Trying to follow

In my time of attending church, college chapels, and now listening to preacher’s online and through podcast, I’ve heard quite a few sermons. Many of them blend together, sometimes taking small nuggets of wisdom or simple encouragement, but a few stick out in my mind as having had a notable impact on my life.

I’m sure many others have had similar experiences from sermons they’ve heard, and now with the reach of technology, there’s a good chance that you can share that sermon with others, to be equally impacted. So, with out further ado, I present to you the Notable Sermon Awards.

The goal of the awards is for you to share on your blog a sermon (or multiple) that have had a notable impact on your life. Preferably these are sermons for which you can link to an mp3 or otherwise make available for others to listen to. If you need help with this step, please mention it in the comments below.

I don’t think I need to tag people to get this thing going, but I might as well (Josh, Bryan, Julie, Joe, Zack, Mak, and anyone else). To participate in the awards simply name the sermons, provide links and tag others. You can also copy and paste the code below to place the Award Badge on your blog post:

<a href="http://blog.iamnotashamed.net/2008/02/17/notable-sermon-awards/"><img src='http://blog.iamnotashamed.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/sermonawards.jpg' align="right" alt='Sermon Awards' /></a>

I have a few I could choose from, but I’ll stick with just one so others can point out their favorites too. This is one I myself did not actually hear in person, but was recommended to me in 2003. It’s a Wheaton College chapel message from the year I was gone, given by Kari Miller who works with world vision. Be ready to cry.

Kari Miller, Wheaton College Chapel Message (22:05 and just 3mb to download)

I just finished reading a book, The God of Intimacy and Action, by Tony Campolo and Mary Albert Darling. It was recommended, via an article Joshua Case posted a few weeks ago. I’ll be brief in my review of this one.

The book discussed both issues of justice (Action) and that of Christian Mysticism (Intimacy). The goal of the book, I think, was to offer a collaborative discussion regarding spiritual disciplines that often seem mutually exclusive, at least in personal examples. Those who are socially active are often spiritually lacking, and those who are spiritually intimate at times lack any real action expressing that spirit. The book combined the insight of Darling and Campolo to offer an option for both groups.

I found the Mystic stuff, which is mostly forms of prayer, to be interesting. It’s nothing bizarre or new agey, in fact it’s centuries old. The stories of the faith of different heroes of the faith, St. Francis, Ignatius of Loyola, Catherine of Siena and others are really encouraging. Reading the book made me recognize that my prayer life is seriously lacking and that these more formulated guides to praying might be of some help and encouragement to me. The three types of prayer are called: Centering prayer, Lectio Divina, and The Prayer of Examen.

We talk about a lot of topics here, focusing on what we can do as stewards of the resources around us and our time and life to love our neighbor. No topic is taboo, so we are going to talk, just briefly about what you wipe with. That’s write we are talking about T.P.

We needed some new toilet paper the other day so I made a quick run into the grocery story, recognized the Seventh Generation brand, and grabbed a 12 pack. Toilet Paper isn’t something I had given much thought about concerning my stewardship. Here’s Seventh Generation’s slogan:

“In Every Deliberation We Must Consider. The Impact of Our Decisions On The. Next Seven Generations.” - Great Law of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy

So, regarding the deliberation of which Toilet paper to wipe with, Seventh Generation gave me the opportunity to consider the impact it would have on my Great, Great, Great, Great, Great Grandchildren. Here’s the impact this could have if we all considered it (from the website):

If every household in the U.S. replaced just one 4-pack of 260 sheet virgin fiber bathroom tissue with 100% recycled ones, we could save:

• over 1 million trees
• 2.7 million cubic feet of landfill space, equal to 4,000 full garbage trucks
• 356 million gallons of water, a year’s supply for 2,800 families of four
• and avoid 60,600 pounds of pollution!

What got me thinking about all of this? My BBC news reading, amazing wife sent me an article describing the further impact consumer driven deforestation is having on my global neighbors. Here’s an excerpt:

Most DIY enthusiasts would be shocked to find that their new garden decking helped to increase the poverty of hunter-gatherer communities in the Congo Basin of Central Africa.

What about the recently purchased hardwood table and chairs? Did these come from a 300-year-old tree that, until cut down for export to Europe, supplied a hundred poor people in Cameroon with oil, protein and medicine?

Most European consumers do not understand the impact on poor African communities of their timber purchases, due to the lack of information about where it comes from and how it is produced, and the impacts of its harvest on forest community welfare.

Be sure and read the whole article at BBC.

So you see, it’s not just for our seventh generations beyond, it’s for our neighbors here and now. Next time you go shopping, pick up some Seventh Generation.

• Greg Boyd: Why I’m a Vegetarian
• Erin on Connecting
• A Great set of Neighborhood Dinner Tips (Bart Campolo)
• Someday my links will be as cool as these.
• On Violence and Veggie Tales
• The Good Samaritan Explained:
  
• “I don’t care if they’re black, white, green or purple.” (but what about Blue?)
• Take a look at the Money Web behind the Presidential Candidates
• Is Not Voting a Sin?
• Going Green without spending money
• Speaking of Living on Less
• Sundays With The Anarchist (My post over at Jesus Manifesto)
• Corporate Connections Explained Visually
• Thanks for the Links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.