Ellegoria has a myspace and email

For a lot more info about Ellegoria go to www.myspace.com/ellegoria. You can also email the band at ellegoria@gmail.com.  Contact us to get on our mailing list.

Ellegoria shows coming up. . .

We will  be playing a few shows coming up.  Check out the Ellegoria page for details.  And check back often, we will be playing several shows these next months.  We are headlining the show in Ft. Morgan on Sept. 7.

watch this magic trick…

This is wierd…

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/29550/

Journal from 7-29-07

Do two opposites make a whole, or do they split?  I realize I oppose myself in nearly everything I am.  My desire lies in either building people up or breaking them down.  Often I do both at the same time.  I do not dare simply keep somebody content.  Perhaps this stems from a fear of complacency and normalism.

I feed off of social activity, yet isolation is the greatest gift I can receive.  Do two opposites make a whole, or do they split?

Journal from 7-27-07

Wife and Child are in the Northwest visiting family.  My burden of work, which is presently acting as a blessing, kept me planted in the flat we occupy.  Funny, all the feeble attempts we make to manage our lonely hours in time like these.  Big plans? What big plans?  I encourage the wilting of time with my eyes glued to the front of a computer monitor.  Is it Friday already?

The need to have a watchful eye shows itself best when no eye appears.  The week is blaze and quickly burning.  No time is left on the clock to allow me the expected task of domestic work.

A Letter of Resignation to Hope Centre. . .

Dear family,
It is with mixed sorrow and joy that Colette and I announce we will no longer being attending Hope Centre as our home church. This was not an easy or rapid decision by any means, but a painstaking one that has taken us since October of 2006 to come to. It will be hard to leave those that feel called to stay and serve there, but this doesn’t have to be the end of a relationship.

We feel it is only fair to explain why we are going away so that nothing false may be assumed. We are NOT leaving because of the people. We are not even leaving because of a difference in vision. I feel Colette and I carry the same desires as Hope Centre, and specifically Die Happy, to go forth into the world and turn it right-side-up. We carry similar views about how the world should look and how we should interact within that model.

Where we differ, however, is in the process of bringing this vision into a reality. Colette and I have come up against deep philosophical and theological differences with the leadership we were serving under. We don’t believe we are to follow the path they have laid before us. We aren’t even sure we believe Hope Centre’s path will take anyone to where they are intending. It’s a difficult realization to come to, but one we couldn’t keep below the water any longer.

To be specific, we share the value that Hope Centre has placed on community, but we differ on how it is to be played out. For example, Colette and I believe individuals make up the community (Body) and that the health of the community is dependant on the health of the individual. We were taught at Hope Centre, however, that if the individual would redirect any focus from their personal problems to community and world problems, then their personal problems would take care of themselves. This, we feel, only leads to a build up of unresolved issues that must later be dealt with (as is the case in Hope Centre’s current situation). This, to us, explains why so many people (including us much of the time) feel abandoned by the church when we need them the most.

In our own case, when Colette and I were going through some hard times last fall, I was essentially asked to leave and not come back until I was fixed. But I received no support from anybody at the church in my restoration process. Colette was simply left to walk through it alone. We felt like we were flying solo. Now, if it had only happened to us we’d have gotten over it, but we’ve sat back and watched it happen to members of this congregation time and time again.

And when I was invited back, I feel that I was only invited back because the people who told me to leave got caught in similar circumstances and they didn’t want to receive equal treatment. This double standard seemed to happen quite often. It seems to us that if you are a regular member of the church you receive less margin of error than a prominent member does. With this, we feel that staff issues at Hope Centre are often swept under the rug to protect the boat from being rocked. We understand that nobody needs to know all the personal details of the staff members lives, but we feel there is a responsibility to acknowledge when a leader is not able to function in his or her full form and to take proper steps (the same ones you would with regular members like us) to restoring them to wholeness.

We also feel that Hope Centre is focused on such grand things but neglects the small things. This is not in alignment with scripture. How can we reach the world when we neglect those in our own family? We feel that many ministry opportunities are passed up because they are not viewed upon as worth while.

Along with this we feel like Hope Centre is a church of a lot of talk and not much action. That is fine, but Colette and I have been called into action. We have sat through many messages from different pastors, yet we feel like we’ve done relatively little for the Greeley community. We want to actively pursue a ministry that reaches to people where they are.

The timing of our departure with the departure of so many others from this family is purely by chance.  As I said earlier, we have been building up to this point since October of 2006. We are leaving in the midst of this season strickly because it’s time. The resignation of most of the pastoral staff, however, does provide us with a feeling of ease. It acts as a sort of conformation that the times are indeed changing and that what we thought we were hearing God speak to us was being spoken to others as well. 

Colette and I have always felt as though we have committed, not just to a pastor, but to a leadership.  With the disbanning and parting of that leadership, we hold our committment fulfilled. We have completed any responsibilties we had made to the ministries here and left no obligations undone that we are aware of. Colette and I would like to thank Die Happy and Yeahwho in particular and I would also like to thank the worship team for letting us serve with them.

We do not condemn anything Hope Centre does or has done. We just don’t feel like it is our journey. Praise God that he let us travel with you for so many years. We have learned and grown along side of you. We feel that we have gone as far as we can with Hope Centre, but we do not regret having been a part in what we have. A letter explaining why we felt it was necessary to part ways seemed an appropriate response to the situation and we thank you for listening. Feel free to contact us with any questions. Thank you again.

Sean and Colette

Chuck Norris action jeans

http://photos1.blogger.com/photoInclude/x/blogger/3841/751/1600/271148/ActionJeans650.jpg

Now you can do all that kicking and stretching and still look like a cowboy.  Haha.

The photo the GOP doesn’t want you to see

http://jeffrey-feldman.typepad.com/frameshop/2007/07/frameshop-a-p-1.html

 ”The one photo the GOP does not want anyone to see was snapped at yesterday’s NAACP GOP Presidential Candidate Forum. The NAACP invited all 9 Republican candidates to the forum, but only one showed up: Tom Tancredo. All the Democratic Presidential hopefuls showed up for their forum. “

the sin of July 4th

Today we remember the day we, as a people under British rule, committed a great sin.  We rebelled.

God (YHWH) has always spoke of rebellion as a sin, yet we who call ourselves Christians proclaim some form of greatness in our rebellion against our governing authority that clearly goes against Romans 13.

England was our authority and we rebelled.  We rebelled because we didn’t like the taxes.  That is no Biblical reason to rebel.  In fact, Jesus said, “render unto Caesar what is Caesars and unto God what is God’s.”  Our refusal to pay taxes broke that commandment.

After our rebellion we went on to remove Native Americans from their land in a brutal way and rape the land.

Christian founding?  No.

Happy Anti-Christian Principles Day!!!

Death in Iraq

Death, death, death.  Sounds like things are going good in Iraq.  Five more Americans bit the dust fighting for “freedom.” I feel horrible for the families of these dead soldiers because now they have to live the rest of their lives lying to themselves about how the war was just and worthy so that they don’t have to face the fact that their family members gave their lives for no reason at all.

I want to know when they are going to start telling us how many innocent Iraqis die each day.

Ten laws of laziness

http://freelanceswitch.com/productivity/10-ways-to-make-laziness-work-for-you/

 Here are principles to live by.

Fulfillment

I think too many people think in “if…then’s…”  They think that if this happens ten life will get better.  It’s just not the case. look at movie stars and famous musicians.  They have it all yet end up in rehab or suffering depression.  Their whole life they just thought, “If only I had…”  But then they get it and realize it isn’t satifactory.  Material possisions can’t fill the void.  So once they have it all and it still isn’t enough, depression sets it.

I don’t blame them for this.  It’s what America has told them will work.  It’s the great lie about the American Dream. 

An Introduction to Christendom and an American God

Too many words have been penned on thousands of documents in debates and arguments from historians, sociologists, scholars, and Christians concerning the question of how Christian so-called “Christian” America ever was, or even if it ever was (I have personally made the latter sagacity my own). What is not in dispute, however, is that America is not a Christian nation currently, nor, dare I say, will it ever be hereafter.

There is only one Christian nation, and that is the Kingdom of God. Beyond that, we simply have polities trying to reflect God’s Kingdom as their own figure. The trouble with reflections, though, is that they are always a backwards image in a reclining position and are never as perfect as the original item being directly reflected.

We can plausibly suppose that America is in a post-Christian state of mind at best. The old days of the temporal community tolerating the Judeo-Christian moral imposition are long past. Of course, you can plug any other nation with a high percentage of Christian inhabits in here as well, but being that I (and most likely you) reside in the United States, I will use this nation as a comprehensive term representing all such countries around the globe. Being told that we don’t live in a Christian culture may sound somewhat scandalous and blasphemous to you, though a quick look at the way our culture’s citizens live Monday through Saturday (and perhaps even Sunday after church services) and a stroll through the mall (or a highschool for that matter) is no doubt enough to demonstrate the point on a social scale.

In many ways we have awakened to discover that we as Christians can no longer claim to be in our own familiar territory. Wherever we turn, post-Christendom is staring us down like a heavyweight prizefighter. What is Christendom? I don’t know that I have the ability or desire to come up with a clear and concise textbook one-liner that defines Christendom in all its entirety, but with a bit of time spent gazing back at western civilization’s history it’s easy enough to get a basic visualization.

In 312 Constantine, who controlled almost all of the western Roman empire, and Maxentius, who had power over the city of Rome and most of Italy, were preparing for war against each other. Constantine had the support of most of the military, but was lacking resources for a drawn-out conflict. Being that a military is only as good as their resources, Constantine was quite concerned as he marched with his army toward Rome. On his way, though, he is said to have received a vision of a cross with the sun setting behind it. Also in this vison, a heavenly voice called out, “in hoc signo vince,” or, “In this sign conquer.”

Constantine, who was a sun-worshiper, thought this to be a message from the Christian God and had all of his soldiers paint crosses on their shields and weaponry before continuing to the battlesight. Maxentius ended up losing Rome to the invading army and Constantine became emperor. Apparently he was convinced that the God of the Christians had given him the victory. Historians can’t exactly agree on whether Constantine was actually converted to Christianity or not, but it is clear that he saw Christianity as a powerful force that could bring together and resuscitate the crumbling Roman conglomerate.

By 313 the persecution of Christians had ended in and around Rome. Constantine issued a decree of toleration and Christianity became a legal religion for the first time in global history. Local church leaders were then welcomed into his council to assist in the transformation of the Roman Empire into a Christian society. The church began to grow rapidly and church leaders began to take on more and more political functions. By the end of the century, Christianity had become the official state religion of the Roman empire. The tides had turned, as it was now the pagans who were being heavily persecuted. A new system called christianitas (Christendom) had come into existence. It was a system in which the state and the church would operate together as if joined at the hip. The Catholic church dawned as Rome conquered territories throughout Europe. This system would last nearly seventeen hundred years.

* * *

 Everybody who came up through the public school system knows the basics of this country’s foundation. We recognize that many of the early pilgrims settled here to escape the religious persecution that was happening in Europe at the time. We also know the story of the rebellion against England for our independence and freedom (two very dangerous things for Christians, by the way), and we’ve been taught how much our founding fathers supposedly leaned upon Christianity and their beliefs in the Christian God when forming our government and drafting the constitution (though the constitution has no mention of YHWH in it whatsoever).

Early laws in this land closely resemble many of the laws we can find by thumbing through the Old Testament. These would most likely stand as the basic reasons why America was coined a Christian nation.

For the next two hundred years or so American Christianity went unscathed. When this country was said to have been founded on Christianity and it offered much of what its citizens were hoping for, the citizens were more than happy to call themselves Christians and align themselves with such a god. This also helped in hindering the growth of too many religions that were threatening to the church. As Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon explain in their book Resident Aliens;

You see, our parents never worried about whether we would grow up Christian. The church was the only show in town. Church, home and state formed a national consortium that worked together to instill “Christian values.” People grew up Christian simply by being lucky enough to be born in places like Greenville, South Carolina, or Pleasant Grove, Texas. This, they go on to say, halted between the 1960′s and early 1980′s. No longer was Christianity the only show in town. New persuasions and sentiments started moving in adjacently to our churches. Shifts were being made in our society and government that directly challenged American Christianity. Post-Christendom emerged as a result. You can see the trend still today. Our culture is moving further and further away from the Judeo-Christian moral vision this country had maintained for so long. In this way Post-Christendom in America is simply referring to the moving away from traditional conservative American Christian values of old.

 * * *

 Let me break from definitions and history lessons for a moment and make clear the aim of my writing. I want to hammer the point that I do not think that the American Christianity of old is necessarily Christianity at all. It has some correct elements, but is hopelessly incomplete and fractional. America has spawned her own rendering of Christianity, much as Rome did, that reverberates a very little portion of the Kingdom of God that we find in the New Testament, and a whole lot of patriotism and nationalism.

As American scholar Sam Pascoe said, “Christianity started out in Palestine as a fellowship; it moved to Greece and became a philosophy; it moved to Italy and became an institution; it moved to Europe and became a culture; it came to America and became an enterprise.”

This enterprise is more of a patriotic belief that there is a god and he is on our side, than a true following of the Messiah into his Kingdom. It’s easy to see why a culture would become apathetic to such a nationalistic religious philosophy. Like other state-sponsored religions in history, America’s cast of Christianity encouraged living an honest and moral life, extended a nice reward in the form of an afterlife, and rained fire and brimstone on those who declined it. Sometimes you could even kill, avenge, and go to war in this god’s name. With a few simple words of acknowledgment to “God,” you could then go on living your life as you always had, adding to it the security of God’s protection. Pretty much all you were required to do from then on was pray in times of difficulty, go to church on Easter and Christmas, and call yourself a “Christian” in front of others.

If you don’t believe that the Church in America was ever like that, you don’t have to take my word for it. Just look at the Church today; It hasn’t changed much. In fact, an independent survey sampled over 1,000 American adults in the late 1990′s and found that nearly thirty percent described themselves as “spiritual” but not interested in being a part of the church. About fifty-five percent of the respondents of other polls said they are religious, but forty-five percent of those said they are more likely to follow their own instincts than any denominational teachings. Thirty percent of born again Christians believe that good works can earn you a spot in heaven. All of these poll results go against what scripture teaches us, but are completely acceptable positions amidst Christians in the American church. Christianity is meant to be personal, but not private, intimate, but not individual.

The problem doesn’t lie only within the individual, however. The official website of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, which is the denomination I participate in, had a page dedicated to foursquare’s stance on several current event issues. Under the issue of contraception the Church stated that they encouraged the married couple to pray and listen for God’s voice on whether or not it was alright. To be fair, the webmaster has since removed this from the website, but it still illiterates how privatized American Christianity has become.

If you are feeling a bit offended by what I’ve written thus far, perhaps it’s because you are such a Christian. I make no apologies. You being offended doesn’t change what Christianity truly is and ought to be. You being offended only acts to highlight you as the target audience because you are the type of “Christian” that has secularized – or worse, personalized – YHWH’s Kingdom. If you find yourself offended I am speaking directly to you because the Kingdom of God is obviously not what you thought it to be.

The aim of my writing is to resurrect the original intent and function of Christianity, the call to discipleship and the offering of our lives to the one that can give us a much greater one in return. It’s about learning how to let go of what we’ve convinced ourselves is rightfully ours, but in all truth is not. It’s about becoming better citizens in the Kingdom that Jesus reigns over and not forgetting where our loyalties lie. It’s learning that the only path for a Christian is to follow Jesus, the long awaited King, and answer his bid to us; “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me.” (Matt. 16:24)

Giannina’s bog

http://giannina.wordpress.com/

Here is a great blog for Christians against violence. She writes some very good stuff. You should check it out.

God and His flood

A lot of people think that there was once a protective bubble of water over our atmosphere (Gen. 1:7) that caused a sort of greenhouse effect that caused things to live longer and grow taller.  This would explain the 15 ft. skeleton they found in Italy and probably dinosaurs as well.

At the time of the flood, God released the water above and that’s where the floodwaters came from. They then retreated to the poles and our greenhouse was gone. People shrunk and died sooner.

This is an interesting theory, and one that doesn’t seem to have any conflict with the Bible.  In fact, all the evidence I could find in the bible would support such a claim.

I think it would be careless, even of Athiests, to deny a giant Genesis type flood.  After all, nearly every religion has a similar flood story.  This greenhouse theory seems to be the best explaination.

Polish man awakes from 19 year coma, finds democracy

Read it here:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/06/02/polish.coma.reut/index.html

 How would you like that?  Wake up to a whole new form of government.  He actually kinda remembers family reunions while in the coma.  Comas are strange things.  How does one suddenly awake from a coma?  What is the thing that triggers your brain to start funtioning again?  I know very little on the subject.  I just wonder if there are other people out there who would have woke up, but had life-support cut.

Gay pub can ban straight drinkers

Read the story at this site:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0%2C23599%2C21804872-2%2C00.html

I have mixed feelings about this story.  Part of me says that this is a blantant violation of equal rights, while part of me doesn’t care in the least.  I mean, it would never stand to have a regular pub that bans gays.  Laws suits would be flying.

At the same time what straight person wants to go to a gay bar? I don’t care if a gay bar doesn’t let me come.  Also, though I don’t agree with capitalism, we do live in a capitalistic society.  In order for that society to thrive the government can’t be telling businesses what to do.  Capitalism works by businesses forming competition.  The capitalistic way should allow for this gay bar to serve who it wants and lose business accordingly, while the straight bar picks up the stragglers and makes a killing.  After all, though the homosexual population is rising, it is not close to the heterosexual population.  So, for people who are concerned about fairness, this is an outrage.  But I have a feeling that once an individual puts a bit of thought into this, they won’t really give a crap.

The one other question I have is how do you prove your sexual orientation to a bartender?  Ewww!!

Cheers, Sean

Eddie Izzard on religion (Big Arms)

Here is the famous BIG ARMS routine by my favorite comedian. . .

Since MySpace sucks…

I’m going to do the blog thing instead.  I will post anytime I have an idea worth reading. Feel free to throw your two cents in.  Those of you from Yeahwho and Die Happy should be able to post with your same username.

 tsau