Putting Peter Jackson in Perspective: An Interview with Greg Wright

In general, the church has a terrific theology of the written word. However, the ongoing worship-style squabble demonstrates that the church generally has an ill-defined theology of music, and the twentieth-century church has also demonstrated a schizophrenic theology of visual art. This is troubling since the art form of film combines words, music and visual elements. Segments of the church, of course, have long grasped the role of all art in ministry; but until we stop viewing film as either a tool of the enemy or merely a tool for evangelism, we will continue to be guilty of idolizing the written Gospel and demonizing that which God intended for good. That’s not a pretty scenario.

This is a great article and worth your time!

Americans favor Christian symbols, Barna says

I don't know what to think of this poll. What conclusions can we come to from these few statistics? It seems to me that cultural Christianity is widely accepted but true transformative apprenticeship to Jesus Christ is not. But I guess a poll like this helps Christians with there self-esteem. Whew! We aren't completely marginalized!

Frankly, who cares? What the church needs is transformation. What are culture needs are true apprentices of Jesus Christ, changing from the inside out, who love others.

Forget the mottos! (Hey, that could be a motto!) Start morphing. (Hey, another snappy motto! I'm on a roll!).

Sunday School Flannelgraph

Sunday School Flannelgraph
Originally uploaded by hawkenstein.

Welcome to our cutting edge, high tech Sunday School program!

I get a kick out of this each week when I see it.

U2 - Vertigo

I downloaded the new U2 single from itunes today. Great song and only .99!

Sacred Heart Jesuit Retreat House

Great retreat house just outside of Denver.

Tithing: What should the church teach its members about giving?

Interesting article on tithing.

Breaking the 300 Barrier

Articles like this disgust me! How is the Holy Spirit involved in church growth? You won't find any insight here just program thoughts and techniques. Yuk!

How to create a postcard newletter

Cool spin on the traditional newsletter! Great idea for churches.

BibleGateway.com

Try the new BibleGateway!

LookSmart's Furl - Your Personal Web

I received this email today and wanted to pass along this service to you. Now they are offering 5 gigs of storage! Wow!

Dear Furl Members,

Tomorrow we will be making an official announcement that Furl has been acquired. However, we wanted you to be the first to hear the news. We are joining LookSmart, a provider of Web search and research-quality articles search, in addition to other high-quality search products.

This is exciting news for several reasons. First, because LookSmart acquired Furl for the same reasons you probably use it - it is a great service that works well - and LookSmart has no intention of changing the things that make it great. On the contrary, LookSmart is committed to making existing features even more powerful.

To show how serious that commitment is, we are officially allocating 5 gigabytes (GB) of storage for each individual member's public archive, enough space to store tens of thousands of archived items.

Mile High Musings: The Party on the Side of the Road

Great idea! I hope we can pull off something like this here in Wray!

Scotsman.com News - Latest News - TV 'Priest Idol' Aims to Fill Church's Empty Pews

Yikes! I'd hate the pressure this would bring!

So, Who Owns the Sanctuary?

Don't you love denominations?

The Tension Regarding Intention : Youthworker Journal

Great article by Todd Hunter on intentional evangelism.

NarniaWeb - Your Source For Narnia Movie News

Here's information on the Narnia movie due out Christmas 2005.

Sermon mind maps

I am in the process of trying to upload my sermon mind maps to an online photo ablum. The link is included above. Once I get some of them uploaded, I'll let you know.

Test 

Nice game Q! The Broncos are looking good! If we can only keep the Snake from trying left-handed jump passes we'll be alright! 

It's All About Who, Jesus?

No doubt, much of the talk about 'emerging church' can be fit into the category of a new demographic needing everything tailored to its finicky, funky tastes. It's still all about me, just a me from a different market sector. It's as if we're asking for the set on The Truman Show to be redesigned for a newer, hipper Truman.

But if there's even a spark of something else at work in the emergent conversation, just a flicker of hope that the real God is to be found outside the dome of a narcissistic consumer religion (in any of its demographic forms), and that God is actually so wonderful that we would actually like to sing and preach about God for a while, more than ourselves, then we should fan that flame.

Great article from Brian McLaren

Reverse Mentoring

What if seasoned ministry leaders followed such an example and used reverse mentoring to gain understanding of the emerging culture? As postmodern thought continues to permeate our culture, church leaders would be wise to become fluent in the language of the emergent conversation. The best way to do this is to become a willing and intentional student of the culture, to become the humble protege instead of the mentor.

Do you know any pastors that are doing this? The article talks about the business world regularly doing this and benefiting greatly. I hope there are some pastors out there who are giving this a try.