Post something amazing online and you could find yourself here next week!
- Taping has begun for The Rob Bell Show to air on OWN, Oprah's network. There's one a week today (5/14) but audience members must make a six hour commitment (and provide a picture of themselves; no kidding!)
- From home-schooled kid to co-director of Moms' Night Out, a director's take on the movie opening just in time for Mother's Day weekend.
- Essay of the Week: Perhaps we've put the church growth/megachurch model on a pedestal when the model we should be idolizing is much smaller communities.
- When the seminar from a featured speaker at a UK spring festival draws less than 100 people, does that say something about his name recognition or churches not prioritizing outreach?
- "Let's give the Lord a clap offering" is the latest phrase under the microscope at Dictionary of Christianese.
- HarperCollins Christian Publishing group will now include Olive Tree, a Bible software app that's probably on your phone right now.
- No matter how much energy the band generates and no matter how great the precision of the flashing lights, some megachurch Evangelicals find their way back to the hymnbook.
- With many church activities being "a young man's game," what does leadership look like when you enter your mature years?
- Cornerstone Television in Pennsylvania has been doing some cool things for 35 years now. (His Place is approaching 200 episodes.) Their latest new show is Sister 2 Sister.
- A young teen, Molly Kate Kestner finds out what happens if you don't strive to be a star. (Now closing in on 4,000,000 views!)
- The opener to this one had me hooked: "In Catholic circles, the joke goes that if you want to quote from the Bible, find a good Protestant to help you."
- Publisher's Weekly interviews theologian Miroslav Volf.
- Modern Hymn of the Week: Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery. (Thanks, Zach!)
- Pastors and Depression: A quick list of the top ten triggers.
- Barnabas Piper doesn't think people should write about writing. Nicholas McDonald disagrees.
- Pope Francis joins Catholic scholarship in espousing an economic view that is neither Capitalism nor Communism, but rather "Distributism."
- Four Blood Moons sold enough copies to land on Tim Challies' radar. Don't be expecting a positive review.
- Is China really declaring war on megachurches or was this bulldozing truly just an over-the-top response to a building code issue?
- The issue that won't go away: The Voice Bible blog with more on its translation choice for God's name.
- Social media continually proves itself to be the wrong place for certain kinds of conversations.
- HarperCollins arranged to have a team of evangelical scholars write a rebuttal to Bart Ehrman's How Jesus Became God. The latter will release through Zondervan.
- The "Jesus had a wife" document turns out to be a forgery after all.
- The parents of an 18-year old TV star in the UK produced and acted in porn. Their son speaks out about how that genre is warping his generation's view of sex.
- Author Emily Wierenga on why she doesn't immediately launch Facebook first thing in the morning.
- Skye Jethani thinks your pastor's sermon last Sunday might have run a bit long.
- The daughter of singer Ray Boltz on women's reproductive rights.
- FOX-TV explores the life of Jesus at 13—oh, those awkward teenage years—and other apocryphal stories in the new series Nazareth, now filming.
- An IVP author makes a solid case on video for meeting homelessness with affordable housing.
- All those pocket-sized Love Inspired inspirational fiction books have been bought by HarperCollins, along with the rest of Harlequin.
- Is a Christian lyric makeover considered parody? Either way, this is based on the popular song Royals by Lorde. (If you like the band Apologetix …)
- I love it when the visual layout of a blog matches the writer's goal. (And check out the Sidewalk Prophets song posted on March 3rd.)
- … time to get back to work reviewing the curriculum that goes with AHA by Kyle Idleman, clearly the best yet from City on a Hill productions.
That's it for this week. Between now and next Wednesday, join me at Thinking Out Loud, Christianity 201 and on Twitter.
Posted May 7, 2014