C'mon guys, be serious...
A pomo also named Aaron made a good point when discussing the "Oprah Effect."
i have become absolutely intrigued by the spiritual “power” that miss winfrey possesses. usa today reports that a recent survey taken by beliefnet.com said that of 6,600 respondants 33% said that miss winfrey had a “more profound impact” on their spiritual lives than their clergyperson. that’s absolutely astounding to me… and rather frightening...
the reality of oprah’s “profound spiritual impact” has some exciting, yet unpredictable and possibly dangerous implications for the church. more and more we’re seeing that the theologians, philosophers, poets, prophets, and preachers of our day no longer reside in the church but rather in the culture at large. more and more our culture as a whole resembles the people of athens and the apostle paul’s encounter at mars hill. never before in the history of the church in america have we seen such a thing. never before have we had to know and understand missional living… (meaning we step outside of our comfortable walls and the christian subculture that is beginning to look more and more like jonestown than the “heaven-on-earth” we believe it is… i think we’ve tasted a bit too much of the grape kool-aid.) no longer is the church the center of our culture like it has been in years past… it’s long overdue that we recognize this and begin to leave our cozy chairs, our plasma screen adorned worship centers, and make our way into the world to be among the people being the salt and light that Jesus commanded of us… otherwise, we’ll never understand the influence that oprah wields, we’ll continue to slide into relative obscurity and the church will be unable to bring the message of hope that is Jesus into the world.
the reality of oprah’s “profound spiritual impact” has some exciting, yet unpredictable and possibly dangerous implications for the church. more and more we’re seeing that the theologians, philosophers, poets, prophets, and preachers of our day no longer reside in the church but rather in the culture at large. more and more our culture as a whole resembles the people of athens and the apostle paul’s encounter at mars hill. never before in the history of the church in america have we seen such a thing. never before have we had to know and understand missional living… (meaning we step outside of our comfortable walls and the christian subculture that is beginning to look more and more like jonestown than the “heaven-on-earth” we believe it is… i think we’ve tasted a bit too much of the grape kool-aid.) no longer is the church the center of our culture like it has been in years past… it’s long overdue that we recognize this and begin to leave our cozy chairs, our plasma screen adorned worship centers, and make our way into the world to be among the people being the salt and light that Jesus commanded of us… otherwise, we’ll never understand the influence that oprah wields, we’ll continue to slide into relative obscurity and the church will be unable to bring the message of hope that is Jesus into the world.
I think this is something that has been bugging me lately, and I'm alternately asking for opportunities to "make my way into the world" and kicking myself for not taking advantage of them in hindsight. It's becoming more and more clear to me daily that unless this is happening in my own life and relationships, who cares if the Evergreen ship capsizes.
2 comments:
My favorite Orpah goddess moment was when she did a tribute to herself for her 50th birthday and at the end surprised herself with Josh Groben singing "You Raise Me Up" to her. It seemed that she thought the song was about HER raising people up so they could climb on mountains or whatever the lyrics of the song say!
Oops, make that Oprah, not Orpah.
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