Saturday, July, 31, 2010

Weekly Meanderings

Posted at: 6:00 am

Here’s some (or, rather, a lot of) stuff I came across this week…

1. Worship: I start as a blank screen
2. When the Secular is Sacred (or, Why you should listen to Mumford and Sons)
3. Carlos Whittaker’s tattoo
4. A review of Andrew Peterson’s album “Counting Stars”
5. Anne Rice announces she is quitting Christianity
6. The most important part of your story: when you’re about to quit
7. Suggestions for books about the Church
8. C.S. Lewis and spiritual formation
9. A recap of the Echo 2010 conference
10. Why are Christians so bad at dying?
11. A typology of Christian approaches to homosexuality
12. Doubt, family, and friends: part 1, and part 2
13. The Wesleyan Quadrilateral: Reason
14. Defining ID
15. Mike Ham refuses to (1) “move on” from the evolution-creation debate; (2) Rachel Held Evans responds
16. Bill Mounce comments on the Committee on Bible Translation
17. Thoughts and questions about Pauline authorship
18. What are a pastor’s post-preaching logistical options?
19. Should gulf coast churches apply for BP payouts?
20. A review of “Omensetter’s Luck”
21. A review of “The Book of Questions”
22. A review of “Missional Small Groups”
23. A review of “Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory”
24. A review of “The Lost World of Genesis One”
25. Time comments on their recent cover showing disfigurement in Afghanistan
26. A tribute to Harper Lee
27. A suggestion for the Chicago Manual of Style: emoticon usage
28. Idea killers
29. Do you ever stop to think?
30. Building stronger, healthier, more effective teams
31. How to be a good neighbor
32. Social Media has (1) bred a new culture of sharing (and (2) a related cartoon)
33. Lessons learned from Randy Elrod’s Twitter suspension
34. Zero percent of Americans would pay for Twitter
35. The problem with aging video game consoles
36. Addictive game of the week

Have a great weekend!

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Saturday, July, 24, 2010

Weekly Meanderings

Posted at: 6:00 am

There are an abnormal number of Qs in this week’s list. Anyway, here’s some stuff I came across this week…

1. Following Christ at a Porn Convention
2. Prayer everywhere
3. On Children: (1) How many kids should we have? (2) The only child myth
4. Grieving a miscarriage
5. The Spirit of God and Discernment
6. Quaker Wisdom by John Greenleaf Whittier
7. Galileo as secularist hero…and Catholic saint
8. Stuff Christians Like: Secretly Being Liberal
9. How could God create through evolution?
10. Sin, Suffering, the Fall, and Evolution
11. Observations about universalism
12. On breaking up with God
13. Quotes about doubt
14. Quit dumbing down the Gospel
15. The Wesleyan Quadrilateral: (1) an introduction, (2) Tradition
16. Using social media in ministry
17. Church Marketing Lab: creating logos and fliers
18. The Church and the 20th anniversary of the ADA
19. A review of “Mere Churchianity”
20. A review of “The Hole in Our Gospel”
21. A review of “Getting the Reformation Wrong”
22. A review of “The Writing on the Wall”
23. On Words
24. Emily Dickinson in the Bronx
25. What do you do when you break a book
26. Where to find creative content
27. Quirks are not imperfections
28. The algorithm behind the website “I Write Like”
29. Fifty things a man should be able to do (I got 39)
30. Design images from WETA’s Wind in the Willows
31. “Serenity Now” a Seinfeld thriller…

Have a great weekend!

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Saturday, July, 17, 2010

Weekly Meanderings

Posted at: 6:00 am

Here’s some stuff I came across this week…

1. Fifty gifts from our church to the community; no strings attached
2. Powered by angel wings
3. A meditation on evening light
4. What are queries good for?
5. Thoughts on church volunteerism and hierarchy
6. Slavery, Usury, and the evolution of beliefs
7. Why the Church should get out of the business of civil marriages
8. What are the theological costs of a young/old earth?
9. The miracles of creation
10. CS Lewis explains how to study the Middle Ages
11. The best 10 hymns of all time? (I think not)
12. Anna Broadway on doubt and marriage
13. Showing too much grace
14. In praise of Christopher Hitchens
15. On statements of faith
16. What does a preacher look like?
17. A review of “Jesus Died for This?”
18. A review of “Mere Churchianity”
19. A review of “Hipster Christianity”
20. A review of “God is Not One”
21. Jesus on 153 pieces of toast
22. Is there a cultural decline in creativity?
23. What is creativity?
24. A little background on “I Write Like”
25. How to protect your intellectual property online
26. What caffeine actually does to your brain
27. Nine things to know before you turn 30 (that’s Wednesday for me)
28. Who are your trusted advisors?
29. The return of jousting as popular sport
30. Can you solve Einstein’s Intelligence Quiz?
31. Super Mario projected on a wall as a continuous journey

Have a great weekend!

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Saturday, July, 10, 2010

Weekly Meanderings

Posted at: 6:00 am

I take a moment every six months or so to remind anyone reading that the meanderings are things I came across which I believe add to the conversation about life, faith, Christ, and art. I do not necessarily endorse anything I link to. With that said, here’s some stuff I came across this week…

1. The preciousness of time
2. Letters from a devastated artist
3. Why real conversation requires risk
4. Tattoos and church jobs
5. What do atheists think of Christians?
6. Text suggestions requested for teaching a “Feminist Theologies” course
7. Two (1) responses to Dr. Mohler’s views (2) on Genesis 1
8. Thoughts on Sodom
9. Stuff Christians Like: a worship song Mad Lib
10. The (1) intro to last weeks Flatfoot 56 show…and (2) a part of the show
11. Best of Cornerstone 2010 compilation video
12. Concert sales sag
13. “The Largest Backyard Fireworks Display in the Country”
14. A treasure trove of 4th of July orations
15. Top ten things not to say to sullen 59-year-old men
16. To end? To begin? Or to be in the middle?
17. How to become a better writer
18. How the pursuit of goals operates outside of conscious awareness
19. Short film of the week: Abuela Grillo

Have a great weekend!

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Sunday, July, 4, 2010

Weekly Meanderings

Posted at: 5:24 pm

The meanderings are a little late this weekend as I spent all last week at the Cornerstone music festival. See if you can find me in this photo  from the Flatfoot 56 show (the theme at the show was “Shark Week”). I’ll be posting on the festival sometime; until then, here’s some stuff I came across this week…

1. None of us are leading Biblical lives
2. Is it unbiblical for moms to work outside the home?
3. Motherhood: a blog fight, a culture war, and grace
4. Where are the female Christian communicators?
5. Broken by the church
6. Feeling judged by the Church
7. Reconciliation personified
8. Having fun in Church
9. Hanna-Barbera theology
10. Stuff Christians Like: the “everyone is on vacation” church service
11. Why Christians are jerks online
12. Be careful what you worship on July 4th
13. Shane Claiborne on Interdependence
14. How to build new habits
15. Ron Rosenbaum on the New Agnostics
16. A review of (1) “Evolving in Monkey Town” and (2) another review
17. The Christian Hipster bookshelf (how many have you read?)
18. Top 10 books of the first half of 2010
19. Study finds people read more slowly on e-readers
20. Top 20 songs of the first half of 2010
21. BeliefNet sold to (1) BN Media and (2) further information
22. Thoughts on penalty kicks

Have a great week!

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Saturday, June, 26, 2010

Weekly Meanderings

Posted at: 6:00 am

Here’s some stuff I came across this week…

1. Writing a personal theology statement
2. The faith of Roger Ebert
3. The faith of the Ghanese football team
4. Religion as baggage, or, why it’s impossible to discuss theology with believers
5. You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do
6. Canceling church to do ministry
7. An interview with Anne Jackson (free download)
8. Various reviews (1) of Ted Haggard’s new church (2)
9. A review of “Evolving in Monkey Town”
10. A review of Christopher Hitchens’ memoir “Hitch-22”
11. A review of “The Lost World of Genesis One”
12. A translated excerpt from “To the End of the Land”
13. Craigslist and human trafficking
14. The end of men?
15. Mommies and swimsuits
16. Art requires discipline
17. The sixth love language…mix-tapes
18. Peter Jackson may direct The Hobbit after all
19. Stuff Christians Like: not using Snopes or Google before forwarding

Have a great weekend!

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Sunday, June, 20, 2010

Weekly Meanderings

Posted at: 8:53 pm

I’m a little late in posting; I was in the local community theater production of “My Fair Lady” and our performances were this weekend. Anyway, here’s some stuff I came across last week…

1. Thoughts on evangelical mysticism (Dr. Armstrong needs to hang out with more Quakers)
2. Is the Bible your precarious, presumptuous replacement of the Spirit (pneuma) poured out at Pentecost?
3. Anne Jackson on porn addiction
4. Thoughts on VBS
5. Translating Galatians 2:21 – Christ died “for nothing” or “as a free gift”
6. Facebook for churches (part 1 of 5)
7. Thirteen things learned at the BioLogos Conference
8. Adam and Eve: literal or literary
9. Thomas Nelson acquired by a private equity firm
10. A review of “Churched”
11. A review of “Medieval Trinitarian Thought from Aquinas to Ockham”
12. Creeped out by guardian angels
13. How to survive a Christian bookstore: find your happy place
14. Seven suggestions to be an effective mentor
15. Would you be more effective with a “5 Hour Workday”?
16. Contrariwise: literary tattoos
17. It’s not too late to make your summer bucket list
18. Toy Story 3 gets a negative review

Have a great week!

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Saturday, June, 12, 2010

Weekly Meanderings

Posted at: 3:28 pm

Here’s some stuff I came across this week…

1. Being the aroma of Christ
2. How to react when you are wronged
3. Ira Glass on wrongness
4. An NPR interview with Ted Haggard
5. A blog post on Ted Haggard to which Ted Haggard actually left a comment
6. Is “the Devil” responsible for our sin?
7. Readings on God and Evil
8. How do we define Biblical words?
9. Does the Bible support the idea of Biblical inerrancy?
10. The Bible for smart-alecks (WARNING: potentially offensive)
11. Senseless Art? The struggle…
12. How bad habits create boring stories
13. Start. Work. Finish…avoiding procrastination
14. The importance of margin
15. A review of “Making Ideas Happen”
16. A review of “I Am Hutterite”
17. Psychoanalyzing fictional characters
18. An interview with singer-songwriter Sarah Tracey
19. Xenophobia at a police auction in Dayton, TN
20. World Cup simulated odds
21. Liquid mountaineering – how to literally walk on water (YouTube)
22. Movie of the week: “Hoppity Goes to Town” (YouTube)

Have a great Weekend!

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Saturday, June, 5, 2010

Weekly Meanderings

Posted at: 11:19 am

Here’s some stuff I came across this week…

1. Join those praying for women and children being trafficked during the World Cup
2. Are humans inherently good or bad?
3. Spencer Burke interviews Brian McLaren on Pluralism
4. Is it bad to be a stumbling block?
5. How does your view of God affect your religious practices?
6. Have you had these “religious experiences”?
7. Shifting clouds: a narrative
8. God is present and immanent and involved
9. A demon puppet leading the sinner’s prayer
10. Preaching and Speech Act Theory
11. How to refine your ideas
12. “Ideas are worthless. Execution is everything.”
13. The hidden cost of social networking
14. Why beliefnet sucks…
15. The first in a series of posts reviewing “The Seven Pillars of Creation”
16. A review of “After You Believe”
17. A look at the autobiography and biography of Andre Agassi
18. A summer reading list
19. Librarians cover Lady Gaga
20. What it takes to become a master writer
21. Guillermo Del Toro leaves “The Hobbit”
22. Minnesota students turn observatory into R2-D2

Have a great weekend!

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Saturday, May, 29, 2010

Weekly Meanderings

Posted at: 3:04 pm

Here’s some stuff I came across this week…

1. Preachers who are not Believers
2. When having an “only child” is not a choice
3. Mutual submission and Ephesians 5:22
4. The problem of narrating a fall
5. Is free-will anti-science?
6. Lost, Tolkien, and the creation of mythology
7. Lost: the death of American individualism
8. More thoughts on Lost
9. Cultural re-entry
10. How millennial are you? (I scored an 84)
11. Sit-Com idea #678: three men, who each believe they’re Jesus, share an apartment
12. A review of “After You Believe”
13. Summer reading list
14. Mark Twain’s autobiography to be published in November
15. One drawing for every page of Moby Dick
16. Should the 17th Amendment be repealed?
17. Bill Nye explains “Top Kill”
18. Google Pac-Man costs $120mm in lost productivity

Have a great Memorial Day weekend.

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Saturday, May, 22, 2010

Weekly Meandering

Posted at: 6:00 am

Here’s some stuff I came across this week…

1. I cannot make anyone love Jesus
2. The gospel according to…
3. The artist’s dance
4. The gift of rejection
5. A review of “Introverts in the Church”
6. A review of “In Praise of Slowness”
7. Speed praying or why I am a Quaker
8. Biblical languages as spiritual discipline
9. Karl Barth and Korean theology
10. A sermon at the funeral of a Christian’s suicide
11. Random thoughts on the emergent church
12. John Acuff’s post on CNN.com
13. A pastoral response to Glenn Beck
14. How to be a more energetic leader
15. Why are there so few female Christian pop artists
16. Some thoughts on Dissociative Identity Disorder
17. High school duo makes animatronic dragon in parent’s garage

Have a great weekend!

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Saturday, May, 15, 2010

Weekly Meanderings

Posted at: 6:00 am

Here’s some stuff I came across this week…

1. Art as spiritual discipline
2. Twenty ways to become more creatively effective
3. “Sunday’s Coming” movie trailer (WARNING: This is satire)
4. The 25 most influential preachers of the last 25 years
5. How does God gift women?
6. The Prayer of Jael
7. Who benefits from forgiveness?
8. Top 10 pieces of marriage advice
9. What is your work style?
10. Kristin Chenoweth comments on Newseek’s “horrendously homophobic” review
11. “The Role of Governmental Motive in First Amendment Doctrine” by Elena Kagan
12. Pulp Fiction chronology and character map

Have a great weekend!

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Saturday, May, 8, 2010

Weekly Meanderings

Posted at: 2:13 pm

Here’s some stuff I came across this week…

1. Mother’s Day or Motherhood Day?
2. Creative moms
3. Christian thoughts on birth control as the pill turns 50
4. Comparing financials of churches and charities
5. Churches for church leaders
6. The big idea of big idea preaching
7. Words can kill…teachers, watch what you say
8. Ingredients for creativity in preaching
9. Bill Murray reads poetry to construction workers

Have a great weekend!

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Saturday, May, 1, 2010

Weekly Meanderings

Posted at: 6:00 am

Here’s some stuff I came across this week…

1. Does God have a specific plan for your life?
2. NT Wright retiring
3. Four styles of preaching
4. Young pastors and graphic novels (comic books)
5. The Lord’s Prayer in Elvish (Quenya to be specific)
6. A Prayer: In Our Faithlessness
7. A review of “O Me of Little Faith”
8. A review of “No Stones: Women Redeemed from Sexual Addiction”
9. A review of “An Altar in the World”
10. Writing a storyline instead of a mission statement
11. Q&A with a sports economist

Have a great weekend!

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Saturday, April, 24, 2010

Weekly Meanderings

Posted at: 2:11 pm

Here’s some stuff I came across this week (and the week before)…

1. What’s your way to worship?
2. Asking people to leave church
3. Ten ways for a church to love its neighbors
4. AFA director promotes the deportation of all Muslims from the US
5. Is the “black church” dead?
6. Peggy Noonan: How to Save the Catholic Church
7. A review of “If the Church Were Christian”
8. Why we dye Easter eggs
9. Top 5 books on “Desert Spirituality”
10. Capturing beauty (in imperfection)
11. Thoughts on sermons: (1) Silence, (2) eye-contact
12. Are people basically good?
13. What about Total Depravity if there was no historical Adam and Eve
14. All One in Christ: Wrightians and the Neo-Reformed
15. Does our personality influence our theological leanings?…and a response
16. MP3s of the 2010 Wheaton Theology Conference
17. Non-quote takeaways from a Christian conference
18. In 2010: what is emerging?
19. An interview with the author of “Stuff Christians Like”
20. Thoughts on (1) blogging/social media and (2) texting in church
21. Why Millennials are so judgmental about promiscuity
22. Gender and racial bias in adoption, or, where did the white girls go?
23. Jennifer Knapp says she is gay
24. Women’s basketball and sexuality
25. Hitler “Downfall” parodies get pulled by YouTube
26. A review of “How to Train Your Dragon”
27. Plastic surgery for dead presidents

Have a great weekend!

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Saturday, April, 10, 2010

Weekly Meanderings

Posted at: 6:00 am

Here’s some stuff I came across this week…

1. The sex café: human trafficking in Moldova
2. Rob Bell – “Resurrection”
3. An Easter sermon by NT Wright
4. Christopher Hitchens lays down some good theology
5. Donald Miller speaks on “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years”
6. Elizabeth Gilbert: are you afraid of your creativity? (YouTube)
7. Living a 98% accountable life
8. Selecting a passage to preach
9. Exegesis of Titus 1:6 – are elders’ children “believers” or “faithful”
10. Michael Spencer passes away; iMonk remembered
11. Bruce Waltke dismissed from RTS for endorsing evolution; reactions
12. John Piper invites Rick Warren to his conference, causing a kerfuffle
13. Six things Chris Armstrong learned while researching contemporary fundamentalism
14. Can cosmetic surgery be to the glory of God?
15. A review of “Love is an Orientation”
16. A review of “Imperfect Birds”
17. E-book giveaways correlate to higher print sales
18. Five steps to social media success for nonprofits
19. The downside of momentum
20. Time lapse video of world air traffic
21. How “Clash of the Titans” became a completely different movie
22. Top 10 re-cut movie trailers
23. Short film of the week: “Pixels”

Have a great weekend!

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Saturday, April, 3, 2010

Weekly Meanderings

Posted at: 6:00 am

Here’s some stuff I came across this week…

1. Crucifixion, chaos and sleep
2. Pete Enns on Paul’s Adam
3. Converting from Evangelicalism to Orthodox Judaism
4. John Piper addresses his upcoming leave of absence
5. Thoughts on John Piper’s leave of absence
6. Denominational map of the United States
7. Theology journals to follow
8. The tragedy of a 15 year old’s abortion
9. “Splice”…’a quasi-serious exploration into the implications of playing God.’
10. Stephen King’s upcoming baseball novella

Have a great weekend!

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Saturday, March, 27, 2010

Weekly Meanderings

Posted at: 6:00 am

Here’s some stuff I came across this week…

1. Discerning Christ in indigenous culture
2. I did not expect (1)so many Christians to be (2)so vitriolic about (3)health care reform
3. A good post on health care reform
4. Why the delay (till 2014) in implementing health care reform provisions?
5. Apparently the old economic chestnut about guns and butter came from the Nazis
6. Christian colleges and mixed gender housing
7. Kevin Smith to parody Fred Phelps in “Red State”
8. Artists let others wrestle
9. First Things: Tournament of Novels bracket (some of the matchups are brutal)
10. Seven books that will make you a better writer
11. Can the same word used in the same passage mean different things
12. (1)To tweet, or (2)not to tweet?
13. Jesus’ Facebook page

Have a great weekend!

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Saturday, March, 20, 2010

Weekly Meanderings

Posted at: 6:00 am

Here’s some stuff I came across this week…

1. Anne Jackson: Can girls get hooked on porn, too? (audio)
2. Does the Church treat women as “temptresses”?
3. “Jesus Christ is an infuriating person.” – the exclusivity of Christ
4, An intro to textual criticism, or “where did John 5:4 go?”
5. Help people trust their Bibles, or explaining textual criticism in the church
6. A sermon needs unity, order, and progress
7. Why are evangelicals inattentive to early Christian voices?
8. Does the artist affect the art?
9. My ESPN bracket…I’m kinda proud of it.
10. Why changing our clocks is a stupid ritual/tradition/sham

Have a great weekend!

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Saturday, March, 13, 2010

Weekly Meanderings

Posted at: 6:00 am

Here’s some stuff I came across this week…

1. Things do not have to be easy for me to feel accomplished in my faith
2. Atheism’s role in Christian thinking
3. Six questions for an atheist in an evangelical church
4. Pastoral friends
5. How Facebook killed the church
6. Is your church Glenn Beck approved?
7. A review of “The Three Amigos and Their Three Dantes” (Lewis, Williams, and Sayers)
8. SXSW started…next year Jen and I are going (she doesn’t know that yet)
9. The kids at PS22 cover Coldplay
10. Water consumption in Edmonton during the Olympic Men’s Hockey final
11. Tron Legacy official trailer (YouTube)

Have a great weekend!

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