Rick Warren: Purpose-drivel or purpose-full?

[Rich Kennedy]

And "Happy Birthday" does not change keys at the end (unless Sandi Patti or Barry Manilow sings it) -- or are you thinking about the "and many more" tag?

I am hopelessly amateur in breaking down music, blessed with a decent ear. Either during the refrain, "happy birthday, happy birthday..." or just after, ie. the last refrain; something happens if not a key change. Either hurdle loses almost everyone, sometimes even with accompaniment.

[Andrew]

Thanks for pointing out the error in the latest LarkNews...now please excuse me, I need to amend my vote in the poll you set up yesterday

[mrmando]

Either during the refrain, "happy birthday, happy birthday..." or just after, ie. the last refrain; something happens if not a key change. Either hurdle loses almost everyone, sometimes even with accompaniment.

You're probably thinking of the minor-sixth interval between the last syllable of the person's name and the first syllable of the last "Happy." In musical terms, that's a skip from the submediant, or sixth step of the major scale ("la" in solfege) up to the subdominant (fourth step, "fa"). Not the easiest interval in the world to sing. But "Happy Birthday" is easier on the whole than, for example, "America the Beautiful."

It's really painful in the workplace sometimes. At my current job I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who can carry a tune.

[DanBuck]

Mr. Mando,

Didn't Matt Groening/Danny Elfman put one of the hardest intervals into the "The simpsons" theme, just for kicks? Is it the same interval as happy birthday. I know its the same as "Maria" from West Side Story

[Andrew]

I just came across this quote from Flannery O'Connor: "Faith comes and goes. It rises and falls like the tides of an invisible ocean."

[Rich Kennedy]

I am trying to read more O'Connor. I must say that she nails faith as I have experienced it.

[The Invisible Man]

A little late on this, but what the heck. Last year I was sent a copy of the Purpose Driven Life by an American friend, and I duly worked through the 40 day plan. I was left scratching my head as I simply couldn't believe that so many American churches take this book seriously. Much of what Warren offers is just sentimental twaddle, but even more troubling is the fact that he distorts scripture to make it fit his own one-dimensional ideas. Even the premise on which the book is based is a lie. Warren states: "The Bible is clear that God considers 40 days a spiritually significant time period. Whenever God wanted to prepare someone for his purposes, he took 40 days." Hogwash! 40 is not God's magic number, and we cannot out-calculate the creator this way.

Edited June 24, 2005 by The Invisible Man

[Cunningham]

I started the book and immediately felt bored and condescended too. I took it back and picked up John Piper's Don't Waste Your Life. Much better.

[Peter T Chattaway]

Membership covenant draws questions

STONEY CREEK, ON -- A LOCAL Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) church has learned that being purpose driven can drive members away.

ChristianWeek, June 23

[BBBCanada]

Those are two different books Peter. But the article was insightful. While on the one hand there is so much of North American individualism that has crept into the church and Stoney Creek is reacting to that, one wonders how genuine relationships can be cultivated with these kinds of agreements such that a church would not need them in the first place!

This particular agreement borderlines on the "Sheparding Movement" of but a decade or so ago. That's scary.

[TedK]

I also have trouble believing that anyone takes Purpose Driven seriously. It has all been written before and much better. I don't know how other churches promoted it, but I hated it seeing it promoted as a cure all. It became the Christian equivalent to the Atkins diet, or an advertisement that promises to teach you to "learn classical guitar in a week".

Edited June 30, 2005 by TedK

[Rich Kennedy]

"Voting causes division"? I would run from any church that did not consult the congregation officially and regularly.

[Overstreet]

USA Today loves Rick Warren.

Or, at least the guy who wrote that editorial does.

Edited June 5, 2006 by Jeffrey Overstreet

[Annelise]

I have a rule: "If everyone is doing it, it must be wrong (until proven otherwise)." So thanks everyone for the confirmation that the book would have been a big waste of my time!

[SZPT]

I look forward to hearing your take on it, Alan.

[Chashab]

Haven't read the book yet. Friends who wanted to give us a copy didn't, because their church where they were going to pick it up from had run out.

But I found this website a few months ago: The Porpoise Diving Life.

Adding: From the website:

Let

Edited August 26, 2006 by Chashab

[Stephen Lamb]

And now, for the film version. Here's what Ralph Winter told Robin Parrish for an interview with Infuze Magazine:

The only other thing right now is that we're talking with Rick Warren about making The Purpose-Driven Life with Fox Searchlight.

I remember hearing about those rights being sold. How would that even work? How do you make a story out of something like that?

Well, you've got to create a narrative. We've been talking with a lot of A-list writers in town, who are very interested. The book has a wide readership -- both Christian and non-Christian. So the challenge would be to find the right A-list writer to pair up with Rick, and develop some good stories that would begin to illustrate some of those principles. You couldn't take all of that stuff and pile all of those principles into one movie. But the idea we've been operating off of is doing something structured like Crash, where you have a bunch of different stories that intersect in interesting ways.

That's still in an early development stage. Rick's a very busy guy, so it's moving somewhat slowly. But I think it could be very fun, on down the road.

[Overstreet]

Please pray for Rick Warren.

He just tweeted:

My eyes were severely burned by a toxic poison.Hospitalized Mon.Excruciating pain.Now home.Pray my sight loss is restored

[Darrel Manson]

Here is the LA Times report on this. Sounds optimistic.

[Andrew]

Glad to read the positive update...thanks

[Tyler]

NPR covered an open letter from Asian American Christians United that was (partly, at least) sparked by some offensive posts on Warren's Facebook page.

 

Link to the full letter.

 

 

We, the undersigned, are distressed about the continuing divide that persists in the

North American evangelical church in the area of racial harmony. Certainly, we

acknowledge that over the past several decades, the church has grown both in its

understanding and pursuit of racial reconciliation. However, such efforts have

largely been reduced to black-white relations, or they have resulted in tokenism, in

which organizations or events allocate an appropriate number of spots to include

voices of color and mistakenly believe that is all that is required