Author: Wick

I remember one of my friends growing up. He wasn’t the brightest guy in the world, but he could always make me smile. I first met him at a summer camp, where he definitely changed the way many of us saw the grown-ups around us. It always seemed like he would accidentally get into serious trouble, but somehow got out of any serious consequences. He was awesome.

One Christmas, he had a particularly rough time, but it ended up being one of the best years ever in the end. That next year, he invited me to Splash Mountain with him. I totally wanted to go, but couldn’t make it.

As we both grew a little older, I still valued our friendship. Even when he got mixed up with some friends in the “wrong crowd”. He spent a small amount of time in jail, but was eventually released…once the truth got out. Looking back, it was kinda funny. He totally forgave society for that mess-up.

The next year, I remember was one of the scariest years for him. The stuff he went through that fall, I could hardly even bear hearing it all. There are very few things that truly frighten me, but some of the things he had to deal with still give me the shivers.

We kinda lost touch after that. I know he had some crazy rides, went back to school, played some basketball from what I’ve heard. He even traveled a bit overseas, and then joined the armed forces, though I didn’t really keep tabs on how that went. Never really heard of him after that, although I think he passed away back in 2000…

So if you’re involved with teenage culture at all, you’ve no doubt seen these books EVERYWHERE. Seriously, I didn’t think much of it, until I began to notice it in the youth room ALL the time. I finally realized, it wasn’t taking one girl a really really long time to read through the books. There were several girls who were reading it, and sharing copies.

If you have no desire to read the books, but are a parent or hang out with teenagers, and want to know the draw of the book; check out this article. (contains major spoilers) It’s a pretty decent summary, with more grace for story-telling than you usually find in a Dobson-inspired publication.

Apparently, it’s also a movie slated for release less than a month from now. Probably even just the first, in a series of movies based on the Novels. Who knows, if someone pays my ticket, I might even go see it with a bunch of my teen who are fanatics of it.

It’s interesting that, so far at least, I’m not hearing/seeing as much parental upset as we did when Harry Potter first began to be popular. It seems almost embraced by the young teen culture, and their parents, even in the evangelical communities. Based on the article linked above, it does actually stand out from much of today’s entertainment in it’s decency/regard for sexuality; aside from the fact that it’s about vampires.

As in any story that’s told, especially for artistic and entertainment purposes, having open conversations with your daughters or sons about the book is encouraged. Heck, you may even want to grab a copy and read it along with your child. The themes of love, eternity, devotion, self-image, and over-all “reason to live/die” can be really good topics of discussion with your teen or pre-teen.

Haven’t blogged on the Holiness Manifesto in a while, because this next chapter was pretty long, and deserved a full reading. The chapter is called “Integrated Streams of Holiness”, and was written by Don Thorsen, Professor of Theology at Azuza Pacific.

It was a really well written, though admittedly not exhaustive summary of all the branches and movements that have woven through the tapestry of the church and holiness over thousands of years. The ancient church, martyrs, apologetic writings, the Roman Catholic church, Protestant Reformation, Augustine, Calvin, Arminius, Wesley, Orthodoxy movements, Pentecostal connections, the “Holiness Movement”, etc. He then goes into several different understandings of “Spiritualities” (i.e. Richard Foster’s categories, etc.).

He briefly touches on each of the areas above, and how they all flow from and into this same stream of Christianity. How so many various branches of Christianity have so much in common. Enough, indeed, to unite in this discussion/pursuit of a living holiness that transforms the world by the Spirit of God. I’ll leave you with his final paragraph about uniting the many aspects of Christianity that need integration: