By the look of it, this "internet" thing could be really big someday. Here's this week's highlights:
- Christian groups are asking a top rated cable network to call off the series Black Jesus, scheduled to debut a week from tomorrow.
- When an evangelism team blitzes nursing homes, residents know they can't defer the decision for ten years.
- In Canada's French-language province, a church closes every week.
- You thought the comment sections of Christian blogs were heated, but that's nothing compared the writing and rewriting that goes on at Wikipedia pages for Jesus, Christianity, The Catholic Church, etc.
- Worst case scenario: When dissent at a local church, in this case Mars Hill Seattle, appears in mainstream media.
- The members of Protect Portland Children bought a full-page ad in the local alternative weekly to warn parents about Child Evangelism Fellowship's conversion tactics.
- Nine suggestions for pastors entering a new church, or first time pastors. (Sample: #1—"You have only four jobs …")
- Chad Estes reviews Matthew Paul Turner's Our Great Big American God. From the review, "America was the land of opportunity and God needed a fresh start from his messy history in Europe." Now I want to read it, too.
- On Martin Luther: "What can we learn from a man so greatly used of God … yet so prone to the sins that beset us all?" Like all of us, Luther had a dark side.
- As Calvinism becomes a default doctrinal position for many Southern Baptists, sometimes the language gets heated.
- Not sure what to do with their backlot, an Austin, Texas church turned it into a disc golf course (aka Frisbee golf).
- An insider look at a PCUSA church's decision to leave the denomination. (The headline incorrectly says "church split;" the vote was in fact almost unanimous.)
- Most quoted and Tweeted religion article this week: Cindy Brandt on the trend toward irreverence.
- The Children's Church option: Should they stay or should they go. (I've always thought they should let the kids stay and dismiss the seniors downstairs for milk and cookies.)
- Christians, culture, and taste: "We go to the movies and read books with a pre-approved ideology and plot already in mind. It's like going to a get-together hoping to meet only ourselves."
- This article gets four Zs: A Biblical theology of sleep.
- Maybe you didn't get the memo: Holding to a position that was common a few years back may today be considered bigotry.
- Thinking twice before packing up the hymnbooks.
- Ken Ham's outspoken statement on life on other planets, and a time-frame for locating our new friends.
- The new BibleGateway.com site reminds me of my old Logos Bible software. Many available resources, but you have to pay to unlock them.
- That Bible project we mentioned here a few weeks ago went way past its $37K goal. Try $1.44M as in million! And you can still order the 4-volume ASV edition …
- … Michael Hyatt sees this as a significant moment in publishing …
- … also, there might be ways you can use the crowd-funding approach for church projects …
- … and also at Church Tech Today, important rules for preachers to remember if you're using video in other venues.
- Essay of the Week: Zondervan author Nish Weiseth on her generation's exodus from the suburbs.
- No less than Warner Bros. Pictures is behind the making of a movie documenting the rise of the band Hillsong United.
- A newspaper editor who criticized the Queen James Bible in his private blog is appealing the termination of his employment.
- The members of the Amish sect that were imprisoned in 2012 found themselves immersed in a different world while in prison.
- There seems to be no shortage of articles suggesting why people don't sing during the worship times anymore. Either the problem is huge, or churches aren't getting the message.
- Another recurring article theme is the eternal destiny of the unevangelized.
- Just two days to go! CT's own Skye Jethani launches With God, a daily devotional subscription especially for mobile users.
- A Happy Birthday shoutout to the Assemblies of God denomination which turns 100, and the band Jars of Clay, which turns 20.
- Canadian author and retired missionary Eric Wright has released his tenth book, his third foray into suspense and mystery fiction.
- Quotation of the Week: "Minecraft is essentially online Lego with infinite bricks." A look at what players derive from the popular game.
- On my own blog this week, getting over Evangelism-phobia; and when worship leaders should stop singing.
- The movie When God Left the Building continues one-night showings this fall from California to Ohio. (If you haven't yet, watch the trailer and this recently posted excerpt.)
- And the faith-oriented movies keep on coming. The Green Prince is based on Son of Hamas a Tyndale House memoir published in 2010 and releases this fall.
- Finally, creating a welcoming place for visitors.
Remember, every time you share the link list on Twitter or Facebook, an angel gets its wings.
Paul Wilkinson hunts for devotional writing each day at C201, rants at Thinking Out Loud and tweets to a vast army of followers. (They keep leaving the "K" out after the number.)
Posted July 30, 2014
