Every Friday morning I wake up to a Twitter stream that differs from the other six days of the week because of #FF or Follow Friday. This weekly event is a way that those on Twitter can share who they value and encourage others to consider following those individuals (or entities). So What? Months ago I found that with each new Follow Friday I asked myself "who do I follow?" While this was a good way to evaluate my ever expanding list of those I follow on Twitter, it also pushed me Read More …
Discipleship
We Belong (#0652)
"We belong" is a two word summary of the sermon I heard the Rev. Dr. Ronald Patterson preach yesterday. That idea was so powerful that I chose to forgo the normal format for the sermon discussion group I have been facilitating the last several weeks. Patterson mentioned the first question in the Heidelberg Catechism (1563): What is your only comfort in life and in death? He also shared and built upon the answer. Our group, at my request, looked at the same issue Read More …
No Longer Divided: Virtual and Real (#0650)
Elizabeth Drescher is the author of Tweet If You Love Jesus: Practicing Church in the Digital Reformation and co-author of the forthcoming Click 2 Save: The Digital Ministry Bible (2012). In a recent guest post for Union Theological Seminary's New Media Project she provided one of the best brief explanations of the shifts in life on and off-line: Social media participation has clearly become a real part of the lives of almost every American in nearly every demographic Read More …
Why Are You Still a Christian? (#0649)
Gary Dorrien, Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary and Professor of Religion at Columbia University, recently shared why he is still a Christian on Ecclesio.com: On the lecture circuit I meet people every week for whom Christianity is a ruined word. They ask me nicely, or with puzzlement, or with hostility, why I am still a Christian. I try to explain that I was drawn long ago into the spirit and way of Jesus, which draws me like a magnet into its Read More …
Christianity is Bigger than That (#0647)
Bruce Reyes-Chow is a consultant who served as founding pastor of Mission Bay Community Church, until May of this year, and was the former moderator of the General Assembly of the 2.3 million member PCUSA. On the conservative Red Letter Christians blog he recently shared "An Open Letter to Frustrated Christians in the United States," featuring these words: Like many of you from across the theological and political spectrum, I am disturbed by the Read More …
Go Slow (#0640)
Guy Chmieleski has served in campus ministry at four institutions of higher education associated with three different denominations (Baptist, United Methodist and Church of Christ). He recently blogged about pace of life, reminding everyone that today's traditional college students have lived their whole lives in an instant culture. The only real change these young adults have experienced is fast has becoming faster. To help overcome this he proposes: I think we need to Read More …
Renter or Owner: The Mindset Matters (#0635)
Robert Talbert, Associate Professor of Mathematics at Grand Valley State University, recently blogged about the difference between renting and owning. After sharing his own experiences with home ownership and rental, he applies the principle to education suggesting that we all want students to own rather than rent their education. He explains the different approaches thusly: The rental mindset says, I am paying the rent, and as long as I pay, I expect the management to take care of Read More …
Wisdom from the Analects (#0623)
Last semester I taught an undergraduate introductory course in world religions. While my students knew of Confucius, none had previously read his Analects. If you have never done so, I encourage you to take a few minutes to do so online (you can do so here thanks to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Whether or not you read the Analects in full, consider the following excerpt: Tsze-kung asked what constituted the superior man. The Master said,"He acts Read More …
What Anchors Your Spirituality? (#0622)
Rev. Otis Moss III, Senior Minister of 8500 member Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, recently wrote the following words in the Huffington Post: "the cultural motif of Jazz and the theological weight of Jesus' love ethic anchor my spirituality." So What? Take a few moments to think about your spirituality. Then, in a sentence or less, share what acts as its anchor. Read More …
Quotes to Ponder (#0620)
William Bole (pictured at right) is an American journalist whose "writing is situated on the borders between religion, ethics, politics, and intellectual life." Recently he wrote a blog post that included several quotes from progressive pastor William Sloane Coffin's book The Heart is a Little to the Left: Essays on Public Morality (1999), including: Socrates was mistaken. It’s not the unexamined life that is not worth living; it’s the uncommitted life. It is a Read More …