HT 22 Words

Good Reads

• Multisite, the Poker Tell and the Importance of Presence: nobody in the multi-site world pipes in the music by videolink in the way that is simply assumed as legitimate when it comes to the preacher.  Yet in so doing, it seems to me that such ministries are conceding the importance of presence – of real, physical presence – to the gathering of the church.

• Angry Nerds: Is it me or is there a growing number of theologically conservative preachers, teachers and seminary students who just seem ticked off all of the time?

• Eugene Peterson on the Reading and Writing Life of the Pastor: Good writers are people who pay attention to language, are interested in telling the truth, and are in some ways finding themselves inoculated against the fads of what will sell, what will please. Good literature almost always goes against the grain of the culture: interpreting it, subtly criticizing it, maybe not polemically. Pastors are right in the center of deceit and corruption and bad use of language. We have a commitment to use words accurately and honestly.

• More Congregations Turn to Facebook, Web, High-Tech Outreach: No matter where you live, you can go to church, so to speak, with Christ Fellowship. The McKinney, Texas, congregation is on board with almost every high-tech gambit under heaven.

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Good Reads

• The Gospel is Insufficient: the gospel is not sufficient to ensure the continuation of the gospel.

• Dear Megachurch: This Is Why We Make Fun of You: Without further ado, here are 5 reasons why people and pastors of smaller churches make fun of bigger churches.

• “Ifs” Kill: One of the problems in the current conversation regarding the relationship between law and gospel is that the term “law” is not always used to mean the same thing. This is understandable since in the Bible “law” does not always mean the same thing.

• Giving Thomas His Due:It may simply be a sign of my own dubious discipleship, but I always feel Thomas gets a bad rap.  It’s not like the other disciples leapt eagerly to belief.  Jesus’ appearance grounded their faith.

Other Info

• The 2012 Pullitzer Prizes have been announced

• Here are some of the weirdest tax deductions ever submitted.

• Is Facebook Really Making People More Lonely?

 Just for Fun     

• And, here are The 21 Absolute Worst Things in the World (I asked my youngest daughter, and she confirmed that some of these are truly terrible).

Moses vs. Jesus

Good Reads

• Why Christians Should Read Camus: There is no more representative intellectual figure of the mid-20th century than Albert Camus. In addition to being an influential fiction writer, Camus was at the focal point of the intellectual crosscurrents that swirled about Europe and crossed over to the United States. The underlying principles of those movements remain pervasive in Western culture, and this is part of the relevance of Camus to us today.

• The Tale of the Confused Christian Calendars: While western Christians have completed their celebrations of the Lenten season and Easter, eastern Christians are just gearing up for their own. How did that happen? How did the eastern and western Easters diverge? Curiously, this had something to do with the Roman empire before the advent of Christianity, and much to do with what happened in the empire later on.

• Screen science: The secret of the lines we never forget: A team at Cornell University has created a computer program to break down the formula behind some of cinema’s most enduring lines, from Dirty Harry’s “Do you feel lucky, punk?” to Casablanca’s “Here’s looking at you, kid.”

• ‘When God Talks Back’ to the Evangelical Community: Poll numbers show that more Americans are experiencing God through personal relationships. The Pew Foundation found that nearly a quarter of Americans are what they call “renewalist” Christians, which means they have an interactive sense of God’s presence. Another study cited by Luhrmann found that 26 percent of all Americans say they have been given a direct revelation from God.

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Good Reads

• 5 Lessons I’m Learning in My First Year as a Lead Pastor: As a young pastor, you simply have not lived enough life to know how to respond to the variety of situations you will encounter, whether in the church as a whole or in the lives of your congregants. Moreover, there’s more than a slight chance that you’re stepping into some lingering dysfunction from previous ministries. You are neither smart enough nor experienced enough to handle this. But that’s okay, because you are a minister of the gospel, and the gospel is sufficient.

• Do Academic Papers Matter, or Are They Pointless? We should dial down our rhetoric, though, when it comes to Christian scholarship.  The textual commentary that unearths countless precious insights from Scripture is inestimably valuable.  The monograph (single-topic academic book) that delves into new material in a field can reorient our whole theological paradigm.  The academic paper that drops into an important doctrinal and philosophical conversation can change the way people think and teach and even live.

• Why the Missional Church Isn’t Enough: The missional church in the United States is not missional enough. The local focus of mission is shortsighted. If we only make disciples who make disciples in our cities, thousands of unengaged, un-discipled peoples of the earth will not hear the gospel.

• Reformation of an Evangelical: I began college as a know-it-all Christian. But I learned how to listen to nonbelievers — and learn from them….The important lesson on faith is not “Shut up and sit down.” It is, “Speak up, but do it with respect. And be able to back it up!” Fighting for my faith was a learning process. When I thought I knew it all, I was just a blowhard. But when I listened to my detractors — and respected them — I gained their respect, too.

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