Bible Belt Religion

So many folks have commented on my entry about the Bible Belt last year. I’ve even had some folks begin calling me the Bible Belt Man. I’ve been composing my theme music and am trying to license an action figure as we speak.

I think the reason that a chord has been struck is not because I’m brilliant (please quit nodding your head), but more because I’m actually saying things that so many are already thinking but have yet to find expression for their thoughts or feelings. This may be in large part for fear that other church-goers might consider them heretical or "out of God’s will." It’s no fun to be a prophetic voice in today’s Christian t-shirt subculture. While we remain buckled into our seats in stained-glass sanctuaries, the wind of the Spirit is blowing outside. While we remain strapped into systemic, programmed religious activites, we have an uneasy feeling that the greatest activity of God is happening outside our church walls, away from our holy Sunday/Wednesday schedules. On occasion, we happen to see the leaves swaying and feel cool whispers of a gentle breeze across our face, but our "Christianity" has become so scheduled and confined to a "church" that we have no idea what life looks like when lived by the Spirit.

I ran across a great comparison of Biblical Christianity vs. Bible Belt Religion the other day and wanted to link it for your consideration and comment.

In addition to the author’s observations, I’d like to log a few myself. Since starting a new church in a rural town in the South, I’ve encountered a fair share of suspicion, detraction, and skepticism. It’s apparently fine with most churches to start a new church elsewhere. Just don’t start one in their area. There is, unfortunately, an attitude of there only being enough (lost people?) to go around. The reasoning goes something like this… if you start a new church, then my existing church will not be able to have as many new people… and so on. Let’s just call that line of thought what it is. Ungodly.

I think "frustration" is the best word to describe living and ministering in the Bible Belt of America. It’s hard to proclaim the Gospel of Christ to a culture that assumes it’s already "Christian." The reality, however, is far more urgent.

According to Church Initiative,

As startling as this idea may appear, recent research indicates it is a hard reality for many churches in the United States. Researcher George Barna has discovered the disturbing fact that ?half of all adults who attend Protestant churches on a typical Sunday morning are not Christian.? He also points out that people who call themselves Christians but are not born again are ?a group that constitutes a majority of churchgoers.?

Barna?s findings are similar to those reported by Bill Bright, founder and fifty-year president of Campus Crusade for Christ. According to Bright, ?Our surveys suggest that over 50% of the hundred million people in church here in the United States every Sunday are not sure of their salvation.?

In addition to discovering that 50% of people in church are ?lost churchgoers,? the Barna Research Group has also revealed that 44% of Americans are ?notional Christians.? These 90 million notional Christians are people who describe themselves as Christians but do not believe that their hope for eternal life is based on a personal relationship with Jesus and the belief that He died and rose again from the dead.

According to On Mission magazine, ?notional Christians? do not know ?whether they will experience eternal life, eternal damnation or some other outcome.?

Continue reading »

Paying it forward…

Wow! I’m so impressed with how Angela has taken the concept of giving something away to a new level. You may recall earlier this week I posted an offer to give away free magazine subscriptions. The caveat was for the recipient to find a unique and personal way to “pay it forward.” Angela has done just that. Hats off! I’d be interested if any of you have done something similar or would consider to start a “Pay It Forward” campaign. I do want to recognize Joel again at Another Great Escape for initiating the whole thing with me.

Welcome new readers…

In the past week there has been an upsurge in traffic on Notes from the Trail. Lots of new folks getting their feet dusty with us on this journey. Taking a cue from John over at Typepad Hacks, I thought I’d post and simply welcome the newbies. If you’ve stopped by for the first time (or second or third) and have recently discovered Notes, please post a comment of “Howdy” to let me and all my friendly lurkers know who you are and where you’re from.

I know lots of folks in town are reading and not commenting… I talked to a good friend yesterday who said that she drove by and saw our minivan in the front yard and asked Carolyn later if we were unloading groceries. Puzzled, Caro asked how she knew. “I read Jeff’s blog,” she said. There are even rumors of folks from other churches than Journey (gasp!) in town reading my blog and not wanting me to know about it. Welcome everyone!!!!

Again many thanks to Andy and the good folks at ServantBlog and EyesTurnedOutward for linking me. Thanks to John for doing so as well. Thanks to my Pine Bluff readers who have shown up in force lately; and my Plano, TX readers; muchos gracias to the Conrady’s in Croatia who have generated some new traffic; Fort Smithians have been stopping by, and a host of others, worldwide. You can look at a world map of readers at the Sitemeter link to the right.

It’s great to see Typepad Hacks (mentioned above) being featured on Typepad’s main page as a “featured blog.” I linked him here on “Off the Path” a week ago. Looks like they’re following my lead. You might recall I linked ServantBlog there a few weeks ago before they were selected for 9Rules membership. (See the article here) If you’ve got the time, swing by and submit Notes.

By the way, for those of you following the minivan saga, guess what this picture means?

Follow me, my little Flock…

I’ve been using Camino for my primary browser for the Mac forever. Tried Firefox, but too bloated and slow. However, I stumbled across a new browser currently in testing called Flock. It has so much going for it! Run over here today and get it (comes in Mac, Windows, and Linux versions). You’ll be glad you did!

The Bible Belt Man

Last Thursday I headed north. At least to North Arkansas. Fort Smith to be exact. I had no idea that FS had exploded in growth like it has. In my book, any town that has a Books-a-Million is a town worthy of metropolis status. That was my first stop, as a matter of fact.

However, my purpose in going was to hang out with a good friend and former campus ministry buddy, Jackie Flake. There are few folks in one’s life that you can totally unpack all your theological baggage, ideas, and vision with, but for me, he is one of those unique friends. He’s also brilliant. Dadgummit. He not only absorbs quickly what I’m babbling about, but is able to integrate, reflect, and respond with a biblical worldview that encourages, challenges, and refines.

I spent Thursday evening with his wonderful family (hey girls!), and then he and I spent Friday and Saturday morning together at a wonderful new retreat center – Oaks Manor.
I highly recommend it for a getaway, group retreat, or organizational meeting. Friday night, I got to interact with some dynamic collegiate followers of Christ at a coffee house called Aromas. I loved their strategy of seeking to dialogue with peers in an informal setting by using relevant, contemporary issues. Friday night, they discussed the federal marriage amendment. Their conversational style was distinctly gracious, open, and honest. I was reminded of a title of a book I had to read in seminary and now remember very little about its content – Faith Seeking Understanding. I was humbled by their desire to glorify the God of Creation by bringing a biblical worldview to contemporary issues, while at the same time seeking to build genuine dialogue with others who haven’t yet made the decision to become a follower of Christ.

The funny thing about the whole weekend was the fact that many of these Fort Smithians(!?) had read my little blog and were now calling me the "Bible Belt Man." I’m sure that’s in reference to one entry in particular, but it’s a moniker that I began to think about on the way home. BBM! (Imagine theme music to that!) Apart from there being a BM in the name, I like it. It’s a great platform from which to creatively critique and challenge the church of the Beltway to re-engage with the teachings of Christ and to also re-engage with their own culture. If there’s one word that I believe characterizes most churches in the American South, it’s retreat. More on this later.

In the meantime, I’ve suckered, uh, I mean, enlisted, Jackie to be a contributor over at
Ignorant Protestant. I’m also in the process of inviting a few others to help make that site a great resource for Christ followers in the 21st century to connect with the ancient faith of our Jewish Messiah. Stop by and check out how it’s shaping up and leave a comment or two.

And Jackie… the comment link is right below this. I know your blog-challenged, but try it, you’ll like it.

In favor of more reading…

I was really impressed when I ran across Joel’s offer to buy the first few commenters (lurkers and all) a subscription to Relevant magazine on his blog. After hastily signing up myself ;) I thought I’d carry on the offer here at Notes from the Trail. One of the wondrous ways that we can help increase the witness of the people of God is to make sure that they’re lovingly engaged in their cultures. I’ve discovered that exposing people to biblically-based, insightful, and well-written materials can help connect them with their community in new ways. So, here goes. The first 4 commenters will get to choose from the following: Discipleship Journal, Relevant, Christianity Today, Next Wave, or Leadership.

If I weren’t me, I’d be…

Thanks to Mark for finding out this bit of cool technological trivia. By using the face recognition software over at MyHeritage.com, you can upload a photo of yourself and get a match of famous folks you supposedly look like. The only thing… different photos yield different results. I know this, cause after my first attempt resulted in a 72% match with Hilary Swank, I began to cry and then had a sudden desire to go to the powder room.

However, after a second picture, here are some of the results (I didn’t know some of the folks; and of course, I’ve chosen the best to represent me well here…)

Jeff Bridges … 60% match

Lance Armstrong … 49% match

Willem Dafoe … 48% match

Billy Graham … 48% match

Other folks I’ve been told before I look like:
Randy Travis

Matt Damon

My deadly sins…

Congratulations are in order!

A few weeks ago, you may recall I recommended ServantBlog to you all in my “Off the Path” link. Noting that their philosophy of ministry and life is very close to that of Journey Church, I also emailed Andy White and suggested they submit their blogs to the 9Rules network for inclusion. The results are in, and after 700 submissions, 111 were chosen. Three of them belong to Andy and his compatriots at ServantBlog and EyesTurnedOutward. Make sure to check them out today!

You might also swing by 9Rules and check out the “Religious” Community there. There are some excellent blogs (and new friends) awaiting your discovery there.

I’m hoping to begin writing an online Bible study this week. If you’re interested in participating and want the link to it, comment here!

Update:
Many thanks to Andy White for linking here from his blog and from EyesTurnedOutward!

For beginning bloggers…

I know a bunch of you who stop by are just getting into blogging or love to lurk. In an uncommon spirit of blog charity, I thought I’d post again on some things that help your blog be successful. Others have done so with much greater effect, but I can’t help it. I’m nice.

One of the things that make blogs more fun and interactive is commenting… At the end of each post, you’ll see a comment link. It’s there that you interact with a blog’s author and other readers. Really good blogs have as much content in the comments as they do in the original entry.

1. Comment! Leave your thoughts, reflections, agreements, or disagreements.
2. Respond to comments. Nothing kills a good blog better than the author’s silence from reader’s comments. Make sure to comment back to let folks know you’re interested and care about what they have to say.

Another thing is helping your favorite blogs to increase their traffic. More traffic means more readers. More readers encourages an author to post more frequently. The Catch-22 here is that you need to get on a posting schedule as an author so that when people visit, there will be something new to look at or read.

3. Refer your favorite blogs to your friends and enemies.
—> A. Send an email to your addresses with your favorite blog’s link.
—> B. Mention your favorite blog in an entry on your blog and make sure to link to it in the entry.
—> C. Consider linking to the blog in your own blog or webpage’s "Link" section.
—> D. Anytime you find a blog entry interesting, make sure you link it in an entry of your own. This will drive traffic to your site AND their site. For instance, you can see the entry below where I have linked to John Gruber’s excellent site Daring Fireball. (There, see? I did it again!)

As you frequent a blog, look to see if the author has chosen any "Blog Tools" to try and help his/her blog receive more attention. Use them. For instance, I’ve chosen "Blog Hop" as one of the tools. When you vote on my blog by clicking on one of squares to the right, it helps drive others to my blog through that tool. So vote now…

4. Use available blog tools and promotional sites.

May I also suggest if you’re interested to review an older NftT entry here.

Here are some other great thoughts:
? From Biz Stone
? From Richard Giles
? Another excellent article

5. Be sneaky. Add words that you know will be indexed by tons of folks. Like free ipod, government secrets, new Veronica Zemanova, and earn more money.

Update: (6/5/06)
Found another great blog article here…