Getting on board with the Vintage Detox

What is Detox?

The leadership of Vintage Church has been led by the Spirit to enter into a corporate fast. Our purpose is to wholly seek what God has for the church during this important year, because without His Spirit there is no church. We are going to participate in a Daniel Fast, which means that we will only eat fruit and vegetables for 10 days. We have chosen Thursday, April 30 to Saturday, May 9 as our season to fast.

The Daniel Fast is a spiritual discipline designed to better connect us with God. As Vintage Church, we’ll take 10 days within the two weeks of the DETOX series to deepen our relationship with God and center ourselves around what God is going to do in our church and in our lives. We are praying that many people will come to faith in Christ during the DETOX series as we invite and share with our friends who are searching for God.

Our leadership has requested that the church pray and fast to for the future of Vintage, the salvation of New Orleans, and for spiritual renewal. This is a very timely fast for me. It's been a long semester, and I feel like stepping out of the world and the small day to day picture and focusing more exclusively on the big picture that God has for my family, my church, and my city. I expect big things in the next ten days. I am excited about what God is going to do in New Orleans through the ministry of Vintage Church. Come hungry.

Content Resurrection: The Anatomy of a Frat Girl....yes i said frat...

03-13-06
Originally uploaded by johntmeche3.

Click the picture to see it bigger.

Custom Kids

Here's the new trailer for a movie entitled "My Sister's Keeper". It details the story of a girl who is genetically engineered to save her sister's life. The girl sues her parents for the rights to her own body when they ask her to give a kidney. Check it out:

There have been plenty of sci fi movies in the past that have dealt with the theme of genetic engineering. Here's what troubles me. This one isn't sci fi! It's a drama about a family finding redemption and dealing with tragedy and mortality. The genetic engineering thing is just in the canvas. I think this marking a scary time in our culture. The world is fast becoming a place where things like the genetic engineering of children is reality. It is one of the things that my generation will have to deal with that no generation before us really has in the same way.

This movie is a sign of the times. Formerly, the story would have centered on the genetic engineering issues and had the personal story as filler. Now, it seems that the personal story is central (just like any other drama) and the genetic engineering is just the water in which the story swims. This marks a big change in the way we think about the possibility of customizing our children.

Please note that I'm not passing any judgment about the film. I will probably see it, and I think so should you. The reality and plausibility of genetic engineering needs to be brought to the forefront in popular culture and public life, and I think a movie like this is set to do it. We are not far from a day where the issue of whether a candidate is for or against custom kids will be a part of his political platform.

Amelie Month Four

Fun new pictures.

A boat made of Bibles...

From my good friend Nick at The Nicsperiment:

The point is that many of these people believe our founders sailed to America on a boat made of Bibles, reached the shore of America for the first time only to find Jesus Christ himself standing on the shore waiting for them, whereupon, Jesus dictated the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and all other important government documents to our holy leaders who eagerly wrote down Jesus' words with penitent pen. As a Christian, I would love if that were true, but it is not. Our founding fathers were Christians and Deists, Agnostics and Atheists. The United States of America is a manmade country that some day will fall, and though I don't really want that to happen, it will, and we Christians will all be fine because our nation is not America, but the Church, and Jesus is our leader, not Barack Obama or George Bush or the Pope. Jesus Christ.

A very good point. Jesus is the leader of the church, and the founders of America were Christians, Deists, atheists, and agnostics. Ben Franklin was an atheist who loved listening to the preaching of George Whitfield, the most compelling preacher America has ever known. Although Nick makes a good point, I would like to add one thing, and I'm not sure that Nick would disagree with me, but it's a point that Nick and I don't usually take the time to make. Even though the founders were a diverse group, they all operated within the bounds of a morality that was based upon the Christian worldview -yes even the atheists. That was their canvas and milieu. Our government is even set up to be trinitarian -three equal powers distinct and keeping each other in check. Now, the question is what do we do with that? As a Christian do I believe that a society is going to be better off if they follow a moral scheme derived from the Christian worldview (and hence form the Bible as well) even if the members of that society are not Christians themselves? Yes, I do. BUT I do not believe that this has anything to do with the salvation of the members of that society. The salvation of a people is infinitely more important to me than whether or not their government is "Christian". As Christians our most important work is the glorification of God and salvation of souls. I a society lives their life with the glory of God as their greatest desire, that is when you will see a culture changed. That is when you will see a people who is more moral. If you shove your worldview down their throats...you may just a get a rebellion. That is what I see coming in the next 100 years. America will gradually secularize more and more and at some point Christians will go to jail for their faith. Am I worried about it? No. Jesus will still be Lord.

The tension pulling against our over-contextualizing impulses...

You are a Christian only so long as you constantly pose critical questions to the society you live in...so long as you stay unsatisfied with the status quo and keep saying that a new world is yet to come. -Henri Nouwen

I can't tell you how many times I have sat through purity talks like this...

Awesome New Amelie Photos

I haven't updated very much over the last few weeks. Charlee's grandfather passed away, and things are pretty intense with school. There are some posts I have coming down the pipeline, but for now here are some pictures of my lovely little girl. My wife takes awesome photos.



If you cannot see the slide show above, click here to see it.