Tuesday July 18, 2006

Church: An article at Yahoo discusses megachurches that build a Republican base. “In a March survey, a quarter of Ohio residents said they were evangelicals — believing that a strict adherence to the Bible and personal commitment to the teachings of Jesus Christ will bring salvation.” Sadly, that is probably what many of these people actually believe!

Blogging: The 2006 Blogathon is going to begin soon. If you’re interested in raising money for the cause of your choice, perhaps this is a way of doing so. It involves 24-hours of blogging at 30 minute intervals.

Music: On September 1, Derek Webb will begin giving away his latest album “Mockingbird” for free. You can learn about his rationale at freederekwebb.com. “On september 1st, we’re launching freederekwebb.com, a place where anyone can go online and not just hear but actually download, keep, and share ‘mockingbird’ completely for free.”

Blogspotting: Adrian Warnock mentioned to me that Ed Stetzer mentioned an article I wrote a while back during the recent Resurgence Conference at Mars Hill Church. It is part of this speech and references this article entitled “An Eight-Part Music Test.”

Monday July 17, 2006

Television: If you’ve never watched that hour-long program about the Duggar family (the Christian family from Arkansas with 16 children), and if you’ve been wanting to do so, it appears that it will be playing tonight at 8 PM on TLC. It’s worth an hour of your time.

Books: Justin Taylor says that Wayne Grudem is getting things done, following the advice of a book by that name. Maybe it’s one that is worth reading. Then again, it’s not like I’m hurting for reading material!

Theology: Mark Dever asks if evangelists should question professions of faith. “Sometimes I get the feeling that people think there’s something wrong with questioning the reality of a profession of faith. It’s legalistic, or judging, or holier than thou. Or something.”

Church: There’s an article at “Christianity Today” describing the way Willow Creek moves people into its small group ministry. “The key is to let the group leader make the decision about whom to invite into the small group. If people like one another, they’ll stick together. But if they don’t, you can have great curriculum and leaders, but the small group won’t work.” Doesn’t strike me as a very charitable method.

Personal: After feeling under the weather for some of the weekend, I’m feeling better for now, at least. But with temperatures soaring today, it may not last. It seems that I am unaccustomed to this ridiculous heat!

Friday July 14, 2006

Interview: “Christianity Today” has an interview with Ronald Boyd-MacMillan in which they discuss Rick Warren’s upcoming trip to North Korea. “You can travel as religious VIP, but it’s a propaganda exercise. I went in as one, and they took me to the Korean Christian Federation, which is this so-called Christian church in Pyongyang, but it’s completely set up for the foreigner’s benefit.”

Relationships: Michael Lawrence, an associate pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church, has contributed an excellent article to the “Boundless” webzine. The article is called “Stop Test-Driving Your Girlfriend.”

Video: I caught a couple of amazing videos online yesterday. Check out Taylor Ware (x2), Kevin Johnson and The Millers (x2). Amazing stuff.

Thursday July 13, 2006

Technology: The most recent version of Movabletype (3.31) has just been released. While the versioning would make it appear to be a small release, it actually adds some new and exciting features which will be of interest to many bloggers. Not the least of these features is native support for tagging. You can read about it and download if for free here.

Books: Phil Johnson has a long and interesting post on how he turns John MacArthur sermons into books. “It’s a long and exacting process, much more labor-intensive than simply writing a book from scratch would be. But if I wrote my own book, it would be nowhere as good.”

Sports: Matt Hall has a good reflection on the gross misconduct of Zinedine Zidane at the close of the World Cup. “There is little in American sports lore to compare with what happened on Sunday in a matter of seconds. Zidane, a legend in worldwide football, had just finished what was perhaps his best Cup showing of a prodigious career.”

Wednesday July 12, 2006

Theology: Agape Press discusses the PCUSA proposal regarding renaming the members of the Trinity. One pastor says, “You might as well put in Huey, Dewey, and Louie.”

People: I assume most people who read my blog also read Justin Taylor’s. But hey, if you don’t, be sure to read a couple of anecdotes he collected this week while hanging out with J.I. Packer. Packer also has some tips for prospective writers.

Reviews: I just did my weekly update of Discerning Reader. While several of the new reviews have already been posted on this site, there are also several written by other authors.

Life: Our next door neighbors, who only just recently moved in and we are really beginning to enjoy, are being featured in the near future in a program called Walls of Hope. It appears to be like a smaller, less radical version of “Extreme Makeover Home Edition.” You can read about the family here. “All three boys have been diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) - specifically Aspergers. At the same time as this diagnosis was made, the youngest and oldest sons…were also diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome. Testing also confirmed…that [the] boys also suffered from Celiac Disease.”

Tuesday July 11, 2006

Emergent: Gary Gilley continues his series of articles examining the Emerging Church. In this one he tries to figure out what “missional” is all about.

Music: The music of Jamie Soles, who primarily records music for children, is now available online. My kids have a couple of his albums and enjoy them a lot. From his bio: “Jamie Soles is a Christian singer/songwriter from Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada with several albums to his credit. He is married to Valerie, and they have only eight children.”

Charity: Stephanie is participating in a Blogathon to raise money to support African Leadership. I’ve never heard of African Leadership. Does anyone know anything about this organization?

Audio: Covenant Seminary is offering a wide variety of free courses. They provide audio and study guides. There look to be some really good courses available!

Monday July 10, 2006

People: Justin Taylor mentions a chat with J.I. Packer and explains why Packer was never destined to be an athlete.

Interview: Everyone else is linking it, so I guess I will too. Christianity Today has an interview with Mark Driscoll. Here’s a choice quote: “The two hot theologies today are Reformed and emerging. Reformed theology offers certainty, with a masculine God who names our sin, crushes Jesus on the Cross for it, and sends us to hell if we fail to repent. Emerging theology offers obscurity, with a neutered God who would not say an unkind word to us, did not crush Jesus for our sins, and would not send anyone to hell.”

Blogging: Author Alex Chediak, who seems to take blogging very formally (which is probably a good thing), has posted an overview of the topics he’ll be covering in the days ahead.

Yuck: Have you seen the talking Jesus who welcomes you to Cross Rev Connect? He even follows your cursor around the screen. Maybe I should integrate this into my site. “Hi, this is Jesus. Welcome to Challies Dot Com…” Maybe not.

Friday July 7, 2006

Blog: “Word to the Wise” is a new blog that will make its way through the book of Proverbs (my favorite book!).

Interview: Justin Taylor has posted an interview he conducted with Voice, a Reformed Christian rap artist connected to Sovereign Grace Ministries.

News: At long last, thousands of documents relating to the Columbine shootings have been released. That tragedy, which in many ways changed America, still seems fresh in people’s minds. You can read here what has now been revealed, though truthfully I don’t think there is anything that surprising.

Music: Bob Kauflin recently mentioned a new CD by Keith and Kristyn Getty that features songs based on the Apostles Creed. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like there are MP3s available.

Thursday July 7, 2006

Creation: Snopes has a beautiful picture of a phenomenon known as “circumhorizon(tal) arc” (and apparently also by the less technical name of “fire rainbow”). “A circumhorizontal arc (or ‘fire rainbow’) appears when the sun is high in the sky (i.e., higher than 58” above the horizon), and its light passes through diaphanous, high-altitude cirrus clouds made up of hexagonal plate crystals.”

Theology: Mark Driscoll posted a lengthy article answering common questions about creation. While I merely skimmed the article, it looks like it contains plenty of good information.

Weird: Three employees of Coca-Cola have been arrested for attempting to sell confidential trade secrets to Pepsi. The three “are charged with wire fraud and unlawfully stealing and selling Coke trade secrets, federal prosecutors said.” You can read about it here.

Church: Alex Chediak reports that City Church of San Francisco has decided to leave the PCA over the issue of women in leadership. “An affiliate of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, NY, the leadership of City Church sought to reach out to San Francisco with similar theological convictions and methodological winsomeness.”

Blogspotting: Glenn of Unite Later has a category called Challies Watch, in which he is reviewing my book reviews.

Wednesday July 5, 2006

Conference: Adrian Warnock is providing ongoing updates from the Newfrontiers conference.

Du Jour: Carolyn McCulley has headed back to New Orleans with a camera crew to document the work of the members of Lakeview Christian Center. She reports on the state of the city here.

Preaching: Mark Dever shares some things he learned from reading John MacArthur’s “Fool’s Gold.” “John M strongly reminded me of the importance of expositional preaching. He does so in this article by listing negative effects of the superficial brand of preaching that is so rife in modern evangelicalism.”

Theology: Bob Kauflin meditates on the precious blood of Jesus Christ. “Our culture can tend to talk about the cross in a way that magnifies our worth to God rather than our sin against Him.”