Wednesday Link List

Our pastor drew this on Sunday morning. Any guesses? I know it cleared up everything for me.

It appears that all my news gathering algorithms were no match for the slow news cycle of a Memorial Day weekend. Nonetheless, we have a great list for you, but our deal with PARSE is that you need to click through to their site and then select the story you want to see. Click anything below to link.

• Worship leaders of all makes and models convened at Calvin College last week to sort out the music of the last six decades.
• Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen and T. D. Jakes were among the authors caught in last week’s showdown between Hachette Book Group and Amazon.
• Richard Dawkins: “I would describe myself as a secular Christian in the same sense as secular Jews have a feeling for nostalgia and ceremonies.” The author was presenting the first volume of his memoirs and made the remark in response to a comment from an American minister.
• Interview of the Week (1): How important is reading to the development of spiritual life? Can you be illiterate and be a faithful Christian?
• Interview of the Week (2): The InterVarsity Fall 2014 Catalog is remarkable for its omission of authors of color.
• Last week an opinionated blogger suggested that the meditation practice known as Lectio Divina was “dangerous.” Here is an informed response.
• Did a church experience leave you or someone you know abused or burned out? They could be suffering from Post Traumatic Church Syndrome or PTCS.
• Clobber Verses Department: A rather good attempt at balance in the Leviticus prohibition against homosexuality.
• Essay of the Week (1): Despite their preponderance online, the New Calvinism movement must contend with some serious problems.
• Essay of the Week (2): When navigating your church through times of transition, there is a big difference between change and transformation.
• Essay of the Week (3): The honest, painful story of a couple who made the decision to terminate a pregnancy.
• Despite losing two sons in an Arkansas tornado, a mother affirms the goodness of God.
• If rush hour commuters are taking a short cut through your church parking lot anyway, why not install a prayer box?
• Apologetics Alley: When people you know are hung up on alleged Bible contradictions, here are ten principles to keep in mind when formulating your response.
• After years of silence followed by coming out gay, singer Jennifer Knapp is telling her story in a book releasing through Howard Publishing.
• The cover story of a UK Evangelical magazine proclaims that one’s stand on homosexuality has become the new litmus test for orthodoxy.
• The blog, Just a Thought continues its Five Questions series with a survivor of the worst disaster in U.S. Navy history.
• “The fact that all five of the greatest men in the Bible failed so miserably gives me incredible hope and encouragement.” The common denominator among Bible greats.
• Recurring Discussion Department: Why American Christians might want to reconsider reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
• For some visionaries, it seems that every time they have a great idea, it only takes nanoseconds for the leadership to say ‘No.’
• Here’s a double-header for a pastor whose blog I’ve been following for a long time: Keeping volunteers on message and avoiding the tendency to ‘fix’ people.
• If you’re considering “the ministry,” keep in mind that it’s not all glamor. Instead, it’s mostly nuts and bolts and odd hours.
• Here’s a book review that intrigued me. Mission Drift deals with Institutional Drift, which happens when organizations become distracted.
• In Canada, the Province of Quebec is re-introducing its controversial euthanasia legislation.
• The last remaining major newspaper reporter dedicated to religion news has had her position terminated after 27 years.
• Okay, admittedly he doesn’t update it very often, but infrequently Ed Young still posts at his Pastor Fashion blog.
• The choices may be a little biased, but if you want to balance out all the contemporary bloggers and Tweeters in your day with some classic writing, try The Old Guys.
• Hillsong’s “Oceans” (“You call me out upon the waters…”) has cracked a record set by MercyMe in 2003 for the longest run on the top of the Billboard Christian Songs Chart.
• CBN News profiles NHL veteran and Stanley Cup Champion Matt Cullen.
• Booked your Christian music festival for the summer? I love the website for June’s AtlantaFest 2014. Find an event near you at the Christian Festival Guide.

Got a suggestion for next week’s links? Find the contact page at Paul’s blog, Thinking Out Loud or via @PaulW1lk1nson and make some noise by noon on Monday.

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Wednesday Link List

• Napkin Thelogy: If you can communicate it better with a quick drawing, why not?
• Just like universities agree to honor some of each others credit courses, four Reformed denominations and the Roman Catholic Church have agreed to honor each others infant baptisms. (For some this confirms that the CRC denomination is not evangelical.)
  
• Here’s how some churches look at the issue of copyrights involving music or materials. This example is not a good example, though. 
• Church planters sometimes are often guilty of reacting to existing trends or conversely, copying existing trends. There are three other factors that can motivate planters, and certain risks and dangers in all five types.
  
• When you release a dove ceremonially, it’s not supposed to be attacked by seagulls.
• Should communion (Eucharist, Lord’s Supper) be done with a common cup or several cups? Actually, that’s not the issue; the real reason I posted this is because it’s a great example of taking Bible study notes.
• Or this question: Should Churches shift weekend service times to accommodate the Super Bowl game? Perry Noble’s church did.
  
• Last week Rachel Held Evans linked to a trio of articles with the common theme, Do Christians idolize virginity? One of the recommended articles is being recommended here as well; the story of a girl who believed that, in her words, I am Damaged Goods.
  
• For my local readers who enjoy Robin Mark’s annual visits here each summer, here’s the best version of the John Wesley song I can find. (YouTube audio.) Watched it three times on Saturday.
• Michael Belote has a very lengthy, heartfelt article on dieting that he then uses as springboard for looking at our spiritual diet. There are some great principles here including this question: Am I using the right fuel in the right amounts? This is a five-star blog post!
• We’re a bit late arriving at this one, but this February list transcends time. Here are 28 ways to show gratitude that are good anytime. 
• Wanna start a church in Orange County, California? You’d be in good company, and there are currently 17 churches for sale.
  
• A New Jersey pilot credits her faith in God for her and her passenger surviving a crash in the Hudson River.
• When Michael Hyatt spoke to real estate professionals about social media, he discovered they didn’t know what to post to Twitter or Facebook. Here are his ten suggestions. 
• Canadian hockey player Mike Fisher, now with the Nashville Predators, made Brad Lomenick‘s young influencers list for January. Here’s his testimony and a link to his Zondervan-published biography.
  
• The Calvinists gotta hate this song; but probably the Arminians are glad they have enough free will to turn off bad church music. Click for The Free Will Song.
• For something more contemporary… I’ve never been to the blimeycow YouTube channel before, but this take on five-minute instant worship songs, is far too cynical.
  
• …Click the images for sourcing from Clark Bunch’s blog (top) and Close to Home (below)…Feel free to add your favorite recent Christian blog links this week in the comments…

The Mark of Effective Witness

Story # 1

While tossing things in the laundry last week, I came across a black t-shirt marked “Campus Church” I hadn’t seen before.  A half hour later, I noticed the back of the shirt says, “Ask me about Jesus.”

I was later told that the idea behind the church is that in a multi-cultural melting pot like the greater Toronto area, where my oldest attends university, there are a number of things which serve as visible identifiers of someone who is part of a different faith — such as the headgear a Muslim girl or a Jewish boy might be wearing — but nothing to specifically indicate that someone is a Christian.  The shirt is an attempt to change all that.

So I asked my son, “Are you prepared if someone asks you about Jesus?”

To which he replied, “I usually wear a sweater over that shirt.”

…In balance, I should add that my son probably would be prepared — more than he realizes — and that he has expressed his desire to share his faith on campus.  I think, too that he would indeed find it genuinely easier if  they came to him with a question.  On the other hand, the weather has turned quite cool here, and I can’t picture myself walking around the campus without something warmer. 

Maybe they should have manufactured sweaters instead.

Story # 2

A couple we know invited their daughter to join them at a thing going on at another church.  While there, she spotted someone she was a little unprepared to see, and quickly got out her phone and texted a friend from work.

You won’t believe where I just saw our boss–
In church.

(She probably used some appropriate txt abbreviations.)

Her mom told this story to my wife who said the friend texted back that she was equally incredulous.  Apparently, there’s nothing at work to indicate that this guy — who is highly respected among the people at the church — would be there.  Quite the opposite, actually.  

Unfortunately, this kind of story replays all too often. The challenge to those of us who’ve crossed the line of faith, is not to be the guy in the story.

What Are Your Spiritual “Numbers?”

We don’t have a high “comments-to-readers” ratio here, and it would probably easier just to give up, but I want to take a run at this anyway, and if we only get a small handful of replies, that’s fine.

Since this is about numbers let’s number the question(s):

1. C. S. Lewis, among others, advanced the idea of salvation more as a “process” experience more than a “crisis” experience, but for most Christians — especially Evangelicals — emphasis is placed on remembering specific cathartic moments when we “crossed the line of faith.”  So as you think to that time, what age were you when you, depending on the type of language used, “accepted” Christ or acknowledged him for the first time??
2. Churches impose other spiritual “rites of passage.”  While we don’t have confirmation in the tradition that I grew up in, believers baptism by immersion was the norm.   What age were you when you really (a) went public with your faith, or (b) affirmed or confirmed a commitment you may have made at a younger age??
3. Spiritual formation doesn’t always follow a straight graph line, and doesn’t always conform to the age at which we participated in certain church experiences.  Was there a later time where through circumstances or some other “ah ha!” moment things crystallized for you spiritually??  A time that Jesus went from being ‘savior’ to being ‘Lord’??
   
4. It’s not about numbers.   What do you make of the numbers you responded with?? Perhaps your spiritual walk is more characterized by a “new every morning” kind of journey.  Are there things we can learn by looking back to see how far we’ve come, or by sharing our story with others??
   
5. Are you moving closer to the cross??  Do you see yourself maturing spiritually, or do you long for the experiences or zeal or joy you had as you reflect on previous days?

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