Tag Archives: humor

Mar 8 2013

this went thru my mind

 

Church, ministry & the younger generation: The “Oh-Crap” Calling by Dan Bouchelle [required reading]

“… 81% of students in seminary do not intend to work for existing churches. I hear the same thing from every Christian university where I visit. …  this is a problem on a large scale. It crosses all fellowships. The church in the United States has serious issues with the emerging adult population.”

Church dropouts & evangelicals: Walking Away from Church by Patrick Mitchel

“Displaced followers: frustrated, angry, hurt rejection of the church. Reflective Exiles: wrestling with questions of faith in general. Transitional Explorers: open to new spiritualities, dissatisfied with previous experience. Integrated Wayfinders: have arrived at a new understanding of the Christian faith.”

Humor: The Top 13 Demotivators® Posters Of All Time

“After we finished our perusal of the Top 10 Iconic Motivational Posters (and we put away our sick bags), we decided it deserved a reply, and who better than us to write it? And so, after much deliberation and debate, we’ve created our own list- The Top 13 Demotivators® Posters of All Time, using sales data, social sharing, frequency of inclusion in Build-Your-Own-Calendars, and other semi-scientific analytic tools to compile it.”

Lord’s Prayer: What Does ‘Hallowed Be Thy Name’ Mean?

* “The phrase ‘hallowed be thy name’ … means something like ‘Let your name be sanctified” or ‘Please sanctify your name.’ It’s the first of three petitions that mean roughly the same thing … Let your name be sanctified; Let your Kingdom come; Let your will be done, as in heaven also on earth.”

Slander: Slander: This is a Heart Issue by John T. Willis

“Let us all pray for slanderers and groups of slanderers.”

Wealth inequality: Americans Nearly Unanimous on ‘Ideal’ Wealth Distribution, But Unaware of Real Levels of Inequality [required viewing; 6 min., 24 sec. video]

“There’s a chart … I can’t get out of my head. … the reality in this country is not at all what we think it is.”

Mar 6 2013

this went thru my mind

 

Bibles & translation: Lost in Translation: A Surprising Gain in English Translations by John Byron

“… while we are only getting about 80% of the meaning of the text, it is taking us anywhere from 33% to 65% more to get to that 80%.”

Church: 10 Hard Questions Every Planter Needs to Ask by Tim Stevens

“Every current poll I’ve seen indicates the American church is in decline. Yes, the number of large churches is increasing, but overall church attendance continues to go down. The way we do church—the model of Christendom that has been followed for the past 1,700 years—is working with fewer people all the time. Most people reading this are the product of the type of church that is, as a whole, becoming less and less effective. Just about every church in America can be described by three words: ‘Come to us.’ That is it.”

Communication, speech, words & writing: Why Clarence Thomas Uses Simple Words in His Opinions

“… there are simple ways to put important things in language that’s accessible. … the beauty, the genius is not to write a 5 cent idea in a ten dollar sentence. It’s to put a ten dollar idea in a 5 cent sentence.”

Evangelism & outreach: Evangelism & the Church by Tim Gombis

“In various settings over the years, I’ve heard evangelical leaders and pastors claim that the church’s main task is evangelism.  All sorts of evangelism initiatives have been kicked into gear based on this assumed obvious fact regarding the purpose of the church.  Many people raised in evangelical churches can tell tales of guilt-motivated canvassing efforts involving humiliating encounters with complete strangers or forced “gospel presentations” to friends and relatives. But is it obvious that evangelism is the main task of the church, or even a task of the church?”

Humor: Grumpy Cat Meets the Funeral Industry by Caleb Wilde

“I was channeling my inner grumpy cat and this is what I came up with. Yes, some are extremely cheesy, others in bad taste, others are for those inside the industry, but maybe there’s one that makes you laugh.”

Noise & quiet: Exercising Sans Noise by Joshua Becker

“… eventually, after a long period of trial and error, I turned off noise altogether during my workouts. I immediately fell in love with the refreshing workout environment of silence. It was peaceful. It was calming. And I began taking note of the numerous benefits.”

Jan 9 2013

this went thru my mind

 

Christian radio, church, ministry & creativity: * Killing Becky (On Creating in A ‘Safe’ Church) by Sean Palmer [essential reading]; * John Cleese on Creativity [essential viewing; 36 min. video]

* “… it’s foolish to believe Becky and the Christian music aimed at her is anywhere near the neighborhood of a holistic Christian experience. And that’s the problem! Problems arise when the ‘Becky experience’ becomes synonymous with the ‘Christian experience.’ Very little of life with God is safe.”

* “… creativity is not possible in the closed mode.”

Church, discipleship & evangelism: Francis Chan Challenges People to Experience God Through Making Disciples

“Chan’s desire to cultivate boldness in discipleship led him and his wife, Lisa, to start a church planting movement in the inner city of San Francisco. ‘We have church on Sunday afternoons, which consists of me speaking for 5-10 minutes, us singing for 5-10 minutes, then everyone going out for two hours and witnessing in lower income neighborhoods. After that we come back and share with each other what happened and how the experience was,’ Chan described, adding that he is also working to launch a nationwide discipleship movement.”

Exploitation & the poor: Targeting the Dove Sellers by Richard Beck [required reading]

“… going after the dove sellers we see Jesus directly attacking the group who were having economic dealings with the poor. When the poor would go to the temple they would head for the dove sellers. The point being, while we know that Jesus was upset about economic exploitation going on in the temple, his focus on the dove sellers sharpens the message and priorities. Jesus doesn’t, for instance, go after the sellers of lambs. Jesus’s anger is stirred at the way the poor are being treated and economically exploited.”

College, David Lipscomb, learning & understanding: My Top Nine List of What They Will Not Tell You in New Faculty Orientation Meetings by Lee C. Camp

“If you don’t know it, you will, unfortunately, not find it in our current publications: David Lipscomb was a socio-political radical, a pacifist who refused to fight for either the Confederacy or the Union; said that trying to prop up human governments was akin to whoring with the Beast and, quoting the book of Revelation, admonished those thus whoring that they should “come ye out of her”; insisted that a sectarian refusal to listen to the arguments of people who fundamentally disagreed with you was ignorant; and thought that too much affiliation with wealth ruined young people, because it made them incapable of being at ease in the homes of the poor that were filled with unpleasant odors and foul disease. And he believed all of this because he, first and foremost, sought first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness. Whether we agree with all his conclusions or not, let us not forget his witness, and let us talk more about what brother Lipscomb had to say.”

Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, privacy, Twitter & social media: * The Ultimate Complete Final Social Media Sizing Cheat Sheet [infographic]; * Facebook Privacy Fail [infographic]

* “… an infographic listing all of the sizing information for images on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest.”

* “Here are some of the biggest issues with Facebook and their privacy issues.”

First impressions & guests: First Impressions by Your Church by Philip Nation

“People never get a second-chance at a first impression. Neither do churches. My family recently visited a church (no, it wasn’t your church) and were able to get in and out undetected. Had it not been for our toddler’s need for childcare, we could have avoided human contact altogether. Needless to say, we didn’t feel very welcome. Nearly everything about a Sunday morning worship service communicates something to first-time visitors. From the church bulletins to the parking lot layout, churches demonstrate how much – or how little – they care about people. Here are some things I learned from my last church visit.”

Near death experiences (NDE): Can We Chemically Induce Near Death Experiences? by Caleb Wilde

“… what happens if these NDEs are simply concoctions of end-of-life chemical reactions?”

Prayer: 13 Thoughts About Pastoral Prayers by Brandon Cox

“Be sure you don’t pray the same phrases every time. Change it up. If you don’t prepare and think about the prayer, you will automatically resort to old familiar cliches — which wear out quickly in public usage.”

Red Letter Christians: Authors Ask: ‘What If Jesus Really Meant What He Said?’

“Best-selling Christian authors Shane Claiborne and Tony Campolo say discussions about Christian doctrine are important, but believers today have gotten away from living out the simple, practical life-teachings of Jesus Christ. In their newest book, Red Letter Revolution: What If Jesus Really Meant What He Said? they tackle a number of controversial issues – the Middle East, abortion, national debt, immigration and more – in an attempt to show how Jesus’ words could transform modern Christianity and the world.”

Dec 19 2012

this went thru my mind

 

Christmas: Christmas Carols as Resistance Literature by Richard Beck [required reading]

“O Holy Night–Cantique de Noël in the original French–was composed in 1847 by Adolphe Adam. … O Holy Night, it turns out, was a song of political resistance and protest. Imagine Americans singing in the years leading up to the Civil War the lyrics ‘Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother; And in His name all oppression shall cease.’ O Holy Night as political protest. A Christmas carol as resistance literature. This is as it should be. Consider the words of Mary’s Song, the Magnificat.”

Dead Sea Scrolls: The Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library

“The Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library … preserves thousands of scroll fragments, including the oldest known copies of the biblical texts, now accessible to the public for the first time.”

Faith, fear, guns & violence: Conservative Christian Priorities by Bob Cargill [required reading]

“Conservative Christians have spent more time defending their right to assault weapons this week than I ever recall having seen them defend the hungry, the poor, the sick (except to oppose their proposed healthcare), or the imprisoned. (Cf. Matt. 25:31-45) Priorities are very telling.”

Guns & politics: Party Identity in a Gun Cabinet by Nate Silver

“Whether someone owns a gun is a more powerful predictor of a person’s political party than her gender, whether she identifies as gay or lesbian, whether she is Hispanic, whether she lives in the South or a number of other demographic characteristics. … Gun ownership has declined over the past 40 years — but almost all of the decrease has come from Democrats.”

Holidays & loneliness: Dealing With Lonely Holidays by Wayne Stiles

“For many people, the holidays draw up painful memories.”

Humor: 8 Funniest Verses in Bible by Ron Edmonson

“Here are 7 of the funniest verses I have read in Scripture.”

Memory: Ready. Set. Memorize!

“…  this year’s World Memory Championships … Nelson Dellis, the U.S. memory champion, says that in practice, he can memorize a deck of cards in about 32 seconds. Dellis is ranked 24th in the world.”

Parenting: 5 Ways to Play With Your Kids This Christmas by Trevin Wax

“During the holiday season, we’re tempted to spend too much time on our iPhones, on the computer, or watching television. Following our example, our kids isolate themselves too. We’re together physically, but no one is having fun. No wonder by New Year’s everyone is ready to get back into the normal routine. Can I challenge you, parents? Don’t let this holiday season go by without spending time just having fun with your kids. No agenda. Just fun.”