Happy Sunday! As we look toward the end of the calendar year and the beginning of a new year, I'm very aware that, on the one hand, we've been at this for 2 years and I'm super grateful, but on the other hand, it hasn't quite become what I thought it would. I started this Locals community in the hope of creating a kind of closed-loop social media platform, where like-minded people would interact and create great conversation. I had envisioned a multi-level experience with live gatherings, and lots of different kinds of content. A few things have become clear that change the vision. First, with the addition of the Way of the Fathers Podcast to my schedule (and I get paid for that) I don't really have the time to create and curate the original vision. Second, most people don't really do live events because their schedules are too busy. I am super grateful for those who have made the effort to be present for the live streams and the live conversations, but it remains just the same few usual suspects. (I was tempted to call these my "Peter, James, and John" inner circle, but then I realized that this analogy would put me in the role of Jesus, so...)
OK, so all that is to say, that I would love to hear from YOU about how we can make this community the best experience and the most fruitful for you. Here are some questions:
1) Is there a better day & time than Saturdays at 11 ET for The Journey live stream? (And I really want to hear from those of you who watch it later, in case there is a day or time when you would be more likely to attend live).
2) Is there some other content I could add or facilitate that would make it feel like supporters get more for their $10/month. (And I acknowledge that I have avoided any kind of a situation where supporters get more than non-supporter members. I never wanted a tier system where there are first and second class citizens, and I never wanted to turn this into a marketing thing or have to manage who gets what - because then you always end up having to deny something from someone, but I don't know any other way that fits with my personality.)
3) I know that the Locals app is not the greatest, technology-wise, which is why I am open to using Rumble - but it remains to be seen what that will look like - in any case, I hope that in the new year live streams can be done without the app, just in a browser - which may mean that the app becomes superfluous - but then of course that will mean that there is even less of a chance of people other than me posting in the feed. Any thoughts on this?
All this is to say that, on the one hand, I want to continue with The Original Church community, at least for the Bible Study, but I'm open to re-envisioning it according to what will be most useful or engaging for YOU. So now's the time to give me feedback - because in the next few weeks I'll be figuring things out and making some prayerful decisions about how to move forward (and I would appreciate your prayers for my discernment process).
Thanks everyone for being a part of this community - now speak up - I want to hear from you!
- with much gratitude, Jim
I'm back, up and running, and ready to go - I should have a new JOURNEY episode within the next week or so - and because you are my loyal peeps, here is an exclusive, just-for-you, behind the scenes SNEAK PEEK into my new office:
This was for March 24th, recorded for the Ascension App
Thanks for your patience - here is our next installment of The Journey - it's session # 96, but I'm also calling it PART 1 of a "miniseries" on John chapter 6.
Whoever watches it first, please let me know if it looks good or if there are any problems with it - I get through the first two sections of the text on the feeding of the 5,000.
Enjoy!
I mentioned in The Journey that I wrote a song based on Isaiah 2, which is one of my favorite OT passages:
In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain, and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it. Many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
I hope you like the song!
Here is the list of Bible versions I tell my students are UNACCEPTABLE for serious study of the Scriptures and the Early Church - for the most part it's always because these versions of English translations fail my test passages in serious ways - this is a quote from my syllabi:
[Note: The REB, CEB, GNT, KJV/New KJV, and NIV/New NIV versions are NOT adequate translations for the study of Scripture or early Christianity.]
I'd be happy to hear if anyone wants to try to change my mind on any of these, but note that I do not allow (and am constantly fighting against) the ever-popular NIV (which I call the Not Inspired Version).
Next up, I'll re-post a couple of my older videos on this topic...
Here's Matt Walsh's take on it - he says what I'm thinking...
if you watch this, I'd love to hear your thoughts
So here are the verses I look at to check whether a Bible translation is a good one:
These are mostly in the NT, but with regard to the OT, I don't want a Bible to minimize the phrase "Son of Man" so for me a Bible cannot render "son of man" or even "one like a son of man" in Daniel 7:13 as something like "human being" - that's a paraphrase and while it may convey the correct meaning for SOME OT passages, it does not convey the correct meaning for all of them, and you lose the connection to Jesus' own self-identification as the Son of Man in the NT, especially in Matthew 16:13-15.
Matthew 6:7 - better not say "vain repetition" or imply that repeated prayers are bad - Jesus was criticizing going on and on extemporaneously, not memorized prayers. The word "vain" is nowhere in the Greek!
1 Cor 11:2, and 2 Thess 2:15, 3:6 - better not render the word "teachings" just to avoid the positive connotation for tradition(s), especially if Col 2:8, which has a negative connotation (human traditions) is...
