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- 05/18/10
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How Churches Invest Their Money - Mint.com takes a look at the way three different churches invest their money. “Though official records are scarce, the world’s major churches are all believed to collect annual revenues in excess of several billion dollars. Like any other institution, these churches work hard to earn the highest possible return on their investments.”
The Contemporvant Service - Bob Kauflin looks at a recent viral video and asks what we can learn from it. “Like most viral videos seeking to make a point, this one has its supporters and detractors. Some call it a brilliant parody while others are deeply offended by its supposed slap in the face at churches targeting unbelievers. I tend to side with the first group, and I think there are a few things we can learn from it.”
Why iPad Owners Need a Kindle Too - From Macworld: “Now that I’ve used an iPad for a month and a half, I’ve come to realize that I still want, need and love my Kindle. In a nutshell, the e-book reading on the iPad is generally great. But the list of things the iPad does badly is identical to the list of things the Kindle does well. And vice versa.”
Deleting Your Facebook Account - I find it fascinating to track this growing movement against Facebook. It’s an example of how quickly opinions change in our digital world and how quickly a company can find itself on the wrong side of popular opinion. If you want to learn how to shut down your account (it’s surprisingly tough to do) you may want to reference this article.
Divorce Statistics - TIME examines a popular statistic and asks whether it is accurate. “Do half of all marriages really end in divorce? It’s probably the most often quoted statistic about modern love, and it’s a total buzz kill, in line with saying that half of all new shoes will give you hammertoes or that 50% of babies will grow up to be ugly. Now the divorce stat is coming under scrutiny — and not just because of its unromanticity.”
The Ligonier App - iPhone users will want to check out the new, free iPhone app from Ligonier Ministries.
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 (10)
The TIME article on divorce could have been really good, but it is really under-reported. There are several other pieces to the puzzle and even the bits that are addressed are left under-addressed. I’m hoping she writes part two next edition.
I’m surprised by how often you post negative comments about facebook. Yet you still have an account. Why do you still have a facebook account? As long as you keep a facebook account so will I. I know you have more computer knowledge in your little finger then I have at all.
The article on How Churches Invest their money is really interesting. I especially took note of the Mormon Church. They are an extremely, extremely wealthy organization with a ton of influence and investments (dealerships, hotel chains, tech companies, etc - very well diversified).
They recently released an iPhone app of their Book of Moroni if you can believe it (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gospel-lbry/id365223775?mt=8) - talk about progressive!
Their CIO (yes, the LDS has a CIO: http://www.ldscio.org/) sits on The Research Council which is a “by invitation only” organization for the most powerful CIOs in the world. A ton of top executives in the US are members of the church as well.
Currently they have over 8 million members, with 52,000 missionaries out in the field at any given time.
My problem with “The Contemporvant Service” isn’t its supposed slap in the face at churches targeting unbelievers. It’s the prideful “Aren’t we smarter/better/more informed true believers than those other unthinking ignorant ‘seeker sensitive’ heretics on the other side of the body”. Surely someone could just a easily make a parody of a ‘reformed’ church that is so paranoid about attracting ‘seekers’ that it removes any church seating that might in any way be thought of as comfortable, Guarantees that all sermons will last at least 4 hours, enforces a strict cap on words that are not taken directly from scripture, bans any version of the Bible that doesn’t begin with the letters ESV and, just to be safe, limits its membership to no more than one person.
Scot — and that would be funny, too, speaking as a Reformed person. I always understood the Contemporvant video as people laughing at themselves, not mocking others. Even as a Reformed non-contemporvant person, I see it as the church having a sense of humor, though not my specific corner of it. I don’t identify with actually doing that stuff, but I do identify with “this is my family.” So I never perceived it as prideful, but as having a sense of humor.
I deactivated my Facebook account about 9 months ago. FB had become such a time-wasting temptation that I had to make a change; additionally, I thought I had set all of the privacy switches to most-private, and STILL non-“friends” accessed my wall. I was MAD… it just kept getting harder and harder to keep up with the ongoing privacy policy changes and continual maintenance. At the time, I remember how angry I was that I couldn’t just delete the account (so I thought). I read an article a few weeks ago about the delete option and within a minute, had done so.
I have little proof other than the chatter within my IRL and online social circles, but I predict FB will be a non-player within a year.
Check out this PC World article about a free Facebook privacy scanning tool, Test Your Facebook Privacy Settings: Here’s How.
Tim,
Last week, I posted a link to an article that gives 19 theological and other wise reasons not to have a facebook account. I updated it today after I have been sent a spate of new articles on it this week.
http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2010/05/reasons-why-not-to-have-facebook….
I have a hard time taking seriously anything that lists as one of its reasons, that you might have regular interaction with people who wouldn’t be accepted as members of your church, therefore it’s bad. What was that St. Paul said about NOT going out of the world? Yes, relationships that might lead to evil influence should be handled with caution or avoided when appropriate, but anyone who can handle the issue of “letting the wrong people be your friends” with that little nuance is not a credible adviser on personal matters. That little bit of unbiblical “fundamentalist” attitude peeking through tarnishes his whole approach.
BTW I was referring to the article Alan Kurschner linked to in comment #8.