Wisdom For Your Weekend: your weekly installment of things we’ve been reading around the web.
Articles of the Week
8 Tips to Help You Read More, David Murray. Nearly everyone I know feels guilty about how little they read. They want to read more. Heck, I love reading, and I wish I could read more. It’s just so much easier to pass 30 minutes playing QuizUp or zoning out on Facebook. But there are strategies to reverse the trend. Trust me, you can do it; Murray shows the way.
What a Visit to Mercy Hill Church Taught a “Center-Left Protestant,” David Gushee. There was almost nothing about the Mercy Hill service that would have pleased some folks I know. No liturgy. No pews. No suits. No robes. No classic hymn tunes. No Sunday School. Long sermon, vaguely Calvinist. Immediate baptism. Neither the language nor the elders were gender-inclusive. And it’s SBC-affiliated. But something about that church is appealing to young people who wouldn’t darken the doorsteps of many of “our” congregations. (Yes, this is one of our church plants—so proud of you guys!)
Dear Donald Miller, Jonathan Leeman. Donald Miller burst onto the scene about ten years ago with Blue Like Jazz, a book that captured the spirit and frustration of young Christians. It was a powerful book for me personally. This week he drew some ire for a blog post announcing that he doesn’t go to church very often, nor does he feel guilty about it. Leeman’s response is gracious but strong.
First Corinthians Translated into Terrible Powerpoint, Gabriel Rossman. “I speak of course of speakers of Terrible Powerpoint (or as linguists usually abbreviate it, “TP”). This dialect is notable for its use of bullet points, objet trouve clip art, and gratuitously intrusive animation. Speakers are commonly found in business, academia, government, and the officer corps of the military. While some TP speakers are bilingual in English, many of them see complete paragraphs as only so much babble. It is so that these TP speakers might be saved that I have translated Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians into their native tongue.”
Don’t Love Your IPhone More Than Your Kids, Christina Fox. “When I really think about it, my heart is convicted. I don’t want my kids to think that I care more about responding to a message than I do about them. When I consider how much time I have wasted, time I will never get back, I’m doubly convicted. Guilt settles in. I try harder and set rules for my use of technology. I resolve to not be consumed by it. . . . But then sooner or later I fail again.”
On The Lighter Side
The 2014 Winter Olympics officially begins today! What better way to celebrate than to hear the hilarious hotel horror stories of the journalists there to cover the action?
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