There must be at least 45 new churches in Midland since that piece aired. The church business is GOOD!

Blogged on August 31, 2007.

http://www.jessicaswell.com/mt/archives/2007/08/huh-1.php

We occasionally do things other than train squirrels for covert missions.

Ospurt, thanks for the link. You might ask your Site Admin what happened to your search box.

Or should we blame its disappearance on those squirrels?

The Search Box and the Tip Jar have both been MIA since the Great Comment SPAM Purge of '08. We trained the squirrels for that mission, but they seem to have mutated and developed an appetite for Blog Widgets too.

These videos are surprisingly even-handed considering the source. I think the congregations visited may not necessarily reflect the diversity of Christian culture in Midland, but they are certainly good folks who are not afraid to talk about their faith. Interestingly, I have recently been thinking about visiting True Lite Fellowship to see what it is like there. After viewing the videos, I am certain that I want to visit there soon. I guess the Lord really does work in mysterious ways, as the saying goes.

Hey, Eric!

Good to see you are still gazetting fire ant bytes among The Middlers of Somewhere.

Thanks for these insightful links regarding fund-a-mentalism or financing a "school of psychology or psychiatry that in contrast to behaviorism values subjective data (as those gained by introspection) in the study and explanation of behavior" - from http://www.merriam-webster.com) - not so much for the media or the medium which presented them, but for the revelations both from those who chose to comment as well as about those who declined to participate.

My best to to DS, JM and others who may remember.

jn

Dennis, my church (First Prez-Midland) shared an evening of praise, prayer and testimony with Tru-Lite last month, and it was a wonderful experience. I hope you will visit them soon.

Dennis, I agree that there's more to Midland's community of faith than these programs showed, with a whole swath -- perhaps even a large majority -- of worshipers omitted from the focus on the formal liturgical on one end (Christ Church Anglican) and the charismatic on the other (Cornerstone and Tru-Lite). And yet, I think the producers still captured the essence of the role faith and religion plays in Midland, as a diverse group of individuals spoke openly and sincerely about how those things are woven into the fabric of their daily lives, and not just something that's hauled into view on Sunday mornings.

John...good to hear from you. I take it from your email address that you're still enabling caffeine addicts (a group in which I proudly claim membership!).

I see that you picked up on the reference to one of the downtown churches who refused admittance to the Al Jazeera reporter and film crew. I'd be interested in knowing their reason(s) for doing so.

Eric, there was more than one Midland church - uptown, downtown, eherever - that declined the invitation to participate in the al-Jazeera series. And that's a shame, because it was an opportunity to get an important message out to a part of the world that needs to know better about who we are and 'where we're coming from.'

Eric, thanks for correctly defining 'fundamentalist'. I've been saying for years, quite boldly, that God Himself is a 'fundamentalist'. How can he not be?