Jim and Casper at Off The Map Live

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Joel is unimpressed with Jim and Casper

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Not Joel Osteen but Joel Klampert, music director, worship leader, marketing and design guy for St. Michael’s Charismatic Episcopal Church in Newport, RI.

Joel gives Jim and Casper go to Church just 2 stars out of 5. Here are his comments about the book

In Jim and Casper Go to church we see a Christian retired pastor and an athiest go from church to church talking about their opinions on it. This book has been getting rave reviews so I bet most of you are surprised Ive got 2 stars on it. As a matter of fact Brent sent me a message asking why. My issues with the book… First off this was suppose to be a completely unbiased approach to rating the churches and it wasn’t. The Christian waled in with his matter of fact beliefs on everything and was not very open to anything that didnt fit into his scope. The athiest wasn’t and unchurched one. He went to one churhc and said that it felt like home because he grew up in a church like that. Basically through the whole book you realize they have it in their heads what church should be like and they are weighing everything against that. Basically it came down to a few things for them. Outreach was key almost to the point that they didnt even think you needed “Church” you just needed a church body. I didn’t agree with most of the theology in the book and a few things took me aback. Casper mentions that the churches sing about the blood too much…and it is kinda freaky. Then Jim ends up agreeing with him. I think he needs to read dangerous act of worship. I was floored by this..we sing about the blood because that is what our faith is all about…We cant leave that out just to make people feel comfortable. Im not going to go into the rest of the book…I think you should read it, but understand it may tick you off.

Joel’s assumption the book was unbiased surprised me. I think someone must have misinformed him about the book because I’ve never heard Jim or Casper claim to be unbiased.

Church gives money back

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I found out about this from friendlychristian.com. Here’s what a church in Charlotte is doing, according to the Charlotte Observer

Elevation Church in south Charlotte — with no home of its own — funded $40,000 worth of kind acts around the city last week.

The church, celebrating services today as always on high school campuses, gave the equivalent of a typical Sunday collection back to its congregation last week.

When pastor Steven Furtick instructed members to pluck from the collection bowls, filled with envelopes containing $5, $10, $20, $50 or $100, some people didn’t believe it. One person at each of the five services even got an envelope with $1,000.

Members looked at Furtick like “What’s the punchline?” he recalled. “Then the creative wheels started turning.”

The money isn’t to keep, Furtick told them. Instead, members were to go out and do something random for someone else.

Get inventive, he said, and tell us about it.

(more…)

Back in the Saddleback!!!

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Wow… returned to Saddleback on Thursday (October 18). Not to sit in the back of the room and discreetly take notes, but to sit on stage and answer questions.

It was–to put it mildly–an honor.

As you may know, Jim and I met with a few folks from Saddleback in September. Well, we had such a lovely time that Clayton Coates–pastor of EPIC at Saddleback (http://www.saddlebackfamily.com/epic/default.asp)–asked if I would mind coming up to speak to his group of about 100. And would I bring Jason, too…

So, Jason (my friend and the pastor whose home church I attended for the book) and I went to Saddleback.

There were more than a few Jim & Casper friends and fans in the house, and I got to talk with many of them face to face, which I always enjoy as so much of how we really communicate is done with our expressions and body language.

We talked about the book (of course), what it means to be an atheist (and what I consider to be the difference between my relatively agenda-less atheism and the “anti-theism” practiced by Hitchens, et al.), and–best of all–how to step outside your belief system and be friends with anyone you choose.

It went swimmingly. And Clayton wants to continue this and have another “Jim & Casper” night soon.

I look forward to it!

Matt Casper

On The Road with Jim and Casper

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By Jim Henderson

Last month, Matt and I had our first road trip since writing Jim & Casper Go to Church.

We flew into Denver Colorado at the invitation of The Refuge, a cutting-edge community of Jesus followers. They set us up with Young Life at Colorado University in Boulder on a Friday night. The room was full. Matt and I were shocked at the turn out and the energy that was in the room.

Next morning, we spoke at Pathways Church in Denver to a group of about 200 bright, young urbanites. We couldn’t figure out why they would show up on a beautiful day at 10:00 in the morning to hear from America’s spiritual odd couple, Jim and Casper.

We wrapped our tour with a tent meeting. The Refuge got bumped from their regular rental spot so they set up a few tent like structures and again it was packed and very energized. Kathy Escobar and Karl Wheeler, co-pastors of The Refuge, are outstanding leaders and a joy to be around. (more…)