Because I've had a number of instances where I've pointed out some tech thing to friends lately and it's helped them out, I figured I'd post a number of blogs on some of the "lesser known things" that I use on the tech front. Now, nobody could argue that Firefox is lesser known, but it is essential for a number of the other lesser knowns that I'll be talking about later.

So, why Firefox? As I mentioned when the Mac Air came out, I'm one of those people who is diving in headfirst into the whole Web 2.0 (and maybe even Computing 2.0 or 3.0) approach. One example of this is that, the vast majority of my information, is now kept in the cloud, that is, on a remote server that I can access from any web terminal in the world (I'll post on where in the cloud later).

Because the key to my information is no longer my hard drive, but my Internet browser, having a browser that not only performs well but also has the ability to be tweeked for my personal preferences is of utmost importance.

While Firefox is a memory drain and doesn't run as quickly as Safari (although the soon to be released 3.0 edition is supposed to be a huge jump in these categories), the ease at which it can be modified through extensive plug-ins and scripts (I'll share some of these later) makes it my browser of choice.

I recently started reading the book, "Telling God's Story: Narrative Preaching for Christian Formation" and, after a little more than a chapter, it's rocking my world.

The basic premise of the book is that too much of preaching tries to conform Christianity to people's existing worldview. To address this issue, the majority of the book offers a new rhetorical approach for homiletics (aka preaching strategy) that seeks to challenge existing worldviews and replace them with one shaped by the biblical narrative. Here's a great quote:

"American Christianity" ... arose at a time when a fundamental shift occurred within the underlying narrative horizon of the church's life and practice. Whereas the church had historically lived out of the biblical story of God's promise to Abraham and Sarah fulfilled in Jesus and made manifest in the life of the Church, this new narrative placed the individual's movement from sin to salvation to service at its center. As the traditional Christian typology between Israel and the church collapsed, a new type of Israel arose - the modern American nation-state. These two distinct narratives ... have become deeply embedded within the cultural horizons of North America.

So, what does this mean? As an analogy I offer the Firefox web browser and it's collection of plug-ins. In this analogy, the browser functions as the foundational worldview. In the case of America, this includes our love of the autonomous individual, concepts like manifest destiny that drove our early history, and of course consumerism and capitalism.

Now, with Firefox, you customize your web browsing experience by downloading a variety of plug-ins, each of which adds something to the browser, but, in the end, has to work within the browsers limitations. This is essentially what has happened to Christianity in America. Rather than being the browser and having a biblical worldview, we've plugged Christianity into the American experience and forced it to live within that worldviews limitations. To put it crassly, most American Christians are Americans who have Jesus serve as an added perk in their life and, when the Biblical narrative doesn't seem to work within our American worldview, it's Scripture that's expected to give.

To continue the analogy, there are various Christianity plug-ins you can add in. You have the democratic form of governance where every member has an equal say in the workings of the congregation so you have to have boards and voters meetings if you're going to do anything. You also have the Christian nation plug-in that always seems to be downloaded with a fanatic devotion to Israel. If you're more into politics you can grab the Republican plug-in where, until '08, it's all about the issue of abortion, or maybe you're more progressive and want the new Democrat plug-in where you talk about loving poor people.

The fundamental problem with all of these is that Christians are still Americans first and Christians later. The American worldview remains the browser and Jesus a plug-in. The emerging church formed out of a longing to let Christianity be the browser, but it too seems to be going the way of the plug-in. Maybe this book will help me in my longing to form faith communities where Christianity is the browser and America can become the plug-in.