Weekend Link List

Weekend List Lynx

Lots of stuff that can’t wait until Wednesday!

• This one is must reading. Matthew Paul Turner asks former Mars Hill Bible Church pastor Shane Hipps all the questions I would have asked about the church, hell, Love Wins and the man he succeeded at MHBC, Rob Bell.
  

  “This is one of the biggest misunderstandings.  Rob doesn’t have a position or a concept of hell, he is an artist exploring possibilities and making unexpected connections, not a theologian plotting out a system.  In other words there is nothing to agree or disagree with.  It’s like saying I disagree with that song or that painting.”

  Read more at MPT’s blog.

• CT’s story of the week concerns gay students at Christian colleges. That’s not a typo.
  

  “Leaders at Christian colleges and universities around the country told Christianity Today their schools are rethinking the way they address the needs of [same sex attracted] students on campus.”

  Read more at Christianity Today.

• If you’ve been around the church for any length of time, you might remember “visitation” by pastors and church elders. These days, you’re more likely to get a house call from your doctor.  David Fitch’s guest author Ty Grigg thinks you might not have anybody drop in these days:
  

  “It is not a cultural norm to have neighbors or even friends over to our homes for dinner.  If we want to be with people, we go out.  The restaurant has replaced the space that home once occupied in society.  Typically, for younger generations (40’s and under), a visit will be at a coffee shop or to grab lunch.  In our suburban isolation, the home is too much of an intimate, sacred space for most non-family members to enter.”

  Read more at Reclaiming the Mission.

Other links:

• Canadian readers will remember a national pre-Christmas story involving the theft of $2M worth of toys from a Salvation Army warehouse in Toronto. Here’s a follow-up on how the organization is working to protect itself by having a solid ‘whistle-blower’ policy. 
• Want a taste of that theological educational experience you missed? RegentRadio.com, the internet broadcasting arm of Regent College, frequently offers free lectures by its professors. Currently it’s wrapping up a twelve-part series with Gordon Fee on the Holy Spirit in Pauline Theology with a new lecture available each day.
  
• We linked to this about six months ago, but it’s worth a revisit. Scot McKnight at Jesus Creed links to a 9-minute video where an orthodox priest explains various theories of atonement.
• Sarnia is a Canadian city across the river from Port Huron, MI.  Pastor Kevin Rodgers blogs at Orphan Age and reminds us how a shared meal is a great way to build community.
• USA Today religion editor Cathy Lynn Grossman looks at the larger religious issues in Monday’s Presidential inauguration ceremony.
• A New Jersey substitute teacher is fired for giving a student his personal Bible as a gift after the student kept asking where the saying, “the last shall be first” came from.
  
• New blogs we’re watching this week — okay new to us:
  • Our Rising Sound – Kyle Campos
  • Christian By Association – Nikki Weatherford
  • Modern Reject – Nicole Cottrel
• Talk about California dreamin’ on such a winter’s day: Our closing shot this week is from a Facebook page dedicated to books. The picture combines two of my favorite passions: a day at the beach and reading.
  

Wednesday Link List

You’re expected to follow the advice of the experts.  While this blog has been doing link lists for several years, next Wednesday marks 52 weeks of using the same title each week.  Sigh!

• Tony Miano confronts Planned Parenthood.   Take five minutes to read what could be the best thing you read today.
• Suffering from terminology confusion?  Here’s the 411 on the difference between “fundamentalist” and “evangelical” including two helpful terms outlining the difference between “theological fundamentalists” and “sociological fundamentalists.”  One of several related posts at The Wartburg Watch.
• WAY-FM’s Brant Hansen took some heat for that article on tithing I linked to last week, so here’s the spot where he responds to the questions.
• “Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice.”  Pete Wilson reminds us of the truth of Proverbs 24:17 in the wake of the death of Osama Bin Laden.
• Meanwhile Carlos Whitaker throws the topic open, with over 250 reader responses to date.
• “Perhaps the death of Osama Bin Laden has made this world more safe. I do not believe, however, that his death has made this world more beautiful.” — comment e-mailed to Brian McLaren.
• With all the fuss over that book lately, Rachel Held Evans launches the Rally to Restore Unity, which is a kind of synchroblog thing you can still get in on.   (My contribution is below…)
• A few days late for Easter perhaps, but this video from Lutheran Satire suggests that the disciples have to face their own instincts for profit motives from the resurrection.  HT: The Least Read Blog on the Net.
• Our local Salvation Army captain has kicked off a new blog in style: Lots of good topics and an immediate following of faithful readers.  Check out il capitano inquisitore.  Especially the post which deals with Appointment Day, the day in which the entire organization finds out if anyone needs to start collecting cardboard boxes for a July move.
• Here’s an idea if you’re a blogger with a tight schedule: My somewhat rushed quote collection on discipleship at Christianity 201.   You may also like yesterday’s post, Spiritual Cataracts, where I also tossed in some French worship music.
• It’s spelled Roque.  It’s pronounced “rock-key.”  Our new artist of the week invites you to check out her story, and her song, Thank You.
  
• I would definitely join a church that devotes a month to doing a series on the Theology of Food.
  
• Monday was Election Day here in Canada and Google Canada celebrated with the usual graphic, except, as Bene Diction noted, they showed voting booths which are not used in Canada. (See above.) Oops!  We go behind privacy screens and mark paper ballots.  Pay no attention to the voter behind that curtain! (BTW, we elected a Conservative majority parliament, and for the first time a New Democratic Party official opposition.)
  

Wednesday Link List

It’s a busy week for most so I’ll keep the list short(er) this week…

• Yes, I do list the links in order of importance, so for this week, it’s got to be a Christianity Today story in celebration of 50 years of Youth With A Mission (YWAM).
• “Does it really make sense that God is a loving, kind, compassionate God who wants to know people in a personal way, but if they reject this relationship with Jesus, they will be sent to hell where God will eternally punish them forever?”   That question, included in the online, advance-publication announcement for Rob Bell’s forthcoming Love Wins, may explain why the title is with HarperOne, and not with Zondervan.
  
• The Amish are causing problems for building contractors in Philadelphia where they are underbidding local companies on jobs, and then leaving town without spending any money.
  
• Lots of time to answer our poll question from yesterday — Should audiences still be expected to stand for the playing of the Hallelujah Chorus?
  
• A look at Brad Lomenick’s “Young Influencers List” for December led to the discovery that he’s been doing this list for a few years now, with some names you might recognize.
• If you own a business in Dallas, Texas, you’d better not be substituting “Happy Holidays” for “Merry Christmas” or First Baptist Church will put you on their “Naughty or Nice” list.
  
• It’s minus 12 degrees Celsius, or 10 degrees Fahrenheit in Fairbanks, Alaska.  What better time for an outdoor baptism service.
• Because of remarks made by Canadian Pastor Charles McVety, the National Post reports that Crossroads Television System (CTS) has been found to be in violation of Canada’s strict “anti-hate” Canadian Broadcast Standards.
• Cedric Miller, a New Jersey pastor “believes the forbidden fruit had a QWERTY keyboard and came with status updates.”  He’s ordered his church leaders to either quit Facebook or resign.
  
• Canadian readers:  Don’t forget you have less than two weeks to help us fill our Salvation Army iKettle.  No matter where you live, donations stay with the S.A. Family Services branch closest to you.
  
• Joel Spencer doesn’t blog frequently, but if you like your bloggers with tongues firmly planted in cheeks, you might enjoy his catalog of Jesus action figures for 2010.
  
• Bonus link:  In the days before Weird Al, there was Ray Stevens (Guitarzan, The Streak, Bridget the Midget, etc.) filling the novelty music category.  He’s back with a commentary on U.S. immigration policy.
  
• Today’s cartoon is a 2009 entry at ShoeBoxBlog, while today’s picture is none other than Shane Claiborne at the White House which appeared — National Enquirer style — at the blog OutOfUr.  BTW, you need to drop by your bookstore to actually see, touch and feel what Shane is doing with his new book, Common Prayer.
  

Our Now Annual Appeal for the Salvation Army

We’re back with another year of giving our online friends in Canada an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of people in need.   The program is called iKettle. Any of my Canadian readers can host a kettle with a few clicks of the mouse.

Fellow-Canadian blogger Rick Apperson got us on to this last year.  Back then, we decided that if we could raise nearly $4,600 to sponsor my oldest son’s summer working at Camp Iawah, using our mailing list alone, we ought to be able to raise at least $1,000 for the Salvation Army.  We found out quickly that it was going to be a greater challenge.   Not sure why.

Last year we launched this through an e-blast to people in our personal and business e-mail address books.   This year we’re launching it in the blogosphere.

So this is where my Canadian* blog readers kick in. You can’t toss spare change in the kettles anymore because you pay for everything with plastic cards, and you don’t get change. Any bills in your wallet are probably there for emergencies.  Plus, while it pains me to say this, a lot of you shop online and don’t even have the collection kettles in your face anymore.   (Maybe that’s why you shop online!)

So here’s where you go to contribute*.

Donations stay in the community where you live, so if that’s Winnipeg or Calgary or Ottawa or Halifax or some place in-between, that’s where the money will be applied to the Salvation Army Family Services branch; including smaller towns where they have an active presence.

I really hope you’ll help us launch this over this weekend.   We will be repeating this appeal on the blog several times during the next few weeks. Our giving can meet the needs both in overseas relief and development and in the cities and towns closer to home. This is an opportunity to do something on the domestic front in yet another year that’s been rough on many people.

*For my U.S. readers — and there are lots of you — I couldn’t find a direct link to the U.S. program, if there is one. Contact the SA in your local area to find out ways an online donation can serve your own community.