My Life in the Twitterverse

I realize not all my blog subscribers do Twitter, so here’s a few things I’ve been tracking there, since things have been rather quiet here.

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In addition to being one of the world’s coolest Christian music stations (mixing Christian and mainstream song) Brisbane, Australia’s “96five” is also a news outlet, so as part of their retaliation against a government decision, Facebook shut down their Facebook page. All their history was lost, it now says “No Posts Yet.” The station reported, “The new laws will require social media companies, such as Google and Facebook, to pay media outlets for using or posting their news… Facebook, however, has argued it should not have to pay anyone.”

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@justinsytsma: Stop putting the word Grace in your church if you’re planning to be a people devoid of it.

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The power grid in Texas is completely independent of the rest of the US which allowed them to bypass federal standards which include “cold weather safeguards.”  Forgive my Canadian smugness but where I live federal standards are federal standards. That’s what those words mean.

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@joshcarlosjosh: Maybe the Billy Graham rule should actually be to never be alone with power, not women.

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A Statement from the Board of RZIM Canada: “It is with heaviness of heart and after much prayerful consideration that we are compelled to begin winding down the operations of RZIM Canada.” Click this link for statement.

meanwhile:

The board of the U.K. branch of Ravi Zacharias’s ministry has declared its intention to separate from the organization. “The response of the RZIM US Board does not go nearly far enough in terms of actions relating to leadership and governance.” Click this link for statement.

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@LeeGrady: Christian singer Carman Licciardello died [Feb 16th] . He was only 65. He was a legend in the 1980s. I never knew until today that Carman gave his life to Jesus at an Andraé Crouch concert.

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When churches want out: Someone put a lot of work into researching this video. 12 ecclesiastically-packed minutes. Click here to watch: Congregations Leaving Denominations: How Hard Can It Be?

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Women (especially) and everyone else: Looking for a good podcast, but don’t have time invest in researching what you might hear? Check out The Godly Pod Podcast by Doreen Eager. She does the work for you! 

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• The top news story in the Evangelical world this month is the findings of a report concerning the moral life of a celebrated man who is no longer living.
• The top news story in the broader news cycle this month is the result of an impeachment hearing involving a man who is no longer President.

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Finally: Listening over the past year to people like @MattWhitmanTMBH
and @SkyeJethani talking about the future of the term “Evangelical” reminded me of this brief comedy routine:

Wednesday Connect

Welcome to Wednesday Connect #94, as I continue my aim of at least getting to #100 at some point. The opening graphic was discovered during a weekend perusal of wholesale book listings.

■ After an abortive attempt just a week prior using a .org address, Daniel Jepsen from the former Internet Monk site has re-launched Mystery and Meaning at MysteryAndMeaning.com. Because iMonk (which will remain visible for a short while longer) was as much about a community as it was about the articles themselves, you may see a prompt asking for a log in, but it isn’t necessary to do so to just read things. If you need some encouragement, check out Graceland versus Karmatown.

■ As far as I’m concerned, the hot ticket online last week was for a 97-minute discussion with Canada’s Bruxy Cavey and Atlanta’s Andy Stanley. The good news is, anyone can view it now on YouTube. Check out How Centering on Jesus Changes Everything, sponsored by The Jesus Collective. (Best quote on getting priorities rightly ordered: “The resurrection gave birth to a movement and the movement gave birth to a book.”)

■ Timely today: The Washington Post notes that “It’s been 152 years since Andrew Johnson decided not to attend the swearing-in of Ulysses S. Grant.” History repeats. Political parties were opposites, though. 152 years later, it’s time to read the article and play the home version of Count the Parallels.

■ Ongoing, with more people expected to tell their stories: Religion News Service published on the weekend a look at Dave Ramsey‘s Ramsey Solutions which they believe to be “the best place to work in America.” Instead, we see a leader so insecure he cannot tolerate even a fraction of dissent or critique.

■ Did Pope Francis inch closer to allowing women to be priests? Don’t hold your breath. In a precise, fine-tuning of coverage of the announcement, the site Get Religion notes:

The move — in the wake of a decades-old priest shortage — will grant “non-ordained ministers” the chance to serve as lectors, read scripture, act as eucharistic ministers and, in a crucial symbolic change, wear robes while serving in the sacred space around the altar. The changes, however, will continue to forbid women from being made deacons or ordained priests. …continue reading here…

■ I don’t track with everything Carey Nieuwhof writes, but this one is worthy of your consideration. 8 Disruptive Church Trends that will Rule 2021: The Rise of the Post Pandemic Church. (Spelled his name correctly first time!)

■ A video podcast discovery: The JXN Cloud is an online church community based out of Jackson, Michigan which does a morning show at 6:30 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays on YouTube that will appeal to younger listeners.

■ Not new: This week Sheila Wray Gregoire linked to a 2019 piece she wrote about how local churches find and hire youth pastors. While the article contains no horror stories — local print and broadcast media do a great job, however — the article contains enough cautionary warnings for churches and Bible colleges to rethink the whole process.

■ Sometimes, like everyone else I use Twitter to just rant. Like this one related to the image above: “I really despise publishers like NavPress who leave no way for consumers to contact them directly. This is the image for a new Bible, ISBN 9781641582544; an image that is widely circulated on the internet. It’s advertised as a teal Bible. That’s not teal. Not even close to teal. Sky blue? Powder blue? Teal is a blue-green combination. Its HTML is #008080. Words are meant to have meaning. Either the description of this Bible is wrong, or the image is wrong, but I would caution people against ordering if they don’t know which is the case.” Thus endeth the commercial art lesson. (Twitter brings out the best in people, right?)

■ This should have been the winner in Matthew Pierce’s weird Christian tweet contest, 2020 edition. At least IMHO.

■ If you’re a Bruxy fan but found the prospect of 97 minutes (above) too daunting, here’s his now famous nesting dolls analogy from a sermon the week before. (Only 5 minutes.)

■ The moral dilemma. Is this an Everest too high for some to climb? How would you respond to him?

Torn between a total and complete boycott of Amazon for obvious, ever-mounting reasons and a massive spending spree on Amazon toward securing an adequate library to educate myself, my born & unborn children, and my community for the next 25+ years before Things Really Fall Apart

— Pavlos Papadopoulos (@pleonidasp) January 12, 2021

■ This should have been more widely seen when it appeared on January 11: Rick Warren speaking with Relevant on the pandemic, racial justice and political unrest. A positive interview with the author and megachurch pastor.

■ ICYMI (from December): Lauren Daigle said she was out for bike ride, saw the police and thereby assumed it was an officially sanctioned event. She offered to sing a song. Then all hell broke loose. 

■ Finally…

Why is this making me laugh so much pic.twitter.com/AG9wwqLCMq

— Dr. Derwin L. Gray (@DerwinLGray) January 15, 2021

A Christianity Today Link List

A few weeks ago I lamented that Christianity Today (CT) seemed to be moving toward a platform where only subscribers would get access to certain stories. Since then, I haven’t run into that so much.

It’s possible someone there had the good sense to say, ‘Magazines as we know them will soon disappear, and paid subscriptions will go with them, so we would be better to just build a loyal internet following over the next several years.’

Or something like that.

I know that’s what I’d say.

These links go back to early August, but represent a colorful mix of stories I followed recently.

• Is it inhumane for parents to parents to keep kids on life support while enlisting prayer for a miracle healing?  It’s a tough question for those who study medical ethics.
• Part of good eating is seeing food as a gift from God says Joel Bishop, who sees our food choices as a ‘deeply theological act.’
• Control freaks raise your hands.  No, raise them higher. Now!  Oh sorry, am I being too controlling.  Here’s a Biblical look at controlling people.
• Andew Greer tells how, as a white boy, black gospel music got — wait for the pun — under his skin. He finds black gospel brings hope “in the trenches of pain.” 
• This one goes back all the way to June — Author Thomas E. Bergler suggests that youth ministry culture has taken over our adult worship services in a lengthy article about the “juvinilization” of American Christianity.
  
• A couple of catch-up interviews with contemporary Christian music artists, starting with Leigh Nash of Sixpence None The Richer…
• …and continuing with Natalie LaRue of the band LaRue.
• Finally, ending with something lighter, at CT’s women’s blog, Her.meneutics, six things not to say to a pregnant woman.  

It’s a rainy day here in the Great Lakes region; hope these links provide some reading to keep you busy.

Seeking and Discovering Life on Other Blogs

The “other” Mr. Piper, at the blog 22 Words, has people busy today recommending other blogs.  (Hint, Hint!)   Although the comments refer to entire blogs, I’ve done some work for you and linked to some individual posts.  Not all the suggestions posted were blogs of Christian interest, though most of the ones I’ve highlighted are.  Here’s some fun links for you.

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In a collection of some of the worst real estate photos, here’s one called Beds, Baths and Altars.

At a blog called The Fool’s Gold, here’s a review of a new British book called Total Church.

At Parchment and Pen, Dan Wallace discusses the possibility that a certain theological view on the role of women could actually be fertile soil for wife abuse.   Or better yet, on the same blog, same page, Michael Patton’s discussion (confession?) and about 60 comments on Can You Marry The Wrong Person?.  (Yeah, I gotta bookmark this one; I was reading it several months ago, and got away from it…)

Sometimes a blogger reveals extremely personal highs and lows of life, and sometimes both in the same post.   Female readers especially will want to spend time at DancingInTheMargins; you can dive in with this post.  (But not male readers… she addresses her readers as “My Darling Cupcakes.”)

There’s a lot of interesting stuff to get back to at Reid Monaghan’s blog, PowerOfChange; but for now, check out this picture of a bibliochaise.

At BetweenTheTrees, the one that intrigued me the most was actually a series of links to some thumbnail sketches — some very sketchy indeed — on various periods in Church History.

The blog Altogether Too Much Privacy gets my award for transparency and honesty.   Here’s a post on promising to pray for someone.   Love this quote on the top of each page: “Originality is the fine art of remembering what you hear but forgetting where you heard it.”- Laurence Peter

At the blog, ChristianInCollege.com, this article on Ten Reasons Not To Ask Jesus Into Your Heart was somewhat traditional for a supposed “college” blog authored by a 20- and 16- year old, but I thought one of you out there might need to read it.

In a personal finance blog called Get Rich Slowly, here’s 5 Things It’s Cheaper to Do Yourself.

Okay, here’s an exception; it’s a photo blog, you gotta scan several pages at CakeWrecks (it’s about wrecked cakes; but some of them are actually pretty good.)

To see more full blogs, refer back to the first link in this post.   But if you’re already in an article, and you want to read more, take your cursor up to the navigation bar and select the date-specific information and delete it, leaving only the blog’s main URL, and then just hit enter.   Then again, most blogs allow you to return to the current page simply by clicking on the logo or title at the top of any given page.