At the Parade

Hi. This is a Gone Fishin’ sort of message.

I am celebrating the Giants Super Bowl victory at the ticker tape parade today with my family. I missed it the first time and vowed never to miss it again. So here I go, off to revel in the glory of a Super Bowl.

The Best of Everyday Liturgy 2011

I had a blast writing this year on Everyday Liturgy. After five years, the blog feels like a natural extension of my life, a comforting place to go write. It doesn’t often feel like work, and is always a joy.

Here are some of my selected highlights from the blog this year:

A Prayer for Our Children: An Introduction

I have been finding that praying for children is one of the most important roles of a parent. Even as an infant, there is so much about a young child that a parent cannot control, and so prayer is a way of both acknowledging in humility our inadequacies as a parent and journeying with our children in their spiritual journey.

The Turning Over of Traditional Tables

I do agree that this liturgical, ancient-future worship movement is a turning over of traditional tables. But, this turning over of tables is not a spilling over of  a century’s worth of low-church Protestantism as the table is flipped over. Instead, this movement is a return to the center. It’s a journey back home. It’s a realization that almost 2,000 years of vibrant Christian worship had been totally eclipsed and stuck in closets or the histories found in dusty theological books.

Why Should Christians Eat Ethically?

This has been a very fruitful exercise in reclaiming the Christian notion of hospitality in the church today, and it is to be commended. Yet, the focus on community and food has not gone far enough. Many have asked the questions: how should food play a central role in the local church gathering? In the practice of communion? In the Christian home? And the answers have been great. But not many have been asking the questions:How should our local church choose the food we eat? and the broaderHow should Christians eat?

The Fall and Food Preservation

I love canning. Sometimes a bit too much. I’ll come home from work and announce that I’ve stopped at the grocery store—I bought pears!—and now we are going to pickle them!
It’s not that I don’t enjoy it. It was more existential. I wondered why I had to can anything.
Death. The answer is death.

If you had a favorite post this year let me know!

GENERATE Magazine: Fall Annoucements!

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT FROM TIM SNYDER

Dear Generate community,

I’ve been with Generate Magazine since we launched 2009, but this past summer I was honored to take on a new role as Executive Editor. In this new role, I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes this magazine special and lately I’ve been talking about the magazine as a workshop. Generate is a platform where together we practice telling grassroots stories of kingdom hope. For many of our contributors, this is the first time they have ever published their work. For others it is just one of many publishers they work with. This is what I love about the magazine. There’s just nothing else out there that tells these stories through the creative mediums of our magazine.

Because this is workshop we create together can play an important role in the changing shapes of Christian communities, over the last few months we’ve been working hard to deliver some exciting changes here at Generate that will ensure our ability to continue creating this unique publication and to grow the community that generates, enjoys and shares the publication.

So, beginning in November we are very excited to announce the following changes to Generate Magazine:

First of all, from now on Generate Magazine will be published in a new 8.5 X 11 format. The new enlarged format is part of wider partnership with our new publishing partner, Magcloud (HP). Through their print-on-demand service, you will now be able to order the print magazine on the day we release it and the cost will stay the same ($10). You will also be able to decide for yourself how you want it shipped. If you’ve ever had problems receiving Generate (like I have!) you’ll be excited to about the new tracking options.

To kick off this new format, we are re-releasing Issues 1-3 in print through Magcloud beginning within just a few weeks.

Second, through this new partnership we will also be able to offer for the first time a full digital version of the magazine! The digital version of Generate will be readable on iPads, iPhones, e-readers and any computer and immediately available the day we release a new issue. The digital version will come free when you purchase the print edition, or you can buy just the digital version ($7).

Finally, as a token of our thanks for all your support over these past couple of years, we’re offering Issues 1-3 now for a special buy one, get one free (original format). There’s a limited supply of these, so jump on that quick.

On behalf of the entire Generate staff — thank-you for all your support!

Be generative,

Tim K. Snyder

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Guest Posts This Week

I am going to be taking some breaks from writing over the next month or so to work on a project, relax and get my syllabus and prep in order for the fall semester. There will be three guests posts this week from Lisa Colon Delay, Elizabeth Sands Wise and Omar Niebles.

A Long Journey, with a lot of words…

When I started blogging in June of 2006 it was as a sort of discipline. I wanted something to keep me grounded in a community of other thinkers, writers and readers and a place to keep my beliefs, thoughts and ideas fresh and changing.

Now, over five years later and with more than a 1,000 posts, it’s hard to believe that I’ve kept this going all this time.

To all of you who have written, commented, read or helped out in any way, a very heartfelt thank you.

To another 5 years and another 1,000 posts!

Erasing Hell Pithy Post Winners

I ran a contest to give away copies of Francis Chan’s forthcoming book Erasing Hell, and the participation was exact: 10 posts for 10 winners. So good job all, that was very efficient!

Here are my picks for best post, most witty and truest depiction of hell on earth.

Glory‘s post wins for best post:

Erasing Hell: Selling our car and weaving through rush-hour traffic on my bicycle (arriving at my destination in comparable time, with more peace of mind and a healthier body!)

Zach‘s post was the wittiest:

Erasing Hell: The Life & Times of Pink Pearl

Truest Depiction of Hell on Earth is a tie between Janice:

Erasing hell: Removing the pencil guidelines on my 4000 word 2′x3′ final calligraphy project!

and Elizabeth:

Erasing Hell: The days I find myself sifting through the Trash folder of my inbox, watching the parade of mass forwards from my grandmother and bank e-statements sandwiched between “business proposals” from Mr. Yu, Western Union Money Transfers, V1AGRA (and other “enlargement”) advertisements, and LivingSocial pseudo-deals (who can turn down “three laser hair removal sessions”?)

Thank you all for your participation!