Wednesday Link List

We either start off with really serious issues and end with something silly, or we do it the other way around. Today leads off with the latter:

• Psalm 42 in the Pirate translation. Seriously. Why would I lie about that?
• Which is just a warm up for SFL’s grand old hymn of the week, I’m Not Going to Hell.
• Which takes us to that other “stuff” site, SCL and the issue of inviting friends to church: “It doesn’t matter how great your church is Sunday after Sunday. On the one day you actually invite a neighbor for the first time, there’s a moment of panic that passes through you.”
• Hey, remember that 30-minute film you watched in youth group about a factory worker who finds a music box? It never went to DVD, but turns out it’s been on YouTube for five years.
  
• Eight weeks later, Jamie The Very Worst Blogger remembers she has a blog and updates it a second time on her birthday.
  
• Karen Spears Zacharias has met the enemy, and the enemy is talk radio.  Or maybe that one belongs in the next section…
  

Okay, we need some serious links also, right?

• Here’s a re-issue of a classic 2004 Michael Spencer post at iMonk where the fallibility of those in vocational ministry hits full force.
• In another re-print, Pete Wilson quotes Peter Scazzero on the American Church and the American Dream.
• Or check out Will Mancini’s take on how success in ministry adversely affects pastors.
  
• Here’s an interesting thought: If your church permits women preachers or allows women as elders, who ‘permits’ and who ‘allows’? Chances are it’s men. Hmmm. Kathy Escobar elaborates.
  
• The sad story of Jack Schaap continues with a plea agreement, followed by being taken into custody on the 20th, with a first court appearance scheduled for today (26th).
  
• Brian McLaren guests at CNN’s religion blog to discuss Islamaphobic Evangelical Christians in light of recent events in the Arab world. Also a response and video interview from Tony Jones.  
• Also at CNN’s Belief Blog/News page, the 15 Amish people who last fall “sheared” the beards of other Amish people could face ‘recommended’ prison terms of 17 years. 
• October 28th to November 4th is WRAP Week (White Ribbon Against Pornography) an annual event that creates a useful opportunity to raise the issue of pornography within the Church, and to call all Christians to renewed lives of sexual purity and freedom; and a project of the Salvation Army USA. Here’s the poster. Here’s info about the film Somebody’s Daughter. 
• Veteran Christian Band The 77s are touring in October. If you missed them, here’s an audio of one of my favorites.  (Two Ontario dates are available!)
• After Monday’s post about canonization, I realize how little I know about other faith traditions… Just when I think I have the rosary figured out, there’s prayer ropes for the Orthodox.
  
• I was wrong last week; the national Canadian Christian talk show hosted by Lorna Dueck has actually been out under the Context format (with a live audience that Listen Up never had) for over a year.
  
• Two articles on supporting your pastor(s): One from Lisa Robinson at Parchment and Pen, and one from Keith Brenton at Blog in My Own Eye.
  
• Sometimes I find about blogs from the “God Blogger” segment on The Drew Marshall Show. This week it was Timothy Dalrymple.
• Also this week discovered the blog, Hieropraxis while trying to track down a female apologetics expert, Dr. Holly Ordway; one of a few in what is otherwise more of man’s game.
• The funny graphic at the top of this post is actually from a very serious 2011 article, The Mega-Problem of Mega-Churches.
• …And the closing cartoon is from Dave Walker at CartoonChurch.com, but when I tried to find it for a proper link, I couldn’t.  This one is from the blog Digging a Lot.
  

Not enough links for you? The new Top 200 Church Blogs list is out.

Wednesday Link List

This week’s links include:

• A project that Church Relevance linked to last week, The Refuge OKC (as opposed to OC) a group of people sent to live in an interact with downtown Oklahoma City.
• A very focused blog reflecting a Christian surgeon’s perspective on the subject of sleep.  Surrendered Sleep is must-reading for those struggling with insomnia. 
• A news story concerning 12-year old Christian girl in Pakistan is found with burned pages of the Quran, which constitutes blasphemy and is punishable by death.
• A book review of Out of the Comfort Zone, the authorized biography of Ray Comfort, apologist and evangelist and partner-in-crime with Kirk Cameron. 
• A ratings report on American Bible Challenge, a new Bible knowledge show on The Game Show Network (GSN) hosted by Jeff Foxworthy.
• A publishing industry story on author Dee Henderson who returns to Christian bookstore shelves in October after a long absence. 
• A consideration that begins with the similarity between introverts in the church and people who go to monasteries.
  
• A rather sad but very accurate satire from SFL on the nature of scandal in the fundamentalist movement, Church Sex Scandal Bingo.
• A second link involving Church Relevance, this one an original piece about the need for generalists in a specialist world.
  
• A new music artist that Brad Lomenick linked to last week, Ryan Edgar, complete with 30-second previews of several songs.
  
• A not-so-new music band that specialized in heavy metal turns up at Christianity 201 singing a ballad about Jesus’ crucifixion.
• A link first seen on Challies.com for Scott Fillmer’s excellent Five Reasons We Should Still Read The Book of Leviticus Today.
• A second steal from Challies — sorry, Tim — is this unnamed individual who finds a unique way to protest a Joel Osteen appearance. ¹
  
• A book trailer for Steven Furtick’s second title — reviewed here last week — Greater: Dream Bigger, Start Smaller, Ignite Gods Vision For Your Life.
• A church website for people who complain that church websites are only about maps and service times. The location is there if you look hard. ²
  
• A song — I Believe — from the musical The Book of Mormon which showed up on our radar after the LDS feature on NBC’s Rock Center. ³
  

---

¹ Be sure to click the link inside to the .pdf of the actual pamphlet he created. I wonder how other preachers and evangelists would fare if their language was under the microscope in this manner?

² It could be argued that this website exists only for the convenience of the people in the church’s local community, but ‘online church hopping’ is becoming a global phenomenon. True the address is actually there in plain sight, but the usual maps and directions escaped me after ten minutes of searching. If I had just moved to the area…

³ This link is valid until after the next show is broadcast, probably tomorrow (Aug 30). There are versions of the song elsewhere on YouTube but this one had the lyrics.

Wednesday Link List

Time for this week’s links.   I think I need to just be boring and call this by the same title each week, the perfunctory Wednesday Link List.   But the lynx, the chain links, the cuff links and the golf links will make an occasional appearance.    This was a very busy week online for a lot of people.   Pick a few of these and let me (or them) know you what you think:

• Video link of the week is the animation of a great Sovereign Grace Music song, The Prodigal.
• There are seven letters to different churches in the first chapters of Revelation.   Now it’s 2010 and you have the chance to write The Eighth Letter.    I don’t usually promote conferences, but that’s the premise of one coming to Toronto in October, with guests Ron Sider, Shane Claiborne, Andy Couch, and perhaps even you:  Three people will be selected to have their own 15 minutes of fame.
• Shaun Groves talks to Christian business students and asks the musical question; “Is ‘Christian’ and ‘business’ not a bit of a contradiction?”
• Ever read Jewish blogs?   Everybody knows cheeseburgers are not kosher (although your cat can has them) but here’s some detail why that is, and why adding cheese to your chicken sandwich is simply a case of guilty by association.
• After a discussion with a police community support officer, who is also “the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered liaison officer” for his area, a UK street preacher is  jailed for saying homosexuality is a sin.
• Most of the stuff on Wayne Leman’s blog about Bible translation issues may be over the heads of many, but here’s a simple post on how a Bible version expert appreciates a titanic translation.
• Trevin Wax rightly calls into question the tradition in some churches of noting (in small ways) or giving an entire service over (in really big ways) to Mother’s Day.
• Are there things we know about God that we don’t know from the Bible?   Dan Phillips launches a series on this topic that will make you think, but not everybody is going to agree about, on extra-Biblical revelation.  (Hit the home page to continue to locate subsequent discussions.)
• Here’s a very new question-and-answer blog that bridges the gap between parents and teenagers.   Later this week we’ll introduce Matt who started it, but meanwhile, checkout ihaveaQ.
• Mark Batterson thinks we need to listen to the voice of innovation, but also the voice of wisdom if we want to avoid making the classic mistake.
• Some classic Ben Arment this week on the difference between a teacher and an exhorter is reposted at Christianity 201.
• The media may have moved on, but the messy cleanup in Nashville continues, with one particular church — operating out of a building where they’ve yet to hold their first service — doing a lot of the heavy lifting.   Pete Wilson also thinks a 1,00o year flood is a 1,000 year ministry opportunity.

• Liberty University’s seminary president Ergun Caner says he grew up Muslim, but now others are saying his claims are unsubstantiated.

• Coming soon to a Holiday Inn near you… (not really) The reunion of the veteran Christian rock band Petra.  Tour kicks off in October.
• Okay, so I’m the billionth blogger to link to this, but North Point Media did a really good spoof of “contemprovant” Churches in this Vimeo clip, Sunday’s Comin’.
• In our “scariest thing done in the name of Christianity” department, check out the people “aisle running” at Stuff Fundies Like.  (But I’m sure next week SFL will find something scarier.)
• In our “beating up Donald Miller” department, here’s a look at the question, “Is it really authentic to publicly confess sins you didn’t commit to people who weren’t sinned against?”   I always thought it was a rather inspired thing to do, but here’s an opinion that it’s really done out of pride.
• In our “Let’s just keep to ourselves” department, here’s a critique of the mechanics of Tim Challies latest Christian book reader’s survey.  Also, here’s how the Calvin Crowd responded.

• Here’s a worldwide look at what our online search terms say about our spiritual interests versus our interest in sex.

• Our cartoonist today is a return visit by Joe McKeever at Baptist press, who does a new cartoon daily.

asdf

Monday Lynx

Here’s some fresh lynx links to start the week:

• So far we’ve linked to Stuff Christians Like, Stuff White Christians Like and Stuff Christian Culture Likes (see blogroll at side) but this week we’re most definitely adding a link to Stuff Fundies Like.   You may be a huge Jon Acuff fan, but let’s face it, Jon goes to Andy Stanley’s church, which puts SCL in a world that most bloggers can relate to.   Stuff Fundies Like goes directly to the heart of conservative Christianity (i.e. Fundamentalists) and the author, who goes only by Darrell, definitely nails it.   (Warning #1:  Unlike SCL, SWCL and SCCL, the people portrayed in this one don’t always have a sense of humor.)  (Warning #2:  Allow at least a half hour becuase you’re going to want to read the ENTIRE thing.) (Warning #3:  Be prepared to do more than leave a comment; you can also sign up for a forum!)    Here’s that link one more time.
• Know someone who is 60 but has the ministry outlook of a 30-year-old?   Or how about someone who is 25 but seems to be going on 55 when it comes to their outlook on church and culture?   You might be dealing with someone who has a different MINISTRY AGE.   Now, thanks to Leadership Magazine, you can find out yours just by taking a simple survey.   (The scoring becomes rather obvious, but that just makes the whole thing more informative.)   Even if you’re not in vocational ministry, but serve on a board or teach a class:  Take the survey!  You may find that you’re a younger leader, pragmatic leader, or traditional leader.   Just 25 questions linked here.
• As far as I know, this isn’t a Christian book per se, but I was mailed a link to Start Up Nation by Dan Senor and Saul Singer (Hachette, 2009) which begins with an interesting teaser:  “How is it that Israel– a country of 7.1 million, only 60 years old, surrounded by enemies, in a constant state of war since its founding, with no natural resources– produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada and the UK?”  Click here for more details. [UPDATE: See new link in comments section.]
  
• Jonathan Brink shares a link to a TED Talk by Karen Armstrong prolific author of over 30 books on religion including The Case for God (Knopf Publishing, September 2009).   Here she speaks on the history of “belief.”   This is heady stuff, but it’s worth viewing if you have 21:27 to spare.   Watch the video and read Jonathan’s comments here at the blog Misseo Dei.
• As Christians, we tend to focus on events which are close to us or familiar to us; so we usually pick up on events that take place in the White House that are more Christian-friendly.   So it’s interesting to see U.S. President Barack Obama giving an inter-faith, inclusive message on the occasion of Diwali (2:02) and lighting the Diwali lamp (1:00) in the White House.

Watch for the links lynx to appear any day any time !!  (Reminder to children:  Do NOT pet the lynx.)  Link suggestions are always welcomed.  Just call our link-tips hotline.