Changes

Well, it's been a crazy past couple of weeks for me. For those of you who haven't heard, I will be resigning from my position as youth pastor at Brewster Road Alliance effective at the end of October. I've been here at my church for 5 years now and it's been a great experience seeing God work through me and in the lives of these teenagers.

Over the past year, I've sensed a need to take a break from full-time ministry - a sabbatical of sorts. God continues to work in me guiding my steps, I just don't know exactly what will come next for me. For (at least) the next year, I will be embarking on a journey after what I call "radical community." One need in my life right now is a loving group of Christians where I can be myself and that can help me process recent leadings and questions in my life. I've found such a community of believers not too far away to plug in with, and I will be moving 45 minutes away to join them for my year sabbatical which means I'll still be living in Alabama.

As for the practical things, I will be retaining my credentials with the C&MA, but will be on official sabbatical from ministry which means my degree in Youth Ministry won't get me much in the regular world of work. I'll be looking for a day job to pay the bills and will be moving in with a roommate to help split living costs. Please be in prayer with me that God would provide a great job opportunity for this season in my life.

I trust as I take this extra time and set it apart to seek after God, that He will honor my pursuit and lead me to "quiet waters" and "restore my soul." I'm both excited and anxious to see where God leads me - we'll have see how things turn out on the flip-side, thanks for reading.

Maybe Twitter needs to go down more often

I'm feeling the need to write a little bit this morning and low and behold, Twitter is down. We'll, I do have a poor neglected blog, so I thought I'd write here for a bit.

This summer has flown by so fast, I'm currently gearing up for the fall and a bunch of changes and transitions. It's been rough, but through the grace of God I'm getting through it.

Tomorrow I get to see David Crowder Band in concert yet again. I'm hoping that they will play some of their new stuff off their record (coming out Sept. 22). Another album I'm waiting to come out with baited breath is the new Switchfoot record. How about all of you, looking forward to any music coming out soon?

I'll finish off with a question I'm considering and I'll let you all answer: what do you do to keep your devotional life fresh and regular? Any tips?

Oh no! I went over 140 characters! :P

Here Am I

Thanks to Andrew for posting this video, here am I.

Gone...

Thanks to ASBO Jesus for this graphic

NBC - "Kings" Episodes 1 & 2. Missing a critical main character

The premiere of Kings had me shocked, a major network was really making a TV show (loosely) based on the Bible. As I watched these first episodes, I couldn't help but think that there might be people who would be interested in the original story these were based on. For those of you who are interested, you can find the original biblical account in 1 Samuel 8-17. I'm guessing that the series will weave in and out of the biblical narrative and might even jump around a bit.

I think one my major problems with this series is going to be the liberal non-literal interpretation of the scripture passages. I think the show will interpret the story this way for 2 reasons:

1). The culture of today rejects the Bible as the literal retelling of historical events.

2). A liberal interpretation is much easier to "stretch" for the sake of the writers.

I'm not going to fault Hollywood for incorrect biblical interpretation, but I'd like to point out where traditional, orthodox interpretation of the scriptures and more modern non-literal interpretations differ.

So here we go, episode 1 (parts 1&2) (spoilers to follow!)


It was interesting seeing the modern depictions of the biblical narrative. Ancient cities are replaced with modern nations complete with skyscrapers, tanks, cell phones, and corporations. It's refreshing to see an old story gain new life with a modern twist.

The characters seemed pretty familiar. Samuel is now a black preacher, but with what seems like less authority than the Samuel in the Bible. David is older than what I would have imagined him to be in the original stories, but the actor that plays him does a decent job. Here is where I first noticed a departure from the biblical narrative. David is pegged at being a down to earth nice guy. Sure I guess in our culture nice guys are seen as moral and maybe even religious, but this was a man after God's own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). Nowhere in the episode does David even mention his faith. It seems like NBC's idea of a man after God's own heart is someone who does what they think is "right." There is no reason for God to choose David in the series, I'm sure there were lots of humble nice guys to choose from, so why David?

King Saul (Kings Silas) I think is the best portrayed character so far. We have a hard time grappling with a ruler with absolute power and even Silas was in the pocket of a major corporation. The bibles picture of Saul was a man who was impressive in stature, weak morally, prone to jealousy, rash decisions, and anger. Seems pretty spot on.

I'll only mention this week a few things about Jonathan (aka Jack Benjamin). David and Jonathan in the biblical narrative became extremely intimate friends. David says when speaking of their relationship: "your love to me was extraordinary, surpassing the love of women" 2 Sam 1:26 (ESV)

The word "love" here in Hebrew is ʾahabâ and denotes deep commitment. The Hebrew had a word for erotic/sexual love which is dôd. You can see what the word means in context in Song of Songs: "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine" Song 1:2 (ESV)

It's extremely obvious from the first episode that the NBC series is going to go for the more juicy incorrect interpretation of David and Jonathan's relationship and make it sexual. This isn't surprising since our culture in America equates love with sex and well, in all honesty - it will get better ratings that way.

Something I'm interested in is whether NBC/the writers will have the courage to portray God something other than some strange force that controls butterflies. It was God who gave David the courage and success with Goliath. It was God who saved the Israelites from their enemies. It was God that David's heart belonged to. I'm interested to see whether or not this series will neuter God's role in the narrative, or if He will pay a bigger role in the show.

Because of this, Kings is missing a critical main character of the Biblical Narrative... God. We'll have to see where things go in the future.

Grace and Peace :)

New NBC TV series - "Kings"

Ah, thank you NBC for giving me something to blog about! From the NBC website:

From executive producer Michael Green (NBC’s "Heroes") comes a riveting new drama about a modern day monarchy. "Kings" is a contemporary re-telling of the timeless tale of David and Goliath. This series is an epic story of greed and power, war and romance, forbidden loves and secret alliances -- and a young hero who rises to power in a modern-day kingdom.

It's a great concept for a show really. The Bible is full of fantastic stories with complex characters and as I would tell my youth group teenagers, if they made a movie about the Bible it would have to be rated "R" or "NC-17." But like any book Hollywood touches, there will be a collision of the original story and "artistic license." Will Kings stay true to the meaning of the origninal stories, or will NBC use people's limited knowledge of the Bible and large Christian American population to take this concept all the way to the bank?

As I watch these episodes, I'll post my thoughts here and try to compare/contrast the advancing story with the biblical accounts. As for the quality of the TV program, I'll leave that to much more articulate critics.

I'll try and post my thoughts about the premiere tomorrow. You can watch Kings on NBC's website or my favorite, on Hulu.

I blog regularly, really!

If you look to the right here on my blog (titled "Tweets"), I use the micro-blogging tool Twitter quite regularly. Most the time when I have something to share, it's real short and doesn't warrant a whole blog post, but if you're on Twitter and would like to follow me, I'm @erikpasco

And since it's so freakin' cool, I thought I'd share one of today's tweets here: today (and I'm not sure it will be around tomorrow), you can get 99 Mozart songs from Amazon MP3's for $3! That's a savings of over $80!!!

Cornerstone 09

Cornerstone Music Festival June 29 - July 4. Anyone Interested?

Help Mae Build A House For Charity

Mae 2009 Project - Webisode: 2 from Mae on Vimeo.

Hit up the link to find out more about this awesome opportunity (read more)

A new year, a new post

Well 2008 is far in the rear view mirror and 2009 is here, huzah!

I think that my thoughts of 2008 reflect a lot of what I have been hearing from friends - it's been a tough year. Here are some things I'm looking forward to this year...

• New possibilities - you never know what great opportunities could be up ahead
  
• New friends - living in another state away from most of your friends is tough going, I'm looking forward to meeting new kindred spirits this year
  
• New president - I'm no Bush hater, but I do look forward to seeing the change that Obama brings to our country and to it's image/influence around the world (hopefully good change)
  
• New Technology - I'm stoked to see what new technology emerges this year, I'll probably be getting a new cell phone and with it either an iPhone or an Android phone.
• New revelations in my walk with God - I'm always learning new things about who God is, I would love for God to blow my mind this year

Some other things I'm enjoying right now:

• I'm getting my new stereo installed in my car today - goodbye CD's hello iPod
• I just got a bunch of new music I'm enjoying such as Coldplay, Deathcab for a Cutie, Wild Sweet Orange, and Trace Bundy to name a few
• I'm speaking at our district winter retreat at the end of the month
• I'm continuing my trip to the geek-side and installing a full Linux installation on my 2 gig flash pen-drive ($5 at Walmart!)

That's it for now, what are all of you looking forward to this new year?