driving in the snow

Good Reads

• Greg Peters questions the practice of going “on retreat” to get spiritually renewed: “What if local churches became the real centers of spiritual renewal in the life of the evangelical church? What if retreats were unnecessary because the local church met its member’s spiritual needs by way of daily or, at least, near-daily worship services?”

• Money Matters: Do I Have to Give? Tim Challis is writing an interesting series answering the questions Do I have to give?, How am I to give?, Where am I to give?, and How much should I give?

• Jesus Ripped Up Santa’s List: “we like the list. We like the neat and tidy categories that the list offers and the obvious ramifications of our behavior.”

• Churchill for Pastors: 5 Leadership Lessons: “Pastors can identify with the ups and downs of Churchill’s career. His quips inspire them. And his triumphs and tragedies can even teach us a thing or two (or five) about leadership.”

Other Info

• Deals of the Day: Tim Challies lists a number of good Kindle deals. And Credo is giving away some great books from Baker.

• A Brief History of the Apocalypse offers a fascinating timeline of predictions about the end of the world.

• If you’re getting tired of fantasy football or fantasy baseball, try Fantasy Curling.

• For a little self-reflection, try What Your Favorite ’80s Band Says About You.

 Just for Fun     

• The Stories Behind 10 Dr. Seuss Stories

gotta love Arrested Development

Good Reads

• Gospel Centrality: A Warning and Recommendation: ”Evangelicals are deeply essentialist. For a variety of historically conditioned reasons, we like to boil things down to their road-ready minimum and get on with life. As I’ve often heard it said, we tend to have two speeds, essential and unimportant.”

• Getting Inerrancy Wrong: “Sadly, though, it is becoming increasingly clear (again) that even some of those who believe in the inerrancy of Scripture have different interpretations of what inerrancy means.”

• Is There Hierarchy in the Trinity? Roger Olson weighs in on a contemporary debate. (Also check out part 2 of the series.)

• The Pen Is Mightier than the Phone: A Case for Writing Things Out: “Writing things down, with your actual hands, is just plain better at getting you to remember and execute good ideas. Here’s why.”

Other Info

• Deal of the Day: Aaron Armstrong is giving away a plethora of books. Seriously, go check it out. He’s got a great package of books to give away to three different winners.

• All of Church History in 5 Hours: Michael Patton has posted the mp3 files, handouts, and power points for a 5-hour overview of church history. Somebody check this out and let us know how they are.

• America’s View of Southern Baptists Studied: “The majority of Americans have a favorable impression of Southern Baptists, according to a recent LifeWay Research study. However, 40 percent of respondents have an unfavorable view of the denomination; more than a third strongly assume an SBC church is not for them; and the negativity is higher among the unchurched.”

 Just for Fun     

• Loved this “diary” from a day in the life of a cat and a dog. From the cat: “I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released, and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded. The bird must be an informant. I observe him communicate with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe. For now.”

Good Reads

• Don’t Strive to Be a Great Preacher: a wise warning to younger preachers on the dangers of wanting to be known as a great preacher.

•  Living Like Jesus Is the Only Way: Tom Schreiner offers some good advice on how the exclusivity of Christ should impact our scholarship.

• Honor Your Head. Don’t Live in it: “Protestantism allows me to stay in the Comfortable Place—my head; a refuge, a rock, an ever-present help in time of trouble.”

• The Occupy Movement is still getting a lot of attention in the theological world. Check out recent comments from Tony Perkins, Scot McKnight, Brian LePort, Voddie Baucham, and Rowan Williams.

Other Info

• Ten Things Everyone Should Know about Time is worth taking a look at.

• 10 Genre-Bending Sci-Fi Films

• It’s not possible to “under”rate to many Disney films. But this list was still interesting: Obscure and Underrated Disney Films

• And, if you need some motivation to use the Christmas holiday to get some reading done, here are 40 Inspiring Quotes about Reading from Writers

 Just for Fun     

• 12 Extremely Disappointing Facts about Popular Music (via Esteban)

Good Reads

• What Would Francis Schaeffer Say to the Gospel-Centered Movement? Trevin Wax offers good counsel to “movements” everywhere.

• What should you do with your PhD? Consider teaching overseas: Getting PhDs into the Mission Field.

• Tim Tebow Uses Words at all Times Because They’re Necessary: a good reminder that evangelism and words are inseparable.

• From Time magazine: A Brief History of Advent.

Other Info

• Deals of the Day: Credo is giving away a copy of Michael Horton’s The Christian Faith. And Christians in Context is doing a huge giveaway all through advent (here’s today’s giveaway).

• Here’s an interesting history of the snow globe: “How a shiny and shakable souvenir went snow global.”

• A new study shows what people look at on your Facebook page.

• If life is getting a little too serious, here’s a list of 30 Very Funny Books–Seriously.

 Just for Fun     

• And, here 9 Facts You Might Not Know about Portland, OR.

Good Reads

• How to Shrink Your Church. Some powerful thoughts on how sentimentalism and pragmatism are destroying the church:  ”The church’s job is not to grow — not even to survive. The church’s job is to die — continually — on behalf of the world, believing that with every death there is a resurrection. God’s part is to grow whatever God wishes to grow. Growing a church isn’t hard … being faithful as the church, that’s a different story.”

• Why We Need More ‘Chaplains” and Fewer Leaders: “So who told us that the pastor is primarily a leader/entrepreneur/change agent and anything but a curer of souls? And why do we believe them?”

• Did Youth Ministry Create the Emerging Church?: “I think he’s on to something important here–namely that ecclesiology is taught (explicitly but primarily implicitly) well before adulthood.”

• Why I’m Okay with Church Failure. Good thoughts from Mary DeMuth critiquing the commonly accepted formula: “the simple formula is this: God leads + We obey = Outward success.”

Other Info

•  Deals of the Day: John Byron is giving away books by Ben Witherington, David DeSilva, and N.T. Wright.

• TV Ownership Drops for the First Time in Nielsen History.

• 5 Inaccurate “Historical” Stories That Ended up in Historical Books

• Here’s a Twitter account that will post a Bible verse every day for 86 years.

 Just for Fun     

• And, here are The 5 Best Toys of All Time

• Word Made Flesh, Will Willimon: “This is the story we Christians name as “Incarnation.” It is a strange, inexplicable story that we happen to believe is true, the story that explains everything, the key to what’s going on between us and God. It is the story that we encounter each year at Advent, that season of reflection and penitence before Christmas.”

• Here’s an interesting list of Expositional Preachers Worth a Careful Listen. On a similar note, CNN has a great piece on Fred Craddock, the man who “tilted the preaching world ‘on its axis’.”

• Here’s a conversation with Seth Godin on “the future of books, publishing and blogging.”

• The Sex Addiction Epidemic: Newsweek takes an interesting look at an important problem.

Other Info

• Joel Osteen might get his own reality TV show.

• Ed Stetzer summarizes some interesting new research on megachurches.. And 91% of church will be open on Christmas day this year.

• In honor of Mark Twain’s birthday, here are 10 Things Mark Twain Didn’t Really Say.

• Improv Everywhere stages a surprise Santa musical in the mall.

Good Reads

• The First Christmas: Myths and Realities. Is there another Bible story that we talk so much about and yet still get so much wrong?

• Our Secret African Heritage: How we can remember our big family history.

• Even Jesus Was Tempted, reflections from Charles Spurgeon.

• Misinterpreting Jesus for the Sake of the Gospel - Andrew Perriman questions whether we should really read the Prodigal Son evangelistically.

Other Info

• According to a new survey we now spend more time online than in bed.

• For a little lighter reading, check out the 11 Best Picture Books of 2011.

• Here are the 13 Most Important Numbers in the Universe.

 Just for Fun     

• And, in the Christmas movie we’ve all been waiting for, here is Darth Vader as the Grinch.

Good Reads

• Thanking the Puritans on Thanksgiving. Peter Lawler draws on Tocqeville to argue that America needs to embrace its Puritan roots with gratitude.

• John Mark Reynolds tries to redeem Black Friday.

• Can Heretics Be Saved? Or “Aren’t We All Heretics”? (You might also want to check out my series on “What Is Heresy?”)

• The Urgent Need for Biblical Literacy.

Other Info

• Deal(s) of the Day: Tim Challies has a long list of Black Friday & Cyber Monday deals of particular interest to Christians.

• From LIFE magazine, here are the 75 best covers and the 20 worst.

• Here are the Top 10 Most Dangerous Countries for Christians.

• Despite a deceptive and robust marketing campaign run by the world’d cats, new evidence demonstrate that dogs actually rule the internet.

 Just for Fun     

• And here are 15 Songs that You Always Knew, But Never Knew the Names Of

via 22 Words

Good Reads

• Carl Trueman offers some advice on preaching texts you do not understand.

• Is the megachurch bubble about to burst?

• Dead Means…What? Derek Ouellette argues that the Arminian/Calvinism debate is driven at least partly by the fact that both misunderstand the meaning of “dead” in the Bible.

• The Bible, Gender, and ‘Dad-Mom’ Debate Continues. Owen Strachan and Laura Ortberg continue the debate with a couple of interesting posts.

• The Hipsterfication of America, an interesting piece from NPR on hipster culture and its influence.

Other Info

• Deal of the Day: Credo is giving away a copy of Gregg Allison’s Historical Theology: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine.

• The Seven Deadly Websites humorously illustrates the seven deadly sins with the logos of famous internet companies.

• The Richest, Fattest Nation in the World (It’s Not the United States

• The Science of Sarcasm: according to the Smithsonian, sarcasm may actually be good for our brains.

 Just for Fun     

• And here’s a beautiful time-lapse video of Portland, OR..

I survived the conferences and left rainy San Francisco for rainy Portland. I’ll continue posting summaries of some of the more interesting papers. But in the meantime, have fun with some links.

Good Reads

• What the Devil? According to the Washington Post, belief in the Devil is on the rise.

• The Confidence of the Evangelical. Mark Galli takes a look at the “longing for authority” that leads many evangelicals to find Catholicism attractive.

• Michael Patton wants to know Why Do We Love C.S. Lewis and Hate Rob Bell?

• WSJ looks at How an Image Becomes an Icon. (HT Trevin Wax)

Other Info

• Here’s a fun quiz to find your philosophy guru. (I ended up with Aristotle.)

• The Internet Kills Productivity. Isn’t it a little counterproductive to publish an article on the internet about how the internet kills productivity?

• 9 Astonishing Facts about Amazon (infographic)

 Just for Fun     

• And here are 11 Sounds That Your Kids Have Probably Never Heard.