Culture 101 (#15)

A New Children’s Movie Based on the Claim that God Is Evil. Here’s a “heads up” about an upcoming film that is being marketed to kids called The Golden Compass. The Golden Compass is based on an explicitly anti-Christian trilogy of novels called His Dark Materials.

Greg Easterbrook on espn.go.com describes the novels this way:

Regarding the “Golden Compass” volumes, in them God is a central character — but is actively evil, obsessed with causing people to suffer. The plotline of the books is that Christianity is a complete fraud and the source of all that is wrong with society; the final “Golden Compass” volume concerns a desperate attempt by the heroic children to kill God and obliterate every trace of Christianity from several universes. I found Pullman’s arguments against Christianity puerile — like recent anti-Christian books by Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, the “Golden Compass” volumes resort to the cheap subterfuge of cataloging everything bad about religion while pretending belief has no positive qualities. Pullman, Dawkins and Harris are anti-faith jihadis: they don’t just want to argue against the many faults of Christianity, they want faith forbidden.

In other words, His Dark Materials is the “anti-Narnia.”

Baby Vocabulary Dept. A study suggests that it’s better to talk to your babies than show them a video. Who knew? Reuters:

“The most important fact to come from this study is there is no clear evidence of a benefit coming from baby DVDs and videos, and there is some suggestion of harm,” [researcher Frederick Zimmerman] said in a statement.

Advice on Signs at Church. “Design and implement your church signs like they are highway signs.” That’s the advice of Kent Shaffer at ChurchRelevance.com. Shaffer quotes from Why We Buy, changing store to church and customer to visitor:

 

Every church is a collection of zones, and you’ve got to map them out before you can place a single sign. …[W]alk around, asking yourself with every step: What will visitors be doing here? Where will their eyes be focused when they stand here? And what will they be thinking about over there? Each zone is right for one kind of message and wrong for all others. Putting a sign that requires twelve seconds to read in a place where visitors spend four seconds is just slightly more effective than putting it in your garage.

 

Will Your Faith Get You Through? That depends on what you put your faith in. Melinda at str.org writes, “We want a reliable company to back up our insurance policy, and we need a realiable Person to back up our faith in Him. Faith is only good as what is backing it up.”

Study: Cohabitation Correlates With Depression. Joe Carter points to a recent study on cohabitation before marriage that finds that “compared with peers who had not cohabited prior to marriage, individuals who had cohabited reported higher levels of depression and the level of depression also rose with the length of cohabitation.”

A Chance to Get Epic: Help Out Worship Arts the Next Two Sundays

The next two weeks will provide you with a chance to lend props to the Worship Arts team and help create an “Epic” atmosphere at Temple Terrace United Methodist Church.

Umbrellas
This Sunday, Aug. 19, you can help out by coming early and bringing an umbrella. The umbrellas will be used as stage dressing at worship. Note: the earlier you come, the better, because the Worship Arts team will need to place the props before the service.

Mirrors
Deah McReynolds, Director of Music and Creative Arts at TTUMC, writes,

For the week of 8/26, we’re in need of as many mirrors as we can borrow – BIG ones would be especially appreciated. If anyone has a mirror we can borrow, please bring it to the church office as soon as possible and before Thursday, 8/23. Thank you!

Prayer Took Back a City

The current message series at Temple Terrace United Methodist Church is Prayer: It’s Not What You Think. I ran across a story today in a book that shows how prayer is not what I think–that is, if I think prayer is just about sitting in a room. This story illustrates how prayer and evangelism thrive together.

Several years ago, I visited a church in Pelsin, Czechoslovakia. It is one of the strongest churches in Europe. Despite communism, persecution, and the loss of their church property during the political turmoil, they were growing in fantastic ways, spiritually and numerically. How was such grow possible? The simple story the church leaders told me was that there were three “elderly ladies” who, after their church building had been taken from them and made into a communist propaganda hall, met regularly in one of their apartments to pray that God would help them take back their church and lead peolpe to Jesus. They met and prayed for three years, and their prayers were answered. Many people of Pelsin found out about the three old ladies who were praying, and they joined them. Eventually, a pastor was appointed to lead this growing group of Methodist Christians in Pelsin. They decided that they needed to take back their church building. On Saturday evening each week, they would march around the church building time and time again, praying that God would help them get back the church building. Their numbers grew and grew, and people were baptized and committed to Christ. Eventually, the key secular leader of the city, himself, was led to Jesus. He influenced the government to give back the church to the United Methodists in the center of Pelsin. Hundreds were led to Jesus Christ as a result.

–From Chapter 1 of Needs Based Evangelism: Becoming a Good Samaritan Church, by Robert D. Pierson

Culture 101 (#14)

The Danger of Poor Cell Phone Etiquette.

(Via EvangelicalOutpost.com.)

Personal Commentary By Target Employee? See the photo below. Hitchens’ book, of course, titled god Is Not Great. (Via Stand to Reason Blog.)

Er…At Least They’re Not Ashamed of the Cross. Johnson & Johnson is suing the Red Cross because the relief organization is licensing the cross emblem for products that compete with Johnson & Johnson’s. (In the 1800s, Johnson & Johnson gave the Red Cross the right to use the emblem for its mission.) Seth Godin thinks the Red Cross should apologize.

Can You Survive in Space Without a Space Suit? Yes, for a very short time. It would take about 15 seconds to pass out from lack of oxygen (holding your breath in the vacuum of space would be fatal). Then it would take a few minutes to die “from asphyxiation or the effects of the pressure reduction.” (Via Slashdot.)

The Advent Conspiracy. What if we became less “consumerist” and more giving this Christmas? I’m tired of Christmas being about “stuff.” How about you?

MyOfficeSecret.com. Granger Community Church has launched a web site called MyOfficeSecrets.com to promote their next message series.

New Books at the TTUMC Library. Read about it here. (Link fixed.)

Culture 101 (#13)

Die Hardly Working.

Compliment Machine. A compliment machine has been installed in Los Angeles as part of an art exhibit. To passers-by, it says things like this:

• “You are awesome.”
• “You are a great driver.”
• “People are drawn to your positive energy.”
• “You have a nice voice.”

(Via the Stand To Reason Blog.)

Brainstorming Virtually. This is the most interesting thing I read this week. Brainstorming works better when people generate their ideas individually than when they brainstorm as a “real group.” From The Medici Effect by Frans Johansson (as reported by blog.pmarca.com):

Of the 25 reported experiments by psychologists all over the world, real groups have never once been shown to be more productive than virtual groups. In fact, real groups that engage in brainstorming consistently generate about half the number of ideas they would have produced if the group’s individuals had [worked] alone.

In addition, in the studies where the quality of ideas was measured, researchers found that the total number of good ideas was much higher in virtual groups than in real groups.

Why do I find this so significant? Getting people together is hard. But if we only need to generate ideas, people can be asked to brainstorm when they have time and forward the ideas to the facilitator–and we’ll get better ideas than if we got together anyway.

ACLU Creates Comic Book to Reach Youth. An ACLU email received by the blogger YPulse announces that a comic book called “Defenders of Freedom” will feature a story about a racist police officer. The ACLU email says,

Part of an ongoing effort to reach a new audience of young people, Defenders of Freedom will be distributed…in digital format…. [It] will also be handed out via “guerilla marketing” street teams in seven U.S. cities (Philadelphia, PA; Washington, DC; Atlanta, GA; Austin, TX; Madison, WI, and Columbus, OH) and the ACLU is distributing print copies to its members…to read and share with youth….

Tips from Non-Religious Guy. David Foster, speaking as “non-religious guy,” has 17 tips for churches. Here are four:

2. I’m very observant. I’m picking up both verbal and non-verbal communication. Help me make sure this is a safe place where I won’t have to reveal too much of myself until I am ready.
5. When I sit down in the service I want to be able to sit where I choose, and if at all possible, let me sit near the back and near the aisle.
13. On that note, don’t be afraid to talk about Jesus. I’ve been to churches where they’ve talked around him.
15. While I don’t quite understand how long this talk should be taking, please don’t make it any longer than it has to be. I’ll get used to it after awhile, but initially, I get distracted.

The World Is Different Now. “1 out of every 8 couples married in the U.S. in 2005 met online,” according to ChurchRelevance.com. “Culture is changing. Does your church know how to handle change?”

Top-Notch Methodist Theologian Praised. Fred Sanders praises William Burt Pope (1822-1903), “a great British Methodist theologian.” “In fact,” Sanders writes, “I am coming to believe that he was the greatest doctrinal theologian ever to take up the task of teaching Christian theology from the point of view of the Wesleyan revival movement.”

“There Is No Truth.” That statement is self-refuting. Do you know why? A lot of American teenagers don’t.

Feature on TTUMC Youth Director Ares: “You Have One Life, Do Something”

In Friday’s Tampa Tribune there was a great story featuring Erica Ares, TTUMC’s Director of Children and Youth Ministries:

Today, the youth leave for West Virginia, where they will volunteer at a vacation Bible school and work with senior citizens.

“I try and teach the youth: It’s not just about what you believe or what you say you believe; it’s the actions you put behind it,” Ares said.

[Youth Erin] McDonald credits Ares with helping her discover the true meaning of Christianity.

“A youth group event this summer helped me realize that faith wasn’t just about going to church every Sunday,” she said. “I’m looking forward to going to West Virginia. We’ll be able to help so many people and share with them about Jesus.”

In addition to mission trips, Ares encourages the youth to participate in fundraisers for national and international charities. They recently raised about $700 for Loose Change to Loosen Chains, an organization dedicated to ending world slavery. To inspire the youth, Ares often agrees to do something embarrassing in return for their efforts. Once, she took a pie in the face. Another time, she donned a costume from “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”

“I dressed up a like an Oompa-Loompa in front of the whole church congregation and did a dance,” she said.

[Children's Director Julie] Nipp is constantly amazed by Ares.

“Our church mission statement is, ‘Risking Whatever It Takes,’” she said. “Erica truly takes risks.”

Ares’ goals no longer involve becoming a famous artist. Her artwork hangs in the church fellowship hall rather than in galleries.

“I just feel called to work with youth and children,” she said. “People say the youth are the church of tomorrow, but I say they’re a vital part of the church now.”

If you have a young person whom you want to be serious about following Jesus–while at the same time having fun–entrust him or her to Erica.

As the Tribune says,

…Ares, 27, leads the youth ministry at Temple Terrace United Methodist Church, 5030 E. Busch Blvd. The ministry serves grades six through 12, with meetings at 6 p.m. Thursdays and 10:30 a.m. Sundays. Ares leads youth services, organizes mission trips and uses her fine arts degree to generate creative youth activities. Her favorite T-shirt has the words “You Have One Life, Do Something” printed across the front.

By the way, Erica’s blog is The Live Wire.

Culture 101 (#12)

Are Our Children Learning Enough About Whales?

Youth Mission Trip. The TTUMC youth leave on their mission trip to West Virginia this morning. Pray that God will bless them in every way.

Platform for Church Video. YouTube is now allowing its video player to be customized. This includes the color scheme, layout, and title. And, as Bobby Gruenewald writes, you can even “choose your own playlist of videos to be displayed in the custom player.” This could make it very easy for a church web site to make sermon message series viewable in a controlled and professional way–as long as you don’t mind uploading your sermon video to YouTube.

Video is Important! Speaking of video, Joshua Cody relays that “75% of Internet users watched online video in May 2007, averaging 158 minutes per viewer. Nearly 8.4 billion videos were streamed online in the month of May” (ComScore). Cody suggests doing video podcasts of messages, video highlights of events, and video interviews with church members. “People want to be able to see what goes on at your church without actually entering the doors,” Cody writes. “[H]ow are you going to help them?”

Facing Facebook. The topic of Facebook, a social networking site, is getting a lot of play on popular pastor’s blogs, including Swerve and LeadingSmart. Bobby Gruenewald, a pastor of LifeChurch.tv, blogs, “[I]f you aren’t paying attention to the online phenomenon of Facebook, you should be.” He writes that to fully understand why, you have to join Facebook and experience it. So I joined. But that’s about it for now. If you want to join and become my “friend,” please do. Maybe then I’ll start to grok what it’s all about.

Counting Weekend Attendance. How does a church with 2500 in each service count attendance? Surprisingly, it’s not that different: mostly, the ushers do it. Only sometimes the ushers find it easier to count the empty seats rather than the filled ones. (That method won’t work with pews, though.)

How to Find Mr./Ms. Right. According to blogger and Christian apologist Joe Carter, here’s the best way to find the right person to marry:

How do you know when you’ve met Mr./Ms. Right? How do you determine who, among the available range of candidates in your life, is the person you should marry? The best way to increase the chances that you’ve made the right decision is to follow this simple sampling strategy:

You will maximize your probability of finding the best spouse if you date about 37 percent of the available candidates in your life and then choose to stay with the next candidate who is better than all the previous ones.

Suppose that during your single years you will date 100 candidates for marriage. If you marry the first one that comes along then your chance of finding the best of the lot is only 1/100. The same probability is applicable if you date 99 of them and marry the last one. The chance that the last candidate is the best choice is only 1 in 100. Following the formula allows you to sample the options and increases the likelihood that you will choose the best of the available choices. (Note: This strategy also works for similar choices, such as buying a house.)

My wife is not too impressed by this advice. To say the least.

Culture 101 (#11)

Top Three Laughing Babies.

The last set of babies answers the question, “What are daddies good for?” (Via Evangelical Outpost.)

Pop Songs Replacing Nursery Rhymes. A new UK survey reports that parents are singing pop songs to their children instead of nursery rhymes. ChurchRelevance.com asks, “If young children are raised on pop songs intended for teenagers, what will they be listening to as they begin to grow older and look for something that is edgier…?”

Bible’s Accuracy Reconfirmed. Archeology has confirmed the accuracy of the Bible again, this time by the deciphering of a “cuneiform inscription in a tablet dating from 595BC,” revealing

a reference to an official at the court of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, that proves the historical existence of a figure mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah.

The tablet was sitting in the British museum when “Michael Jursa, associate professor at the University of Vienna, on a research trip to the museum,” deciphered it. (Via ChurchRelevance.com.)

Update. Greg Peters warns against taking “greater comfort from a cuneiform tablet about God’s providence than…from innumerable answered prayers.”

Google Apps for Church. Google is making the “for-pay” version of its online office suite available to non-profits. (Via Terry Storch.)

Consequences of the Disappearing Middle. The conventional view of how people behave is the bell curve–a hump on a graph in which most people occupy the middle. But Christian thinker Len Sweet believes that society is now clustering toward the extremes.

Christianity Today’s Out of Ur blog has noticed some trends that are a result of “[o]ur tastes and choices…shifting away from the middle and toward the extremes”:

• “[C]hurchgoers increasingly prefer megachurches and microchurches but not mid-sized congregations.”
• People either volunteer a lot or volunteer very little.
• There are fewer and fewer “average givers.” People either give a lot or give very little.
• Some churches are spending less time helping people occupy the middle depth of involvement with God; instead, they are encouraging people to move from the spiritual shallows to the spiritual depths with a minimal stop in the “living room.”

(Via Beautiful and Grotesque.)

Customizable Love Songs. Slashdot.com reports, “A new kind of record company, Tailored Music Group, is selling user-customizable songs. Each song is distributed in its ‘default’ (generic) form, and the customer can change any (or all) of the lyrics. For a few hundred bucks, the original indie musician will re-work the song with the custom lyrics.”

Fill ‘er Up! This Sunday our Road Trip series continues at TTUMC. If you’re anywhere near Temple Terrace, Florida, you’ve invited to attend at 9:30 a.m. or 11:00 a.m. We hope to see you there!

“When we’re focused on the destination, life can seem to be all about winning. But to really experience the thrill of victory, we have to put others first. We discover joy when we serve others”

RSS SOS

Reading blogs is more efficient if you use an RSS reader–a program that puts all your “feeds” in one place. I use Google Reader, which is free. As I’ve said in the past, you can get started with Google Reader by reviewing my post Getting Started with an RSS Reader.

In addition, the Newbie’s Guide to Google Reader will help you learn even more (via Terry Storch).

To see a list of TTUMC blogs, visit the TTUMC.net blogs page.

Culture 101 (#10)

Will an iPhone Blend?

Mind-Numbing Myth. It’s a myth that the church opposed anesthesia at childbirth. I had not heard this myth before, but in case you run into someone who believes it, now you can correct them “with gentleness and with respect.” (Via Uncommon Descent.)

“Multi-Site Works.” Some churches are going “multi-site”: this means they conduct worship in a second location and show a video sermon preached by the pastor at the main campus. The sermon may be shown “live” or recorded. Tony Morgan visited Buckhead Church in Atlanta and reports that, in his opinion, “multi-site works“:

• Within [the Buckhead Church] facility, there’s an auditorium that has seating for 3,000 people. Currently, there are about 4,500 people attending the three Sunday services. Did you catch that? This is a campus where the teaching is primarily delivered via video, and there’s 4,500 people showing up. Multi-site works.
• The video, by the way, is very cool. I’ve seen Andy [Stanley] preaching live at the Alpharetta campus. I think I actually prefer watching him preach on the video screen.
• Everything besides the teaching is like a normal service experience. There’s a band, kid’s programming, host teams, etc. I’m sure it takes several hundred volunteers to pull off everything that happens at that campus.

The Need to Blog. Why Church Leaders Must Blog on Their Church Websites.

Rick Warren Podcast. Rick Warren’s Podcast for Pastors and Church Leaders.

FaceBook Winning? Teens Leaving MySpace for FaceBook.

Sister Church Growing. TTUMC’s sister church in Manzanillo, Cuba, was honored as having more growth than any other church in its district.

“Trapped on Earth”. According to a Space.com article this week, explorers sent to Mars will fight dust. Martian dust is extra fine, and could easily get into lungs, coat equipment, or cause electrostatic charges on space suits in the super-dry atmosphere. The dust may even be toxic. Imagine trying to keep your habitat clean when you come home from a long day of drilling holes and picking up rocks. It won’t be adequate to wipe your space boots on the mat. (Via Slashdot.)

Even more pessimistic is an article in the most recently posted version of Discover Magazine. Amusingly entitled “Are We Trapped on Earth?“, this article addresses whether the human body can “withstand a prolonged journey into deep space.” The biggest obstacle is cosmic rays, which cause brain damage and harm the immune system.

What’s so amusing about the title of this article? Thinking of humans as “trapped” on earth is like thinking of a football fan being “trapped” at the Super Bowl or a teenage girl being “trapped” at the mall.

Not only are the laws of the universe finely tuned to allow humans to exist, Earth itself is in the best possible situation for our survival: just the right distance from the center of the galaxy, just the right distance from the Sun, endowed with an improbably large moon that steadies our rotation so that our seasons don’t wobble out of control. Even the planet Jupiter is positioned to protect us from in-falling comets.

We’re living in the best possible location and at the best possible time to make scientific observations about the universe–and to see the glory of God in the stars.

I hope humans can travel to Mars. But I won’t feel “trapped” if we can’t.