Lent as Ritual: Carving the Story of God into the Grain of our Everyday Lives

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to preach at my church, Atladeana Baptist.  I've been actively involved there leading bible-studies and small-groups for over three years but this is the first chance I've had to preach.  It was a true joy to be able to share with a congregation that has meant so much to my family and I.

I usually draw while I listen to sermons so my wife, Melody, decided to draw me while I spoke.

I think she went a little heavy on the eyelashes.

You can stream the audio here or click the little black arrow to download the mp3.  I talk a bit about my friend Ryan and one of his tattoos.  You kind of need to see it.



Matt Lumpkin - Lent as Ritual - Altadena Baptist Church by mattlumpkin

Ritual Studies Final Paper

Below you will find my final paper for Todd Johnson's Ritual Studies course at Fuller.

Rob Bell is presently suffering a great deal of controversy and meanness over something he felt was important enough to say.  Despite all that, I'm reticent to post this piece of what I recognize is a controversial thesis I've been working on for some time now.

Controversial Thesis:
Basically, I think that what the Church has tended to lump together under the term "syncretism" is actually a wide spectrum of interpretive and integrative moves toward deeply integrating the Christian story into particular personal, social and cultural stories.  These moves may be more or less faithful to the broad sweep of the Christian tradition, the Bible and the story of the Kingdom of God story revealed within it but we'll never know if we squash them before they've had a chance to grow.

In the paper below I attempt to show part of why I think this by looking more closely at how rituals emerge and function.  In my introduction I try to lay out as clearly and broadly as possible what I'm trying to get at.

If you don't like to read on screen, click the link.  You can download a printable PDF from Scribd licensed for Creative Commons sharing for non-commercial use with attribution.
Incubating Fetal Ritual

For more context on this argument in my other work at Fuller see the Scribd Collection below entitled "Re-Narration."

Wolverine Weeps

What you can do with an Akai s20 Sampler

This is a little synth riff recorded and sequenced live on an Akai S-20 sampler I found at a yard sale today. I've never had a proper hardware sampler so this promises to be fantastic fun for $20.

All sounds are from the microkorg except the sine wave that defaults to pad #1 when you start the device. I transposed it down a step or two to match the pitches I was playing with.

Akai-S20 by mattlumpkin

Update: 3-6-11
More you can do with the Akai s20.  Note the clicky mechanical buttons.   They aren't pressure sensitive but you can always tell if you've hit them or not.  :)