Radiate: Tristan Mason’s blog

Well, this is what I spent most of today doing. Our church’s theme for 2005 is “Faith Forward,” so I’ve been working on creating a banner, a bulletin cover, etc. to go along with the theme. Here’s the bulletin cover; just click on the picture to see a larger version. We’re not positive that we’re using this one yet, but so far it’s what we like the most. “Faith forward” is the idea of God-reliant forward motion in our spiritual lives—continuing the journey of growing to maturity in Christ. More to come later about the last few days…

Recently read: Unceasing Worship by Harold Best

^. Currently listening: Chariot by Gavin DeGraw (thanks to Brandon)

Unceasing Worship is a worthwhile read, my friends. I enjoy Harold Best’s writing for two reasons: 1) He actually has something to say, and 2) he says it well. Essentially, his book is a theology of continous worship—biblical and practical underpinnings for the notion that everyone is already worshiping someone or something. Best contends that we should retire our question “Am I worshiping?” and replace it with a different question: “Who am I worshiping at this moment?” Sin, then, is misdirected worship—idolatry—whereby we cease worshiping God and start worshiping something or someone else. I have heard the concern raised before that by emphasizing the continuity of worship in an individual’s life, we deemphasize the importance and uniqueness of corporate worship (why should I go to church if I can and should worship God all the time on my own?). Best answers this objection by spending several chapters toward the end of Part 1 specifically addressing the critical place of corporate worship. Then in Part 2 he focuses on how the arts, creativity and culture relate to worship.

I am quite sure that this explanation does not do justice to the book; if you have read the book and have thoughts to add, please post a comment. As for Best’s writing itself, I’ll just say that he is one of those authors who has such a powerful command of the English language that he can manage to be simultaneously thorough and concise—and that’s difficult. It is a book that requires slow reading because he has carefully chosen each word to convey exactly what he means. You know what I’m talking about if you have ever read a book like that. In any case, it sent some thoughts rolling around in my head (some people would say there’s a good bit of room for them to roll there, but I digress). And you, my lucky(?) guinea pigs, get to read what comes out when it hasn’t steeped in the stew for quite long enough, and I don’t know if even I agree with what I’m saying. My next few posts will likely be composed of these random thoughts (with the occasional break, of course, for a ridiculous story or two). -Tristan

So far probably my favorite part of my job (among the many other things I enjoy): knocking ice off the roof with a light-bulb changer. Apparently there’s some device called a “roof snow rake” that is meant for this very task, but it’s vastly more fun to do it inappropriately. For instance, by means of lobbing other chunks of ice, poking at it with poles, detonating small explosive charges, driving my car up next to the building and cranking up my subwoofers, and so on. Yes, mom, I’ll be careful.