Weekend Link List

Out of the abundance of the heart, the vanity plate speaks. At least we know what matters most to this car owner.

It doesn’t happen often, you won the link list lottery and landed on a Saturday link list.

• Health care alternatives: “Samaritan Ministries (in Illinois), Christian Healthcare Ministries (in Ohio), and Medi-Share (in Florida) are the three large evangelical operations… Ohio’s Liberty HealthShare is Mennonite, a denomination traditionally committed to pacifism and dialogue. Solidarity HealthShare, founded in 2015, is Catholic…” A look at the pros and cons of pursuing this type of health insurance option.
• 5 ways that Catholics can help Protestants when the visit for a mass.
• “Mary Hudson is a minister’s wife, a gifted preacher, an author and a mentor to many Christian women. But she’s also the mother of one of the most famous entertainers in the world, pop singer Katy Perry.” This article doesn’t shy away from the pain: “How does a Christian mother handle it when she sees her daughter drifting so far from the values she taught her? It hasn’t been easy.”
• Lots to choose from in the May 27th edition of the Drew Marshall Show. I chose the interview with J. Warner Wallace.
• Hank Hanegraaff talks to the local newspaper about his entry into the Orthodox church, as well as his physical health. (The Charlotte Observer story claims over 100 stations have dropped his radio program.)
• The risk the sound and lighting people in your church face constantly: Electrical shock. Or worse.
• Denmark has repealed its blasphemy law, passed in 1683.
• The son of a famous preacher, Christian author, employee at LifeWay, and Christian podcast co-host; Barnabas Piper talks about his divorce.
• Death Wish: Cremation is gaining in popularity.
  
• But seriously…  In a rare, dead-serious moment, the Babylon Bee looks at Planned Parenthood. (There’s no satire here, no ‘wait for it…’)
• Bible translation from an entirely new perspective: The HSP, Honor-Shame Paraphrase.
• When the art students were asked about faith, one replied, “We’re creatives, not intellectuals.” What would be your response to that one?  
• Moving into a home near you: Andy Crouch looks at the Siri Speaker.
  
• ♫ Video of the Weekend: This isn’t new (January, 2 million views) but if you missed it, enjoy an acoustic version of Hills and Valleys by Tauren Wells. (Or if you prefer, the radio version.)
• ♫ Six kilometers = The average distance women and girls walk to get water in the developing world. Film footage from World Vision combines with the music of JJ Heller on This Little Light of Mine.
• ♫ Video Discovery: Ever heard of Twelve24? We stayed up late listening to UK Christian radio and then playing the YouTube game with artists we didn’t know. This one is simply titled, The Book (because “your words bring me to life.”)
• Tweet of the Week.

I’d like to challenge the people who specify that it’s the 1611 KJV they like so much to read me a page of it so I can watch them stumble over the text. I always carry a facsimile page in the glove box, just in case.

Then there’s those radicals and progressives who are destroying everything we’ve worked so hard to accomplish.

Wednesday Link List

This long de-commissioned church photo appeared back in October at the Twitter feed of AbandonedPics.

There’s something here for people at every age and every stage, including links to stories of interest to lay people and clergy, liturgists and charismatics. Or at least that’s the theory. 

The link list is now owned and operated by PARSE the blog of Leadership Journal, a division of Christianity Today.  Anything you click below will take you first to them, then you can click the item again.

• The Gideons are no longer welcome at an Alabama Air Force base.
• While being confronted about his infidelity, a Connecticut pastor dropped dead in the pulpit.
• So will resurrected bodies have gender and corresponding gender roles to what we have now? An organization promoting the Biblical view of such things may have overstepped scripture in saying yes.
• 13-Step Program: How to make a mess of scripture interpretation.
• The problem with church metrics: When the focus is all about parking spots and seating.
• Pastor Must-Read: Six ways to avoid finding yourself in an embarrassing ministry situation.
• If you studied classical philosophy or Catholic theology, or perhaps you just like donuts, here’s a refresher to enjoy with coffee.
• Giving it up for Lent: A Baptist writer thinks we should give up criticizing people who do or do not observe the 40-day tradition.
• Analyzing the “nones” finds many of them to be unaffiliated believers, not atheistic.  (“Nones” never works verbally; people think you mean “nuns.”)
• How to spiritualize a preference: Don’t like Daylight Saving Time? Turn your dislike into a sermon.
• On the one-year anniversary of their son Matthew’s death, Kay Warren says not to tell grieving people it’s time to move on.
• Infographic: The social media, music, books, conferences and controversies that shaped the Young, Restless and Reformed movement, aka The New Calvinism.
• Mark Driscoll has withdrawn his claim as a New York Times bestselling author in the wake of both criticism of his actions and exposure of the process that afforded that status.
• Whether you’re a pastor or author or neither, if you’ve gained a platform on social media, you can monetize it without selling your soul. (33 minute podcast with Michael Hyatt)
• With the relaunch of the TV show Cosmos, Phil Vischer asks why religion and science can’t just get along.
• Essay of the Week (1): Shana Niequist talks about her one-year older sister. You know her as Willow.
• Essay of the Week (2): Do Roman Catholics worship relics? The artifacts are important, but this writer thinks worship is the wrong word.
• Essay of the Week (3): In two U.S. states smoking pot is no longer illegal. Does that mean Christians are free to light up?
• Intermission: A 3-minute film based on an article by Pete Wilson.
• Orthodox Church leaders will meet for a rare summit in 2016; the last such meeting was 1,200 years ago.
• A New Mexico student pastor gets an “I am your father” message on Facebook which turns out to be true. (Actually, it was a little less Star-Warsy.)
• Marriage Checklist: Twelve reminders to keeping your spouse as your best friend.
• Need a little redemption after a long day at work? A Florida church offers drive-thru prayer in the church parking lot.
• Some see it as an extension of the church’s regulatory obligations, but here is an argument in favor of church membership…
• …Unless of course your church has these praise dancers. (Video clip not safe for church office, or possibly anywhere else.)
• The Pope’s first year: A video highlights reel…
• …and Shane Claiborne reflects on the pontiff’s first 365 days on the job.
• If you call your ministry Eternal Perspectives, it’s only a matter of time before you write about growing old…
• …at the same site, Randy Alcorn’s daughter Angela offers wisdom in using Facebook that applies to church leaders and everyone else.
• Book your flights; according to this rundown, Christian conference season is in high gear.
• Christianity and Culture: A review of Popcultured by Steve Turner.
• Video of the Week: The Fundamentalist classic, Be A Missionary.
• Seriously, Video of the Week: From Paul Baloche’s about-to-be released album recorded live in Toronto, He is Risen.
• Finally, an Easter gift for the person who has (almost) everything. For only $299, a full size replica of the Shroud of Turin.

All I know about this comic below is that I found it on the floor of my office, apparently photocopied from a 2002 book of Christian cartoons by Doug Hall. (Does anyone know the book title?) The sentiment expressed here is still alive and well a dozen years later.

Ground Zero’s ‘Other’ Worship Space

With September 11th behind us for another year — and the tenth anniversary only 364 days away — we switch our attention to a CNN story about The Other Worship Space at Ground Zero; a story we’ve never heard before this:

CNN’s Mary Snow and Alexia Mena bring us this report on the only place of worship destroyed on 9/11 and their hopes to rise at ground zero.

(CNN) –  The unassuming three-story St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church stood dwarfed in the shadow of the South Tower of the World Trade Center. Built in 1916 in the style of the old village parishes in Greece, its location in what became the glass and steel jungle of New York’s financial district was
curious, to say the least.

The church had a congregation of about 70 families. They vowed to rebuild it after the South Tower, engulfed in smoke, collapsed and crushed it on September 11, 2001. But no real progress has been made.

The church negotiated with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees construction at the site, and in 2008, both sides tentatively agreed that the church would rebuild nearby using tens of millions of dollars in public money. The plan also allowed the Port Authority to move ahead with a Vehicle Security Center, which is part of the World Trade Center redevelopment.

But the Port Authority said the church made extra demands that threatened to delay the construction of the entire site. It says it made its final offer in 2009 of up to $60 million and told St. Nicholas that the World Trade Center could not be delayed by the issue. It says the church rejected the offer and walked away.

Leaders at St. Nicholas have a different version of events…

Continue reading here.

Had you heard about this church before?

Ash Wednesday Link List

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the 40 days of Lent.

Some weeks the link list is rather lame, but this week, any one of these links could have been expanded into a full post.

Checking out a few of these takes time, but this week I urge you to make the time for topics here that interest you.

• A movie originally scheduled for release in 2007 providing scientific verifcation of Bible continues to grow in scope, sometimes crossing into new political sensitivities.   Read the ongoing story from WorldNetDaily about the film, The Exodus Conspiracy.
• Brian McLaren calls him “the Emergent Buddhist.”  The  YouTube  vid title is “Zen Monk Hip-Hop Rap & The Monk Bar.”  Gee…I wonder where they’re borrowing these concepts from?   Do they have megatemples?  See it here.
• If you’re in children’s ministry, you need to read this.   We already know Gen-X and Generation-Y.   Now read about Generation-Z.
• Here’s a freedom of religion story that has attracted nearly 700 comments at USAToday:  Muslims have announced that airport body scanners violate Islamic law.   The story is no surprise, really, but keep reading,  it’s the comments that reflect the American mood, running about 20:1 along the lines of, “If you don’t like it, you can walk.”   There’s definitely a lot of anger out there.
• Matt Appling at The Church of No People blog and Pastor of Levi’s House inteviews athiest Bruce Sheiman, author of An Athiest Defends Religion (Alpha Books, 2009).   Sample quote: “…It is questionable whether there has actually been a rise in militant atheism. More likely, there has been an increase in the vociferousness of existing militant atheism.”
• Fellowship Church’s Ed Young becomes the latest pastor to come under news media scrutiny, though he seems to defend himself admirably in a 25 minute briefing to his church.   Here’s what channel 8 had to say (8 minutes long) and Ed’s response.   But not everybody was impressed.
• A Christian version of Second Life?   Apparently.   Read Virtual World News to find out about the upcoming Universe of Faith.   Seriously.
• New Blog of the Week:   Orthodoxie.   A sometimes humorous look at life from an Orthodox Church perspective from Fr. Joseph Honeycutt the author of  We Came, We Saw, We Converted. Start with this piece of Poetic Lenten Humor.
• An often seen blog on these link lists is Jeff McQuilkin, who steps into a gigantic minefield with this article on experiencing reverse prejudice.
• Church conflict.   The very words can raise blood pressure.  David Fitch at Reclaiming The Mission searches for balance between the autocratic approach to church government and the democratic approach; and finds it in The Incarnational Approach to Leadership.
  
• All you diehard, hardcore Rob Bell fans will want to check out this five-page article at Leadership Journal where he unpacks his preaching process and suggests that the results aren’t yet in as to a possible dark side of video preaching.
  
• I love the name of this Kentucky town:  Falls of Rough.   Poetic, huh?   Anyway the blog for the Yeaman Church of Christ there has a short post titled, Why Do I Need The Church.
• Greg Atkinson thinks the song Meteor Shower by Owl City represents the future of worship music.   Check out his thoughts, and then — ONLY if you live in the U.S. — check out the song at lala.com.
• Another Christian book, CD and DVD website, Title Trakk claims to have all the answers, reviews, interviews, etc., with, not surprisingly, the appropriate links to iTunes and A-zon, and other commission-paying sites.
  
• Tim Archer takes a somewhat op-ed view of everybody’s efforts in Haiti, and expresses three concerns about the relief frenzy.
  
• Mark Driscoll’s book for men, Porn Again Christian is still available for free online reading at Re:Lit.   Mark doesn’t pull any punches or waste words on this topic.
  
• This week’s comics are from Joe McKeever at Baptist Press (upper) and Australian John Cook at A Time to Laugh

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