Lots to see in the blogosphere today:
- Jeff at Losing My Religion is celebrating a birthday today (5/5) and this week has a great, lengthy interview with Michael Frost, missional church guru and co-author (with Alan Hirsch) of the book ReJesus.
- Video book promos on YouTube are somewhat mandatory these days if you have a new release; and Tony Morgan‘s gives an excellent preview of his book Killing Cockroaches without any hype. (HT: Church Relevance blog)
- If you want to re-write the definitive standard for an over-the-top church website, the one for Evangel Cathedral should do it. (HT: Pragmatic Electric blog. Be sure to check out his Apr. 25 post, If Jesus Returns Tonight, Who Will Feed Your Pets? It contains a vital link to Post Rapture Pets.)
- Jim Upchurch has renamed his blog, Christ: His Work and His Word. Last weekend he wrote an excellent devotional piece, What if You Knew How and When You Would Die?
- Quoted on Bob Hyatt’s blog: “In a faster world, maybe we need a slower church.” ~ Leighton Ford
- Two entire chapters of Hebrews. Totally memorized. Shared with passion by Ryan Ferguson. Takes eleven minutes. Google Video link here. (HT: Tony Miano’s blog, Lawman Chronicles)
- Finally, on the lighter side; Michael Tait isn’t the newest member of Newsboys after all, as the blog Backseat Writer makes visibly clear in this post. That’s it for today’s links.
- Almost every time I do links like this, I always include a link to my unpublished book The Pornography Effect: Understanding for the Wives, Mothers, Daughters, Sisters and Girlfriends, because every day there’s someone new who needs to read it. It’s online and it’s free to read.
- Since you asked, I’m currently reading The Blue Parakeet by Scot McKnight (Zondervan) and the revised — 14 years later — edition of The King James Only Controversy by James White (Bethany House). Both deal with the Bible and how we both read and translate it, so I don’t mind reading the two books at once. If you want to make it a hat-trick, you’d have to add How To Choose a Bible Translation For All It’s Worth by Gordon Fee and Mark Strauss (Zondervan).
- Today’s cartoon is from ASBO Jesus. Now with over 700 thought-provoking, intriguing, controversial and sometimes frustrating cartoons served. Never a dull moment at that cartoon blog. (It’s Brit-speak for Anti-Social Behavior Order.)
- Since this post is a potpourri already, the survey, which follows, is from Christianity Today and reflects that readers of its various websites have a rather secularized view of how we all got here. If you’re going to comment on something here, this would be the one.
Christianity Today PollWhat best describes your view of the origins of creation?
Young-earth creationism
10% Old-earth creationism
10% Theistic evolution
10% Naturalistic evolution
62% I don’t know
3% None of the above 4%
Total Votes: 4153
Thinking Out Loud 
Hey, thanks for the shout out! I love being a part of “Link Love.” And I REALLY want to read your book!
Comment by Amy — May 5, 2009 @ 6:21 pm
You may want to score a hat trick plus one.
Whereas Gordon Fee champions the dynamic equivalence method in his book, Wheaton College professor Leland Ryken does the same for formal equivalence in his book, The Word of God in English (Crossway).
Don Carson says, read Fee. Wayne Grudem says, read Ryken.
I say, read both.
Comment by Jon Rising — May 5, 2009 @ 8:44 pm
On the evolution poll, it seems the CT respondents are out in front of the rest of the U. S. … by quite bit, actually.
Earlier this year, a Gallup poll registered only 39% of the U. S. public believing in evolution (www.usnews.com/blogs/god-and-country/2009/2/11/gallup-darwins-birthday-poll-fewer-than-four-in-ten-believe-in-evolution.html)
Hmmmmmmmmm.
Comment by Jon Rising — May 5, 2009 @ 9:09 pm
Final note:
Paul, I think it is likely that the CT poll was hijacked by unbelievers who had gotten wind of the poll (e.g., http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/05/christianity_today_is_full_of.php).
Please notice that when those folks became aware of the poll — which is no longer on display — naturalistic evolution was at 4 percent.
Coincidence? I don’t think so.
Comment by Jon Rising — May 5, 2009 @ 9:27 pm
I did think that CT readers had a lot of ‘splainin’ to do. I linked to the ScienceBlogs page you mentioned and read all the comments. Clearly the survey was indeed hijacked.
BTW, the writer who interviewed me for FaithToday magazine here in Canada also works for CT. He told me they keep very little data on who comments on their various stories — whereas USAToday has a page where I can pull up every comment I’ve ever made there.
If they would track their “true” readers more carefully — with contact information, they would have a database from which to conduct polls containing the highest accuracy.
Comment by paulthinkingoutloud — May 5, 2009 @ 9:43 pm