Weekend Link List

Weekend List Lynx – The lynx is considered a national animal in Macedonia where it is featured on the five denar coin

I wanted to call this “Long Weekend Link List” but there was a built-in ambiguity. Is it referring to the long weekend, or the production of a long list? Covering both meanings would be ideal, but that would involve actually providing a long list… 

…Our image above is titled “Manners Without Borders” and is from This Is Indexed. Click to read at source.

• Always remember the Prime Directive; and the presumed values and ethics behind it. NASA certainly did, and in 2014 awarded $1.1 million to The Center for Theological Inquiry, an organization “rooted in Christian theology. So why is an atheist organization just noticing?
• Essay of the Month: When we started making changes to worship, we didn’t stop at one or two, the revisions have been sweeping, to the point where nobody sings anymore.
• The New York Times looks at the very unique situation with Canada’s warm welcome of Syrian refugees.
• Church Websites (1): A look at why they are so very important.
• Church Websites (2): A look at where the process often breaks down.
• In a somewhat downsized event, member stores and suppliers in the Christian Bookseller’s Association met for their annual convention a few days ago in Cincinnati.
• The Ontario Court of Appeal upheld a previous ruling by the law society in that province, denying accreditation of the law school at Trinity Western University.
• Tim Challies is doing a major reading challenge that would see him finishing 104 books by year-end. The year is now half over. You can join in for the last six months of 2016 as well, in reader categories labeled light, avid, committed and obsessed.  (He also receives hundreds of review books a year, but I happen to know book shelves aren’t a problem since he lives near an IKEA.)
• The headline congratulates Matt Maher on winning BMI’s Songwriter of the Year award (presumably in a Christian/Gospel category) and goes on to discuss his career. But in a couple of places, there are brief mentions that Maher’s award was a tie with Chris Tomlin…
• …Video of the Weekend: ♫ Ryan Stevenson’s In The Eye of the Storm has been out a few months, but is tracking high at Praise Charts. (Reminds me of Josh Garrels.)
  
• Putting something in “scare quotes” (see what I did there?) can change the meaning. Be sure to also check out the parable at the end.
• We’re ending with a double link to the same site and reproducing the second link in full here, meaning this might be a “long” weekend link list after all, since it’s a long list. What got our attention first, was Rob Jacob’s idea of Purpose Driven as a platform. (I might have used the word network, since “church network” is a thing, but I know some are already rebelling against that phrase.) …
• …But then a few days later Rob presented some insights he gained from the conference, and since we didn’t get to be there, we decided to steal some (or all) of them. But you can still send him some link love by clicking through for the full article.

25 Leadership Thoughts from the Purpose Driven Conference

1. Three things build trust in a leader. Compassion, Competency, and Consistency
2. If you depend on Man you get what Man can give. If you depend on God, you get what God can give.
3. The creators of culture are entertainment, sports, and business. It should be the church
4. Never confuse prominence with significance
5. Nobody likes big churches except pastors
6. Don’t ask God to use you greatly if you are not willing to be hurt greatly.
7. If you don’t take risks, you don’t need faith.
8. What is it in your ministry and life that cannot be explained other than for the supernatural power of God?
9. We should imitate the faith of others, not their style
10. To be a leader, you must have a message worth remembering, a lifestyle worth living, and a faith worth imitating
11. Bigger churches are not better. Small churches are not better. Better is better.
12. The greatest barrier to God’s work in me and through me is myself
13. It’s not what you achieve but who you become–who you become like
14. Spiritual growth is habitual. We grow by developing good habits
15. After asking IF your church should change, ask if you’re the right leader who should be leading the change
16. He has not called us to be original. He has called us to be effective. Sometimes imitation beats innovation
17. It’s easier to slow down a race horse than speed up a turtle. I hire race horses on my staff.
18. Never fight a battle that you won’t gain anything by winning
19. Leader…when you define the vision you are choosing in effect who will leave the church.
20. My goal in coming into a new leadership was not to be efficient but to be transformative
21. Pastor, when bringing renewal to the church, start with your dreams and not your problems
22. One of the secrets to success is to outlast your critics!
23. It takes unselfish people to grow a large church—love compels us to grow.
24. You have to build trust to earn the credibility to share the truth.
25. If you don’t measure it you can’t manage it.

Well, we don’t want to shortchange those of you who read to the bottom for the weird and humorous — like the postcard at right — so…

• A Las Vegas wedding chapel has facilitated the nuptials for a man who married his smart phone. 
• Only they’ve been at it longer: What The Babylon Bee is to Evangelicals, Eye of the Tiber is to Roman Catholics.
  

If you see an advertisement below this space, we didn’t put it there, and don’t know who it’s for (but feel free to tell us).

Wednesday Link List

This is what greeted worshipers as they arrived at church on Sunday; Mrs. W. snapped a picture.

[B]link and you’ll miss it!  As per usual, the links are missing in all the stories below. You have two options: (a) spend hours using search engines to try to figure out where the pirate treasure is buried (see above) or (b) visit the Link List’s new owners at Out of Ur

• Usually the video links come near the end. But not when it’s a new song by Gungor.
• So why does Compassion invite online writers to apply for one of their overseas trips if they only choose A-list faith bloggers?
• Apparently a respected Canadian Bible college has some history with the world’s favorite funeral protestor.
• If 150 churches donated $1,000, it would buy a home for Saeed Abedini’s family. Meanwhile, Billy Graham asks Iran’s President for Saeed’s release, as does President Obama.
• Two architectural firms are set to begin the transformation of the former Crystal Cathedral into a Catholic-friendly facility.
• Seven years later, the wife of the Amish schoolhouse shooter breaks her silence.
• A Chinese pastor thinks Rick Warren needs a lesson in cultural sensitivity, while the blogger known as Naked Pastor discusses the same adapted Red Guard propaganda poster.
• A Wisconsin truck driver has so far spent over half a million dollars funding a billboard ministry on major highways.
• A pastor in Louisiana was shot to death during a Friday night church service. Then, after reading that, the story gets worse a few days later.
• When their daughter’s wedding was canceled, the parents of the bride invited 200 homeless people to the four-course meal that would have been the reception.
• Essay(s) of the Week: A tie between two pieces by Hannah Anderson, her piece on Childlessness, and an open letter to her insurance company.
• Married people remember their single days with affection, but for those still single, their experience doesn’t match the stories.
• Why clergy shouldn’t dispense medical advice: Women who drive automobiles risk damaging their ovaries.
• A Church planter proves the axiom that hindsight is always 20/20 .
• History Lesson: Once upon a time, people wrote music reviews of new albums.
• Some pastoral leadership errors can be overcome, but there are three mistakes you really want to avoid.
• Church. It is the best of times, it is the worst of times. But it’s the best because of what Jesus is doing.
• Speculative Church History Department: Would U.S. President Barak Obama bomb the Canaanites?
• Speculative Music History Department: What if The Beatles sang theology?
• The problem with prostitution is that we sugarcoat it instead of seeing it as a form of rape.
• Bible Translation of the Week: The International Standard Version, version 2.0 (that would be the ISV-V2.0)
• Alternative Bible Version of the Week: God is Disappointed in You; by humorist Mark Russell along with a cartoonist from New Yorker magazine.
• Also in the humor section of your local e-bookstore is  Joel Osteen’s Jokes: Collection of Joel Osteen’s Funniest Short, Clean Jokes. Apparently this is the latest in the potentially copyright-infringing series called Joel’s Gems.
• Seems like everywhere you turn, there is a television show with a faith-based theme.
• Finally, there are some great articles online promoting Christian higher education, and then, on the other hand, there’s hype and propaganda.

Now you’re curious, right?  Click over to Out of Ur, a website of Christianity Today.

I love this photo of the work done by the girls at this year’s Fine Arts Edge Camp at Camp IAWAH in Ontario, Canada

How Waterproof is the Waterproof Bible?

Steven Furtick and Rick Warren saturate themselves in the Word with the NIV Waterproof Bible. Now you know how megachurch pastors deal with stress.

 

Wednesday Link List

Not new, but too good just to link; you have to watch this…

• Edith Shaeffer, wife of the late Christian philosopher Francis Shaeffer, has died at age 98. 
• A member of The Church on the Way in Valencia,CA — and grandson of Jack Hayford, the church’s founder — is now back home uninjured after being kidnapped last week in Mexico.
• Singer Carrie Underwood and NHL hockey player Mike Fisher discuss their shared faith in Jesus.
• Know the song “‘Tis a Gift To Be Simple”?  Terry Mattingly says that definitely applies to the new Pope.
• Yes the Easter story really happened in a real place, and if you want, you can even get the GPS coordinates.
• And did they play that “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s a-Coming” video at your church this week? Here’s the text for all you aspiring preachers to give it your best shot.
• And don’t miss this story about church pyrotechnics gone awry. This could have ended very badly.
  
• Also at Parchment Pen: Did the author of the Gospel of Mark sleep in the nude?  The public wants to know.
• Sandy Patti is headlining at Carnegie Hall with the Manhattan Pops Orchestra and the pianist formerly (and still) known simply as Dino.
• For 32 years, Rick Warren said ‘no’ to the idea of doing a radio show. But then a year ago…
• A friend of ours, Rick Webster, pastor of The Third Space church in Peterborough has written Introducing Jesus — but he doesn’t use the word pastor, preferring Spiritual Wilderness Guide and Community Architect. We don’t normally do this here, but you can order the book online. 
• From the artist who brought us the Reimagine song, a cover of Larry Norman’s UFO song.
  
• Canadian author and blogger Sheila Wray-Gregoire says that if you are concerned for someone, you need to ask yourself three questions before you say anything.
• Another Elevation Church high-tech year end summary. Does your church’s annual report look like this?
  
• Maybe some cartoonists can illustrate complex issues, but Dave Walker finds himself somewhat lost for ideas in Uganda. 
• Okay, Doug Wilson, curiosity was killing me when you wrote Good Friday and the Death of Same Sex Envy. (And then he also discusses pattern recognition, too.)
  
• Shauna Niequist is the wife of a Christian musician and daughter of a world famous pastor. And a published author.  But she still deals with jealousy.
• Money Where Your Mouth Is Department: Michael Kelley offers us two things we can learn from the Veronica Mars movie campaign on Kickstarter.
  
• How about another 30-or-so links, all on the subject of apologetics? And don’t miss the first comment. 
• Blog flashback — one year ago: James MacDonald’s holiness test.
  
• The latest addition to our “lost song” collection at YouTube is this original version of God and Man at Table by Craig Smith. 
• And I didn’t realize until today how much this song and this song sound alike. Guess some classic gospel music or CCM just flies under the copyright radar.
  

Wednesday Link List

Who needs LinkedIn when you’re linked in here?  The picture, Gasoline Gospel is from Shorpy.com; captioned “August 1937. ‘Gas station and gospel mission in Cleveland, Ohio.’ In addition to Koolmotor ‘Gasolene,’ a long-defunct Cities Service brand, we also seem to have at least a couple of the major food groups represented here, as well as two verses from the New Testament. Photo by John Vachon.” Click the image to see the entire picture full size along with more glimpses into history.

• Start with this one: 33 Ways to Know You Were a Youth Group Kid.
• Nick Vujicic, born without arms and legs, is the father of a newborn baby boy! 
• Got 19 minutes? Meet Atheism 2.0, an atheism for people who are attracted to the ritualistic side, the moralistic side, but can’t stand the doctrine.
  
• First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas is just days away from the opening of its new $130 million facility. And don’t miss the three videos which rationalize that expense.
• A sixteen-year old in Texas is suing her parents who are trying to coerce her to have an abortion she does not want. (See update in comments section.)
  
• Rick Warren has shied away from TV and radio, but is launching a 30-minute daily radio show to air in the top 25 U.S. markets.
• Early artwork has surfaced for the new Left Behind movie; which is actually a remake of the original (book one) story; this one with Nicolas Cage.
  
• Also at Todd Rhoades’ blog: Should churches have Tweet seats? 
• When a U.S. Lutheran pastor attended an interfaith prayer event following the Sandy Hook shooting, he violated denominational rules against ‘joint worship’ with people of other faiths. Now the LC-MS denomination is embarrassed by the reaction on social media.
  
• Veteran Christian music artist Carman reveals to his Facebook followers that he has an incurable cancer.
• Here’s info on an upcoming conference (April 11-13) in Virginia that I would love to be able to attend; presented by Missio Alliance, it’s titled The Future of the Gospel. 
• Home-schooling is banned in Germany, so a family there fled to the U.S. for asylum which was granted in 2010. But now, the Department of Homeland Security is seeking the family’s deportation, which would lead to persecution back home.
• There are some new posts at The Elephant’s Debt, a website devoted to issues of alleged financial improprieties involving James MacDonald and Harvest Bible Chapel.
  
• An alternative wording to The Lord’s Prayer — the Kiwi version, perhaps — you never know what you’ll find in used bookstores. 
• Here’s what I wrote to my colleagues in the Christian book trade about the dwindling relationship between bloggers and publishers seeking book reviews.
• And since we’re ending on a book theme, here’s the chart — including one title error, if you can spot it — of what people in my part of the world purchased in 2012:
  

Wednesday Link List

Wednesday List Lynx as seen in Australia

Time for another one!

• Actually going to kick off with an internal link, because when I wrote this review back in May, I never imagined that Kyle Idleman’s book, Not a Fan would do as well as it has.
  
• You may have seen Jessica Latshaw in A Chorus Line, or you may have seen her on YouTube singing on the A train in the New York City subway with hair in pigtails. The daughter of a Maryland pastor, JL explains how it all went down.
  
• A Danish study shows that victimization of children on the internet is significantly reduced when parents are aware of the kids’ online activity.
  
• Buried in one of those articles about all the new laws that came into effect in 2012: “California also becomes the first state to mandate the teaching of gay history. A new law requires schools to include in the public-school curriculum the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans, along with disabled persons and others…”
  
• Mark Driscoll’s book on sex and marriage — which now has a video trailer —  is being overshadowed by Ed & Lisa Young’s latest sermon series and book, Sexperiment. One blog suggests it’s not necessary, while another, Master’s Table, agrees with Internet Monk that it’s hard to think over the noise of the Evangelical circus.
  
• I swore we were done with Christmas links, but this is so good and I want to be able to track it down 11 months from now.  This is The Christmas Story as told by the children of St Paul’s Church, Auckland, New Zealand.  HT: Walt Mueller.
  
• Matt Chandler offers a gospel-centered interpretation of the story of David and Goliath; and you’re not David in the story.
  
• Country music fans: Canada’s Ali Matthews has released the full — nearly six minutes — video of her song Carry Me Home.
  
• Hope the churches using older wireless microphones got the message that they now risk fines of over $100,000 US and imprisonment.
  
• I’ve heard a number of people talk about the Biblical emphasis on hospitality.  But not so much lately.  I remember Jesus Movement icon Lonnie Frisbee telling me, “The early church fellowshipped from house to house and we fellowship from restaurant to restaurant.”  Here’s a short article to start the hospitality discussion where you live.
• This just in: Preachers sin.  Who knew?  Some encouragement for those in pastoral ministry from Peter Mead, which is part of a series on issues which can disqualify people from ministry.  And here’s a classic from March I had bookmarked where Peter talks about moralism as preaching element which can strangle the gospel. 
• Also for people in vocational ministry, here’s a list of Rick Warren’s ten things to remember as we begin a new year, as reposted at Leadership from The Heart. 
• And we don’t want to leave out worship leaders: Here’s Chris Vacher’s take on a possible alternative — in some instances — to using CCLI as a source for legal worship song charts and parts.
• If your church is wrestling with the idea of ditching Sunday morning children’s ministry, you should read this apologetic for Sunday Kid Min.
  
• B o n u s :   W a t c h   f o r   m o r e   l i n k s   o n   S a t u r d a y !
  

Saturday Silliness: How to Tell if You’re a Megachurch

Carlos Whitaker at Ragamuffin Soul, a definite insider on this issue, nails it with this checklist:

• You might be a megachurch is your green room looks nicer that 95% of your attendees living rooms.

• You might be a megachurch if you film sermon video illustrations on location in other countries.

• You might be a megachurch if people take celebrity pictures of the pastor during his sermon.

• You might be a megachurch if you have more people on staff to run a Sunday than American Idol has on staff to run a Wednesday.

• You might be a megachurch if kids throw a tantrum when the moving lights aren’t working in their Sunday School.

• You might be a megachurch if your pastor has had more work done than most of the women in your church.

• You might be a megachurch if your worship department has not one single ugly person in it.

• You might be a megachurch if your pastors security detail mimics the Secret Service.

• You might be a megachurch if there are more police officers directing traffic into your parking lot than manning the streets of your neighborhood on a Sunday morning.

Thanks, Carlos.  Now then, click over to his blog and read the additional definitions his readers came up with…    No, really, you must read the comments.

Fundamentalist I Cor: 13 — “Love Believes The Worst About Everyone”

My name is Paul and I live in Canada.  Here are some things you might infer:

1. Paul is a Canadian
2. Canadians have a love affair with the game of hockey
3. Therefore, Paul loves hockey.

In actual fact, my affiliation with the game is something that kicks in around playoff time, and like NBC Sports, my full attention isn’t really there unless it’s a deciding game.  I guess when it comes to sports, I’m not much of an athletic supporter.

Now here’s the same kind of logic at work:

1. Rick Warren condemns the narrow mindedness and legalism of fundamentalists.
2. Fundamentalists believe in the five fundamentals: The inerrancy of scripture, the virgin birth of Jesus Christ…
3. Therefore, Rick Warren does not believe in the inerrancy of scripture, the virgin birth…

Do you see the absolute absurdity of this?  Fundamentalists don’t.  They gravitate toward books which condemn anything and anybody which isn’t part of their tightly knit club.  But here’s the thing:

They want the rumors about the apostasy of others to be true.

It gives them a reason to get up in the morning; a reason to eat breakfast and brush their teeth. They thrive on the discovery that any successful Christian author, any prominent Christian broadcaster, any popular Christian pastor may in fact be full of doctrinal error, which is defined by the phrase, “doesn’t believe the same as we do.”  Even if they have to use flawed logic in order to infer it.

In fact, even though I have no problem with God enacting incarnation through virgin birth; even though I trust the inspiration of scripture… etc.; just by writing this I am written off.

Their doctrine is: Love believes the worst about everyone.

Obviously too scary for kids

And of course it truly is love if you are pointing out the error of someone’s ways, right?   I write all this because the January, 2007 book, Dark Side of the Purpose Driven Church by Noah W. Hutchings (Bible Belt Publishing) is about to be reissued by Defender Publishing.  Ultra-conservatives actually love this sort of thing, they never consider the possibility that the reports may be sensationalized or blatantly false or logically flawed.

And who is behind the promotion of Mr. Hutchings book?  None other than televangelist Jack Van Impe, the Michigan pastor whose recent rant against Warren and Robert Schuller got a repeat broadcast of his TV program censored by TBN’s Matt Crouch, resulting in JVI pulling the program and its related financial input from the TBN schedule. Highlights from the Beliefnet story:

…Earlier this month, Van Impe named California megachurch founders Rick Warren and Robert H. Schuller as proponents of “Chrislam,” which he defined as “a uniting of Christianity with Islam.” TBN pulled the episode before a repeat broadcast could air…
…“Although I understand, and actually agree with, your position that you ‘will not allow anyone to tell me what I can and cannot preach,’ I trust you understand that TBN takes the same position with its broadcast air time as well,”[TBN president and founder Paul]Crouch wrote in a letter to Van Impe…

I relate all this today because I think it’s important for people in the Evangelical mainstream to recognize that we cannot allow the fundamentalist fringe to set the agenda moving forward.  Van Impe starts to make outrageous statements and support authors who write books which are devoid of logic, and it just diminishes him, putting him in a category with Harold Camping, Terry Jones and even Fred Phelps.

Plus, we’ve got to stop bashing each other and start worrying about our common enemy.  For years, Canada had no Christian radio stations because of a feud that erupted nearly a century ago where early Christian radio pioneers devoted all their airtime to contracting and condemning each other.  Or maybe just stop bashing, period, and simply use the airtime to tell people about Jesus, and allow his words and story to draw people to Himself.

Furthermore, perhaps it’s time the U.S. adopted some of the Canadian understanding that radio frequencies are public property and are to be used responsibly. TBN acted well in this instance and put principle over profit.

Bottom Drops Out of Donations at Saddleback: $1M Debit Crisis

The bigger they are, the harder it gets during a recession,  as USAToday reports:

Rick Warren, Pastor of Saddleback Community Church

Evangelical pastor Rick Warren appealed to parishioners at his California megachurch Wednesday to help fill a $900,000 deficit by the first of the year.

Warren made the appeal in a letter posted on the Saddleback Church website. It begins “Dear Saddleback Family, THIS IS AN URGENT LETTER.”

“With 10% of our church family out of work due to the recession, our expenses in caring for our community in 2009 rose dramatically while our income stagnated,” the letter reads.

Still, Warren said the church managed to stay within its budget, but “the bottom dropped out” when Christmas donations dropped. “On the last weekend of 2009, our total offerings were less than half of what we normally receive…”

[continue reading the story at USAToday Religion]

Related story at Godvertiser blog discusses the announcement — just one day earlier — that Warren’s magazine is discontinuing its print edition and going digital.

Don’t Judge a Book By Its 2,900 Covers

As far as the book industry is concerned, Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren is the number-one, all-time, best-selling, non-fiction hardcover book in history. Period. So you can see why everyone is excited about the November release of The Hope You Need (Zondervan).

Well, not everyone. Certainly not at the blog, Church Marketing Sucks — yes that’s the name of it and don’t laugh, it was recently rated the 11th most popular Christian blog.

Their point of view, as outlined in this post, concerns Rick Warren’s decision to open the book jacket design up to a $5,000 competition, what graphic designers refer to as “spec work.”

Unfortunately, it’s not such a sweet deal. For the hundreds of designers who spent hours of time on your project, it’s a total loss. These kinds of projects communicate that their work is of little value.

As a double whammy, it’s not a very sweet deal for you, Rick. The quality of work you get is going to be sub-par … because the designers didn’t have the benefit of a working relationship with you the client where they could be privy to all the ideas, expectations, insights and everything else that goes into making a creative project work. In a nutshell: You’re not getting the best work because you’re not valuing the worker.

While the mechanics of getting a book to press don’t often register with readers, you really should read the whole article, and if for some reason you can’t, then you really MUST have a look at the 2900 contest entries.* You have to wonder why, given the success of its predecessor, a book that is this important is being put through this bizarre tendering process.

I can guarantee you’ll never look at a book cover the same again.

*That’s about 2,946 as of the contest closing.  Entries will remain posted online at the linked site until October 2nd, 2009

~from the blog, Christian Book Shop Talk