Wednesday Link List

Not sure which is better, giving you more links or concentrating on a smaller list of about twenty or so…

Don’t forget the summary of things most clicked appears late Thursday or Friday on my Twitter. Not sure I’ve ever mentioned that before; sorry!

• I’m not sure what I like best about Eric Metaxas’s new radio show, his ability to attract a different type of guest, or his ability to take serious, academic interviews and make it sound like a weekend party. (Okay, it’s actually the segment bridge music.)
• A Canadian pastor has written a 13-page letter outlining why his church has pulled Gospel for Asia from their budget.
• Essay of the Week: No matter how much you get or achieve, it’s never enough.
• We would probably see a greater exercise of spiritual gifts in our churches if we would cut the microphone cable and burn the stage.
• 33 years ago today I was working at a Christian camp when one of our water-ski instructors told me he’d just heard on the news of the death of Keith Green the previous day.
• A spot on the Jordan River “believed to be” where Jesus was baptized has been designated by the UN as a World Heritage Site.
• Can of Worms Department: This article raises all sorts of issues surrounding the Evangelical practice of asking younger children to wait until they are order to be baptized.
• The pop-ups resulted in a huge increase in subscribers, but they were annoying, unwelcome and frustrating; so this website owner removed them because they are “the opposite of the Christian ethic.” But despite how much people hate them, on most sites, “pragmatics has trumped service.”
• Video of the Week (if not the month): Truly awe-inspiring video of Brian Doerksen’s worship song Creation Calls.
• Given that the man had broken into his church, first the pastor shot him in the shoulder. Then he led him in the sinner’s prayer.
• A Mormon apologist “insists that Christian and Mormons are peas from the same pod: ‘Even if we believe different things about Christ, it’s still the same Christ. I’ve never come across any valid argument that it’s a different Christ we worship.’”
• After her Janet Mefford Show — instrumental in the plagiarism outing of Mark Driscoll — disappeared from the airwaves in May, she’s back with the one-hour Janet Mefford Today.
• For a limited time, enjoy a free chapter sample of a new book from Ravi Zacharias associate Andy Bannister’s The Atheist Who Didn’t Exist.
• From the author of God’s Crime Scene, what does it mean to say that God created the universe from nothing?
• Your latest update on Rob Bell.
• Leadership Lessons: Top Five Pitfalls of Pastoral Ministry.
• Great devotional story: A Bible college student finds a way to do the preaching assignment needed for graduation without having to worry about an actual audience.
• A school district in Mississippi promised there would not be prayer at student assemblies. When an invocation at an awards ceremony violated that, a judge ordered the school district to pay her $7,500 in compensation. 
• From the Church for Men archives: The next Billy Graham will be a comedian.
  
• Rainbow flags in Russia? Not right now. Rather, they’ve adopted a straight flag…
• …which is a good lead-in to this article on countering the gospel of Miley Cyrus.
• For your computer’s picture file: Rick Warren as a young anime figure. 
• Okay, you want a serious one … our Picture of the Week Award goes to Eugene Cho.
  
• This week’s Phil Vischer podcast noted Tony Campolo’s classic distinction between Dog Chuches and Cat Churches. (Starts at 11:20, but the only print corroboration of this online was on page four of this sermon.)
  
• It’s confirmed, Mark Driscoll is moving to set up shop in Phoenix…
• …and if you need to know, Mark Driscoll’s net worth is $2.5M. For comparison, I typed in Joel Osteen. And Rick Warren. 
• Finally, do you think people — say Dodie Osteen for example — should have to pass a test to get a Twitter account? Perhaps you want further proof.
  

Both our opening and closing images today were sent by reader and fellow-blogger Clark Bunch whose own image collection appears each week at his blog The Master’s Table at a feature called Happy Monday. Kinda feel sorry for the woman in the picture below; ya gotta pick your subway/bus seat carefully.