Much is being written about why people are leaving church, especially those in younger generations. Emily Case, Associate Pastor at Kennesaw United Methodist Church in Kennesaw, GA, recently wrote about why she has chosen to stay: Why do I stay? Because I believe that just like I am broken, the church is broken, that we all are broken. But, I believe that God can often work best through brokeness. Why do I stay? Because I have seen lives changed because someone held their hand Read More …
Overweight Clergy (#0678)
Recent research shows that most clergy in the United States are overweight. In blog posts on Beyond the Ordinary, Cynthia Woolever (2010) and Joelle Kopacz (2012) share how pastors fare when compared to the population as a whole. Woolever relates how senior or solo pastors fare compared to the population: 77% of American male senior or solo pastors compared to 72% of all American males BMI (Body Mass Index) is high enough to be considered overweight 76% of American female senior Read More …
King Chrome (#0677)
On Sunday March 18, 2012, Chrome officially became the leading browser for the first time. Tarmo Virki, writing for Reuters, explains: On March 18, Chrome was used for 32.7 percent of all browsing, while Explorer had 32.5 percent share. When people returned to their offices on Monday, the IE share rose to 35 percent and Chrome's share slipped to 30 percent. So What? Googles' Chrome has been climbing and Microsoft's Internet Explorer has been fading for quite some time. Over the last year, Read More …
Review of The Holocaust by Bullets (#0676)
Meet the Author Father Patrick Desbois is Roman Catholic priest who has devoted his life to confronting antisemitism and furthering Catholic-Jewish understanding. Desbois serves as co-founder and president of Yahad-In Unum, an organization committed to (1) supporting initiatives of dialogue "between Catholic and Jewish religious authorities and (2) to respond to the great needs of today's world through common projects based on an ethic inspired by the Law received on Mount Read More …
Twitter Turns 6 (#0675)
Happy 6th birthday to Twitter! Writing for Mashable.com, Stan Schroeder effectively captures the significance of this milestone in the first two sentences of his post, which was publsihed earlier today: On March 21, 2006, Jack Dorsey tweeted the first ever tweet on Twitter. The sheer fact that you can understand that sentence shows you how far Twitter has gone since then. So What? Twitter passed the 500 million user count last month and Read More …
Poverty Reality Check (#0674)
Sid Mohn is president of Heartland Alliance, the premier anti-poverty organization in Chicago and the Midwest. He recently wrote a Huffington Post article, "8 Facts About Poverty that will Blow Your Mind," based on a TEDx speech on the same topic. Mohn's facts follow in abbreviated form: Our kids are poor. At some point in their lives, half of all U.S. children will be on food stamps. Our adults are poor. Half of American adults will Read More …
Review of the Permanent Revolution (#0673)
Meet the Authors Alan Hirsch serves as founding director of Forge Mission Training Network, and co-leads Future Travelers, an innovative learning program helping megachurches become missional movements. A thought leader in the missional church movement, he is an associate professor at Wheaton College and an adjunct professor at Fuller Seminary and George Fox Seminary. His books include ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church (2009, co-authored with Michael Frost - read my Read More …
Is the World Getting Better? (#0672)
William McKenzie recently used his "Texas Faith" column in the Dallas Morning News to explore the question: Is the world getting better? Rather than answering the question personally, McKenzie provides responses from several local religious leaders to respond. Each leader provided a narrative response. Their responses fall into three categories: The world is getting better. Those favoring this position include Geoffrey Dennis (Rabbi, Congregation Kol Ami, Flower Mound; Read More …
9 Reasons Leaders Struggle (#0671)
Michael McKinney recently wrote about nine reasons why leaders struggle. His article highlights the list Denny Strigl, former CEO and president of Verizon Wireless, includes in his recent book: Managers, Can You Hear Me Now? (2011): Managers Fail to Build Trust and Integrity. They Have the Wrong Focus. They Don’t Model or Build Accountability. They Fail to Consistently Reinforce What’s Important. They Over-rely on Consensus. They Focus on Being Popular. They Get Read More …
Trusting in Trump (#0670)
Cathy Lynn Grossman's March 6, 2012 USA Today article explores a recent American Bible Society survey that finds "more Americans would follow Donald Trump's financial wisdom than the Bible's." Half of those surveyed (50%) would follow Trump's counsel while only around a third (32%) would take advice from the Bible. So What? The Bible, however, did receive favorable treatment from those who do not currently follow its teachings: roughly a quarter (24%) of those "who do not Read More …