Terry Pruitt's Blog

Dark Roasted Blend: The Most Dangerous Roads in the World : "The Most Dangerous Roads in the World" While it might be intriging, I'm going to not put this on my list of places to go on vacation. I have been stuck in the mud and it is not fun.

This is a link to a map of the Middle East which shows who has ruled in the area through history. The insightful part of this dynamic map is the how those who rule come from the edge and sweep through the area. Also, when we think through the historical ruler, this map shows that current situation is relatively new. Hat Tip: Jungle Pop .

Zechariah 2 By Terry L. Pruitt Main Idea : The Lord will protect his people. Outline I. Man with the Measuring Line Zechariah 2:1,2 II. Jerusalem is so Large That It Has No Walls Zechariah 2:3-5 III. Return to Jerusalem You Who Are Scattered Zechariah 2:6,7 IV. Those Who Harm God's People Will Suffer His Wrath Zechariah 2:8-9 V. Many Nations Will Follow The Lord Zechariah 2:10-13 1. Josephus was looking for one literal fulfillment of this passage. Clark's commentary says... The vision with which this chapter opens, portended great increase and prosperity to Jerusalem. Accordingly Josephus tells us, (Wars v. iv. 2,) that "the city, overflowing with inhabitants, extended beyond its walls," as predicted in the fourth verse, and acquired much glory during the time of the Maccabees; although these promises, and particularly the sublime image in the fifth verse, has certainly a still more pointed reference to the glory and prosperity of the ...

In the tradition of free and open source software, courseware and others who are generous and yet somehow effective, I'm publishing my Sunday School lessons here on the web. Some other projects that I respect that are free and open are the MIT Open Courseware , Third Millennium Ministries and Crosswire Bible Society . I'm not going to mention all the software that is open source. I'm really wondering if Third Millennium and Crosswire should get together on some projects. Zechariah 1 by Terry L. Pruitt Main Idea: The Lord will defend His own reputation and His own people. Will you merely be a tool in His hand or will you follow Him? Outline to Zechariah Chapter One I. Introduction "The 'Lord Who Rules Over All" Says Turn To Me (Zechariah 1:1-6) II. Introduction to The Visions (Zechariah 1:7) III. Content of the First Vision – Four Horsemen (Ze...

Parableman: The Logical Problem of Evil : "The Logical Problem of Evil" Jeremy has an excellent discussion of the problem of evil. He will soon discuss some theistic solutions. I'm intrigued.

I got this from Parableman . I was surprised how easy the test was to take and how accurate it was. What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio. The Inland North The South The Northeast Philadelphia The West Boston North Central What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

That Sermon You Heard on Sunday May Be From the Web - WSJ.com : "The plagiarism debate grew louder in recent months after a sermon site posted an essay by the Rev. Steve Sjogren titled, 'Don't be original, be effective!' Mr. Sjogren urged pastors to quit spending time striving for originality and instead, to recite the words of better sermonizers." Yesterday I bought a Wall Street Journal. I have not bought one in years but I saw a leading story on preaching and plagiarism so I spent my dollar to read the one article. Then I see that Tim Challies wrote a post on this same article. My pastor goes out of his way to source his sermon material. I think his practice of mentioning who he read to get an illustration or an idea is great. However, some people misunderstand his sourcing content that he uses from books. One fellow was intimidated by the often mentioning of book. He was of average or better intelligence but he was not an avid reader so he felt a little...

When I was in high school I went to a Christian vocation conference at Bethel College in McKenzie, TN. It was a conference to get young people to come to the college, talk about their desires to go into the ministry and ultimately go to Bethel College. I had a good time and I ended up going to Bethel too. I had a question that I asked one of the leaders, "What does a pastor do all day?" Ultimately nobody answered the question. Perhaps other people don't have this problem, but I think they might. We had a lot of bi-vocational pastors in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in the denomination that I grew up. Since some of the men could work at a shoe store part time and still do a great job pastoring the church, the question was in everyone's mind, "What does that pastor down the street do who is only a pastor?" Though I read a lot on the ministry, have pastored a couple of churches as a student pastor, and am now going to seminary, I have had no one a...

Richard Dawkins on Colbert Report I got this from Gary Shavey's blog on Resurgence . I'm not sure if Colbert wins the debate but it is an entertaining exchange.

I caught this on Wired . It is very funny. The quote from Neitzsche is randomly paired with the picture from Family Circus. I think this randomly generated pair is particularly funny since Dolly is holding her dolly. The art is along side the reality, which of course is art too. Sort of recursive humor. Follow the link and see funny sayings. The Nietzsche Family Circus : "Art is not merely an imitation of the reality of nature, but in truth a metaphysical supplement to the reality of nature, placed alongside thereof for its conquest."

What I'm thinking could be big is Jericho on CBS. I've always loved the whole Alas Babylon and On the Beach scenario where you just have to use those survival skills and bone up on your Boy Scout handbook . Jericho scratches that itch and then has a bunch of interesting characters as well. The small town has a mayor, his wife, his son who is a adulterer, his son who has been out of the picture for five years and has no explanation, the blond school teacher, the bar maid, the St. Louis cop who is new in town, the mayors political opponent, a deaf girl, her farmer brother, an accountant who just audited the farmer, a brunet who broke her leg in a school bus accident, John Lock, Tom Sawyer, Kate, Evangeline Lilly, Henry Gale , and others. So it does have some of the same elements of Lost . There is a lot of characters who need to be developed. They are surviving a diaster together. There is an outside threat. By the way, the Wikipedia article on Jericho, Kansas is pretty...

If you have not voted for Henry Gale to get the big pink slip, go on over to the Jollyblogger and let him have it. But then again, it is pretty clear that real Henry Gale is dead since Said dug him up to prove that the man calling himself Henry Gale was a liar. Now if that is not toppsy -turvy. JOLLYBLOGGER: The Pollester : "Which Lost Character is most likely to die this season?"

Philosophy for Smarty Pant Soccer Players I got this from Rebecca Stark's son, A Stark Place, http://www.astarkmagazine.com/blog/

Forbes has a story on the most competitive countries, meaning economic competition, not soccer enthusiasm. You can follow the link. The World's Most Competitive Countries - Forbes.com : "At the bottom of the ranking of 125 industrialized and emerging countries, in worst to only slightly less bad order, are Angola, Burundi, Chad, Timor-Leste, Mozambique, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe--a gazetteer of economic blight." There you will find photos related to the least competitive countries. You might use that as a guide to pray for the poor. Also in terms of prayer, check out this map of countries where persecution of Christians is prevelant.

This is one of the Bible programs I use. If you have not tried BibleTime, now might be a good time to try it. Oh, yeah, this Bible software is especially for Linux users who are running KDE. BibleTime: Software : "2006-09-22: BibleTime 1.6. A new version of BibleTime has been made available today. It includes many fixes and several new features like the instant search in the installed works." If you are on another platform check out www.crosswire.org . Tags: Bible Software - Linux - KDE - BibleTime

You can blame Joe Carter for this post. Not that I can even begin to imitate him, but he said what he thought on torture and so will I. Hat Tip: Parableman I'm amused by the fact that when I was in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, I was a ultra-conservative in their ranks. Now that I have made my church home in the Presbyterian Church in America, I find myself often leading the more liberal side of a debate. It sort of makes me wonder at times, "Am I really just contrary"? I don't think so, but I might be wrong on that. I work with two guys who are from different ends of the political spectrum, one active in the Democratic party and the other gets most of his best political discussion material from Rush Limbaugh . They both have a love for the entrepreneurial spirit of America and both are hawks. We often get into political discussions. It seems that both are basically in favor of torture of Al Qaida war prisoners in U.S. custody. I think one of them a lea...

At presbytery this past Saturday I was impressed by the speaker, Bob Burns . He is a part of Covenant Seminary's Center for Ministry Leadership. He gave a lot of high quality information and made some great points along the way. One of the things that caught my attention was his definitions of management and leadership . Management is developing systems and infrastructure for stability. Leadership is giving direction for appropriate change for an organization. I realized as a part of self-examination, I have not developed my gifts in management. I tend to enjoy and often help guide organizations in change. I find that when they need stability, even when I agree that they need stability, I don't know how to organize and develop appropriate systems for that. It is a weakness I intend to work on. My friend Keith is much more talented at developing stable systems and getting things done. He is another leader in our church and I appreciate that talent that he has. A few y...

Jack Yoest's post should be read by every pastor, church sound man, and person who ever make an announcement at church. He is addressing the use of microphones and public speaking. I don't know how many people I see making adjustments to microphones and it really does nothing at all. If it is a little high, well your probably struggling anyway to be seen in the first place. Enough from me, follow the link. Jack Yoest at Yoest.org : "If you deign to be interviewed by a reporter, or instead will speak at a planned, orchestrated press conference, here are 7 tips to remember for the handheld or externally fixed microphone. "

Check out Rebecca Writes post on"My Dad Was A Cowboy ". It is a wonderful testimony and it has a cool picture of her Dad to boot. (Well, actually you can't see his boots, but you get enough of the picture to imagine them.)

I have included Mark Discoll's part of an article from Leadership Journal. I find what he has to say about his office at the church that is more like a living room than an office. Why do Pastor's have to stay in the office anyway? I have never gotten that one. Who are you working with there? If you are in a church with a staff I can sort of see it, but even then, why send everyone to a cubby hole just to make the job seem normal when it is anything but normal. Why not be a few feet from your wife or children rather than a few miles from them if what you are doing is working on a sermon or spending time in prayer? Why not invite a counseling session in your living room? Why not visit the family who needs the counsel? Space is a funny thing. We communicate a lot by our use of living space. We take on roles that we would not dream of without the assistance of archetecture to lead us down that path. Three Kinds of Leadership - LeadershipJournal.net : "Mark Driscoll: L...

Emerging vs. Emergent DJ Chuang of http://www.djchuang.com has posted some interesting videos on You Tube. You might check them out.

The past few years reading has become a problem for me. I am 43 years old and I have come to the time in life when my vision for reading has weakened. This happens to most people I'm told by my other friends in their 40s. I suppose so. For me, I went down hard though. I work with my eyes at a computer all day. And yes, enjoy coming home and using the computer to blog and surf the web despite the fact that I use a computer all day at work. My right eye has always been a little weaker than my left. I actually see things a little darker out of that eye. In a class room in grade school, while day dreaming I would look at the ceiling and notice that if I closed one eye and then the other, back and forth, the ceiling was two slightly different colors. Over a year ago my brain started turning off my right eye. I could see out of it okay, but normally I would just ignore the input from the eye. This slowed down my reading. I went to the eye doctor. He gave me bifocals and I ...

Barb and I have been doing a minivaction together to celibrate our wedding anniversary in recent years. We went to Gettysburg, Rehobath, DE, Philadelphia, and New York City. This year we decided to go west to Hancock, MD. We stayed in a bed and breakfast called the 1828 Trail Inn . The keepers of the inn are a wonderful couple. They enjoyed talking but at the same time respected our privacy. The breakfast was great. There was Belgiun waffles the first day and French toast the second. Bill was the cook. He made a orange syrup that was simply del.icio.us . Having checked out all the places in Hancock, it is easy to say, the 1828 Trail Inn is the best place to stay. We stayed in the Railroad Room. It was decorated with trains related things. It had a porch where I went out on to read each morning and jaccuzi that soaked in each night. What a routine! If you look at the picture, you see the little second story porch on the right hand side of the house. That was my morning han...

My wife said this on the telephone today, so I thought someone would blog it. Here is it is... LiveScience.com Blogs »Blog Archive » Polite Demotion Planned for Planet Pluto : "Pluto will always be a planet regardless of its true astronomical nomenclature. There will always be The Nine Planets. This cannot be erased from history by a simple re-classification of everything. History can not be erased. In the US, Rhode Island is just as much a state of the Union as California is a state. Puerto Rico is not a state, but it could be. Is Maine more of state than Texas? Maine was part of Massachussetts at time and Texas was a independent country, yet as it stands right now both are still states. Just as the US has the Thirteen Original Colonies, our home system will always have the Nine Planets, regardless of further additions to the group which inevitably will happen. Pluto is a planet."

I finished reading this book by Ralph Moore on Starting a New Church . I really enjoyed reading the book. A lot of works of this type spend 80-90% of the book on theory and very little on actually how to get it done. I think I already know the theory but I wanted to know more about the mechanics of getting it done. Pastor Moore is a student of organizational management and leadership. So he mixes in a lot of Tom Peters style of organizational management with his biblical insights. That makes me a little wary, but all in all this is the lessons of an experinced church planter. I highly recommend it.

Ok Go--Here It Goes Again These are the same guys who danced in their back yard and 1 million videos were made by home video artists. I don't think we could get 1 million of this one. The tread mill companies would love it.

The poll on this blog Essentials For a Church Plant has not had any new votes in a while so I am ready to give an analysis of the results. So what did I learn? 1. Sunday School is much more important than I thought. While it was listed as number three results, I did not expect it to rank as high as it did. I have always thought of Sunday School as a specialized small group that meets at a convenient time and place, just before church. Sunday Schools are often run much more like a small group than a class that is evaluates your learning. 2. I would place small groups as high as did the whole group. It is the top item voted for as essential for a church plant. However a vocal minority said in the comments and e-mails that this was not important when the congregation was small. The idea repeated several times was that small group fellowship would be the whole congregation when the whole congregation is the size of a small group or two. I think what this really means is that th...

I am ready for my Corrie to come home. Come home Cor-O-badoro.

jmarkbertrand.com - the Internet site of J. Mark Bertrand : "If you want to learn more about the ESV Journaling Bible and you don't want to wait for my re-cap, head over to Gareth Russell's blog and check out his excellent, well-illustrated review. (Thanks, Gary, for pointing it out in the comments on the last post.) Also, check out the mention of Gareth's post on Moleskinerie, the all-things-Moleskine blog. " Check out this nifty blog.

TheIrvins: Home from the Hospital : "Home from the Hospital" Rebecca Writes mentioned that Tim Irving needs prayer. You might venture over to Tim's blog and read his story and say a prayer for him.

del.icio.us/pruittcommunications : "del.icio.us / pruittcommunications / I have been using del.icio.us for a couple of months now. It is a way of making a set of bookmarks public. So here is my del.icio.us page.

To fight insomnia I played around with WikiMapia. I added a couple of my childhood places to the list of places, and a couple of churches I attended. It is fun way to share your knowledge. Tags: wiki

I thought this article by Doc Searls was excellent. Markets without Marketing | Linux Journal : "As I prepare for that, I thought I'd share some of the curriculum I've come up with. I'm looking for constructive feedback, suggestions and Stories From the Real World that might be useful to the tutorial. Here we go... I. The Matrix is a metaphor for marketing II. As Markets become truly free, we don't have much, if any, need for marketing. III. Advertising is going to die. PR is already dead. IV. The operative word is Relate. V. There's no substitute for a good product. Or the only people who can improve it. VI. Work the Because Effect. You'll make more money that way.

I met with the Gadfly's Muse and the Jollyblogger for breakfast on Thursday. We talked about church planting in the Ann Arundel County area. Bits of wisdom I gleaned from the breakfast time talk. The essential element for a pastor is a love for the people. Preaching is important, but people will endure imperfect preaching if they discern a heart of love. The essential element for a church planter is vision to see something come to fruition. Formal qualifications are less important than actually doing the ministry. Doing the work of the ministry is analogous to scientist forming a hypothesis and then testing it, then adjusting the hypothesis, and continuing the cycle. A scientist starts with an initial hypothesis and it is not so important that he have the exact right hypothesis, just that he has a starting point and make adjustments afterwards. As long as he has a process by which he continually adjusts his knowledge, he is on the path toward truth. It is not so important...

What is the difference between evangelism and missions? Often when we speak of missions, we mean reaching across cultural barriers to speak the good news of God's forgiveness. Some people would define missions in terms of mercy ministry, but I would have to quibble with this definition. My own definition for missions is evangelism that takes the message of the grace of God to every nation tribe and tongue. Every tribe and tongue means those both near and far. Missions means taking seriously the cultural dynamics of the hearers of the message of God's grace. It means respecting the hearers of the message and taking their needs seriously. For most people, evangelism is an unobtainable duty, something that they just don't know how to do. To explain the good news of God's grace in a winsome way is just not within their natural skill set. This is why the work of evangelism must be done in community. So evangelism must take place in a multi-layered fashion. The ...

My wife and I went to Bethel College in McKenzie, TN. This is the Cumberland Presbyterian denominational college. We met many good friends there. Cindy Maddux is one of our friends from college days. She is our guest blogger today. She responded to the poll and sent me some of her comments which I am including here. By the way, if you have not taken my poll on church planting, please do so. It is the post prior to this one. Thoughts of church planter Cindy Maddux who is a part of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church As to voting whether SUNDAY worship is essential to a church plant then I will say no. WORHSIP is essential but with today's society it's more like Saturday night or Friday night and then if you have those that are tradition bound you could say AND a Sunday service. The needs of the initial group drive when and where you meet. I am in a church plant now. It's been two years and we are just now getting to where we need to be for spiritual growth in numbers. Ultim...

Some of you may have been a part of a church plant. Some of you might be qualified because you have actually been a part of a church at some point in your life. I would like to hear what you think. Please take my poll. Free Web poll for your Web site - freepolls.com Technoratic Tags: poll , church planting , Christianity , ministry , new , church .

I have been thinking about leadership and how we in the church choose leaders. I have seen a couple of models demonstrated and in reality, I think a combination of the two models is best. The two models are seminary trained leadership and raising up leadership from within. Seminary training with no practical experince opens someone to a lot of risk. What if you go through seven years (or more) of education to find out that you really are not cut out for it? Then there are those who are gifted but have not taken set aside the time to study. They need to pursue study. Hands on training combined with seminary is prefered. Something on my heart lately is that a congregation needs to be trained how to raise up leadership. Here is what I would think is 10 ideas that I think might be helpful: 1. Identify who future leaders are and encourage them 2. Validate young leaders by listening to them 3. Take young leaders seriously 4. Give appropriate responsibility 5. Allow young leaders...

Are You a Yankee or a Rebel? - alphaDictionary * Free English Online Dictionary I heard this story on NPR. You might want to check out this test. The author does not recognize a seperate dialect for the Ozarks. I guess he has just never heard of roastin' ears. To get a short Ozark dictionary click here.

Wired has a story, err, sort of a story on Disc Golf. I always call it Frisbee Golf, but we don't want any trade mark infringements. So I have played in TX, MD, VA, DE, and NM. My next state to play in is WV. Or maybe PA this summer with my nephews. It is a good game to get out and get some fresh air. Wired News: Disc Golf: It's Not Actually Golf : "So I guess that's why I recently decided to try the sport of hippies, the hippie of sports, disc golf. Because it's not actually golf. I would not have expected disc golf to be a geekish sort of activity -- it involves fresh air and sunshine, it was never featured on Star Trek -- but a surprising number of my geek friends have discs. Not as in 'I have a promotional A&W Frisbee in my closet' but actual, official, PDGA-approved disc golf golfing discs."

Your Scholastic Strength Is Deep Thinking You aren't afraid to delve head first into a difficult subject, with mastery as your goal. You are talented at adapting, motivating others, managing resources, and analyzing risk. You should major in: Philosophy Music Theology Art History Foreign language What Should You Major In?

I walked the B&A Trail today with my wife and my two youngest daughters. I had a good time. We stopped at Adams Rib in Severna Park for lunch. I had the beef brisket sandwich. Everyone one else at our table had hamburgers. On the trail we saw butterflies, squirrels, horses, dogs, rabbits, a groundhog, a cardinal, three turtles, two red-winged black birds, a goat, a Vietnamese miniature pig, and bumble bees. The B&A Trail has a lot of bamboo on it. I think it makes a good barrier plant for people who do not want to be bothered by folks on the trail. It seems the number tandem bicycles is growing. We saw at least four, and one was a recumbent tandem. So it took 36,150 steps to get from the start point at the parking area for the trail to the front door of my house. This earned me the last 750 some points to earn my gold medal on the President's Challenge. I have been working on this since August 10, 2004. I knew I was close to the end this week. I saw...

I listened to A Briefer History of Time by Steven Hawking during my morning exercise time. This audio book was very accessible though it dealt with some very technical issues in physics. There is two phases of understanding something. The first phase is where the student or researcher does the analysis which compiles, assembles, organizes, and arranges details of information. You need to be an information pack rat and ultimately needs someone who can store and arrange all the data when you are in the first phase. The second phase is when you simplify the whole matter for the common person. This is when you make it understandable and accessible. The Briefer History of Time is a work which is the fruit of this second phase. The book is about science, but many fundamental questions of science are ultimately philosophical and religious issues. Dealing with the beginning and end of the cosmos is at the same time an issue for prophets and physicists. The nature of the univers...

I live in Maryland but I was born and raised in Missouri. I have lived longer outside Missouri than I did in the state at this point in my life. Many people are travelers and strangers in life. When Jacob, or should I say Israel, returned to the land of Canaan in chapter 21-35 of Genesis, a concluding remark of the passage is “These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan Aram.” (Genesis 35:27 NIV) Paddan Aram was northwestern Mesopotamia. The land of Canaan was not where the twelve sons were born. They were outsiders to the land they were coming. They would be outsiders in the same way their father had been an outsider where they were born. Places of origin are a construct of the mind and culture. We sense and feel that we are native to a place because of how it affects our speech, our sense of seasons of the year, and sense of belonging. Of course it is not limited to these, things but these are few of the things that make one feel he or she belongs somewhere....

How should a pastor select topics on which to preach? This probably does not concern the normal person in the pew. There will be those who want their pet issue(s) preached about. Those who want each sermon to move them emotional. Then of course there those who want each sermon to be practical. As Christians, it should be our desire that sermons are relevant, reaching the heart and applicable. However, those are more aspects of a sermon, rather than the topic itself. In more liturgical circles, often the topics of preaching are selected by a church calendar called a lectionary. I have attended a church where the pastor used the lectionary in his preaching. The good thing about the lectionary was that it took the work out of selecting a passage so the pastor could just focus on developing the topic. Another strength of the lectionary is that it gives both an Old Testament and a New Testament passage from which to work. The lectionary coordinates the sermons with holidays on ...

I noticed on a co-worker's desk some quotes she had written out by hand about the movie The Da Vinci Code. One was from Tom Hanks who said, "We always knew there would be a segment of society that would not want this movie to be shown. But the story we tell is loaded with all sorts of hooey and fun kind of scavenger-hunt-type nonsense.” I thought about linking to some of the sources showing this quote but if you search for it, it is all over the Internet. I think use of the word 'hooey' was very calculating on Tom Hanks' part. He knows he has that nice guy image, but 'dog-gone-it' he has got to show the world that he has got, well, gumption and backbone. He will use the word 'hooey' with vigor and conviction. So my co-worker and I got into this discussion about how she had read The Da Vinci Code. She made a comment that I have not heard anyone else make, perhaps others have and I just have not been listening. She and he husband are now devo...

If you are like me, you like Wheel of Fortune . The game is simple but engaging. Also Pat Sajak and Vanna White have style. I'm thinking that the ultimate Wheel of Fortune game would have Pat Sajak , Vanna White and Charlie O'Donnell , the announcer, as the three contestants. Pat, Vanna and Charlie have tremendous experince with the game so, would be interesting to see how these pros of the game would fair as contestants. Of course they would need to have the lively Merv Griffin as the host. I'm not sure how could or should do Vanna's job. I was just wondering what other bloggers think about this idea. More important, Pat and Vanna, what do you think?

My 16 year old daughter clued me in to this one. What amazed me is what started the trend. Follow the link to find out. And if It's a Boy, Will It Be Lleh? - New York Times : "In 1999, there were only eight newborn American girls named Nevaeh. Last year, it was the 70th-most-popular name for baby girls, ahead of Sara, Vanessa and Amanda. The spectacular rise of Nevaeh (commonly pronounced nah-VAY-uh) has little precedent, name experts say. They watched it break into the top 1,000 of girls' names in 2001 at No. 266, the third-highest debut ever. Four years later it cracked the top 100 with 4,457 newborn Nevaehs, having made the fastest climb among all names in more than a century, the entire period for which the Social Security Administration has such records. Nevaeh is not in the Bible or any religious text. It is not from a foreign language. It is not the name of a celebrity, real or fictional. Nevaeh is Heaven spelled backward."

Crunchy Time - Christianity Today Magazine : "Dallas Morning News (and former National Review) journalist Rod Dreher has written a book with one of the longest titles in years: Crunchy Cons: How Birkenstocked Burkeans, gun-loving organic gardeners, evangelical free-range farmers, hip homeschooling mamas, right-wing nature lovers, and their diverse tribe of countercultural conservatives plan to save America (or at least the Republican Party) (Crown Forum, 2006). Stan Guthrie, senior associate editor, interviewed Dreher about the religious nature of this new conservative movement. What are crunchy conservatives?" Click on the link to find the answer.

The director of instructional technology and distance learning at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary is John P. Jewell . He has written a book called Wired for Ministry: How the Internet, Visual Media, and Other New Technologies Can Serve Your Church by Brazos Press. I have meandered through the pages since Christmas when I received the book as a gift from my oldest daughter. For the most part this is not a book about innovation in technology but about integration. Jewell has taken the well-known processes for implementing technology in a way that fits the needs of learners and has tailored these processes for the church. Often he does this through describing a church and its members and what they want to do. Jewell then describes decision-making and planning process that would yield a solution that is focused on ministry and not the latest gadget. The processes he describes are done through the stake holders in the church and focus on ministry of the church. A th...

I have been doing some real soul searching lately. One option for ministry I had been praying about is being a tent maker. For those of you who don't know, a tent maker is one who has a job and is participating in ministry at a level that is usually considered a full time job. The term comes from the ministry of the apostle Paul who worked as a tentmaker while ministering in Corinth. (Acts 18:1-3) The past few years I have been busy trying to raise my family, serve my country in the Army, work in the church and get my M.Div so that I can get ordained. I see that I just bit off more than I could chew. Now that I have retired from the Army, I see that I had just exhausted myself trying to do too much. It just did not work. I have been praying about what I should do in ministry. I can see that tentmaking is not something I think I can handle. Self assessment is good. Related to this issue is how my mind works. My job in the Army involved continually learning about new techn...

You might find this funny. Follow the link. NPR : An Explosive Pair: Take a Mentos, and a Diet Coke... : "What happens when you put a handful of Mentos candy into a bottle of diet soda? As many fans of Web video have found out, the results are pretty explosive."

This is a short video parody on Titanic. Have a laugh. YouTube - Titanic: The Sequel : "Titanic: The Sequel "

"The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." Proverbs 16:9 (ESV) I have heard a couple of people quote this Scripture lately and I suspect that they meant to specifically address me in their quote. Perhaps, or perhaps not, it does not matter. Whether they meant it to be a hint that I needed to change my style or not, does not matter. I do need to examine the Scripture and examine my own life. Self-examination is always appropriate. In a sense what I hear them say is that detailed planning, or perhaps at least my style of detailed planning, is bad and spontaneous decision making is good. First thing I would say is the dominate message of this proverb is that God is the one who gives success or not. It is not the case that there are so many variables in calculating the outcomes of our actions that it is impossible to determine what will happen. It is that God is actively, intelligently guiding histo...