The Weekly Town Crier
Welcome to another installment of The Weekly Town Crier, where you’ll find this, that, the other and them some other things as well. This is where I collect for you the things that caught my eye over the past this week and made their way to my brain and made some nerves connect and some blood flow or something like that and they made me think. But remember, just because I link something, that doesn’t equal endorsing, just thinking. Enjoy.
See what I hear at Last.fm.
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Read about Microsoft’s limited edition Joy Division Zune.
Visit setlist.com, an online database containing over 100,000 setlists.
Read as the Guardian considers music blogs.
Read this profile of poet Robert Haas.
Read as Al Mohler considers the idea of a “church” for atheists.
Read about Dan Kimball saying that “it is right for the church to fight for social justice, Christians must never focus on conditions in this world so much that they fail to tell people about the eternal life available through Christ.”
Read about what one articles deems the media’s “gospel of godlessness.”
Read about Europe struggling with what to do with many church buildings that have fallen out of use and into disrepair.
Read this profile of the recent Together For the Gospel conference.
Read about 6 million pounds of trash being picked up on the world’s beaches in one day.
Read as John Wilson profiles this year’s Festival of Faith and Writing for Books & Culture.
Read as Christianity Today considers what the “new masculinity” movement gets right and wrong.
Read as C. Michael Patton and Douglas Groothius review Expelled.
Listen/watch as American Public media considers “Evangelical Politics.”
Read about a church member in KY who “received a letter from her pastor stating she would lose her church membership if she did not pay her tithes within the next thirty days.”
Read about the UK art exhibit featuring pictures of Jesus laughing.
Turn any CNN headline into a shirt?
Read as The Washington Post profiles the “top ten” musical acts “going green.”
Read about “German artist Gregor Schneider” who “plans to exhibit a dying person as the focus of an upcoming show.”
Read about about the KS governor who recently vetoed “a bill aimed at strengthening late-term abortion laws.”
Read this piece which notes that “The sponsors of a proposed constitutional amendment to outlaw same-sex marriage in California said Monday they have gathered enough signatures to qualify the measure for the November ballot.”
Read as Stephen Hawking says: “Alien life may well exist in a primitive form somewhere in our corner of the galaxy.”
Though this is now a couple of years old, see Mark Driscoll’s helpful chart for picking a church name.
Read as the Chicago Sun-Times examines the church names in their area, finding that Catholics like Paul while Protestants like being “first.”
Read as Christianity Today reviews the new EP from Derek and Sandra Webb.
Read as Newsweek considers “Doctors Who Kill Themselves,” noting that no other profession has such a high suicide rate. No, not even pastors.
Read as Wired discovers that the oldest Americans are also the happiest.
Read as the Christian Post examines a recent survey asking whether or not churches are doing enough to help the poor.
Read as Ed Stetzer considers the beginning of the decline of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Read Stetzer’s piece arguing that “Unchurched adults interested in finding a congregation aren’t nearly as likely to visit one in person as a church member who is shopping for a new congregation. That means effective evangelism must begin outside the sanctuary in relationships between Christians and unbelievers.”
Read about the “United Methodist Church to Consider Full Communion with ELCA.”
Read about the “treasure trove” of “New Testament manuscripts handwritten in the original Greek” found in Albania.
Consider Steve McCoy’s “Missional Triad.”
Read Trevin Wax’s interview with N.T. Wright.
Seize your commute.
Posted in Misc.
April 25th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
i would like to please just say…”DUH, ya think???!!!!” to your link…
Read Stetzer’s piece arguing that “Unchurched adults interested in finding a congregation aren’t nearly as likely to visit one in person as a church member who is shopping for a new congregation. That means effective evangelism must begin outside the sanctuary in relationships between Christians and unbelievers.”
April 26th, 2008 at 7:10 am
Yes, that is true Becky. Evangelism is more about relationship, especially with the emergent generation.
People need to see your life if they are to believe what you say.
April 26th, 2008 at 8:10 am
Oh Becky, ever the one for subtlety and nuance! The point is at least two-fold. 1) As Rob pointed out, evangelism is best carried out “life on life” as some put it which means 2) that the “seeker-sensitive” idea of making services appealinng to non-believers in hopes of drawing them are misplaced.
April 26th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Which leads me to a question I asked you eons ago…who exactly is church for? Believers or unbelievers? My humble, un-seminaried brain would say primarily for believers to worship God corporately…and be equipped,encouraged,rebuked etc. However, the gospel should be presented often if not every wk for those unbelievers present among the congregation. As for subtlety…that statement in the link ranks up there w/having to tell someone buying coffee that it’s hot and they may burn themselves, IMHO. :) plus…it’s always fun to see what kind of remark my directness gets out of you. :p I know you just can’t WAIT for me to get back! LOL
April 28th, 2008 at 10:21 am
Here’s one of the problems with that question: are you asking what the primary purpose of the worship service is, or of “the church”? Does that make sense?
April 28th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
totally makes sense. so. now explain both oh wise pastor of mine. :)
here’s my peon thoughts…worship is for believers. the “church” as the body of Christ is to be for both believers/unbelievers. believers…for accountability,support etc…unbelievers…for being an example of Christ to them and hopes they will be brought to the Lord. close? completely in another galaxy?