stand the phrases “soul winning” or “non-denominational,” and they could do without weird and awkward evangelistic methods including (but not limited to): sock puppets, ventriloquism, mimes, sign language, “beach evangelism,” and modern dance. Surprisingly, they don’t really have that big of a problem with old school evangelists like Billy Graham and Billy Sunday and kind of love the really wild ones like Aimee Semple McPherson.

Things they like:
Christian hipsters like music, movies, and books that are well-respected by their respective artistic communities—Christian or not. They love books like Resident Aliens by Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger by Ron Sider, God’s Politics by Jim Wallis, and The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis. They tend to be fans of any number of the following authors: Flannery O’Connor, Walker Percy, Wendell Berry, Thomas Merton, John Howard Yoder, Walter Brueggemann, N.T. Wright, Brennan Manning, Eugene Peterson, Anne Lamott, C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, Henri Nouwen, Soren Kierkegaard, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Annie Dillard, Marilynne Robison, Chuck Klosterman, David Sedaris, or anything ancient and/or philosophically important.

Christian hipsters love thinking and acting Catholic, even if they are thoroughly Protestant. They love the Pope, liturgy, incense, lectio divina, Lent, and timeless phrases like “Thanks be to God” or “Peace of Christ be with you.” They enjoy Eastern Orthodox churches and mysterious iconography, and they love the elaborate cathedrals of Europe (even if they are too museum-like for hipster tastes). Christian hipsters also love taking communion with real Port, and they don’t mind common cups. They love poetry readings, worshipping with candles, and smoking pipes while talking about God. Some of them like smoking a lot of different things.

Christian hipsters love breaking the taboos that used to be taboo for Christians. They love piercings, dressing a little goth, getting lots of tattoos (the Christian Tattoo Association now lists more than 100 member shops), carrying flasks and smoking cloves. A lot of them love skateboarding and surfing, and many of them play in bands. They tend to get jobs working for churches, parachurch organizations, non-profits, or the government. They are, on the whole, a little more sincere and idealistic than their secular hipster counterparts.

The Breakfast Song

Apparently this is my week for sharing YouTube videos. But, I had to share this. This song has forever changed the way I view breakfast.

Now I can believe God would call us home at breakfast time if we were eating what Paula Deen recently whipped up. It's tragic. Brace yourself.

The Blog You Didn't Know About That You Need to Read

So, remember back in December when I went to meet with Seth Godin and 25 other incredible people about Seth's Alternative MBA Program?

If not, you can read about it here, here, and here.

I didn't make the cut, but 9 people did... and let me tell you, they are some incredible people... many different walks of life, different passions, and different goals... but they are some of the best and brightest out there.

Well, I'm really excited to say they are blogging about their adventure in SAMBA - Seth's Alternative MBA.

Let me introduce you to the SAMBA Blog:

Seth Godin had a vision.

A vision of a new way of learning about being an entrepreneur, a freelancer, a marketer. A businessperson. A vision that didn't involve going to business school and earning an MBA. A way that would help leaders change the world.

He opened up his office to nine brilliant people to participate in an alternative MBA program to learn everything they could from him about business. And thus SAMBA was born.

2009 participants (and this blog's authors)
Emily Kate Boyd
Jon Dale
Rebecca Goldstein
Ishita Gupta
Clay Hebert
Alex Krupp
Susan Lewis
Al Pittampalli
Allan Young

Add this to your RSS feeds people, there's going to be (and already has been) some great stuff coming out of this.