Tag Archives: death

Apr 11 2013

this went thru my mind

 

Archaeology: Cyrus Cylinder Begins American Tour

“Since its discovery more than 130 years ago, the Cyrus Cylinder has been a striking example of an archaeological artifact that independently confirms a Biblical account. … Visitors to five U.S. museums will have the rare opportunity to see this fascinating artifact firsthand in The Cyrus Cylinder in Ancient Persia, on tour this year. The cylinder is usually on display at the British Museum in London. … May 3–June 14, 2013 – The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston – Houston, Texas – www.mfah.org“

Communion: A Hearty Eucharist [very interesting; read this with my sermon last Sunday morning in mind]

“… there is something to be said for going back, insofar as possible, to a practice that more closely resembles the early church or Jesus’ last meal with his disciples itself. How can we reclaim, for our congregations and our worship services, a sense of how the early church both commemorated the last supper and ate together? How can we, in our communion practices, strive to (in the most literal sense) be more Christ-like?”

Depression: How Can the Church Help People Struggling with Depression?

“How can the church do a better job of helping people struggling with depression and mental illness?”

Entitlement: What I Deserve

“I deserve better. I’m entitled to certain things. I have my rights. My forefathers worked hard so that I could live a certain way. I’ve worked like a dog so that I could live like a king. Said any of those things? Thought any of those things?”

Grief & miscarriage: How Does a Pastor Care for a Couple Who Just Experienced a Miscarriage?

“Here are a few tips for those interested in knowing helpful ways to care for a couple who have just experienced this loss.”

Hospital visitation: Five Things I Learned in the Hospital

“With my almost 3-week hospital stay behind me, I realized there are several things I learned from the experience. Here are five of them.”

Marriage & ministry: * Is Ministry Killing your Marriage?; * 10 Things I’ve Learned About Being A Preacher’s Wife

* “Pastors reflect on building a harmonious relationship between their ministries and families.”

* “I don’t think preacher’s wives are understood by most people. … Here are some things I presume most preacher’s wives wish someone had told them before they became such.”

Speech, suffering & words: How Not to Say the Wrong Thing [required reading]

“… you can say whatever you want if you just wait until you’re talking to someone in a larger ring than yours.”

Suicide: 7 Questions About Suicide and Christians

“… to address seven of the questions that arise in our minds at times like this.”

Feb 12 2013

this went thru my mind

 

Caregiving & stealing: 5 Signs a Caregiver Is Stealing From You

“Be careful, proactive, and alert. Here, some of the key warning signs that a caregiver is on the take.”

Children & death: Talking to Your Children about Death by Caleb Wilde

“The implications of this study suggest that, despite all of the challenges involved in talking to a child about death and even in the very demanding circumstances of a child facing his or her imminent death, it is most often better to go ahead with such conversations.”

Church: Are Churches Any Better Than Nightclubs? by Pete Enns

“… it’s hard to be real in church because the whole system seems to work better if you’re not. Which is not good. The problem, though, is what to do about it.”

Church, dropouts, & younger folks: Why Are Young Adults Leaving Church? A Comprehensive Answer by Matt Dabbs [required reading]

“There has been a mass exodus of young adults from Christian churches (including but not limited to Churches of Christ) over the last few decades. … There are a variety of reasons young adults leave the church in their early 20s. They are not all leaving for the same reasons and not every reason is the church’s fault (which tends to be the chorus out there … the church is fully to blame. Not really). I believe there are four categories that all work together into a devastating mix that have resulted in this movement.”

Giving: Atlas of Giving Predicts Gloomy Year for Churches

“Atlas of Giving, a Texas based firm that specializes in forecasting financial trends for non-profit organizations, is predicting that 2013 will be a ‘gloomy’ year for the religious community.”

Just for fun: Barn Owls at Church

“Three young barn owls looking out of the quatrefoil of a church in North Norfolk, England.”

Small groups: * How Do Groups Fit into the Overall Strategy of Your Church? by Eric Geiger; Friendship in Small Groups by Scott Boren

* “Church leaders must know how their groups (classes, Bible fellowships, etc.) fit into their overall discipleship strategy/process, and many don’t. They simply have groups. Once leaders know how groups fit into their overall church discipleship plan, they must harmonize their group leaders, training, and content with the overall discipleship plan.”

* “It is easy to idolize the success of the organization of the church to such a degree that we sacrifice the core of the Gospel, loving people to the point of living in friendship with them. This is a subtle trap where the organization takes priority over the people.”

Feb 11 2013

this went thru my mind

 

Awareness, focus, inattentional blindness, & thinking: Why Even Radiologists Can Miss A Gorilla Hiding In Plain Sight [required reading]

“… what we’re thinking about — what we’re focused on — filters the world around us so aggressively that it literally shapes what we see.”

Books & bookstores: Buying is a Hard Thing for Bookstores to Do Effectively, and That Becomes an Increasingly Important Reality for Publishers

“As the shelf space for books being managed by retailers that accept the high cost of managing book inventory and commit to doing it effectively continues to decline, publishers need to understand that it will be really hard for non-book retailers to replace them.”

Churches of Christ: “Why Churches of Christ are Shrinking” Blog – More Thoughts by Joshua Tucker

“Lord, help us not to be bound by personal preference, but by an overwhelming desire to please You and see Your Church grow. Help all of us to be selfless, full of Your Love, and the ability to judge things objectively.”

Civil War & Les Miserables: In Camp, Reading ‘Les Miserables’

“Victor Hugo’s “Les Miserables” was published in 1862 and English translations of the five parts that constitute the novel began to appear in America by year’s end. … While Hugo may not have had the Civil War in mind, American reviewers certainly did and many viewed the novel through the prism of the war.”

Death & fear: America’s Culture of Death by Ben Witherington [required reading]

“When a culture replaces the value of everlasting life, with the value of this life extended as far as possible, the culture has become totally myopic, unable to see beyond the immediate, the tangible, the empirical. And oddly enough when the lie that ‘this life is all there is’ is believed, it makes it much easier to allow death to rule one’s mind, one’s fears, one’s behavior. Death simply becomes the price of doing business, or surviving. A culture becomes fear based and makes decisions on the basis of fear, rather than faith and a belief in the life to come.”

Millenials: FactChecker: Are Millennials More Self-Sacrificing and Community-Minded Than Previous Generations?

“For those who pay attention to the different opinions and declarations on how the various generations are different than the ones that came before, you have no doubt heard that while Generation X was the slacker generation, Gen Y, or the Millennials, are very different, the most community service-minded, action-oriented, let’s change-the-world-generation alive today, perhaps in the history of our nation. Generation We. It’s taken as a nearly uncontested reality. Except it’s not true. The best research on this topic, relying on nationally representative research by the leading scholars on the issue comes to essentially the very opposite conclusion.”

Small groups: Small Groups for the Rest of Us by Chris Surratt

Parts one [introverts], two [guys] & three [anyone].

Submission: The Most Offensive Word in America [required reading]

“The most offensive word to Americans is a simple, two-syllable word that insults our beliefs and violates our value system: submit. We inherently believe no one has the right to tell us how to live, where to go or what to do. We are our own masters.”