I wanted to give you more info on the LEAD09 conference I mentioned yesterday in my links. Here’s a little more from the conference website. Here’s what conference organizer Ramsey Tripp says about it: “Lead09 is designed to promote the gospel, community and mission of the Church—to answer the questions many of us have been asking about what the Church is, how we fit into the Church and the mission of the Church. The best way this is done is through... Read more
1. Linked at Truehoop, the best basketball blog on the web, this is one of the best pieces I’ve read about the experience of playing basketball. Don’t worry–I have read many. 2. Have you heard the song “The Funeral” by Band of Horses? It’s haunting. I don’t know what it’s about. 3. Wondering what to do next time you’re in Juneau, Alaska? Glad you asked. 4. If you’re in the New England area, you need to check out the Lead09... Read more
From a recent Ref21 article by Andy Naselli, my buddy: Non-Christians and Christians alike often give the same answer to difficult questions like these: Why did God allow sin in the first place? Why does God save some people and not others? Why does God send people to hell? Why can living like a Christian be so frustrating? The immediate solution often suggested is simple: “free will.” To many people, it’s a satisfying answer: “Oh, that makes sense. Yeah, God... Read more
The New York Times has an ironic piece up about Twitter users. Apparently, they’re older, not young. Surprising. Especially funny to me was the quotation from an 18-year-old girl (photo: Tim Shaffer/NYT). She is not necessarily the embodiment of maturity–she gets tons of text messages a day–but she has some funny words about the purpose of Twitter: Kristen Nagy, an 18-year-old from Sparta, N.J., sends and receives 500 text messages a day. But she never uses Twitter, even though it... Read more
After looking at that Sedaris quotation yesterday, I thought a bit about my own role as a dad. It struck me in mulling over busyness and “success” that it is easy, not hard, to be a bad parent and a bad dad, to care way too much about oneself and not nearly enough about one’s loved ones. (Photo: Hamilton Beach) Here are some ways that I am tempted to be a bad dad: 1. Talk on a cell phone while... Read more
I found this sobering illustration of the cost of success in a recent David Sedaris feature for the New Yorker entitled “Laugh, Kookaburra.” Pat was driving, and as we passed the turnoff for a shopping center she invited us to picture a four-burner stove. “Gas or electric?” Hugh asked, and she said that it didn’t matter. This was not a real stove but a symbolic one, used to prove a point at a management seminar she’d once attended. “One burner... Read more
From Isaiah 11:1 comes this stirring promise: There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. This is a well-known passage, but the description of the Messiah in 1a struck me freshly. Isaiah saw that the Messiah would not come out of a massive Davidic oak. He could have. No, in the purposes of the Lord, the Messiah would come as “a shoot” from Jesse’s “stump.” The Lord would lay His... Read more
1. Jonathan Leeman of 9Marks has a great series of posts that discusses how immanence and transcendence relate to various aspects of Christian ministry. It’s way, way deeper than your average deal. Here’s part one; part two; and part three. 2. John Piper discusses what to do when storms, or “tornadoes,” hit in life. (Photo: BlisstheFamily) 3. The Super-Rich are suffering, according to the NYT. Why does it seem like they like this? It’s a good thing to have lots of... Read more
I’ve just heard from CBMW’s John Starke about a discussion at Southern Seminary in a few weeks that continues the Ware/Grudem vs. McCall/Yandell debate begun on the campus of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in October 2008 (here’s the coverage of the event by Christianity Today). Without taking a position on this matter, I want to let you know that the conversation is continuing. Here’s what John had to say: On September 9th, on the campus of The Southern Baptist Theological... Read more
This is a post that needs writing. So here we go: a primer on the best pastoral ministry internships that I am aware of. Please note that I don’t know every detail of these programs; I may get something wrong. Check the websites below for definitive information (and see a great resource by 9Marks on how churches can train pastors). My personal suggestion for seminarians and pastors-in-training would be to couple your academic learning with an internship. These are some of... Read more
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