Why Bad News Sells...And Doesn't Change Behavior

Tina Rosenberg for the NYT "Fixes" series:

Bad behavior is usually more visible than good. It’s what people talk about, it’s what the news media report on, it’s what experts focus on. Experts are always trying to change bad behavior by warning of how widespread it is, and they take any opportunity to label it a crisis. “The field loves talking about the problems because it generates political and economic support,” said Perkins.

This strategy might feel effective, but it’s not — it simply communicates that bad behavior is the social norm. Telling people to go against their peer group never works. A better strategy is the reverse: give people credible evidence that among their peers, good behavior is the social norm.

But unfortunately, "The approach angers people who lobby for a strong, unmuddied message of disapproval — even though, of course, disapproval doesn’t reduce bad behavior, and social norming does."

 

Posted with Blogsy

On gay marriage, "hope is more important to them than truth"

Roger Scruton in the NYT:

What could be more sensible than to extend marriage to homosexuals, granting them the security of an institution devoted to lifelong partnership? The result will be improvements all around – not just improved toleration of homosexuals, but improvement in the lives of gay couples, as they adapt to established norms. Optimists have therefore united to promote this cause, and, as is so often the case, have turned persecuting stares on those who dissent from it, dismissing them as intolerant, “homophobic,” “bigoted,” offenders against the principles of liberal democracy. Of course the optimists may be right. The important fact, however, is that hope is more important to them than truth.

People interested in truth seek out those who disagree with them. They look for rival opinions, awkward facts and the grounds that might engender hesitation. Such people have a far more complicated life than the optimists, who rush forward with a sense of purpose that is not to be deflected by what they regard as the cavilings of mean-minded bigots. Here in Britain, discussions on gay marriage have been conducted as though it were entirely a matter of extending rights, and not of fundamentally altering the institution. Difficult issues, like the role of sexual difference in social reproduction, the nature of the family, the emotional needs of children and the meaning of rites of passage, have been ignored or brushed aside.

...When truth threatens hope it is truth we usually sacrifice, often along with those who search for it.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Winning Ways: The Most Significant Day in History

In the latest issue of The Atlantic magazine, prominent historians were asked, "What day most changed the course of history?"

I think they missed one.

Yale professor Timothy Snyder suggested December 11, 1241, the day the Mongol emperor Ogedei Khan died, forcing Batu Khan to return to Mongolia to deal with the emperor's succession. This interrupted his drive into Vienna, an invasion that would have made European history very different.

Then there's Princeton professor Anne-Marie Slaughter, who offered July 4, 1776, the day the Declaration of Independence was signed.

Again, Philip Jenkins of Penn State thought that June 22, 1941, made a good candidate: the date of the ill-conceived Nazi invasion of Russia, ultimately leading to Hitler’s defeat.

Or Christina Paxson, president of Brown University, suggested the day Johannes Gutenberg finished his wooden printing press in 1440, which led to the democratizing of ideas.

I think the Totally Biased host W. Kamau Bell had to be joking with the suggestion that May 16, 1983, was the most significant day in history when Michael Jackson first performed the moonwalk on TV. "I think it’s one of the reasons we have a black president today," Bell observed.

A good case can be made for each of those suggestions. (Okay, maybe not that last one.) But the most significant day in history is missing from their list.

I know this is going to sound like a John Acuff "Jesus Juke" (look it up), but the resurrection of Christ gets my vote. It was God's victory over the ruin of sin and death, thus beginning the renewal of all things. "Is everything sad going to come untrue?" asked Sam Gamgee after finding Gandalf alive in The Lord of the Rings. The resurrection is God's resounding "Yes!"

This weekend is a time to "Remember and Rejoice." Join us at 7 p.m. on Good Friday for a communion service designed to remember the crucifixion. And then join us at 10 a.m. on Easter Sunday to rejoice in the new life of the resurrection!

You can help us on Sunday by doing the following: (1) bring a friend, (2) park off-site either on the road or on the elevated lot behind the Adult Wing, and (3) sit forward and to the left when you enter the building.

Join us in celebrating the most significant day in history!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Happy New Year!

'In Gondor the New Year will always now begin upon the twenty-fifth of March when Sauron fell, and when you were brought out of the fire to the King."

Gandalf, The Return of the King

 

For centuries theologians and leaders of the church had affirmed that the key date in human history was March 25, on which date occurred Fall itself; the angel Gabriel's Annunciation to Mary, which heralded the birth of the One who would undo the effects of the Fall; and the Crucifixion, which defeated the forces of evil, which had been unleashed on this world by Adam's sin. It was with these events that Dionysus Exiguus, the sixth-century monk and calendar-maker, determined that the year itself should begin on March 25, which it did throughout Europe for a very long time. It was England's official New Year's Day until 1752, though by that time January 1 had been celebrated by most English people for hundreds of years.

Alan Jacobs, Original Sin, p 43.

 

Posted with Blogsy

My Take on Francis Spufford's "Unapologetic"

Unapologetic is Francis Spufford's apologetic for Christianity. Where it is good, it is very good. But I still can't recommend it.

Let's start where it is good: His description of what he calls the HPtFtU, the autobiography of his own encounter with God, and his defense of Jesus as God Incarnate.

I doubt many of us will adopt his acronym, HPtFtU, which stands for "the human propensity to f*ck things up." But his description of the propensity is a fresh take on 'sin'--before 'sinful' became merely a term to market ice cream. A sample:

Everybody knows...that 'sin' basically means 'indulgence' or 'enjoyable naughtiness'.... What I and most other believers understand by the word...has got very little to do with yummy transgression. For us, it refers to something much more like the human tendency, the human propensity, to f*ck up. Or let's add one more word: the human propensity to f*ck things up, because what we're talking about here is not just a tendency to lurch and stumble and screw up by accident, our passive role as agents of entropy. It's our active inclination to break stuff, 'stuff' here including moods, promises, relationships we care about, and our own well-being and other people's, as well as material objects whose high gloss positively seems to imply a big fat scratch.

Second, props for his autobiography of his own encounter with God in the crisis of realizing his HPtFtU. Quite beautiful. It was, he wrote, "comforting, but not comfortable." And then there his presentation of Jesus as God Incarnate: "He is as human as we are, but if you meet him, you are also meeting the being responsible for the universe."

As I said, where it is good, the book is very good.

But the book is not in every subject good.

No, I'm not talking about his use of f-bombs and other four-letter words. (The asterisk in the word "f*ck" in this book review is my own editing.) The coarse language is off-putting to my sensibilities, and will probably limit the audience on this side of the Atlantic. But that's not the book's fatal flaw.

Neither is the fatal flaw found in his disappointing discussion of homosexuality. He trots out the tired argument that since Jesus never directly addressed homosexuality he must certainly have cared little about it. (For someone as skilled at logical and rhetoric as Spufford obviously is, that argument is surprisingly disingenuous.) Spufford is convinced that Christian opposition to homosexuality will eventually disappear and thus his readers should not see this as a stumbling block to their consideration of Christianity. Despite the fact that he throws biblically-convicted Christians under the bus on this point, that's still not the fatal flaw of the book.

What keeps me from recommending this book is Spufford's weak treatment of the cross. There's simply no clear explanation as to how the cross addressed our HPtFtU. Here's the best he can do:

[On the cross] he's turning his bruised face toward the whole human crowd, past and present and to come, and accepting everything we have to throw at him, everything we fear we deserve ourselves.

Notice that in this explanation, the only function of the cross is to absorb our anger, not God's. In this view Jesus is simply John Coffey from The Green Mile, taking back our ruin, absorbing it into himself. The biblical view is richer, where the cross is seen in relation to an offended God more than offensive humans.

I recall how my theology prof in seminary compared the biblical view of atonement with the view held by classic 19th century liberalism (revived in a growing number of contemporary writers like Spufford). He said if he were to stick his hand in a blazing fireplace, saying to me, "See how much I love you!" I would probably conclude he had a screw loose. But if I were trapped in a burning building and he entered to save me, knowing that he would die in the process but knowing that I would die if he did nothing, well then, I would hail him as a hero. In the biblical view of atonement, Jesus doesn't just demonstrate his identity with our suffering ("see how much I love you!") but he dies bearing the divine wrath we deserved.

It's important to get the cross right, because misunderstanding at this point ripples out into other subjects. Spufford has great skill at describing the HPtFtU and describing his encounter with God in Christ. But the book fails at his inability (or unwillingness) to see how the cross relates to God's offense at our HPtFtU.

 

Posted with Blogsy

"It's gone now, and I don't think I would like it back"

If you feel that Christianity is a smaller (even waning) influence in American culture right now, it's weaker in the U.K. But the writer Francis Spafford sees the upside:

I'm only just old enough myself to remember the way things were before. The world I know, as a Christian, is the one in which we are a small minority. A small minority with an organic link to the symbolism, the buried logic and the dream-life of the wider culture, but still a minority without clout. I know there was another world before this one, in which Christianity was the unconsidered default state of the civilization, but it was dying when I was a child in the 1960s and 1970s, and it's gone now, and I don't think I would like it back. This way, Christianity is no one's vehicle for ambition.... This way, the strangeness of Christianity can be visible again. Without the inevitability, without the static of privilege fuzzing the channel, we can pick out again more clearly the countercultural call it makes, to admit your lack of cool, and your incompleteness, and your inability ever to be one of the self-possessed creatures in the catalogs, or the loveless calculator that is Homo economicus and to find hope instead; a hope that counts upon, is kindly raised upon, the mess you actually are.

Francis Spafford, Unapologetic, pages 220-21. Review coming soon

Posted with Blogsy

LeaderLines: This One "I-Can-Do-That" Action Will Transform a Church

I have an assignment for you. Every week ask one person one question: "How long have you been attending?"

That's your "I-can-do-that" assignment:

Every week.

One person.

"How long have you been attending?"

Isn't that so much better than asking, "Are you a visitor?" People tell me that since we've had so many new people get active at Hillcrest, they don't know who the members are and who the visitors are. They worry that they might annoy an unfamiliar member if they ask, "Are you a visitor?"

So don't ask that question! Ask my question. Find one person to ask my question every single week: "How long have you been attending?"

Members as well as visitors can answer that question. Besides, why should only visitors be greeted? Shouldn't we be getting to know members of our Hillcrest Family as well as those investigating our church?

Ask my question and see how easily it leads you into a good conversation.

If they're a member, get their name, or find our their line of work, or discover that they live in your neighborhood. The resulting conversation will give you another point of connection with your Hillcrest Family.

If they're visiting, you get a chance to take the next step with them. For example, tell them you'd like to introduce them to me after the service. Or ask them if they've attended our small-group ministry and, if they haven't, invite them to your group. If they're not in your age range, walk with them to the coffee fellowship in the gym where they can meet other small-group leaders. You can ask them how they found Hillcrest (90 percent of the time, the answer will be, "a web search"). You can encourage them to come back.

Understand, now. This isn't just about being "friendly." Being nice is a good goal, of course. But my little "I-Can-Do-That" action is actually an extension of our church's purpose.

Our purpose is to be a place where people of every generation can find and follow Jesus together. That purpose is lived out in the "big" ways like programming and music selection and sermon topics. But that purpose is also lived out in the "small" ways like making every person feel wanted and welcomed and helped.

Every person. Member. Visitor.

Lisa Earle McLeod reinforces why it's is so important to have every member of the organization practice an "I-Can-Do-That" action like this. In a Fast Company article, she wrote about her experience at a college campus:

I have a college-age daughter. My family and I were moving her into Boston University (BU) over Labor Day weekend. The four of us, mom, dad, college daughter and her younger sister, were standing on the street, looking befuddled at the campus map. At that moment, a friendly and official-looking gentleman approached us, asking, “Can I help you find something?”

He introduced himself as the dean of students. He asked where we were from, told us he was delighted to have us on campus, and pointed us in the right direction.

Keep in mind that this is a major university in the middle of a huge city with 4,500 freshmen moving in on the same day. Yet the dean himself personally approached us. And here’s the kicker: it’s not just because he’s a friendly extrovert. It’s their official campus policy.

Any staff member who sees someone looking at one of the big maps is expected to approach them and offer help. One staff member joked, “It’s a fireable offense to walk by people at the map and not offer to help.”

Notice that the simple policy isn't just about being friendly. It's a practical, visible extension of the school's official purpose, which is to "enhance the quality, character, and perspectives of our students." The dean that helped McLeod and her family told her, "We have this incredible privilege: we get to engage these young people from all over the world in thinking about their hopes and their dreams. If we can guide them a little bit, that’s invaluable; that’s our purpose."

Everyone at the school is expected to practice this. Employees who stop and proactively offer help are not interrupting their job: It is their job. "If I see that you walked past them because you have other things on your mind," the dean says he tells his staff, "we need to have a conversation and think about whether or not you should still work here.”

So, the college doesn't just enlist official "greeters" wearing big buttons with the phrase, "Can I Help You?" who then wait for someone to approach them. No, but the entire organization is expected step up to a person who looks lost and make an offer to help.

The dean describes the impact it has on staff members: “They’re a lot more present. They notice what happens around them a lot more [and] are more actively observant when they are out walking to get from one place to the next. They started to pick up pieces of paper. They have to be more present in their environment.”

Like that university's practice, everyone at Hillcrest has an "I-Can-Do-That" assignment. Sunday School teachers. Senior adults. Newlyweds. Orchestra instrumentalists. Kitchen servers. Ushers. Committee chairmen. Staff members. Whoever we are in the organization, we can all accomplish this task:

Every week

ask one person

"How long have you been attending?"

Are you doing your part to make sure Hillcrest is a place for every generation to find and follow Jesus together?

__________________________________________

Subscribe to "LeaderLines" and

it will arrive in your inbox each Wednesday

hillcrestaustin.org/newsletters

 

Posted with Blogsy

Winning Ways: When Jesus Shows Up

What happens to a life or a church when Jesus shows up?

Don't get me wrong. Jesus is always with us, but when we speak of certain circumstances or events in life, we tend to say, “Wow, God showed up!” That’s the way we speak about a powerful worship service at church or a youth retreat when a record number of students commit to Christ. That’s even the way Forrest Gump described a hurricane that made him the most successful shrimp boat captain on the Gulf coast: “God showed up!”

Almost 275 years ago, the early American pastor and scholar Jonathan Edwards wrote a book called A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God. It was a template for judging when genuine revival had come to a life or a community. He was trying to answer the question, "What does life look like when Jesus shows up?"

That’s what I think we can learn from Matthew 21. There we read of three dramatic acts: Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, he casts merchants out of the Temple, and he curses a fig tree. The first story is about our loyalty, the second story is about our worship, and the third story is about our productivity.

Those are the evidences of revival.

Churches don't tend to hold annual springtime "revival services" these days, but you'll still hear long-time churchgoers use the word "revival" to describe an event on the church calendar. Ah, there's so much more to the word, friends! A revived believer has a fresh loyalty to Christ's authority, a renewed commitment to worship, and a visible increase in fruitfulness. That, praise God, can happen anytime!

Maybe even this Sunday. Join us this Palm Sunday @ 10 for a study of Matthew 21. We're not calling it a "revival service," exactly. But we pray for revival to fall. Be pleased, Lord, to grant it.

Questions I've Wanted to Ask God: It's still not too late to get your Austin-area friends to complete a ballot for our new sermon series. Send them to the online form (HillcrestAustin.org/QuestionsBallot). You can also print out the form and distribute it (HillcrestAustin.info/winningways/God_Questions_Ballot.pdf).

Sweet Life Dessert Comedy Theater: There was a line at the ticket table last Sunday. You don't want these two shows to sell out before you get tickets for you and your friends. Go online to HillcrestAustin.org/SweetLife.

__________________________________________

Subscribe to "Winning Ways" and

it will arrive in your inbox each Wednesday

hillcrestaustin.org/newsletters

Posted with Blogsy

Links to Your World, Tuesday March 19

Here's a wi-fi enabled toaster that burns the day's news on your morning toast. You're welcome.

 

YouVersion's Bible app has been "downloaded by 83 million unique devices. Four million new users are installing the app each month. The Bible app is in 215 languages, 450 different versions, and collectively users spend more than 3 billion minutes reading scripture on the app monthly." (story)

 

"Jim Gaffigan works clean. He resists profanity. He doesn't rip celebrities with crude insults. He won't reveal everything you didn't want to know about his sexual urges and private parts. At a time when comedy is as filthy as it's ever been—the industry euphemism is "edgy"—Mr. Gaffigan, working clean, has become one of the hottest comedians in the country" (WSJ). You can tell in the piece, though, that he's ambivalent about being recognized for this. "'Clean' and 'family-friendly' are supposedly these positive attributes," he says. "But I sometimes feel like it's an asterisk next to my success, or whatever. Maybe I'm being sensitive. I just want to be known as funny. I mean, when you hear about a family-friendly restaurant, you know it's going to be horrible."

 

"If you’re selling anger and scorn against conservative Christians, the market is hot....There is a growing genre — call it Progressive Christian Scorn Literature — about the scorn progressive Christians have for conservative evangelicals. It seems to be celebrated on the Left as a kind of righteous comeuppance for the Christian Right, and it wins the applause of the Left for the Christian Left. But it’s wrong and it needs to be called out. It’s neither winsome, nor loving, nor constructive, nor right. It will not improve our witness because it’s soaked through with bitterness and rancor." Timothy Dalrymple's entire post is worth reading.

 

Jim Aley hits the nail on the head for those of us about to lose Google Reader:

Serious RSS users aren’t into it for the luscious jpegged beauty. RSS feeds, taken straight, are a wall of text. That’s useful when you want to let news wash over you, to scan screenfuls of headlines without waiting for extraneous pictures to load. When I want to absorb a lot of information fast—which is to say, always—I don’t have time for Flipboard. I want exactly what Google will be taking away from me this summer.

 

Where to get free music and books for your mobile devices.

 

Posted with Blogsy

"Ambigayity," "Worshiplatypus," and Other New Words We Can Use

From the Out of Ur guys, new words for the world of contemporary ministry:

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

"The best single predictor of children’s emotional health and happiness"

"If you want a happier family," Bruce Feiler writes, "create, refine and retell the story of your family’s positive moments and your ability to bounce back from the difficult ones."

In an excerpt from his new book provided in the NYT, he cites the “Do You Know?” scale, developed by Marshall Duke and Robyn Fivush, as "the best single predictor of children’s emotional health and happiness." The measure involves 20 questions:

Examples included: Do you know where your grandparents grew up? Do you know where your mom and dad went to high school? Do you know where your parents met? Do you know an illness or something really terrible that happened in your family? Do you know the story of your birth?

Dr. Duke and Dr. Fivush asked those questions of four dozen families in the summer of 2001, and taped several of their dinner table conversations. They then compared the children’s results to a battery of psychological tests the children had taken, and reached an overwhelming conclusion. The more children knew about their family’s history, the stronger their sense of control over their lives, the higher their self-esteem and the more successfully they believed their families functioned. The “Do You Know?” scale turned out to be the best single predictor of children’s emotional health and happiness.

Turns out, resilience comes from regarding yourself as within a worthwhile story. Every family's unifying narrative takes one of three shapes, Duke told Feiler:

First, the ascending family narrative: “Son, when we came to this country, we had nothing. Our family worked. We opened a store. Your grandfather went to high school. Your father went to college. And now you. ...”

Second is the descending narrative: “Sweetheart, we used to have it all. Then we lost everything.”

“The most healthful narrative,” Dr. Duke continued, “is the third one. It’s called the oscillating family narrative: ‘Dear, let me tell you, we’ve had ups and downs in our family. We built a family business. Your grandfather was a pillar of the community. Your mother was on the board of the hospital. But we also had setbacks. You had an uncle who was once arrested. We had a house burn down. Your father lost a job. But no matter what happened, we always stuck together as a family.’ ”

Read the rest.

 

Posted with Blogsy

"...an instrument of torture for its symbol..."

Some people ask nowadays what kind of a religion it is that chooses an instrument of torture for its symbol, as if the cross on churches must represent some kind of endorsement. The answer is: one that takes the existence of suffering seriously.

Francis Spufford, Unapologetic. Review coming soon...

Posted with Blogsy

LeaderLines: Do You See the Mud or the Masterpiece?

To the Christians who complain that they're just "not being fed" at their church, John Burke suggests they look to the food that nourished Jesus. When his disciples pressed him to eat the lunch they had brought for their Master, Jesus said, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work" (John 4:34). He said this in the context of his outreach to a lost Samaritan woman.

Burke's latest book is designed to help believers enjoy this kind of food. It's called Mud and the Masterpiece. The title comes from an illustration in John's first book, No Perfect People Allowed. Suppose you discovered a Rembrandt masterpiece in an alleyway--discarded, neglected, stained. Would you focus on the mud or on the masterpiece? And wouldn't you make it your ambition in life to get that masterpiece to a skillful art restoration specialist?

This edition of LeaderLines isn't a pitch to get you to buy Burke's new book (though I hope I'm doing a pretty good job of that). Rather, it's a pitch for you to take an hour to watch Ed Stetzer interview John on "The Exchange." I'll supply the link in a moment.

John is a national author and speaker, but he's a local Austin pastor. He founded Gateway Church several years ago.

Now, Gateway and Hillcrest have different programming but the same agenda.

Our programming is different, in part, because Hillcrest is committed to building a multigenerational culture. I like being able to celebrate a baby dedication and recognize a 65th wedding anniversary all in the same service. I like being able to assemble younger men with older men into monthly men's breakfast groups--and thus get to sit in one group as astonished younger men listened to a man in his 90s talk about watching Marines raise the flag on Iwo Jima. It's not easy to create a multigenerational church, but it's worth it.

As to programming, then, Hillcrest and Gateway are very different. Our agenda, though, is exactly the same. We want both churches to be places where Austin can find and follow Jesus together. And that's why an hour watching this week's episode of "The Exchange" is worth your while as a Hillcrest leader.

How will this help you lead Hillcrest? Well, Gateway started out as a church consciously, deliberately focused on engaging those far from God in Austin. As Gateway has grown, though, Burke admits that he's drawn in a lot of believers that need some training if they're going to stay the kind of church he started. In other words, Gateway is now at a point a lot of "established" churches are at. And so he's now in a good position to write a book for churches filled with long-time believers who need help in engaging with the lost masterpieces all around us.

So, get a cup of coffee, carve out an hour, and watch the following. It's not about a new product to buy, but it's about a new mindset to hold:

The Exchange - Guest John Burke - Full Episode - Aired February 19, 2013 from Ed Stetzer on Vimeo.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Winning Ways: A Medicine You Won't Mind Taking

Reba McEntire once said, "To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone, and a funny bone."

An upcoming event will help you work on that third one. It's called the "Sweet Life Dessert Comedy Theater."

Dessert and comedy: What a perfect combination!

We've invited family comedian Scott Davis to bring the laughs on Saturday, April 13. He's not just bringing the laughs, though. He's bringing the gospel. And that means this event is designed for you to bring a seeking friend.

You'll have two chances to hear him, at 6:00 pm and 8:30 pm. We've even made childcare available (I'll tell you more about that in a moment).

So, if you and your friends don't tend to stay out late, don't let the 6:00 pm show sell out before you get a ticket. Or, if you'd rather take your friends to dinner and save the dessert and laughter for after dinner, you'd better get tickets to the 8:30 pm show before they're gone.

Yes, these shows are likely to sell out. That's why I'm alerting you to this event four weeks ahead. The wise planners in our congregation will grab their tickets now.

There are two ways to get tickets: at church and online. Tickets are on sale after Sunday services every week, and also at the church office Monday-Thursday 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. Or, to get your tickets online, go to www.HillcrestAustin.org/SweetLife.

Actually, there's a third way to get your tickets, but its risky. You can wait until the night of the shows and hope a spot comes open. Any available tickets at the door will cost $15 instead of $10 for advance tickets. As I said, you really should get your tickets in advance.

If you need child care, we have it. Childcare is available for children through 4th grade with advance ticket purchases ONLY. The cost is $5 per child. Childcare payments/reservations MUST be made when advance tickets are purchased.

Don't pass up this opportunity to introduce a friend to Hillcrest. Be thinking and praying right now about whom you should invite and secure the tickets you think you'll need.

Proverbs 17:22 (NLT) says, "A cheerful heart is good medicine." That's why you need to join us on April 13. Doctor's orders!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Links to Your World, Tuesday March 12

Some Church Folk Ask: 'What Would Jesus Brew?' Several congregations around the country are tapping the growing craft-beer trend as a way to attract new members. I don't think "Hillcrest Hops" is coming anytime soon, though.

 

Bobby Ross wonders why the media keeps missing--or ignoring--the religious convictions of the men behind Duck Dynasty.

 

New iPhone case doubles as a stun gun.

 

"We would say that Chris is the most prolific songwriter in the United States now, in this past decade.” Interesting CNN profile of Chris Tomlin, "the most sung artist on the planet."

 

6 reasons Gary Busey should be the next pope.

 

"Chores are the third-most important predictor of marital success. That means who washes the dishes is almost as critical as faithfulness and sex, and it’s more important than money, religion, or politics." Fast Company reports.

 

The accidental poetry of Google's predictive search.

 

Posted with Blogsy

"Just because you’re going it alone doesn’t mean you have to be alone"

Note the worldview on display in the CNN "Belief Blog" entry, "The Secular High Priest of SXSW." It's a worldview shared by folks that many in my congregation work with. An excerpt:

For Bijoy Goswami, [SXSW] is a high holiday with as much virtue as vice. He sees SXSW as a secular celebration where people join together to take the tools of technology and transform them into world-shaking culture.

It's no accident that Twitter was released at SXSW.

At 39-years-old, Goswami is the quintessential Austenite with long hair, a casual style and a computer science degree. He has made a home and built a career around the Austin ethos. He's introspective, relaxed, hip and weird - in a good way.

Goswami describes Austin as a place of becoming: “I’m trying to figure out what to do in my various aspects of my life - spiritual, work, relational - things like that. Austin gave me the communities to work through those questions for myself,” he says.

...

As a secular priest of sorts, Goswami has officiated weddings and provided council [sic] for hundreds in the Austin startup community.

...

One such person counseled by Goswami is Josh Baer, manager of Austin’s Capital Factory incubator. Goswami was a crucial part of his development as an entrepreneur.

Goswami “has this Zen quality and personal confidence that makes people feel comfortable sharing their dreams and aspirations,” Baer says. “He guides others on their path.”

To Baer and hundreds like him, Goswami is like a high priest for Austin’s entrepreneurs, a role he built over the years by leaning on the lessons of the faith he left.

He created a congregation of like-minded entrepreneurs by founding "bootstrap Austin," an informal group of founders coming together to share experiences. His message is that just because you’re going it alone doesn’t mean you have to be alone, and it permeates the Austin start-up scene.

It would be good for you to stop a moment and pray for my congregation as they build relationships among co-workers who find Goswami's worldview compelling--and pray for me as I equip them to do so.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Book Take: "Conscious Capitalism"

Whole Foods Market takes up a large footprint in the Austin culture, so I've long been familiar with the founder's viewpoint on business as a robust social good rather than merely a necessary evil. John Mackey's new book (co-written by Raj Sisodia) presents business as good "because it creates value," ethical "because it is based on voluntary exchange," noble "because it can elevate our existence," and heroic "because it lifts people out of poverty and creates prosperity."

The authors know that their message is counterintuitive in a culture that has come to view business people as primarily motivated by profit at the expense of everything else. As Eaton Corporation CEO Sandy Cutler put it in an interview with the authors:

In a period of time when so many questions and doubts have emerged about major institutions and society, business has not done a particularly good job of telling its own story – not in the form of puffery, but really trying to help people understand the role of capital formation, how important it is to providing livelihoods for families, what business does for communities and for institutions like our schools and universities, and the role business has been helping solve so many societal problems. That is not the way so many people today think about business; they think of it as the source of societal problems. The great majority of companies are involved in doing pretty exciting work where people are having vital, exciting careers, earning a livelihood for their families and making a difference for their communities. That's a story that is worth telling.

"Conscious Capitalism" is, in part, about telling that story. It is also about guiding company leaders to provide the best social good a business can.

You can find some good summaries of the book online elsewhere. This brief post is simply meant as my personal takeaway from the book.

Most helpful to me was the explanation of how interdependent the various "stakeholders" are in the success of a business. The stakeholders include the customers, team members, investors, suppliers, communities, and environment (and then also the "outer circle" of stakeholders such as government entities). Mackey and Sisodia argue that the best businesses look for a win-win relationship between all stakeholders.

I confess that I grew weary of the "wooly" talk as the page count progressed. After days of reading of society's inevitable "evolution" to "higher levels" of "consciousness" as we each "integrate the masculine and feminine side of our persona," eventually I could no longer resist the singers in my head from belting, "This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius." One could say this is just how capitalism is spoken with an Austin accent. The Christian worldview of a fallen world in need of redemption, however, can provide a healthy caution against the view that society is inexorably moving into...into..."harmony and understanding, sympathy and trust abounding." (Oh "Hair," your songs were so catchy.)

Despite the wooly language, I hope the book is referenced often in the national conversation we're having about the rapidly-expanding role of government. To make a better world, progressives tend to place greater confidence in centralized government solutions and look with suspicion on free enterprise. But Mackey and Sisodia make a strong case for the tremendous energy of well-done capitalism to bring the social good we all want.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Links to Your World, Tuesday March 5

Fascinating article about "acquired savant syndrome," in which "ordinary people who suffer brain trauma suddenly develop almost-superhuman new abilities: artistic brilliance, mathematical mastery, photographic memory."

"The Tweet Hereafter" preserves the last tweets of celebrities before their deaths. What if your latest tweet or Facebook status update was your last?

The producers of the History Channel miniseries, "The Bible," explain in the WSJ "Why Public Schools Should Teach the Bible." But not everyone's content with how it's taught in Texas public schools.

Controversy over Calvinism at Louisiana College. This makes me sad and, I predict, it's the shape of things to come in our Baptist Zion. Misunderstandings and mischaracterizations between those for and against Calvinism are growing.

How Facebook Improves Memory

Posted with Blogsy