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A La Carte (11/4)
- 11/04/10
- 22
Yesterday at around noon Mark Driscoll used Twitter to link to one of my book reviews. A whole lot of his 80,000 Twitter followers immediately clicked the link, quickly brlnging my site to a grinding halt. Here’s what the load looked like:
It was somewhere near the top of that spike that my web host got in touch with me and told me that they weren’t awfully impressed with me. The moral of the story? There isn’t one, really. I just found it amusing and was grateful for the link, even if it did cause the server to up and quit for a few minutes. I guess we can call this the Driscoll Effect.
The Ardent Sparrow - My friend Becky creates amazing jewlery and she’s offering everyone who reads this site a great discount on it. Enjoy free airmail shipping + a free gift from the shop on orders over $40 when you mention challies.com in the ‘Message to Seller’ during checkout. Shipping fee will be refunded through PayPal after payment is received. Guys—Becky makes great stuff, so think about buying something for your wife.
An Interview - Josh Cousineau recently interviewed me on the subject of Sexual Detox. He’s giving away a copy of the book for those who read the interview. These words were encouraging to me: “I am planning on using sexual detox in my premarital and am also working on a way to use it with some of the guys in my ministry. I feel the book is very worth while and would love to give away a few copies”
Visiting Jake - Those who have read Wrestling with an Angel will want to read this blog post where Greg Lucas talks about visiting Jake at the home he lives at for now.
NIV 2011 Changes - John Dyer has a roundup of all of the thousands of the changes in the NIV 2011.
Table Project - Table Project looks like an interesting new social network application geared specifically for churches. I’ve spent a little bit of time with the demo and have been duly impressed.
Slave - I’m looking forward to John MacArthur’s next book. Here’s the trailer for it:
Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one.’ -- C.S. Lewis
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at 
Releasing on April 1, The Next
Published in 2008, this book
This is a guide that calls men,
This review of the bestselling
New to the site? You can get
This is a guide written
Comments (22)
That is awesome, talk about a spike!!!
Although pre-martial is an amusing typo when it comes to marriage, I think you’re looking more the kinder, gentler counseling, premarital.
;-)
That spike kinda reminds me of Driscoll’s faux hawk. Definitely the Driscoll effect.
If anyone isn’t on John MacArthur’s mailing list, this book Slave is the latest free offer. http://www.gty.org/Freeoffer
What does the Challies.com effect look like?
I’d love to see some kind of experiment to see who can influence their readers to visit a link or vote on a poll most - Driscoll or PZ Myers.. just for fun!
Something tells me your linking has also “spiked” others webs! Yay for communication.
It’s got a similar result; Michael Krahn(twitter.com/michaelkrahn) sent out a picture of what happened to him a couple days back.
Thanks brother.
Ladies and Gentlemen…
The Challies Effect (soon to be a major motion picture):
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=15581763&l=25cabd939a&id=810005220
This was about halfway through the day that Tim linked to my post on the new Taylor Swift album.
I hadn’t heard about MacArthur’s book, but now I’m pumped to check it out. That’s been the underlying focus of my blog since it started: Jesus is our Lord, so that makes us His slaves. We’ve desensitized the word “Lord” because we’ve pretty much dropped “slave” from our vocabulary.
So yeah, looking forward to it, and I appreciate the tipoff.
-Marshall Jones Jr.
I’m interested in the MacArthur book for sure - but I don’t really like the “conspiracy theory” overtones of this trailer. Does MacArthur really believe that scores of Christian scholars and translators have been intentionally twisting the New Testament’s teaching on our identity as believers? I doubt he believes that - indeed I hope he does not. Seems like pretty sensational advertising.
I’m confident the quality of the book will be high, but I wish they hadn’t felt the need to over-hype it with such sensationalist claims.
How do I get a secret code for the tableproject?
Kyle, no, John doesn’t think it’s a conspiracy in the sense of a well orchestrated plot. But he does think it has been a deliberate decision among translators to not use “slave” even though that is the singular meaning.
I love the ESV, but dislike how it primarily uses “servant” with a footnote that an alternate is “bondservant.”
Now, what the motives were behind avoiding “slave”? That’s up for speculation. I’m not sure if he addresses that.
It’s kinda funny that web hosts get upset at their customers for creating content that attracts visitors.
MacArthur is right that “doulos” means slave, but slavery in first-century Rome looked a lot different than the chattel slavery of 19th-century America. For that reason, bond-servant is probably a more accurate rendering of “doulos” for the 21st-century Western reader whose conception of slavery is almost certainly not that of ancient Rome. I appreciate MacArthur’s expositional teaching, but I’m not sure the whole doulos=slave thesis is quite as significant as it’s made out to be.
i really like john macarthur but i’m absolutely turned off by the “trailer” for slave. the ominous music, the hyperbole, the cult-like wording…i mean, come on, “the hidden word that unlocks the believer’s identity”? yeah, maybe we can defend him for saying “there has been a conspiracy to cover up a truth…” but the whole thing just smacks of sensationalism. i’ve read enough of his books to know he’s solid, but whoever produced this trailer made him look like a nut who claims you just won’t get the truth if you don’t buy his book. if i didn’t know macarthur and saw this trailer i’d probably move him straight to the “stay away from this guy” list.
the premise is there, absolutely. the presentation is just awful.
After 2000 years of Christianity MacArthur has discovered the “hidden word that unlocks the believer’s identity”. MacArthur has discovered an ancient conspiracy that has kept the church believing wrongly for all these centuries. Excuse me for having some doubts. Unbelievable.
Glad to see I’m not alone in disliking the trailer. The whole “I’ve discovered the hidden word that unlocks” struck me as very Gnostic. I don’t make any claims as to what MacArthur believes, but this trailer is awful. And dare I say it, dangerous?
Also agree with Bob F’s statement regarding the use of the word bond-servant.
MacArthur isn’t claiming to have uncovered some kind of gnostic mystery. He’s simply exposing the word that is there for all to see, except that most translators have failed to translate it correctly.
But I don’t care much for the trailer, either. Better, read or listen to MacArthur’s sermon Slaves for Christ. And don’t judge the book by the trailer.
I thought the Driscoll effect was where you call everybody stupid and they repent of their sins :P
Thank you for the Ardent Sparrow link. Her work is beautiful!