Here are more tasty links from the Mayor of Linkin, Paul Wilkinson.
The Very Best Podcast Guest – Clearly, the Christian blogosphere has generated a number of key personalities and one which has captivated the hearts of both female and male readers is Jamie Wright, also known as The Very Worst Missionary, who has made an online career out of transparency and occasional downright ineptness. In a 50-minute podcast with Jamie Ivey (The Jamies Show?) she shares how the blog happened and provides a glimpse of her two trips with The Exodus Road, an organization rescuing both girls and boys from sex trafficking.
Doing Hard Things – Brett and Alex, the twin younger brothers of Joshua Harris seemed to be following a similar education and career track, but today find themselves in strikingly different circumstances. Brett explains, “If I had spent my teen years running away from responsibly and difficulty, what would I do now?” There is however, a common trait to both of their lives.
Buying Your Church Back – There's a sermon illustration about a little boy who carves a wooden sailboat only to lose it on a local lake. Later, he sees the boat in a pawn shop and is unable to convince the owner that it's his, so he saves the money necessary to purchase it back. The key line occurs at the end where the boy says to the boat, "You're twice mine. First I made you then I bought you." The analogy doesn't fit perfectly, but I think of it when I recall the recent story of John Ortberg's church in California buying its edifice from the Presbyterian PCUSA denomination for $8.9M, and now a church in Texas is paying $7.8M to do the same thing. (I keep wondering what the head office is doing with the windfall?)
Gamers are People, Too – One of the great tenets of author Michael Frost's writings, and of the missional church movement in general is that of recognizing and then embedding oneself in any and all identifiable people groups. This could be ethnic, but could also involve occupations, hobbies or interests. With 190 million Americans spending at least an hour per day online playing video games, Game Church is a niche-ministry to a unique subculture.
Immediate Reactions – It's said that while newspapers have to rush to print stories, magazines have the luxury of taking longer to produce a more measured analysis. Still, I decided to look at the four or five hours immediately following last Friday's announcement about the fracturing of the Mars Hill Church properties to see what was said on blogs, on Facebook and on Twitter. Included are some names you know and some random voices.
Christian Counseling Recipe – It's terrible when you remember the ingredients but aren't sure of the quantities. In Christian counseling, how many parts general psychology to how many parts scripture? And how exactly does scripture flavor the recipe? Jeremy Bouma introduces us to Scripture and Counseling: God's Word for Life in a Broken World by Bob Kellerman and Jeff Forrey with a clarification of the challenge and a short excerpt.
Accreditation Revoked – In Canada, the top Christian news story of last week involved Trinity Western University's (TWU) proposed law school. While originally approved by the law society in its home province of British Columbia, after law societies in Ontario and New Brunswick ruled against approval, the B.C. body decided to revisit and re-vote. "In a binding decision, 74 per cent of lawyers voted against TWU’s program, with 8,039 ballots cast in total – more than 60 per cent of all lawyers eligible to vote." At issue is the feeling that TWU students are under a moral covenant that could lead to discrimination.
Faith on the High Wire – I didn't watch. I was even tense following on Twitter. Still, on Sunday night Nik Wallenda did another nerve-crunching high wire walk between two downtown towers in 'The Windy City.' At every opportunity he credits the power of faith, as with this Fox News interview.
Gonna Take a Sentimental Journey – In the 2013 book Homespun Gospel, Todd M. Brenneman argued that, "In popular evangelical literature, God is loving and friendly, described in heartfelt, often saccharine language that evokes nostalgia, comfortable domesticity, and familial love." More recently, Julia and Aimee respond to the idea of feelings-based faith.
Nepotism Department – My wife wrote and recorded this. (It's actually a pretty decent Christmas song, but maybe I'm biased!)
Paul Wilkinson blogs daily at Thinking Out Loud.
