Why I am not a Christian.

How was that for an attention getting title? Am I doing better at headlines??

Seriously though.

I screened the first 40 minutes or so of Jesus Camp last night. I was physically ill. I had to stop and take a walk. It was late, and I ended up walking into the old city and having a beer at a pub where I ran into some of the exchange students.

But, the overwhelming feeling I had was - If this is my religion, what the heck am I doing? What the heck are we doing? I had this overwhelming feeling: if this is it, I am out. I'm cashing in my chips, giving away my winnings and walking away. I will never play this game again.

I talked a bit with Jacob and Matt this morning about it, but neither one of them has seen the film yet. I want to finish it so that I can reflect on it as a whole, and not just a piece - but right now, there is little desire to finish it.

Has anyone seen the film? What are your thoughts on it? How does that affect your personal journey? What about politics?

My head is swimming with questions.

Scot McKnight - Emerging.

I have been following McKnight's blog over at jesuscreed.org for a while. Ok, like, three months maybe.

He caught my eye a while back when Jacob put a link to him over at 4peregrinos.com. He recently had an article published in Christianity Today expanding a bit on that article which caught my eye.

5 Streams of the Emerging Church.

I think that Dr. McKnight does a good job of fleshing out a broad base of what and where emergent is and is headed. If you are an evangelical who has already discounted the emerging movement as nonsense, you probably won't change your thoughts. But, if you simply don't know what the emerging church is, or has been little informed, it will serve as a good comprehensive base to start off of.

I am hesitant to call myself "emergent," yet, I am. What I am reading is pacing with my thinking. My own individual observations, my own individual experiences. I have been discontent for years with church, church business, preaching in general, worship in general, church politics... Pretty much everything having to do with my conservative Baptist faith. I do not mean to call names, or point fingers, because I don't feel offended by one person or entity specifically. This discontent stems from a desire to know my Lord better, to know Jesus better.

Its also come from a questioning of certain fences that have been set in the American Christian faith... More on that in the next couple of days... Again from Scot McKnight.