Wednesday Link List

We scan the internet so you don’t have to!

• You still have a few more days left to catch the entire service rebroadcast of Rick and Kay Warren’s return to their church, or as my wife calls it, Back in the Saddleback Again.
• Jamie Wright contrasts the type of worship service that took place on the mission field with the way it’s done in North America, and who is doing it wrong.
• If you haven’t yet, check out the Dictionary of Christianese which takes all those cliches we toss around rather seriously. Check out bumper sticker theology and cafeteria Christianity.
• Oil and Water Department: Jenni Catron offers 4 foundations for healthy relationships between leaders and creative types.
• Who sends the most missionaries? Who receives the most missionaries? The data may surprise you.
• Essay of the Week: I’ve been reading Steve McCoy since I discovered the Christian blogosphere and have prayed for them during Molly’s illness. This is a must-read piece on what the wedding vows sound like after two decades.
• The answer to this question depends on what you mean by asking: Is all scripture from the Lord?
• Story stress: A Christian fiction author asks her readers if they prefer a slower build to a shorter climax or a heart-pumping series of ever-increasing dangers and difficulties?
• Once Upon a Time Department: A look back how technology impacted ministry, but in this case, the technology was radio.
• At my own blog this week, a look at how it’s not in Amazon’s best interest to see brick and mortar bookstores closing.
• When Grandma tells the kids, “”My greatest hope is that all of you will grow up to serve the Lord as missionaries and pastors;” she may be front-loading the children with vocational guilt.
• In the continuing debate about the effectiveness of short-term missions, perhaps the best situation has short-term workers working alongside long-term workers.
• You’ve probably seen this by now, but this interview with a professor of New Testament studies is being called the most embarrassing interview Fox News has ever done.
• At Reformation21, Carl Trueman says there’s a difference between childish and childlike and it’s determined by our response to external authority.
• Selective emphasis. That’s the nice of way of saying what others would call cherry picking the Bible.
• And from the ministry conglomerate — gotta remember that term — that brings you Out of Ur: A new website, Church Law & Tax.
• It’s so simple: Microenterprise development is a “hidden hero” in ending modern-day slavery because it creates jobs. Job creation is essential to preventing human trafficking.  Read more about the secret heroes, the job creators.
• It started with The Pawn and now with the release of The King, The Bowers Files mystery fiction series is complete. Enjoy an interview with author Steven James.
• Last week American pastor Saeed Abedini passed the 300-day mark of his imprisonment in Iran.
• True Confessions Department: A blog post titled My Super Sinful Lifestyle may not be what you expect.
• At Stuff Christians Like, guests Steven and Shae Pepper offer Bible characters roles in the new series, Extreme Makeover: Big, Big House Edition. (I’ll wager this turns up as an email forward in six months!)
• A new stock photo business is offering images with sermon themes in mind.
• Does your church sing the song Cornerstone by Hillsong?  Why not mix up the lyrics a bit?

Got a suggestion for a link here? Contact me through Thinking Out Loud before 6 PM Eastern on Mondays.

Rick Warren Story, Continued

The Sunday Sermon

Earlier in the week Rick Warren had been diagnosed with double pneumonia. So he had asked Saddleback pastor Tom Holladay — who is also Matthew’s uncle — to preach a sermon based on a little booklet titled, How to Survive The Worst Day of Your Life. You can find that April 6th sermon at this link.

The Weapon

Yesterday, Rick Warren tweeted:

Someone on the internet sold Matthew an unregistered gun.I pray he seeks God’s forgiveness. I forgive him.

“If you forgive men when they sin against you, your Heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you don’t…” Matt.6:14-15

The Memorial Service

From the church website:

Since the Warren family is loved by so many, no building in Orange County is large enough to hold an open memorial service. The family decided it was best to have a small, private service for their son.

The Response from the Haters

From the Washington Post:

When Rick Warren gave his address at President Obama’s first inauguration, he made a plea: “When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the earth with the respect that they deserve, forgive us.” Forgive us, Rick Warren, for not treating you with enough respect. Forgive us for being a nation of too many gratuitous haters when you and your family are suffering profoundly from the suicide of your son, Matthew.

The suicide of Rick Warren’s son, Matthew, to a self-inflicted gunshot wound has created an unpleasant war of words in the blogosphere at a time when Warren, his family and his congregation need comfort. Warren, the head of the Saddleback Church and author of numerous spiritual bestsellers, including “The Purpose-Driven Life,” has been a lightening rod for critics who spurn his evangelism and find his faith shallow.

Matthew’s suicide, however, sparked a different type of nasty. A casual skim of comments to online articles has digressed to anti-gun legislation, homophobia, mental illness and the high-minded claim of hypocrisy. “I can guess correctly that Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Life didn’t work on Junior. Or maybe that trying to ram it down his gullet caused him the mental illness.” Does it get any uglier?

click the above link to continue reading

Today

Rick tweeted:

When in pain, pray. When you worry, worship. When in grief, share it in your small group.

“I will sing of your strength in the morning, I sing of your love.for you are my fortress in times of trouble” Psalm 59:16

“A friend loves at ALL times and a brother is born for adversity” Pr.17:17 @PastorMark is both to me http://ow.ly/jWXWj (reference is to Mark Driscoll)

Jumping Off the Precipice With Kay Warren

Today you’ll have to hop over to Pete Wilson’s blog for an amazing interview that he did with Kay Warren, author of Choose Joy and wife of Purpose Driven Life author Rick Warren.  The interview centers on Kay’s decision to take on the AIDS orphans in Africa as her personal cause, and leaves a somewhat ‘wowed’ Pete Wilson committing his church to get involved.  Here’s your jumping off point. If you know about Rick, but not Kay, you’re in for a surprise.

Wednesday Link List

WLL #99, but who’s counting?  Besides they existed before the name became uniform each week. 

• Fine artist Thomas Kinkade died over the Easter weekend. He chose to highly commercialize his art rather than sell in galleries; and after becoming a Christian many of his works were faith-focused.
  
• Many local churches are discovering how to do what we call The Lord’s Supper or Communion in something closer to its original context as a meal. Alan Knox shares how that happened in combination with an Easter Sunday gathering.
  
• You may have seen the Google predictive search results for phrases beginning with “Christians are…”  Matt Stone tries Google searching the same phrase substituting other religions.
  
• An Ontario school board wants to ban the distribution of Bibles, and now board members are receiving threats which are not coming from the Gideons.
• The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) ran a report on Easter Sunday on how technology is impacting various world religions. Bobby Gruenewald of livechurch.tv was interviewed, and there was a brief shot of Craig Groeschel, but otherwise, Christian representation was limited to file footage of Billy Graham et al.
• The American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) wandered down the same road on the same day with an interview with Rick Warren, who hasn’t done much media lately.  Don’t miss the part on page five of the transcript where he affirms that dogs and cats go to heaven. Yes, he said that. (Video not available outside the U.S.)
  
• And speaking of heaven, Time Magazine revisits the concept four years later.  Here’s a link to their coverage then and now; the ’08 article is available in full, the current article will cost ya.
  
• The Russian Orthodox Church went to a lot of trouble to airbrush a photo showing Patriarch Kirill I wearing a $30,000 wristwatch, but while they got they watch removed, they missed its reflection in a highly polished table.
  
• Peter Rollins publicly denies the resurrection. But before you quote me on that, better watch the video.
  
• Yesterday at C201 we tapped into a series from Mike Breen’s blog wherein a British pastor reflects on the differences between the church in North America and the church in England.
• A graduate student in theology and support staff worker at Randy Alcorn’s Eternal Perspective Ministries gives a short Christian response to The Hunger Games franchise.
  
• Rachel Held Evans spoofed her own Sunday Superlatives — the equivalent to this Wednesday Link List — on what happened to be April 1st. Too bad; some of the articles looked promising.
  
• Blogger John Shore participated in a “Burning of Resentments” ceremony on Easter Sunday. Apparently in 2013 this is going to take place across religious lines in San Diego County.
• What Every Man Wishes His Father Had Told Him is a new collection of essays from author Byron Forrest Yawn. Check out the book trailer.
  
• 

  The character in this Motts for Tots packaging looks really familiar, but shouldn't that be tomato juice instead of apple juice?

  Jefferson Bethke, aka the “I hate religion but I love Jesus” guy, is interviewed by Trevin Wax on the topic of Student Ministry.
  
• The old church annual report is never the same once it goes digital.  Here’s an analysis of the one from Elevation Church (Steven Furtick) which includes video links, infographics and humor.
  
• Want to take your church service online?  Check out Church Online Platform and also 316 Networks.
  
• It’s been ten months now, and this post about regulations at Perry Noble’s church still draws a lot of comments from both sides.
  
• The Worship Song links in the sidebar at Christianity 201 have finally been updated, and the blogroll here is in the middle of some serious editing. Only blogs with posts within the last 30 days are listed, though some do return after disappearing.
• Christianity Today now requires a subscription in order to read selected articles online. If you find a link here to what is now paid article, let me know and it will be deleted.

Ya Want Deep Preaching? I’ll Give Ya Deep…

This piece appeared originally earlier in the week at Christianity 201.

There are presently two strains of evangelical preaching emerging. Some preachers, like Andy Stanley prefer the “one thing” approach; providing a rhythm and cadence to their preaching which leaves their listeners remembering a clear message and a clear application. The classic, “It’s Friday Night… But Sunday’s A-Comin'” is a message you’ve probably heard, or at least heard alluded to, that is based on this type of teaching.

The other style is the kind of message that gives you much information about context and history as well as cross-references to at least a dozen related scriptures. There are multiple points and various information sidebars.  While both styles can do verse-by-verse, or exegetical teaching; this exegetical style or expository preaching is considered by some a hallmark as to what constitutes real depth in preaching ministry.

The problem is that sometimes the people in the second camp, feel that the people in the first camp are not giving their people enough “depth.” This came up in the Elephant Room Conference where Steven Furtick used hyperbole to indicate the degree to which he did not want to aim for going deep on Sunday mornings.*

And it comes up here in this exchange between John Piper and Rick Warren. You might prefer to go direct to the YouTube page and click on some of the other subjects covered in this interview series. Some of the clips will also run in playlist form, allowing you to just sit back as the videos play in succession.

“Simple does not mean shallow.” “Simple does not mean simplistic.” What is deep? Warren says he taught series on sanctification and incarnation without actually using the words; do you think that is possible?

*For your interest, here is the discussion between Steven Furtick and Matt Chandler, moderated by James MacDonald. It gives you some insight into how pastors wrestle with the “deep” question.

What’s your definition of deep preaching?

Wednesday Link List

From my computer to yours, here’s just a few of the online adventures I had this week…

• “The day after we here in the U.S. paused to remember the men and women who had died fighting for our country, the fight continued from beyond the grave. On Tuesday [June 1] in the town of Göttingen, Germany a World War 2 era bomb exploded killing three people and injuring six others.” So begins a short essay by Julie Clawson, “Violence from the Past.”
• The Rev. Scott Schmieding didn’t let a physical impairment stop him from taking a pastor job — which includes preaching — even though he has no tongue.   This CT story will make you reconsider whether or not you’re letting circumstances stand in the way of calling.
• Christian author Diana Gresh, aka ‘The Secret Keeper Girl,’ shares a concerned one-parent-to-another open letter to Billy Ray and Tish, mom and dad to superstar Miley Cyrus.
• Remember that street-preacher in the UK who was arrested for saying homosexuality is a sin?  Here’s actual video of him being placed under arrest.
• Rick Warren tells the people in his congregation that if they’re just faking Christianity, it’s time to find another church.
• “Social networking does have its perils. This much is for sure. Loss of privacy, device obsession, check-in overdose … Bad. But this new wave of human communication opens doors that have previously remained slammed shut.”  Read more at BeDeviant.
• American churches (and other buildings with large auditoriums) have only three days left to convert their wireless microphones over to a new operating frequency.  Many can’t afford to do so.   (First it was the digital television conversion; now this…)
• A German family receives asylum in the U.S. under rather strange circumstances — they are home schooling refugees.
• Here’s seven great over-arching principles for Children’s ministry from the blog by Will Mancini.   Pass this link on to your Christian Ed. person where you worship.
• Flashback to February; the blog is called Sim’s Zone, the piece is short but poignant:  Lent Reflections.
• Blog discovery of the week:  The Aristophrenium.    Four young men; three Australians and one in Canada; writing on Apologetics; often at a deeper, academic level; and often with with the common touch and bit of heart.
  
• Rick Apperson launches a blogapalooza with guest writers all throughout June.  It was good to connect earlier this week with Dawn Fehr who blogs at Blown to Smithereens.
  
• Two popular UK figures team up to have some fun writing a book together.
• Christian news and information blog highlight of the week:  New Church Report.
• New homes in new neighborhoods constructed with new building materials and  filled with new furniture… equals major indoor air quality issues.   It seems that rapid economic advancement is actually killing young people in China.
  
• Have a worship moment (or many) interacting with God’s creation:  If you remember the BBC DVD series from a few years back, Planet Earth, you need to know about the new series, Life.  Here’s a trailer.
  
• Internal link from this blog two days ago, in case you missed it, on the passing of CCM veterans Dana Key (DeGarmo & Key) and Kevin Thomson (Sweet Comfort Band).
  
• Speaking of Christian music, for my Canadian readers who are into modern worship, CCM, southern gospel or even children’s music — and anyone else who wants to take a peek — check out the redesigned (as of yesterday!) YourMusicZone.com from the Music & Media division of David C. Cook Canada.
  
• Our cartoon this week is from Sacred Sandwich: