Apple determines that 400,000+ evangelicals and Catholics who signed the Manhattan Declaration are anti-gay and anti-choice, and the company pulls the Manhattan Declaration app from the iTunes store. Sigh…
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Links to Your World, Tuesday November 30
DC Talk reunite, to their dismay
This artist is installing a camera in the back of his head and will record everything it sees for a year as an ‘allegorical statement’ about what we don't see and leave behind. If you’re teaching on Philippians 3:12-14 anytime soon and need a sermon illustration, you’re welcome.
FCC Updating 911 to include text and even video from cell phones. (story) Maybe this will keep Chief Wiggum from getting confused.
“American Exceptionalism”? I’m mostly with the proponents on this one, though more comfortable with Abraham Lincoln’s reference to America as God’s “almost-chosen people.”
Tournament Bass Refuses To Talk To Reporters After Tough Day Getting Caught
The TSA Is Falling For You (Peter Jeffrey):
If from machine thou wouldst conceal
Thy silken realm of dew-kissed skin,
Then let mine own eyes and rubber'd fingers
Make the voyage of discovery.
For I do love thee, traveler,
With a rapt and aching ardor.
Posts at “Get Anchored” since last Tuesday:
Men and Women and Home and Church
“As if heaven and earth depended on them”
Monday, November 29, 2010
Gratitude Is Good For You
According to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, researchers have found that “adults who frequently feel grateful have more energy, more optimism, more social connections and more happiness than those who do not. . . . They’re also less likely to be depressed, envious, greedy or alcoholics. They earn more money, sleep more soundly, exercise more regularly and have greater resistance to viral infections.”
[In] a study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2003...researchers divided people into three groups. Over a period of 10 weeks, one group had to list five things per week for which they were grateful, another kept track of five things they found annoying each week, and the third just listed things that had happened in their lives. The results? “Those who listed blessings each week had fewer health complaints, exercised more regularly and felt better about their lives in general than the other two groups,” the Journal reported.
Dr. Robert Emmons, a professor of psychology at the University of California-Davis, was one of the leading researchers in that study. He’s quoted as saying that the act of feeling gratitude requires “self-reflection, the ability to admit that one is dependent upon the help of others, and the humility to realize one’s own limitations.”
Saying Grace
These days, 44 percent of Americans report saying grace or a similar blessing almost every day before eating; 46 percent almost never say it, leaving just a statistical sliver in between, Putnam and Campbell report in their recently published book, American Grace: How Religion Unites and Divides Us. “We are hard-pressed to think of many other behaviors that are so common among one half the population and rare among the other half...,” Putnam and Campbell write.
From a Religion News article. Putnam and Campbell add that the more often you say grace, the more likely you are to identify with the Republican Party, and the less you say grace, the more likely you are to identify with Democrats.
What to Do About Leavers
“Christians often have one of two opposite and equally harmful reactions when they talk with someone who has left the faith: they go on the offensive, delivering a homespun, judgmental sermon, or they freeze in a defensive crouch and fail to engage at all.”
That’s from Drew Dyck’s CT piece, “The Leavers: Young Doubter Exit the Church.”
This is an excellent piece, and will probably be adapted for one of my LeaderLines in a few weeks.
Dyck explains 3 reasons why we should not simply assume that young adults who depart church involvement in college will return once they’re married and have kids. He also explains that we should not simply assume that the reason churchgoing teens are not becoming churchgoing young adults is simply because of moral compromise. It’s that in many cases, he suggests, but it’s more, too. He suggests that many have left a watered-down Christianity that doesn’t have the inclination to engage with them in their faith doubts.
Men and Women and Home and Church
The NY Times introduces “complementarians” and gives some reaction from “egalitarians” in a Molly Worthen article.
Don’t know what those labels refer to?
Frankly, I can’t imagine that such clunky terms ever became mainstream, but the unfortunate nomenclature refers to two different ways that Christians view gender issues. Complementarians see men and women as equal in worth and distinct in roles—they “complement” each other in the home and in the church. Egalitarians see no difference between the roles that men and women can play in the home and the church.
We lead toward complementarianism at Hillcrest.
I’m not sure why the NYT editors entitled Worthen’s piece “Housewives of God,” considering that the article really isn’t about “housewives".” And I share some of the same quibbles with the piece as this GetReligion post. Still, its interesting to read a NYT “take” on a worldview we take for granted. At the least, it helps us know how we’re coming across—and where we need to spend extra time explaining our perspective. Take a moment with it.
Skeptical of the Skeptics
“Yesteryear's scholars who touted the Bible as a factually accurate account of the David and Solomon story may be vindicated.”
Best line from the National Geographic article, “Kings of Controversy,” about digs and debates among archaeologists regarding the reign—and even existence—of David and Solomon. The article will give you some introduction to how (1) the science of archaeology moved from trust in the Bible as a reliable source of history to (2) deep skepticism that anything in its pages could be true to (3) a re-evaluation today of how well-founded that skepticism ever was.
Walking in Circles
We walk in circles when we’re blind to guidance. Resisting the urge to make a pastoral point. Resisting, resisting….
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
“As if heaven and earth depended on them”
In Colossians 4:3, Paul writes, “Pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word.” Why ask God for something he’s on record as wanting anyway? Andree Seu--
If we are not corrected or fine-tuned by such verses we may end up sagging in our duty for the simple reason that we do not think it is so very necessary after all. God is advancing His kingdom, and it is an unstoppable juggernaut, we may say to ourselves (which is the true part). So I do not have to knock myself out much in prayer (that is the false part).
Someday we may understand more fully why the Lord seemed so urgent about our prayers, as if heaven and earth depended on them. Who knows? Maybe it is his way of making us feel fully engaged in the process, body and soul. In the meantime, this SOS from Paul to Colossae to form a prayer circle and not let up is much needed oxygen for my prayer life. If this is the way the Lord wants it, so be it. Let’s do it His way.
Winning Ways: Inspiration Leads to Perspiration
The books and seminars on leadership like to distinguish between “leaders” and “managers.” It’s a false distinction.
We are told that “leaders” are visionary, big-picture people who have little inclination to deal with the details of implementing their ideas. By contrast, we are told that “managers” are those who focus on the nuts-and-bolts of a project, making sure that the whole operation runs smoothly. Leaders launch bold new ideas and managers implement them.
As I said, it’s a false distinction. “Leaders” who can’t execute their ideas are as useless as “managers” who can’t inspire people to adopt their ideas. We need to know how to launch and follow through.
And this is especially important to know if you want to be a person of influence.
This Sunday we’ll discover that after inspiration comes perspiration. In other words, after casting a compelling vision for those we lead, we have to help them implement it.
In this sermon series, we’ve walked with Paul on his first missionary journey as recorded in Acts 13-14. When Paul wrapped up that journey, it’s interesting to see what he decided to do. If all he wanted to do was return to Antioch, there was a much shorter route than the one he chose. Take a look at a map and you’ll see it. He could have headed west through the Cilician route to Paul’s boyhood home of Tarsus, and then south to Antioch. Instead, Paul and Barnabas retraced their steps back through the towns where they had preached, “strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith” (14:22). It’s all the more remarkable that Paul chose this route home when you recall all the hardships he faced in these towns in the past.
But Paul knew that he had to do more than just get people to sign up for the Christian life. He had to reinforce their commitment. So he returned to the towns where he had preached and he strengthened them, appointed elders for them, and prayed for them.
This has been a helpful series for me personally, and I hope it’s been useful to you, too. Join us this Sunday @ 10 for our last look at how to “leave your mark” as an influencer.
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Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Links to Your World, Tuesday November 23
“Studies show that grateful people are happier and more satisfied with their lives and social relationships. They are more forgiving and supportive than those who are ungrateful. They are less depressed, stressed, envious, and anxious. In fact, high levels of gratitude explain more about psychological well-being than 30 of the most commonly studied personality traits” (Mollie Ziegler Hemingway, in a worthwhile reflection for Thanksgiving Week)
“Without even knowing it, movie soundtrack makers appear to mimic the sounds of animals in distress.” Wired reports.
Do we really know enough to govern ourselves?
Pastor, worried about infidelity, tells church leaders to quit Facebook or resign.
Ah, yes, “Music for Washing and Ironing.” And just in time for Christmas:
Posts at “Get Anchored” since last Tuesday:
LeaderLines: How to Handle Charitable Appeals in Your Group
“Is it an event worthy of an evangelical's time?”
Austin Civic Orchestra and Symphonic Band
Thursday, November 18, 2010
LeaderLines: How to Handle Charitable Appeals in Your Group
We get so many appeals for worthy causes to support, especially in the season between Thanksgiving and Christmas. But how can Sunday School teachers and other church leaders promote generosity without overwhelming the people who attend our programs?
Your missions leaders and staff have done the research and have recommended certain causes that our congregation has decided to identify with. So, we ask that when you’re gathered at a Hillcrest event, focus on things we’ve agreed to support as a church.
Following this principle accomplishes three things:
- First, it frees you as a leader from having to make a judgment on which charities will and will not be promoted in your class or group. If one of the members wants to circulate brochures or take up a collection for a certain cause, you can simply say, “Let’s submit that to the missions committee first and see if they want to recommend that to our church.”
- Second, following this principle will increase our church’s impact. There’s power in channeling our energies and gifts into a few charitable causes instead of scattering our efforts into any and every cause that we hear about.
- Third, following this principle will keep members and visitors to your group from being overwhelmed. We want to limit appeals to only a few special offerings beyond the unified budget so that people can come and bring their friends without being inundated with constant requests for help.
Of course, people should feel free to talk about their favorite charities to other participants in a class or a meeting at Hillcrest. But promoting and collecting for those charities needs to be done outside of Hillcrest events. For example, imagine a family that funds several missionaries who are not part of the missions agency our church supports. Let’s say they invite several of their friends to come to their house to learn about the missionary work and to join in supporting it. While we wouldn’t want the family to use Sunday School time to hand out brochures and pass the plate for their cause, it’s certainly appropriate for the family to invite Sunday School class members to their home for this purpose.
As a class leader, see how you can tie in to the causes we’ve already researched and we’re already promoting as a church. If you have another cause you’d like to see us support, follow the process we’ve set up to work together as a congregation. Submit the idea to our missions committee, who can research it and recommend its adoption.
Certainly, there are exceptions to this general rule. For example, one of our Common Ground groups collected items to restock a family’s food pantry after a flood. Praise God for their quick and generous response to an urgent need!
If you have any questions about whether a certain charitable cause should be promoted in your group, contact me or Herb Ingram. Help your Hillcrest Family meet our twin goals of promoting generosity while protecting people from being inundated with requests!
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Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 300 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.
“Is it an event worthy of an evangelical's time?”
When you set up a conversation in which conversion is never a real possibility, and yet in which genuine and respectful love is clearly evident—well, is it an event worthy of an evangelical's time?
Mark Galli, covering Bob Roberts’ Global Faith Forum in which he invited representatives from Islam and Judaism to join him in a discussion of the differences, similarities, and misunderstandings among the Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Sound familiar? Galli’s close:
To many evangelicals, Roberts's work feels as if it might be compromising evangelical faith. Then again, you have to wonder what has happened to our faith when we think that loving people in a way that makes them feel loved makes us think we have stopped following Jesus.
A One-Way Ticket to Mars
I don’t think retirees are going to go for this:
"To Boldly Go" is the work of Dirk Schulze-Makuch, a Washington State University professor, and Paul Davies, a physicist at Arizona State University. It urges the United States to accelerate its plans to colonize Mars by sending up two-man teams of space explorers.
There's just a tiny little hitch: There wouldn't be a return trip back to Earth.
"You would send a little bit older folks, around 60 or something like that," Schulze-Makuch said.
"The astronauts would go to Mars with the intention of staying for the rest of their lives, as trailblazers of a permanent human Mars colony," the study said.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Austin Civic Orchestra and Symphonic Band
One of our orchestra members, Stephanie Black, is performing in this concert. Check it out by clicking on the image:
Winning Ways: Influence Isn’t a Popularity Contest
In the New Yorker essay, “The Defiant Ones,” Daniel Zalewski reviewed picture books for children—and found a world of hand-wringing parents. “The parents in today’s stories suffer the same diminution in authority felt by the parents reading them aloud (an hour past bedtime),” he wrote. “The typical adult in a contemporary picture book is harried and befuddled, scurrying to fulfill a child’s wishes and then hesitantly drawing the line.”
From Ian Falconer’s best-selling Olivia series to the new Constance series by Pierre Le Gall, to Victoria and Elizabeth Kann’s Pinkalicious, Zalewski observes that the parents in these stories simply can’t endure the tension their discipline creates. In David Shannon’s best-selling “No, David!” for example, David, after playing baseball in the house and shattering a vase, is made to sit in the corner. A single tear appears. The mother can’t stand it. “Davey, come here,” she says. “Yes, David…I love you!”
The reality is that good parenting and constant popularity cannot co-exist. This is true of other positions of influence, too.
Each Sunday in November we’re looking at what it takes to become a person of influence. The series is called “Leave Your Mark,” and it’s a look at Paul’s first missionary journey as recorded in Acts 13-14. It’s for parents and coaches and teachers and managers and civic leaders and anyone else who knows the importance of influence. You can catch up with the series on our website.
This third Sunday in the series, we’ll look at Acts 14, where some people saw Paul perform a miraculous healing and concluded he was a god. When he wouldn’t let them worship him, they tried to lynch him instead. It’s a vivid picture of how fleeting popularity can be. No matter the reaction, he continued to teach the Word.
As influencers, there are going to be times when people bless us and other times when they blast us. The pursuit of the one and the avoidance of the other cannot be our goal if we want to leave our mark in the lives of others. Instead, our job is to faithfully hold up a vision worth pursuing and call people to it.
This has been a useful sermon series for me to prepare for you. I hope it’s had an effect on your leadership and parenting as well. Join us this Sunday as we continue to learn some important truths about leaving our mark in the lives of others!
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Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Links to Your World, Tuesday November 16
World’s Highest Rock-Climbing Wall:
“A new study suggests that the high school students who spend the most time texting or on social network sites (or both) are at risk for a host of worrisome behaviors, including smoking, risky sex, depression, eating disorders, drug and alcohol abuse, and absenteeism.” (NYT. Not sure if this is causative or correlative, but it’s interesting.)
“A wandering mind is linked to low mood…. In contrast to mind wandering, being able to focus on the present is thought to boost happiness.” (Time reports on the study).
Training for Ironman Triathlons at Age 70.
Adults sharply underestimate how much parents’ own stress is affecting kids, or how much stress their children face. The WSJ explains.
Do pets go to heaven? Focus on the Family explores the question.
“In Twenty Years Chocolate Will Be A Rare Delicacy.” I better eat that chocolate in the pantry tonight, just in case.
Wired explains how to score big at Chuck E. Cheese. Just what I needed to know.
Posts at “Get Anchored” since last Tuesday:
Free Resource for Intelligent Conversations About Faith
LeaderLines: In the City, For the City
Winning Ways: The Most Important Word You’ll Learn This Week
Monday, November 15, 2010
“In all the smallness and sameness, God works”
In the grand scheme of things, most of us are going to be more of an Ampliatus (Rom. 16:8) or Phlegon (v. 14) than an apostle Paul. And maybe that’s why so many Christians are getting tired of the church. We haven’t learned how to be part of the crowd. We haven’t learned to be ordinary. Our jobs are often mundane. Our devotional times often seem like a waste. Church services are often forgettable. That’s life. We drive to the same places, go through the same routines with the kids, buy the same groceries at the store, and share a bed with the same person every night. Church is often the same too — same doctrines, same basic order of worship, same preacher, same people. But in all the smallness and sameness, God works — like the smallest seed in the garden growing to unbelievable heights, like beloved Tychicus, that faithful minister, delivering the mail and apostolic greetings (Eph. 6:21). Life is usually pretty ordinary, just like following Jesus most days. Daily discipleship is not a new revolution each morning or an agent of global transformation every evening; it’s a long obedience in the same direction.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
“The savior of the world saw fit to toil in working-class obscurity for thirty years before embarking on his cosmos-changing mission”
Young evangelicals should humbly consider the example of our Lord: If the savior of the world saw fit to toil in working-class obscurity for thirty years before embarking on his cosmos-changing mission, it probably won’t hurt you to spend a bit more time forming your intellect and character before you’re ready to make your mark on the culture.
Free Resource for Intelligent Conversations About Faith
I'm enjoying Mark Mittleberg's "The Questions Christians Hope No One Will Ask." A good resource to talk faith with skeptical friends.
Did I mention its FREE? The e-book version can be downloaded free at http://ow.ly/376qM. You don't need a Kindle. I'm reading it on the free Kindle iPhone app. You can also read it on the free Kindle program for your PC.
Did I mention its FREE? The e-book version can be downloaded free at http://ow.ly/376qM. You don't need a Kindle. I'm reading it on the free Kindle iPhone app. You can also read it on the free Kindle program for your PC.
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