Wednesday Link List

I spent a lot of the week listening to Christian radio stations from around the world on DeliCast.com; so the temptation was to make the entire list this week simply links to all the wonderful stations I found. However, reason prevailed…  Each of the following will lead you back to Out of Ur, a division of Christianity Today, where you may then click through to the stories.

• So as to not keep you in suspense, we’ll kick off with the news that religious liberty lives in East Tennessee for snake handling denominations. Church motto: There’s an asp for that.
• Shortest. Church. Service. Ever. I hope nobody drove any distance to this church.
• This December article at 9Marks also appeared at Gospel Coalition offering some interesting insights into the sharing of pastoral leadership authority in the local church.
• Open Doors USA has released its latest World Watch list of the most dangerous places to be a Christian, including some changes from last year’s list.
• Explaining the confiscation of three Bibles from a commercial bookstore, a spokesman for the Agency for Religious Affairs in Kazakhstan said, “The Kazakh state must defend our citizens from harmful materials.” Twelve icons were also seized.  Asked if they were harmful, he replied, “We have experts to check icons.”
• Compassion has assembled an infographic which illustrates some rather shocking economics related to human sex-trade trafficking.
• One observant writer sees Perry Noble’s New Spring College as simply an inversion of their apprenticeship program: Instead of paying students, students pay them.
• Changes to the Church of England liturgy for infant baptism now lets parents and godparents off the hook for dalliances with the devil.
• James Dobson says he’ll shut down his current ministry organization before he’ll comply with new U.S. health care requirements for employers to cover abortion products.  I have no doubt he’s serious.
• The latest volley in the Mark Driscoll plagiarism discussion suggests that in addition to whatever authors were involved, Driscoll also plagiarized himself.
• Randy Alcorn is scheduled to preach a Sunday morning service, but moments before it starts, the pastor has other plans.
• Provocative suggestion of the week: “John Piper’s doctrine is not Reformed, not even Protestant, but pre-reformation Roman Catholic!” Read more here.
• I deliberately omitted this article from last week about conservative fundamentalist men who engage in what we might call ‘wife discipline’ encounters of the corporal punishment kind. This week, I decided it’s something to be aware of.
• Using an internet example we all can relate to, here’s a refreshing discussion on why the Bible translation process involves more nuances than we might think.
• Which is a good place to mention that College Park Church in Indianpolis, Indiana — weekly attendance: 4,000 — raised $1 million in a single pre-Christmas offering for Wycliffe Bible Translators.
• Meanwhile, if you’re an average American, I am 90% sure you own a Bible, and 85% sure you don’t read it.
• At my own blog this week, more details about DeliCast, the radio portal I mentioned in this week’s intro; and my encouragement to megachurch pastors to follow Greg Laurie’s lead and consider crusade-style outreach.
• So…that story about the Adventist pastor who wanted to live like an atheist for a year? Well here’s a surprise, he lost his job as a seminary professor. Who better to pick up the story than Hemant Mehta aka The Friendly Atheist.  And you won’t believe this twist.
• There are some things about children’s and youth ministry I remember well, and others I’d like to forget ever happened.
• Just in case you need it, Todd Rhoades offers pastors seven things to include in your resignation letter.
• Or, if you’re on the receiving end of a resignation letter, eight tips on how to respond.
• Here we go again: This time seven children were removed from a Texas home over the parents’ right to home-school them. At the time of the article four had been returned.
• I didn’t recognize the titles, but someone took the time to assemble a list of the worst Christian book covers of 2013. (You’ll like #1.) (Here’s last year’s list, too.)
• Parenting Place: One of the challenges of parenting in today’s world is that often kids feel a sense of entitlement.
• Question of the Week: If you regularly attend movies and listen to popular music, is what we term as ‘engaging the culture’ just a sophisticated way of justifying worldliness?
• Still in weather recovery? An economics professor used his snow day off to build a church.
• A devotional thought: Now that ‘selfie’ is in the Oxford Dictionary, what does it say about our culture?
• Someone tries to prank a Christian TV show, but the host turns it around, perhaps unwittingly.

Paul Wilkinson writes from Canada (Motto: Home of the Polar Vortex) and blogs at Thinking Out Loud and edits Christianity 201, a daily devotional.

 

Wednesday Link List

I couldn’t decide whether my intro should tie in with Halloween or All Saints Day, so I decided to play it safe and just get to this week’s links…These links don’t actually link to anything other than today’s Out of Ur version of the list!

• The UK has become Biblically illiterate to the point where while watching the Monty Python movie, Life of Brian, viewers no longer get the humor.
• The Liberty Convocation videos on YouTube are a Who’s Who of Christians thinkers and leaders. Last week they welcomed National Community Church pastor Mark Batterson.
• Essay of the Week: This one will leave you speechless. A writer shares her heart in the middle of a marriage that seems like a giant mistake.
• Analogy Avenue: One more response to John MacArthur’s conference, this one invoking transportation (trains and the lunar rover) from author Mark Rutland.
• So here is possibly the last word on that kid who was given the name Messiah, and the challenges that could create.
• After Natalie Grant and Wow 2014, the number 3 position on the Billboard Christian music chart goes to Bryan and Katie Torwalt. “Who,” you ask? They’re part of Jesus Culture, and sound like this.
• Randy Alcorn engages the subject of pro-life organizations that use explicit photographs to reinforce their anti-abortion message.
• The authors of the non-Canonical gospel texts hoped that they would be taken seriously. It’s our job, however, to eliminate the late stories and isolate the early eyewitness accounts, even though we’re tempted to do otherwise.
• The only thing noteworthy about an article that advocates for Christians to enjoy dancing, is when you find it at the website of Associated Baptist Press.
• When your kids have a question, do they ask you, or do they automatically take all their questions to a search engine?
• If you get struck by lightning twice in the same day, you may be correct in assuming that God is trying to get your attention.
• When you read the Bible, do you follow the Flyover Route, the Direct Route, or the Scenic Route? David Kenney reviews a new NLT edition I’ve had my eye on for awhile: The Wayfinding Bible. (Tyndale Publishing, you have my address!)
• Resource of the Week: You’ll want to bookmark (or share) Sam Storms’ eleven factors that can destroy objectivity in Bible hermeneutics, along with his basic rules for Bible interpretation.
• Passionate Teaching: I always love it when Wheaton College’s Dr. Gary Burge drops in for a midweek service at Willow.
• In Detroit a female Bishop in a Baptist denomination informed her congregation that for more than six months she has been married to another woman. And then she resigned.
• After a week of focus on Steven Furtick’s house and John MacArthur’s conference, who would guess our attention on the weekend would be on Mark Driscoll, as evidenced here, here and here?
• Meanwhile, Furtick debriefed his church on all the attention they’ve been getting.
• Here’s another article suggesting you take an Internet hiatus. What makes this different is that it spells out exactly how to keep important messages coming. (Don’t all of you do this however, or nobody will be here next week!)
• Here’s a link that gets you eight more links…to eight short newsletter articles the National Association of Evangelicals published on the subject of Holy Humor. (Includes some writers you know well.)
• …And speaking of links to other links, here’s what an Academic edition of the Wednesday Link List might look like. (Brian LePort publishes one of these each week.)
• 48% of teenagers have received a sexually explicit message on their smartphones. A mobile monitoring system offers some advice applicable to youth workers.
• Get Religion is a media analysis site which last week looked at the coverage of the baptism of England’s Prince George from two different perspectives on what wasn’t mentioned.
• Got 3 minutes? Turns out Eric Niequist, the brother of Willow Creek’s Aaron Niequist has a film company which recently completed this very short film.
• That wraps up this week’s list. If we could end with a cartoon, it would be this one.

The Wednesday Link List is produced in our studios just east of Toronto, Canada where, for the record, we don’t have snow yet. Any rebroadcast, retransmission, or account of this link list, without the express written consent of Major League Baseball, is prohibited.

Today’s graphics were located at Matthew Paul Turner’s blog.

Wednesday Link List

Wednesday List Lynx

Not only these, but there was a link list on Saturday as well. *UPDATE* 8:00 PM — Yes, I know about the PSY parody. We might run it here Friday. Click to watch Farmer Style. *END UPDATE*

• Since 1642 it has been against the rules of the Roman Catholic Church to use tobacco during the mass. Learn more in a history of the church, the saints and smoking.
• And speaking of the Catholic Church, here’s the photo-op of the week where Pope Benedict invites circus and street performers to The Vatican and as a long time cat lover, gets to pet a lion cub.
• “Whenever there is a fire in a house of worship, it has a tremendous impact on the fabric of a community,” said a Cape Cod fire marshal after a Christian and Missionary Alliance church fell victim to arson.
• Two years after recording a Christmas album, Canada’s Steve Bell has another one. Read about Keening for the Dawn and if you hurry, your copy will ship in time for the 24th.
• Okay, how about an article showing parallels in two lives: Justin Bieber and King David? According to Ben at the blog On Pop Theology, it’s not that big a stretch.
  
• The recent tensions at Sovereign Grace Ministries could mean the severing of ties from one of its flagship churches.
  
• Francis Chan had huge hits with Crazy Love and Forgotten God, but I had wondered if Multiply was more of a curriculum item. Customers didn’t. The book landed on a New York Times ‘advice’ bestseller list.
• Greg Koukl either answers or skirts the following question in a short video: Are angels also made in God’s image? What do you think?
• Jennings’ Messiah? In a modern world, corporate sponsorship and branding would rule the day. We may call it Handel’s Messiah, but latest evidence points to the fact that Handel’s patron was Charles Jennings, without whom the project wouldn’t have happened.
• Ten years ago the Liberty Counsel started the “Naughty or Nice” list showing retailers which acknowledge Christmas and which ones marginalize the holiday’s faith origin. Which side of the list do you think is growing?
• For people in youth ministry and student ministry, here’s a link that will take you to a sample chapter of Ministering to Gay Teenagers from Six:11 Ministries. 
• Like the Energizer Bunny, InterVarsity’s student missions conference, Urbana, just keeps on going. This year it’s in St. Louis from Dec 27 – 31.
  
• Thinking Out Loud flashback post: When “OMG” and “WTF” Come to Church. And watch your language.
• Ethics Department: Even after you’ve made the right decision, it doesn’t mean you’re done wrestling with it. 
• Too late for this year’s Thanksgiving, but I still enjoyed this 6.5 minute film from Ransom.tv about the importance of family.
  
• The UK’s ChurchAds.net is to blame for the God Baby ads. “He cries. He wees. He saves the world.” Cute advertising copy or borderline blasphemy? You decide. Don’t look for an image here, I’m not reposting it.
• The proprietor of Ironic Catholic thinks the Coexist folks are making things a little crazy:
  

• The lynx is not alone this time: We end today with some book covers which appeared here in a 2008 post dealing with whether or not Fluffy and Fido will be in heaven. These are real books that were available for purchase when the post was written. First we took the Chuck Colson position that argues against animals in the afterlife. Then, four months later, in August, 2008; I was persuaded by the Randy Alcorn position which argues for furry friends, though not resurrected ones. Trust me, you could split a church over this topic…

Wednesday Link List

John McPherson of Close to Home fame kicks off and ends this week’s link list.  Click the images to view more.  I wonder if Rob Bell bought the print or t-shirt of the one above?

• Is the term ‘Evangelical’ losing its meaning or become too broad a term?  Randy Alcorn digs deep into that question.
• A year too late, as it turned out, I discovered Lance, who made some of the best fan videos for Christian music songs I’ve ever seen.  Check out God of this City.  Anybody know if he’s making these under another user name?
  
• And speaking of music, Dan Kimball returns — I think he’s covered this before — to question the whole notion of “worship equals music” which can cloud our thinking about true worship.
  
• How could I not link to an article titled, “Oral Tradition of the Gospels and Justin Bieber”? Actually, Dan Rodger makes a good point about the reliability of scripture.
• Can I still use the word “missional” without sounding dated?  Andrew Jones aka Tall Skinny Kiwi has a great video embed titled Church Without a Wall.
  
• You’d be forgiven for not knowing this, but the Roman Catholic Church has done some serious thinking about the use of worship music in its services.  Read about this at Internet Monk.
  
• Anyone who has ever dealt with foreign language issues knows the absurdity of some of our Bible translation debates, as Dana illustrates with a couple of Spanish examples.
  
• As her book Not Afraid of Life is published, Bristol Palin talks about abstinence with Christianity Today.
  
• Brad Lomenick gets Jon Acuff to say funny things.  BTW, Jon guested at Cross Point Church at all the weekend services; audio/video is at iTunes.
  
• As promised we end with another John McPherson.  If I’m remembering correctly, back in the day John had a book or two of his religious-flavored panels published by Zondervan.
  

Wednesday Link List

How about changing the name to “Linkerama”?  Just kickin’ around some ideas.  Looks like the links lynx is back!

• The guy who wrote the book Heaven kept getting asked his opinion about the popular Todd & Colton Burpo title, Heaven Is For Real.  Read what Randy Alcorn thinks about the bestselling story.
  
• I love it when bloggers make themselves available off the blog to help readers through issues, such as Zach at Take Your Vitamin Z discussing the rarely spoken issue of sexual dysfunction in marriage.
• This one’s guaranteed to get you thinking.  Will there be wheelchairs in heaven? Quote: For me, if there is a heaven, it’s not a place where I’ll be able to walk. It’s a place where it doesn’t matter if you can’t. Check out Mark Stephenson’s essay, Will People Have Disabilities in Heaven.
• “…those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.”  Phil Johnson at Team Pyro discusses the idea of True Worship.
• This one is a longer piece, but it’s very worth reading and very balanced.  Matt Chandler tackles: Is Church Membership Biblical?
• And while we’re talking eccesiology, Baptist theology professor James Hamilton considers the frequency of communion services; How Often Should a Church Take The Lord’s Supper?
• Three-for-three on church related subjects:  Bill Mounce mourns the loss of someone who, after much training, leaves the ministry after only a short time, for all the saddest reasons.
• Actually one more; no, two more!  From the Shrink-The-Church blog, Ten Reasons to Tell if People Love Your Church More than Jesus and Five Things We Need To Learn From The Mormon Church.
• Social Justice Department: An interesting video of 24 hours as seen through the eyes of a homeless man outfitted with a hidden camera.
• RB really opened up a can of worms, didn’t he.  This time it’s Crystal Lewis with Seven Reasons Why I Don’t Believe in Hell.
• Just in time for middle school graduation, WAY-FM’s morning guy, Brant Hansen on Seven Myths of High School.
• James MacDonald posts three more clips from the early spring Elephant Room Conference, which brought himself, Steven Furtick, Matt Chandler, David Platt, Mark Driscoll, Greg Laurie and Perry Noble together to discuss everything from soup to nuts.
• Music clip of the week — five of them, actually — is the Rolling Hills Christian Church worship band.
  
• In case you missed it, here are actual ten most posted Bible verses on Twitter and Facebook in the wake of the death of Osama bin Laden.
  
• For those of you into church architecture, CBC Television documents a church relocation project, though it won’t be a church when it reopens.  Not even close.
  
• Most of you know we usually end here with a cartoon, so it seemed fitting to mention that this week on Rick Apperson’s excellent ‘Five Questions With…’ series he interviews the star of posters, greeting cards and coffee mugs, artist Cuyler Black.
  
• Our cartoon this week is from Dave Walker at CartoonChurch.com and — since we had all those church-related links this week — takes a closer look at a CHURCH KITCHEN:

• What is about church life that gives us so much material for everything from Christian satire sites to cartoons?  This one is from Tim Walburg at ToonFever.com aka Church and Family Cartoons:

Wednesday Link List

The links are back!   Here are some highlights of my past seven days online…

• The upper picture is another classic entry from the classic photo site, Shorpy.com; which I’ve mildly colorized.    It’s an auditorium in Ocean City, NJ set up for a revival meeting sometime in the time period 1900 – 1910.   Click here or  on the image all the way through for a full size image.  (It’s my computer desktop this week!)
• Donald Miller explains why, for now, the movie based on the Thomas Nelson book Blue Like Jazz isn’t happening.
• Elsewhere in film production, City on a Hill, the people who brought you the Alpha-Course-alternative known as H20 have brought Kyle Idleman back to host  a new series titled Not a Fan.
• Bill Mounce wades into the subject of accuracy in Bible translations in the first of a weekly series.
  
• Randy Morgan gives you an inside peek into the world of pastors, and how and why the whole guest speaker thing occasionally happens.
• Okay, that fun, but maybe it was a little superficial; so do this instead:  Click on Randy’s home page, and scroll back to September 13th and then check out his five-part series on his visit to the local AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) chapter.   Long, but worth it, especially if you have family or personal history with AA.
• 

  Link list links

  Preparing for the upcoming Eighth Letter conference in Toronto, Matt at the blog, The Church of No People, delivers his pressing message for the church in North America.

• It’s 7-pages long, but Christianity Today gets into depth on the church’s relationship with sex offenders.
• CNN boldly goes into a full scientific explanation for what happened when Moses parted the Red Sea.
• A repost of a classic poem asks the question What would He say, if He should come today?    Also at Christianity 201, the Love Chapter from I Corinthians rewritten for kids; and something borrowed from David Hayward, aka Naked Pastor.
  
• Following in the tradition of Russell D. Moore — who this week deals with a tough dilemma — and inspired by the Desiring God video series, Randy Alcorn is inviting questions at Ask Randy; but the deadline is today, Wednesday the 22nd.
  
• Zach at Take Your Vitamin Z linked this week to this New York Times article which is self explanatory:  Deciding Not To Screen for Down Syndrome.
  
• Seen something online you think should be here next week?   Try to get to me by noon on Tuesday.
  
• Well…choosing a cartoon for this week’s list was no contest after Abraham Piper reminded all of us of this classic:  Solomon’s ideal woman as reflected in Song of Solomon interpreted literally; just as it appeared all those years ago at The Wittenburg Door.

Wednesday Link List

There you go.   We’re number one.   Because e-mail is now mostly a mobile thing; social networks and blogs currently dominate online computer time.   Click the image to read the full report.

…I’m not exactly sure about this, but I think I am:  I got an e-mail this week from someone I’ve been e-mailing  for many years, who perhaps didn’t realize that when I send her something and it appears on her screen in blue with a line underneath, that’s a LINK and she’s supposed to click on it.   So just in case anybody here is missing the point, these little bullet points are not an end in themselves.   They are LINKS and it’s expected that you’re clicking on the ones that interest you.

• The producers of the movies Fireproof and Facing The Giants have a 5-minute documentary on the website for their new movie, Courageous.
• Can you handle another Bible translation?   Coming soon to a bookstore near you:  The Common English Bible.
  
• John Ortberg asks the musical question, “Who speaks for Evangelicals?”  Or to make it more personal, “These days, who speaks for you?”  [Related on this blog, see trend # 10 for 2009]
  
• Self-styled “pastor of the nerds,” Tony Kim provides a rundown of his visit to Comic Con.
• Here’s the video for the book trailer of Peter Hitchens’ book (the brother of atheist Christopher Hitchens) The Rage Against God:  How Atheism Led Me To Faith (Zondervan).
• The church that markets coffee mugs proclaiming “Islam is of the Devil” has a Quran burning ceremony scheduled for September 11th, though not every Christian group agrees with their tactics.
• Time for some time-travel with David Fisher:  If you could spend a summer afternoon with any of the saints who are no longer with us, who would make your short list?   Check out his sixteen saints.
• Another video link, this is a beautiful worship song; check out Keith & Kristyn Getty’s  Creation Sings the Father’s Song.
  
• Talbot Davis suggests a different reason for introducing change in our local churches:  Because it creates muscle confusion.
• Should an Anglican priest have slipped a communion wafer to a dog who went forward?   An interim priest in Toronto did just that, and now the Bishop isn’t very happy.
• Megan Hyatt Miller — daughter of Thomas Nelson’s Michael Hyatt — comes face to face with her inability to embrace the current social justice movement because she just doesn’t like the poor.
• Many of you know this story, but for those who don’t here’s an interview Mark Driscoll did with Randy Alcorn explaining why Randy doesn’t keep his book royalties, and why he works for minimum wage.
• Matt at The Church of No People blog suggests, “…when Christians can’t find the words to share Jesus, a much easier method of evangelism is available.  All you have to do is become a walking billboard.”  Check out Christian socks.
  
• This has been up for over a year, but I found it interesting that the people from xtranormal.com (the text-to-movie site) took a script from Lifeline Productions (those little comedy moments you hear on Christian radio) about trying to earn salvation, and turned it into a video.   Watch 1,000 Points.
• Is she in or she is out?   Vampire author Anne Rice is either out or simply challenging some definitions of  ‘Christian.’  Another author, John Shore, tries to sort it all out.  (No, she writes about vampires, she isn’t one herself…)  As does the Christian Q&A guy, Russell D. Moore who sees this as a definite leave of absence from the faith.
  
• Piper gets asked if it’s okay for a guy to listen to Beth Moore, or female speakers in general.   His answer is somewhat conditional.
  
• Speaking of women in ministry, Pam Hogeweide has an interesting perspective in Happy Christian Women, which Kathy Escobar then picked up as a natural lead-in to three(1) more(2) posts(3) which deal with “Spiritual Refugees;” people who have been displaced from the church.  Each post includes a 12-minute video.
  
• On the topic of links, if you have a blog, consider adding Thinking Out Loud to your blogroll.
  
• Hoping to save marine life after the BP Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a 67-year old man has modeled his rescue project on Noah’s Ark.
  
• Our cartoon this week is from Rev. Fun.  You see these on various websites and blogs rather frequently, but there’s also a print version that went on sale this summer.   For that person who isn’t internet connected, check out Rev. Fun … Offline from Zondervan.

Wednesday Link List

Another Wednesday rolls around… where did you go this week online?

• Ruth Tucker at Christianity Today marks  the passing of Moishe Rosen, the sometimes controversial founder of Jews for Jesus, as does an article in the New York Times.
• Readers of The Internet Monk blog can catch a free download of the first chapter of the late Michael Spencer’s book, Mere Churchianity.
• A candid Leadership Magazine interview with Francis Chan — is he ever not candid? — about how things work at Cornerstone Church.
• While I usually laugh at the blog, Stuff Fundies Like, here’s a piece that makes a very, very solid point about Outcome Based Justification.  If just one person clicks on this…
  
• Yikes!  A 13-year-old student in New York State can’t wear a rosary to school because of a statute prohibiting “gang related dress.”  Who ya gonna call?  Jay Sekulow.   But wait a minute, could the school board be justified?  The police think so.
  
• Blogger Jeff Leake has reason to be proud of his talented 16-year old son, Josh Leake who has released a new album.   Right now they’re selling actual CDs, but they might want to also consider downloads.   Check out his MySpace page.
• Trevin Wax thinks that, “Traditional evangelistic strategies are not necessarily deficient in what they say, but in what they assume.”  Read more at Kingdom People.
  
• I know a number of bloggers have already mentioned this, but if you’re a parent, you need to watch this Vimeo clip from Randy Alcorn about Pornography from 12 days ago, and also this more recent one — despite the audio problems — from 7 days ago for parents who have daughters.
  
• What is God’s relationship to time.   Not an easy question.   Start your thinking process at this article at Prodigal Magazine.
• Unequally yoked?  Russell D. Moore got a letter in April about a conservative, dispensational Calvinist marrying a tongues-speaking Pentecostal.  Two weeks later, he’s still getting mail.
  
• Blog discovery of the week (but it’s been around since 2007) — E-Royal by Royal Farris.   Lots of good video embeds recently.  Which is where I first saw…
  
• “The Gospel According To Krispy Kreme” a ten-minute YouTube video of Louie Giglio from 2009.
  
• Whatever happened to scripture memory.   Here’s a top ten list of some Bible passages everyone should know by heart.
• It would be great if God spoke to us by sending little written notes to us throughout the day.   That’s the theme of this 2-minute free sermon video download at Floodgate Productions.
• Currently reading:  I actually don’t limit my reading to Christian books; I’m currently enjoying The Fortune Cookie Chronicles by Jennifer 8. Lee.  (Love that middle initial!)  The book is a fascinating history of Chinese food.   I discovered Jennifer at TED Talks.
• Currently fundraising: Chris, our oldest is going to be working in the kitchen at a Christian camp for ten weeks this summer.   Based on a 48-hour (i.e. six day) week, they’re giving him $3.00 per hour; he has to come up with sponsors for the rest.   Contact us if you want to help.
• Currently listening to:  A Ton of Worship.  A  collection of church worship from the UK, but check out the stats:  5-CDs.  20 songs per CD.   That’s 100 songs for only $12.99 US/$15.99 CDN.  Also a kids version for $9.99 US/$12.99 CDN.   From Kingsway Music.
• Message to certain bloggers:  Your Twitter updates are really slowing down your page loads.   Is it worth it?
• Question to video uploaders:  Why Vimeo and not YouTube?   I have a fairly high speed connection, but the Vimeo server — especially when embedded in blogs — doesn’t even come close to the speed of the YouTube servers.
• Our cartoon panel this week is from Calvinist Cartoons by Eddie Eddings (c/o John Scaddington).

Wedneslinkday

This is, without doubt, the most amazing link list I’ve ever posted this week:

• Phil Johnson wonders what Mosaic teaching pastor Erwin McManus is thinking with his production of “Casket” — wherein a guy stages his own funeral — as the play appears, in Phil’s opinion, relatively devoid of anything close to a proclamation of the gospel.    Read the piece and its comments at Pyromaniacs.
• All the money being donated for Haiti is being ‘parked’ in a contingency account for the next emergency?   That’s the suggestion of an anonymous disaster relief worker at this “Stop Donating!” post on the blog Solar Crash.
• Tony Campolo explains why he’d like to add “Do You Hear The People Sing?” from Les Mis and “The Impossible Dream” from The Man of La Mancha to the repertoire of your church’s worship team (!) at this interview on Christians and the Arts at the blog The Virtual Pew Daily.
• Randy Alcorn re-examines the notion that our charitable giving should always be done in secret.   Yes, he knows that it was Jesus that suggested that, but he offers a fresh look at that passage, and a few others at Eternal Perspective Ministries.
• Ever feel like you’re invisible?   Jeff Leake embedded this six-minute YouTube video featuring Nicole Johnson, which he says he also used at last weekend’s services at his church.   Check out his blog, The Launch Pad.
• Darryl Dash doesn’t think it was intentional, but somewhere along the line, the “invocation” or “call to worship” which once started most Evangelical worship services, became the “welcome,” which isn’t really the same thing.   Check out this short but important post at DashHouse.
• The Post is titled, “How Much Weight Do We Grant To Experience?” though a better, albeit somewhat longer title might be, “What are the Advantages of Aligning Oneself with Groups That Have Frequently Encountered Opposition?”   Okay, maybe the short title works just as well.   This interesting topic over at Pastor Matt‘s blog is begging for more of you to jump in.
• Horror of Horrors!  Here’s a blog post is devoted to eight things Paul Clark enjoyed about “the little church” he visited last weekend; but it begins with describing the place as “the small church we are acquiring as a future satellite.”   It’s like the head of Starbucks saying how much he enjoyed having a coffee at the little neighborhood shop they’re about to demolish.   Well, actually there’s more to it than that.   Check out, “What I Liked.”
• Andrew Jones aka Tall Skinny Kiwi summons all the courage he has to go inside a…  wait for it … Christian bookstore.   Apparently these places frighten him.   Read part one of the hair-raising account.
• David Fitch suggests that if the church you’re visiting next Sunday is truly missional, there are eight things you should notice right away.    Actually, we think these eight things should be present regardless of other considerations.  Check it out at Reclaiming The Mission.   Excellent article.
• Reformed blogger Kevin DeYoung suggests that if we’re going to toss around the phrase “social justice” we would do well to define it first.   Read his “Modest Proposal” at DeYoung, Restless and Reformed.
• This one takes us back to December 21st (that’s light years ago in blogging terms) and a refreshing list of “redefinitions” of commonly used religious terms at the blog Kingdom Grace.
  
• Pastor Mark Driscoll approaches the 14-year anniversary of Mars Hill Seattle with some things he would do differently he could.
  
• Not enough links here?   How about a list of the Top 55 Pastor Bloggers.   That’s what it’s called.   Some of them are really links for pastors.     Check it out at the Online Christian Colleges site.
  
• Our cartoons this week are from A Time to Laugh drawn by Aussie comic artist John Cook.

Here’s another one:

James Garlow: Heaven and the Afterlife

One of the frustrations of the Christian publishing market are so many titles tripping over themselves saying essentially the same things.   I rather expected Heaven and the Afterlife to be a good review pick having read (out loud, actually) 50 Days of Heaven which an abridgment of Randy Alcorn’s longer work, Heaven. I figured it would somehow qualify me to compare two works on the same topic, and quickly write a short 150-word review.

Instead, I found myself with something completely different; a title much more comprehensive on diverse subjects that preoccupy the thoughts of many; a book  that would also appeal to those who had read 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper, or 23 Minutes in Hell by Bill Wiese, not to mention Angels by Billy Graham and a whole raft of titles by Grant Jeffrey.    In fact, the book is so wide in scope that while Garlow cites Randy Alcorn, he does so only a couple of times.

The book begins with the subject of near death experiences (NDEs) and moves on to after death communication (ADC) and takes an approach that I think would appeal to the general reader, the secularist, even the skeptic.   It’s lighter on Biblical content in the earlier chapters, instead easing into the topic by raising the questions which all of us — churched and non-churched alike — often ask when dealing with these difficult subjects.   Later chapters discuss angels, demons, reincarnation, eschatology and the concept of purgatory.

Every one of the 21 chapters in this book could really be a book in itself.  At times  —  such as the chapter on demons or the chapter on end-times judgment — Garlow leaves us wanting more; at others, he covers the ground so quickly that I wonder if skeptics would accept the progressive reasoning, or would, like Wikipedia editors, cry “citation needed.”

But I think that is exactly the point.   In 258 pages of text, the best one can offer is a general overview.  The subject of heaven specifically and the subject of the afterlife in general, is indeed a complex series of discussions which probably touch on even more than the 21 topics contained here.    Where the book most succeeds is to show us that these topics are interconnected and part of a unified whole; considerations that must be weighed against the “big picture” conceived in the mind of God, and reflective of His very nature.

So while the book assumes a basic concession to the Biblical view on such things, it also helps us improve our Biblical literacy on these topics, and builds respect for the scriptural take on death and the end-times.

Therefore, I want to modify what I said last week in a preview to this review.   I still think the book might be useful to give to someone who hasn’t yet crossed the line of faith; but I think it would work better if given to someone who is already moving in that direction but has some questions.    While I might be tempted to file this book under “H” for heaven or “D” for death, I think it also has a place under “A” for apologetics.

If you don’t know Garlow, he is a most prolific writer, a pastor at Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego and holds six — count ’em — theological degrees.   So he’s quite capable of dealing in later chapters with two current “hot button” topics:  Universalism (which can be an ‘all roads lead to God’ viewpoint, or an ‘everyone is saved in the end’ theory)  and Annihilation (the idea that those who don’t accept Christ simply cease to exist after death.)   He deals honestly with the arguments used in support of these positions and shows respect for their proponents, but then explains why he cannot buy in.

If a book may be judged by its ability to deliver on its title, Heaven and the Afterlife contains — theologically speaking — everything but the kitchen sink.   This is the current exhaustive treatment of the breadth and width of this topic.

Heaven and the Afterlife – James L. Garlow with Keith Wall (Bethany House, 2009; paperback, $13.99 US)

Enjoy the book reviews in Thinking Out Loud?   Then you might also want to check out “The Nearsighted Bookworm,” where reviewer Janis covers the latest Christian fiction and non-fiction titles.   Click here to connect.