TWO QUICK UPDATES

-Friday, I had the opportunity to go to an all day seminar with Brian McLaren. There were no work-shops, no extra speakers, just him. He spoke about 4 times between 9am and 4pm. It was great. I have really enjoyed Brian's books over the past few years. They have stretched me and my faith and given a breath of fresh air to my theological understandings. What's even better is that we (Julie, my dad, and I) sat at the same table as Brian for breaks and such. We showed up early and sat down at a round table at the very front. I was super tired b/c I stayed up late playing video games, so I rested my head on the table. When Brian finished setting up, he made a comment about my apparent sleepiness, and asked if he could sit with us. We talked about music, books, seminaries, traveling, etc. It was a real treat for me because Brian is one of my favorite authors right now. I asked him if he was working on any books, and he said he just finished one and mentioned in his speaking that it was a book for non-church people. Should be interesting. For our lunch break, he sat down with us again and we got the chance to talk more. My impression of him is that he is a very patient person. He was very interested in us and our questions and very kind and humble. I enjoyed his speaking too. Particularly his thoughts on what he called "civil religion." This is the idea that there is a religious group that stays close to the government and basically supports what they do and motivates it's members to back up the government's policies. It was very interesting, and you can probably guess who is functioning as the civil religion in our day and age. In my opinion, the civil religion is an inappropriate role of the church and allows politicians to exploit the influence that church leaders have over their congregations.

-Saturday, I went to Disney on Ice. This doesn't sound like the kind of thing I (or any other young, single, heterosexual male) would typically do. But Julie and I had a chance to take Deven (Julie's daughter) to see some of her favorite characters glide around on ice to canned lines and music. I'll say this about Disney on Ice...it's pretty good. You have to admit that Disney's movies are good stories whether you like kiddie cartoons or not. But that's only part of what made it good. The lighting was very professional and really added to the atmosphere. The actors/skaters were also very talented. There we no (by my humble observation) missed cues or fumbling around on the ice and everyone was very energetic and pleasing to watch perform. There were good special effects, a decent flow of the program, and a great selection of music from the movies. Above all, the best part was the costumes. Everything looked as it should. The design and quality of most of the costumes was top-notch. It really made the program exciting when the larger than life cartoon characters skated out and made you feel like they jumped right out of the TV and onto the ice. The odd part of the program was the intermission where the gigantic BUD LIGHT zamboni came out and did it's thing. There isn't anything particularly "Disney-ish" about a zamboni. So, if you ever get the unique "opportunity" to attend a Disney on Ice, don't complain or mock it too much, you may just enjoy yourself. I'll try to post some photos of it on Superstar of the People (my photo blog).