Cooperation and Teamwork in Action

When I think about cooperation and teamwork, two thoughts come to mind:

1. The first thing I think about is about cooperation between parts of the Body of Christ in general and between local churches in particular. For all the talk about that, we are highly competitive and uncooperative.
2. The second thing that occurs to me is the fact that we, individually, are supposed to be cooperating with the Holy Spirit. Again, for all the talk about that, we are highly individualistic and unyielding.

But what could be accomplished if we truly manifested either aspect of cooperation and teamwork? I’ve never included a link to YouTube before, but I think this video clearly demonstrates how a large number of individuals, each doing something slightly different, can work together to accomplish something totally awesome!

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=zpTJISyKGrA

We’re Running Out of Names for Bible Translations

Looking for a name for that new translation of the Bible you've just finished?
Eddie & Sue Arthur offer a Bible Translation name generator to solve all your problems?
Click here to read the article and add your own nouns and adjectives.
http://www.kouya.net/?p=968#comment-16019

40 Years in the Wilderness

Ever wonder if all our evangelical efforts are worth it?   Ever felt you are slugging away without seeing any results?   This is a classic story about a guy who handed out tracts — you remember tracts, right? — for years and wondered if his efforts were accomplishing anything.

Read I Got Off At George Street.   I know some will say that this has a kind of “urban legend” quality to it, but I believe that God is using our efforts more than we realize.  I think he sometimes hides certain results from us because we would end up with pride that would distract us from further efforts.

The Pornography Effect – Understanding for the Wives, Girlfriends, Mothers, Daughters and Sisters

Today, something a little different, though for some of you, this is going to come right out of left field, as it presents a different side of my writing you may not have known was in the works. As of today, for a limited time, you can read the entire text of my book, The Pornography Effect: Understanding for the Wives, Girlfriends, Mothers, Daughters and Sisters online, free of charge. (Not totally free though; we’re asking you to e-mail us any spelling or grammatical mistakes you find.) We’ve been in talks with about four different publishers about this, but the book is different — really different — and it’s hard for publishers to see where it fits, even though they all say there is a great need for what I’ve done here. Believing that the material is going to be helpful to so many different people, and not wanting to wait a minute longer, the whole book was uploaded today in about one hour. (They say The Shack started out this way, too.) So, go take a look at: www.thepornographyeffect.wordpress.com Note: For those of you who know me, this material is brutally honest. I deal with a period of several weeks where this issue intersected my own life in totally transparent terms.

Don’t Say You Weren’t Warned

What Label Works for You?

Derek Flood at The Rebel God, a new blog I just discovered, articulates well the struggle many have to put a name to their brand of Christ-following:

I’ve been trying over the past few years to figure out how to describe my faith. It seems a lot of others are on that same journey through the “evangelical wilderness” not really feeling at home in the traditional molds, but not knowing exactly where they belong either. I’m not conservative, but I am equally not liberal, and in todays polarized culture where you are either one or the other, that puts me in the category of nowhere.

I strongly encourage you read the entire article by clicking here.

Fine Print: I love this bit on Derek’s bio page, written nearly two years earlier, it foreshadows this week’s topic; “I am a born again spirit filled Christian. Since I care about the poor and marginalized and believe in grace over law, I don’t relate to the religious right. But since I believe in a real heaven and resurrection I don’t relate to the religious left either. I prefer the “radical center” of the post-conservative Neoevangelicals. That manages to get me in trouble pretty much anywhere I go, but Jesus got in alot of trouble, so I figure I’m in good company. :) “

Why We Never Go To Movies

This weekend, I suggested we go see Mama Mia.   In so doing, I made two major mistakes.

MISTAKE # 1 — I truly, honestly thought it was a move ABOUT the band ABBA.  Not that I was ever a huge fan, but the band was a huge success story.   I did not expect it to be a romantic movie.    Our friends Mark & Kathleen saw the stage show a few years ago.   Mark is a carpenter by trade; a man’s man; a guy that never wears a winter coat even when it’s -40° outside.  Mark would never go see a chick flick (or stage show) like this.  I also did not expect it to be a musical, except insofar as it would contain concert footage.

MISTAKE # 2 — I compounded the first mistake by deciding to see the movie as part of a family day out of town.  Which means I dragged our two teenage sons to it.   They are now officially inoculated against both romantic movies and musicals, and never have to see one again.   After the first or second song, my youngest son turned to me and said, “Is this a musical?”  Still believing it to be ABOUT the group ABBA, and thinking that the young girl onscreen would turn out to be a member of the group or something, I said, “I’m not sure.”  At that point I knew something was going wrong.   I am an idiot.

~Paul Wilkinson

A Mile In Their Shoes

Today At The Mission (see blogroll at right) put us on to this post by Keith Turner which does a great job of highlighting the relative costs of things as seen through the lens of people in poverty.   Read the commentary here at the blog, Keep Imagining.

Can You Say, “Anaglyph?”

Next time you’re cleaning up (or throwing out) the kids’ books and toys, look for a pair of those red and blue 3-D glasses you often get with kids’ books.

Then type in “anaglyph” in your search engine and visit the different picture galleries.

~PW

A Month of Living Levitically

Daniel Harrell ministers at Park Street Church in Boston and explains how the month began:

I needed to attempt a sermon series from Leviticus. But rather than preach it straight up (and risk an exodus), I decided to teach it the way I imagine the earliest hearers learned it—by living it out. I would preach a reality sermon series. …I would live out Leviticus fully believing that its teaching still applies. … I wouldn’t do this by myself. Leviticus was addressed to an entire community, not discrete individuals. So much of what it commands can only be experienced in community. I would need others to live Levitically with me.  After much cajoling and some well-placed pastoral guilt, I recruited 21 people from our congregation to become Levitical guinea pigs for a month.

click to read the entire Christianity Today article, The 30-Day Leviticus Challenge