Dave Bourgeois reviews Reynolds’s and Overton’s The New Media Frontier
December 23, 2008
… at his blog, Lessons from Babel
Weekend Walkabout, December 20, 2008
December 20, 2008
26 posts from the week that escaped mention (almost!):
“All” Always Means ALL. Right? - Phil Johnson
A Bad Sign - The Sacred Sandwich
CCM Magazine’s Top Ten Artist Blogs of 2008 (HT: Worship.com)
Don’t Waste Your Sexuality - Josh Harris
The Elvis-Beatles Relativity Fallacy - Rod Dreher
“Free” Christian music downloads from CompassionArt - Gospel Soundcheck
Glorifying God in Our Christmas Shopping - Tony Reinke
“Does my gift serve the soul of the recipient?”
How Hellish is ‘Time Out’? - Russell Moore
If Only it Were That Clear - Mark D. Roberts
Jonestown and the Reformed Movement - R. Scott Clark
“As weird and impossible as Jonestown seems today, what happened to them and what they did to themselves, is not utterly unrelated to ideas, causes, and personalities in the Reformed movement over the last three decades.”
Killing is My Business, and Business is Good - Paul Manata
Lewis’s Famous Essay on Bulverism (HT: Victor Reppert)
Martin Luther’s Christmas Book - Between Two Worlds
No Good Reason - Cerulean Sanctum
“In sorting through this clothing, the realization that I throw away just about nothing hit home.”
Online Community…Does it exist? YES! But I Think You Are Asking the Wrong Question - Rhett Smith
Phillips Daylight Window Concept Presentation - Joshua Sowin
Q+A :: How many U.S. churches exist? - Church Relevance
Reflections from a Church Pianist - Amy Scott
“When I have a brain freeze at a bad time, I’ve got a special look for the other musicians that asks, ‘What are you people thinking, man?’”
Six Christmas Poems - Marcus Goodyear
Tim Challies Day - Justin Taylor
Unpacking forgiveness in real life - Dan Phillips
Volition: A Short Film - Jonathan Ignacio
“It is a fifteen minute film focusing on three of the worst atrocities of human rights this world has faced.”
Why read through Calvin’s Institutes in 2009? - Ligon Duncan
Xmas Giveaway - Trevin Wax
“For the next ten days (Dec. 15-25), you have the opportunity to register to win all ten of my favorite books this year. Plus, an ESV Study Bible. That’s $260 worth of books!”
You Should Subscribe - Green Baggins
Zeitgeist as Agent? - Pseudo-Polymath
“Consider … for a moment the intelligent ant colony … from the ant’s perspective … here with man as ant. “
I, Avatar
December 19, 2008
At his blog, Lessons from Babel, Internet ministry researcher Dave Bourgeois discusses I, Avatar, a book by Mark Stephen Meadows, which he says is about “just what happens when someone spends more and more time in a virtual world …”
“Each avatar we encounter online, whether it be the more two-dimensional kind in Facebook or three-dimensional in W[orld] o[f] W[arcraft] or Second Life, represent a real live human being with a soul. A person that is just as important to the Creator as we are.”
Not all screens are created equal
December 17, 2008
At Culture11, Alan Jacobs responds to an essay by Christine Rosen in which she laments the multiplication of various screens in the lives of we 21st century humans: computer, phone, TV, etc. (see ‘People of the Screen‘).
Jacobs says not so fast …
“There is no such thing as ‘the screen’; there are screens, plural, and they are not all the same.”
Read his entire post, in which he recommends Albert Borgmann’s work, Holding On to Reality: the Nature of Information at the Turn of the Millennium, to gain some proper perspective on new technologies.
‘Tokbox’ review
December 16, 2008
John Saddington talks about an online service called TokBox at ChurchCrunch.
From the TokBox website:
“Tokbox is a free service that lets you talk with your friends over live video. Here’s how it works: you sign up and we give you a link. When you want to talk with anyone, just give them the link - they click and you chat.”
What is essential to church?
December 15, 2008
Carlos Whittaker is challenging folks to think about what the necessary agreements to have church are, with a post entitled “Welcome to the First United Church of 192.168.0.1.”
Weekend Walkabout: December 13, 2008
December 13, 2008
26 posts from the week that escaped mention (almost!):
Alan Hirsch Responds to Kimball’s ‘Missional Misgivings’ - Out of Ur
Book Review: Sacramental Life - Trevin Wax
“Sacramental Life: Spiritual Formation Through the Book of Common Prayer … takes the reader through The Book of Common Prayer as a method of spiritual formation.”
Changing With the Times - Philip Schroeder
“You all probably know the truism: ‘Methodology changes, but the Message remains the same’ …”
Download Nine Advent Worship Goodies - TallSkinnyKiwi
Evangelicals Lose Ecumenical Friend in Catholic Theologian’s Death - Jeremy Weber
Futures for Anglicanism: aka Breaking Up is Hard to Do (But Sometimes Necessary) - Chris Dierkes
Going Old School, sort of - Launching A Radio Show - Doug Pagitt
Happy Birthday to ME! - Carla Rolfe
“If you’re a fellow 24 fan like me (or know of someone who is), this makes a great Christmas gift idea.”
I Need a Blogging Buddy and So Do You - John Saddington
The Jesus Project - Dan Wallace
“Reading between the lines, it seems that this group will offer up an even more radical fare than the Jesus Seminar did.”
Kate Gosselin of ‘Jon & Kate Plus 8′ Shares Her Favorite Christmas Traditions - Dena Ross
Little Drummer Boy - Jake Bouma
Muslim Lawyer: ‘Christmas is the pathway to hell’ - Cranmer
NRB head: Sex abuse scandal? It’s history. Really. - David Gibson
Obama’s Iranian observers - Erin Manning
“I was never very appreciative of the saber-rattling on the right over Iran; but the threat of a nuclear Iran is a serious one, not something to take lightly.”
Pumpkin Squares - Rebecca Stark
Q Conference Meetup & Discount - Kevin D. Hendricks
“This is not a bells and whistles hipster event with big names and games. It’s a strategic gathering of thinkers and doers who want to see change and bring change.”
Radiocarbon dating contradicts geological time scale, supports young earth - Daniel G, two or three
So long, Sola? - Nic Paton
Ten Differences Between the Reformation and Rome - Guy Davies (Reformation Theology)
The Uniqueness of Jesus’ Birth - Darrell Bock
Vanilla Holiday - Pseudo-Polymath
What?! (Rick Warren on Hannity & Colmes) - Dan Phillips
Xmas Has Pagan Roots ::: So What? - Theophilogue
“The music you listen to, the way your calendar and clock measures time, the names you use to refer to various planets in the universe, etc., all have ties to pagan religion.”
You Can’t Make This Stuff Up - Justin Wise
“You are looking at a picture of some Christians praying over the Bull outside of the New York Stock Exchange …”
Zimbabwe: Time for South African Government To Do Something - Mark Daniels
How to fight Googlification
December 12, 2008
Stephen Altrogge wrote a post earlier this week entitled, “Don’t Let Google Make You Stupid.” In a more recent post, he offers some tips for preventing the brain atrophy that can be caused by an overuse of social media:
“Fight For Real Reading
Blog reading, email, Twitter, Facebook, and texting are in some ways like junk food. Easy to consume large quantities without getting anything of substance …”
ECHO Church Media Conference
December 12, 2008
July 29-31, 2009, in Irving, Texas (Dallas-Fort Worth area). Speakers include Phil Vischer, producer of VeggieTales. Official website here. From the conference promoters:
“Why you should go
To discover new forms of media
To be inspired to use media in new ways
To learn how to create original forms of media
To move beyond what’s been done and dream about what’s next
To turn ideas into a reality that impacts others for Christ”
(HT: Digital Sanctuary)
Stayin’ alive …
December 11, 2008
At ChurchCrunch, John Saddington discusses what keeps blogs alive:
“Content is KING …”
Free webinar on Thursday, Dec. 11: Top 10 Church Innovations
December 10, 2008
Courtesy of the Learnings @ Leadership Network:
“Join Leadership Network’s research director, Warren Bird, Ph.D., as he presents findings about innovation from a recent national study of America’s largest churches. This is the first public presentation of these discoveries, which are both stimulating and practical. You’ll gain new perspective on how to solve certain problems that your own church is facing.”
(HT: D. J. Chuang)
Weekend Walkabout: December 6, 2008
December 6, 2008
26 posts from the week that escaped mention (almost!):
- Afterlife in the Old Testament: The Scholarly Consensus? - Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth
- Bible Memorization Worksheet 2009 - Triablogue
- Converging the Web and Desktop - ChurchCrunch
- Different Isn’t Wrong … - Justin Wise
- Encouragement for Trans-Racial Adoption Anxiety - Vitamin Z
- Fox News Conservative? - Russell Moore
- Grand Duke Henri’s Last Stand - Rod Dreher
- Hate Your Enemy? - Greg Gilbert, Church Matters
- Innocent Suffering - DesiringGod blog
- J.K. Rowling’s Fairy Tales for Wizards (and Muggles) - Sherry Huang, Idol Chatter
- Korea - 1 Day Left - Let’s Start Right - Human3rror
- Lay Worship - The Sacred Sandwich
- My Two Cents #123 - Osama Bin Lego and other Islamic fare - Daniel G. two or three
- No Food, Drink or Levity Allowed in the Sanctuary - Motte Brown, Boundless
- Our Problem with the Old Testament - Justin Taylor
- Pithy Pre-pastorate Pastoral Pointers - Dan Phillips
- Quantum of Follies - Dayo Olopade, Culture11
- Russian Patriarch Dies - Susan Wunderink, Christianity Today liveblog
- Short Saturdays - Who needs our money? - Stuff Christians Like
- Things we should be doing - Amy Scott
- Ultimate 80’s Medley - Denny Burk
- Video of My Sermon on the Bible - Adrian Warnock
- Wanted: Kindness - Carla Rolfe
- 20 EXcellent Free Rich-Text Editors - Webdesigner Depot
- Yes, the terrorists targeted Jews - Daniel Pulliam, GetReligion
- Zacharius Ursinus - Theopedia article (Z’s are always hard to find … but it will be worth your while to learn something about Ursinus, a contemporary of Martin Luther)
Traffic to prayer sites increasing
December 3, 2008
According to a post by Donna Freitas at Idol Chatter (which cites a NYT article by Allen Salkin):
“The best place to go for your prayers to be answered–especially if you happen to be Christian and/or are down on your luck as of late–is no longer a house of worship. Nope. Apparently, the best place for sending prayers is…the internet.”
Original NYT story: “If You Post It, They Will Pray“
Which only proves the Simpsons writers have been paid off by Bill Gates
December 3, 2008
Soulpatches on everyone … OK, that part’s pretty accurate.
See this 1984 Macintosh ad for background on Comic Book Guy’s iconoclastic gesture.
(HT: Rod Dreher)
A better way to moderate blog comments
December 3, 2008
Tony Steward posts about the IntenseDebate Commenting System, which he uses and appreciates.
IntenseDebate site.
