One of the easiest ways to stream content from the Internet on your television, such as Netflix Instant or Hulu+, is with a Roku Box. With the advice from a few friends, I also figured out how, using a few standard wires (less than $20 total), to watch anything on your laptop screen on your television. You’ll have to change the input on your TV to receive from the proper inputs. And, of course, all this set-up is easiest on... Read more
A while back I had the opportunity to attend a Church Planter’s Academy, but I haven’t had a chance to post the highlights from my notes until now. Whether you are attempting to form a new faith community or enliven an old one, you will likely find some useful tools and practices below: Opening questions: (1) I come from a people who… (2) I come from a place where… (3) I bring with me… (more…) Read more
(John Voelz, Follow You, Follow Me: Why Social Networking Is Essential to Ministry, 2012, 159 pages.) This book review is a sponsored post that is part of the Patheos Book Club. Do ministers need to add their Klout scores to their resumes? Do congregational search committees need to take social media prowess into account when hiring staff? (For the uninitiated, Klout is a fledgling way of measuring your social networking influence compared to other people.) When I attended a recent ministry conference,... Read more
I recently had the opportunity to attending a conference on Funding the Missional Church. The following are the highlights from my notes on this event: “What Exactly Is ‘Missional’?” Finding God is already present in everyone you meet “out there,” not just bringing God with you. Hands on, instead of writing a check Loving what God loves Doing what Jesus did, incarnational Connecting with the people around you Getting out there and doing something (more…) Read more
The four main original independent sources used to compile the early books of the Bible are called J, E, D, and P. Similar to the “Q Source” used to compose the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, J-E-D-P are each shorthand for the full title scholars have given to these sources. The Book of J, which stands for the “Jahwist.” Normally, we English-speakers would begin spelling YaHWeH with a “Y,” but the landmark scholars who developed this “Documentary Hypothesis” were Germans. I... Read more
Last week I had the privilege of attending the Unitarian Universalists’ annual General Assembly, which was held this year in Phoenix, Arizona. The focus of this year’s gathering was social justice around the issue of immigration. I live tweeted the event from my iPhone, and the following are some of the highlights: Peter Bowden @uuplanet: Supreme Court sides with U.S. in Arizona immigration case –http://CNN.com http://ow.ly/bO8Oj #UUAGA #SB1070 “It is possible to move from a thing-oriented society to a people-oriented society.” -MLK,... Read more
8 Then I heard the voice of God saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!” 9 And God said, “Go and say to this people: “Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand.’ 10 Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, so that they may not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and... Read more
1 Now God said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your ancestral house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”... Read more
1 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens,... Read more
(Christian Piatt, PregMANcy: A Dad, a Little Dude, and a Due Date, Chalice Press, 2012, 182 pages.) This book review is a sponsored post that is part of the Roundtable at the Patheos Book Club. Full disclosure: Amy Piatt, Christian’s wife, was my classmate in seminary. I haven’t talked in person with Amy or Christian since I graduated from Divinity School in 2003, nor have I met either of their children. Christian’s new fatherhood memoir hilariously and profoundly caught me up on... Read more
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