A bunch of things have captured my attention in the last week.
As everyone knows, the US suffered another heart wrenching reality when the bridge of the Interstate 35W over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed. The suddenness of this collapse can be viewed here. I don’t want to downplay this event in any way, but what tugs on my heart is that when something happens in the US, the whole world knows about it. It’s like the worlds media is so US centric.
I remember watching a video clip of a girl in Iraq being stoned to death on rumors she was seeing a boy - which turned out to be false. But this video showed her in a panic on the floor as a crazy mob surrounded here throwing boulders onto her head. After one of the boulders hit it’s target, she stopped moving. It was reported that it was her uncle who threw this boulder. After another boulder crashed into her skull, the blood poured out. And the boulders just kept on coming. I watched this months ago and I am shaking now as I recall what I saw. But the world’s media didn’t report this.
Like I said, I don’t want to down play what happened in Minneapolis. A tragedy is a tragedy - no matter where it occurs. Dr. John Piper is a Pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church and their offices are less than a mile from where this occurred. Their website has an excellent video filmed by their crews of the aftermath. Super imposed onto this is a sermon of Piper’s regarding suffering. Great viewing if you crave learning. To tug at your heart, Piper also wrote a poem here.
In a completely different world, the guys at LifeChurch.tv are an innovative bunch indeed. Bobby Gruenewald, (Innovation Leader) is already notorious for opening up a Campus on virtual reality world Second Life. Don’t know what it’s all about? Check out the Wikipadia entry here and follow through his reasoning here and here. His next venture is on flavor of the month social networking mega tool, Facebook.
Facebook has about 30 million users - half of which have subscribed over the last 6 months! When you think “viral” Facebook makes the flu look like a snail! You want to be culturally “with it” in terms of connecting with people and knowing what’s hot online right now, you just got to do Faebook. Fortunately, Gruenewald has done an excellent 4 part series on Facebook to turn you from ignorance to geek in no time. Check out the links here. <Part 1> <Part 2> <Part 3> <Part 4>
Talking about being culturally relevant, missional guru Tim Keller has just released a four part series called “Ministry in the New Global Culture of Major City-Centers”. What a timely series of articles given the fact that many regional towns are becoming anorexic in their populations as droves move to the city. The Apostle Paul understood this and planted Churches in the busiest and strategically important cities in Asia minor - thus allowing the gospel to spread.
Mark Driscoll talks a lot about how cities are culture definers and suburbs being culture followers. You wanna make change in an area? Hit the city! And Keller has an excellent 4 part series here: <part 1> <part 2> <part 3> <part 4>
MommyZabs is a mommy blogger who I have got to know over time. She has been following what’s going on in China for awhile now in terms of human rights and abuse. Lately she has focused a fair bit of attention on the toy industry and talked about lead levels in toys way before it hit the media. If you’re a parent, head over to MommyZabs and get the low down from a Mommy with purpose!
Finally, tomorrow, my church starts on expository preaching. My Pastor has decided to launch into Ephesians for a number of reasons. But one that sticks out is the issue of unity in the church. I can’t wait to see what he has come up with. He asked me to do a little media presentation for the series opener. And so here is what I came up with. Keep in mind, I am just a lay guy - and that includes media!
Tags: Minneapolis, Lifechurch.tv, Iraq, Second Life, Facebook, Tim Keller, Missional, Lead Poisoning, Ephesians
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