I’m no stenographer, but for myself and anyone weird sicko who wants to read my notes, I’m posting them here. Two sessions so far while I’m sitting here next to Rhett Smith.
First, Al Mohler made me proud to go to a Southern Baptist church.
I don’t point that out to make any kind of denominational bragging point, but because sometimes–how can I say this–sometimes it isn’t easy to be proud about that. Moving on.
Apparently, Albert Mohler will upload the entire transcript, but until then you can read all of my notes here. And this is the best thing he said in my opinion (paraphrased, of course):
The Christian faith is tied to words. To be a Christian is to bear a responsibility to communicate and to communicate in a way that bears witness to the truth of what we believe.
We are here [at godblogcon] because we have confidence that God has spoken to us. Before humans spoke, we heard. Before we speak, we are confident that we will be heard.
Second, John Mark Reynolds of Middlebrow spoke about the philosophy of blogging. Here are my full notes, and here is my favorite part:
As we blog, we are creating a middle world of ideas between the world God made and the world of Nothing. If your middle world gets disconnected from the real world, it will move toward Nothing and Evil. Make sure your real life isn’t suffering for Narnia.
Good virtual space is coherent and consistent with real space. If you get a divorce because you built a better Narnia, your virtual world will have the same flaw that led to your divorce.
{ 6 comments }
I have heard a lot of good stuff about Al Mohler.
He made a very very good impression. If you get a chance, read through those notes (that I just loaded, a little late).
Cool stuff, Mr. Marcus. Thank you for being the eagle-eye that you are and finding this kind of material.
Steve, you’re certainly welcome! I’m just repeating the favor since you shared so much at Gibson Direct from the direct marketing association conference.
This is why I get angry when I hear preachers using so much slang and bad words that I literally get an upset stomach. To be a pastor is to put into words that which can not be done without the inspiration of the holy spirit. Adding mud to the mixture is never a good recipie.
Carl, I found your comment very provocative! Language is very very powerful, and very dangerous. That’s what I love about it. I love Myth Busters on the Discover Channel where those two guys are always blowing up stuff. Language is fun like that. It is fun to blow stuff up, but you have to be careful or people get hurt.
I interviewed Max Lucado about this very issue one time. I asked, Is it wrong for Christian writers to use foul language? Violence? Sexuality? Where’s the line.
His answer floored me. He said, It’s all about the audience you are trying to reach. If you want to reach a gritty, earthy audience, sometimes you have to speak their language. He didn’t get into the details of how to do that with integrity, except to emphasize the need to pray and honor God with fear and trembling.
For me, “the mud” is often more about the substance than the language itself. I have little patience for Christians who use evangelism as a truncheon to beat people on the head with the good news. Anyone can avoid saying “I ‘effing’ love something,” but it’s a lot harder to disagree with someone graciously.
Comments on this entry are closed.