{"id":337,"date":"2007-08-06T11:01:17","date_gmt":"2007-08-06T11:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jazztheologian\/2007\/08\/life-in-concert.html"},"modified":"2007-08-06T11:01:17","modified_gmt":"2007-08-06T11:01:17","slug":"life-in-concert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2007\/08\/life-in-concert.html","title":{"rendered":"Life in Concert–An Atheist’s Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Soulonebay\"<\/a>Hemant Mehta, an atheist, sold his soul on Ebay!  Hence the title of his new book, "I Sold My Soul on eBay:  Viewing Faith Through an Atheist’s Eyes<\/em>."<\/p>\n

He is known as The Friendly Atheist and you can read and interact with him at his blog (click here)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His book is a quick and "friendly" read.  He auctioned himself on ebay to the highest bidder who would then have the option of making him go to church wherever they wanted.  Jim Henderson (www.off-the-map.com<\/a>), a man with a ministry to help churches be better churches, purchased his time for $504.  He in turn asked Hemant to visit a number of churches and write about his experiences.<\/p>\n

It really is a fun read on church-land from an outsiders perspective.  He gives his takes on churches of all sizes (including some that are rather well known) and what he thinks of the preaching, music, announcemts etc.<\/p>\n

No, he didn’t convert, but he does offer advice on how to reach out to people without faith.  I thought the following quote was interesting given the current conversation on this blog.<\/p>\n

\n

Martin Luther King Jr. is said to have oberved that eleven o’clock sunday morning was the most segregated hour in America.  Based on the research I did for this book, I would say that still holds true.  With very few exceptions, the churches I visited were either black congregations or white ones…You want to reach people like me?  Then show me the churches where…I can see a rainbow of people in the crowd instead of a sea of whiteness or, in another neighborhood, a sea of blackness…I’d love to see Christian faith leading to an openness and equality, respect for people no matter their gender or skin color or language or culture.  Think about this:  atheist gateherings are often a mixture of everyone in society…Does it surprise you that secular people are leading the way in accepting others, no matter their individual differences?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Colorado Community Church…thank you for getting IT!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hemant Mehta, an atheist, sold his soul on Ebay!  Hence the title of his new book, "I Sold My Soul on eBay:  Viewing Faith Through an Atheist’s Eyes." He is known as The Friendly Atheist and you can read and interact with him at his blog (click here). His book is a quick and "friendly"…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc"],"yoast_head":"\nLife in Concert-An Atheist's Perspective - The Jazz Theologian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2007\/08\/life-in-concert.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Life in Concert-An Atheist's Perspective - The Jazz Theologian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hemant Mehta, an atheist, sold his soul on Ebay!  Hence the title of his new book, "I Sold My Soul on eBay:  Viewing Faith Through an Atheist’s Eyes." 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Author of Finding the Groove: Composing a Jazz-Shaped Faith (Zondervan) and the upcoming, Strange Fruit: The Cross as a Way of Life (2011). Founder of Project 127, a ministry dedicated to seeing the day when there are no children waiting for homes in Colorado's foster care system. Robert deeply desires to see the body of Christ mobilized to serve the least of these. The poor, the down and out, the disenfranchised and disabled, those deemed unimportant and the unborn. He believes that God loves all people yet he has a special heart for the poor and the poor in spirit, the miserable and the marginalized. A Contributing Editor for Leadership Journal and Urbanfaith.com. He acquired a B.A. in Bibilcal Studies from Colorado Christian University and a Master of Arts in World Christianity (Missiology) from Denver Seminary. Robert is married to the love of his life, Barbara, and they have six energetic children (3 boys & 3 girls--one bio, five adopted--two from Ethiopia). Friend of God...Passionate about the Body of Christ...Lover of this thing called jazz! Please visit Jazztheologian.com for contact info., speaking schedule, videos, Facebook and Twitter.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/author\/rgelinas"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}