Category Archives: Six-Pack

Saturday Six-Pack (5)

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Welcome to the weekend, and thanks for spending some time “Wandering & Wondering”.

This week’s “Saturday Six-Pack” shares a smattering of the best things I’ve recently read online.  Typically, these articles are be faith-focused or ministry-geared, but I reserve the right to live up to the “disorderly pile of who-knows-what” tagline at the top of this page!

Today’s line-up:

1) Why the Church is Losing a Generation and What We Can Do About It
 Jonathan Pearson is noticing a disturbing trend, and he isn’t the only one.  Why are so many young adults turning away from “church as they know it”?  Here are a few theories, along with an invitation into this important conversation.

2) To Get Ahead, Do 21 Things that Others Don’t
This very practical, potentially inspiring, list comes from the Time Management Ninja.  If you’re looking for ways to “get ahead” in whatever way you define that, this short read will be worth your while.

3) An Interview with a Pearl
Great dialog here between blogger Jamal Jivanjee and a woman he identifies as Kat.  Some great insights here from the layers of one life into the layers of your own, as you strive to courageously follow Jesus.

4) Ambidextrous Ministry
However you serve, wherever you lead, you likely have a dominant hand.  Eric Geiger suggests that the next step forward might demand some skills from the other side.  A brief read, this one will likely get you considering at least a few possibilities within your church or life.  Dare to dream… and go left!

5) Want a Better Life?  Read a Book.
Pscyhology Today offers this piece.  The title seems obvious to any word-lover, but you may be challenged here on how you could maximize the impact of the words you choose to consume.

6) How Introverts and Extroverts Can Benefit From One Another
Michael Hyatt asks, “Do introverts or extroverts make the best leaders?”  Along that line, here are a few things worth considering.

Have a great weekend, friends–renew yourself and reverence God.

Saturday Six-Pack (4)

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Another week down, another weekend up!  Thanks for returning for some “Wandering & Wondering”.

Having just concluded a fantastic week with Arrow Leadership, my past days have been spent on an island off the West Canadian coast, where internet was spotty at best.  Here are six articles that I’ve enjoyed since my return to the mainland yesterday.

As always, these articles generally are faith-focused or ministry-geared, but I reserve the right to live up to the “disorderly pile of who-knows-what” tagline at the top of this page!

In this edition:

1) Why Facebook is Killing God
This Psychology Today offering by Nigel Barber is an intriguing read, though I confess that it comes across as a fairly weak assessment of “religion”.  Tweaking that comment, perhaps it IS accurate of RELIGION.  But it certainly displays a gaze far too small to grasp even a sliver of who Jesus Christ is.

2) Early Christians Speak of the Spirit
My friend Kirk Ruch has a great blog, where he frequently explores the place of the Holy Spirit within the Christian life and community.  His latest post scans a few sources that reveal some telling views that the early church held, in regard to “gifts of the Spirit”.

3) Christian Kindness Flabbergasts Critic
The Athens Review reported this story from San Antonio.  I cannot be the only reader that thinks, “We could use more of these stories unfolding in our world.”

4) The Homeless God
Blogger Frank Viola tweeted a link to this over-a-year-old this week.  Its point?  God is looking for a place to dwell.  Is He welcome in your church?  Your life?

5) The Irony of Atheism
If you’re reading this in Washington, DC, you have the unique opportunity to attend a local “Atheism Rally” today if you’d like.  Along those lines, Carson Weitnauer contributes this offering from the book “True Reason”, a compilations of some Christian thinkers’ responses to the latest and popular reincarnation of the no-God movement.

6) For Anyone Not Living a Cushy Life
 To any who are suffering, Ray Ortlund offers this brief piece toward re-framing the hurt.

Have a great weekend, friends–renew yourself and reverence God.

Sunday Six-Pack (3)

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Welcome to the weekend, and thanks for spending some time “Wandering & Wondering”.

A pressed few days toward departing for a week with Arrow Leadership bumped the Six-Pack by a day.  Aside from an extra twenty-four hours of aging, you’ll find the typical assortment of online offerings aimed to inspire and inform.  Generally, these articles are faith-focused or ministry-geared, but I reserve the right to live up to the “disorderly pile of who-knows-what” tagline at the top of this page!

In this “Sunday Edition”:

1) Kony 2012 and Thinking Critically
Dianna Anderson provides this helpful summary of the Kony 2012 kerfuffle from recent weeks, along with a challenge to figure what this means: “Thinking critically is not the same thing as thinking cynically.”

2) Jesus Was Funnier Than We Think
Relevant Magazine offers this take on why Christianity, for all it might make you do, should make you laugh.

3) Seven Habits of Highly Ineffective Leaders
Want to be a poor leader and live a small life?  Here are seven keys for you.

4) Undone
Blogger Jonathan Stone highlights the beauty and power of “coming undone”, as opposed to the often-sought-after “holding it together”.  As Stone sums up his piece: “Blessed are those who come undone.”

5) The Tyranny of the Tentative
Do hesitant people make you nervous?  They should.  That’s because they are dangerous.  So says Tim Kimmel in this piece directed at fathers, friends, and faith-folks.

6) Is God Unfair?
 The Zondervan blog offers this excerpt from Craig Groeschel’s book “The Christian Atheist”, tackling a question and sentiment that everyone feels at some point.

Have a great weekend, friends–renew yourself and reverence God.

Saturday Six-Pack (2)

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Welcome to the weekend, and thanks for spending some time “Wandering & Wondering”.

With the inaugural edition of “Saturday Six-Pack” out of the way, let me once again provide a half-dozen directions you might look for some fine online reading this fine day.

Typically, these articles are faith-focused or ministry-geared, but I reserve the right to live up to the “disorderly pile of who-knows-what” tagline at the top of this page!

In this edition:

1) Can We Prepare our Culture to Receive the Gospel
Justin Taylor provides this quote from “Christianity and Culture”, an essay written by J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937).  Living out faith within a culture that many describe as increasingly closed to Christianity, how might these words speak into what can or cannot be done in “opening doors”?

2) What Every Man Wishes His Father Had Told Him
Byron Yawn has written a newly released book by this title, and Tim Challies provides this positive review of its contributions toward helping men become more the men, husbands, and fathers that God has created us to be.

3) How to Tell a Good Story with our Life
A few years back, Donald Miller wrote a book called “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years”, which challenged readers to consider their lives against the list of ingredients which compose all great stories.  How might we pursue a life comparable to the rich tales we love?  A much-shorter-than-the-book summary can be found here.

4) It’s Time to Move from Minutia to Movement
If you’re seeking spiritual revival, dreaming that it could happen in your church or country or lifetime, then this piece by Mark Driscoll may feed (or fuel) your hunger.

5) Your Best Creative Time is Not When You Think
The tag line of this article, from Scientific American, says this: “Morning people have more insights in the evening. Night owls have their breakthroughs in the morning.”  Translation: Out-of-the-box thinking, the type often needed to troubleshoot life, is a tad odd.  How to maximize it?  Start with this article.

6) Music for Lent
Searching for some fresh tunes for these pre-Easter days?  How about something that nudge you along in the classic Lent themes of struggle and sin moving into hope and even resurrection?  Go with Bruce Springsteen. Yes, the born-in-the-USA Bruce Springsteen.

Have a great weekend, friends–renew yourself and reverence God.

Saturday Six-Pack (1)

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Welcome to the weekend, and thanks for spending some time “Wandering & Wondering”.

This is the inaugural “Saturday Six-Pack” post, an effort to share some of the best things I’ve read online from the past week or so.  Typically, these articles will be faith-focused or ministry-geared, but I reserve the right to live up to the “disorderly pile of who-knows-what” tagline at the top of this page!

In this edition:

1) Destruction: God’s Alien Work
Lisa Dye contributes this Lent devotional, focusing on the wrecking role of God’s work in our lives at times.  Creator?  Certainly.  Provider?  Sure.  Demolition foreman?  Sometimes.

2) Nostalgia: The Enemy of Faith
It’s one thing to value our past, in which we idealize memories and idolize heroes.  But Collin Hansen pushes us to take another look for the warts.  As an example, he provides this look at two recently released books, among the first scholarly treatments of great 20th-century evangelical leaders John Stott and Martyn Lloyd-Jones, wildly inspiring while being as imperfect as any of us.

3) The Intolerance of Tolerance
Is the tolerance that our society so values all that it’s cracked up to be?  Don Carson doesn’t think so.

4) How Do You Disciple New Believers?
For all the things involved in helping new Christians grow, Justin Buzzard says that we must get this part clear: “Discipleship is truth transferred through relationship.”

5) The State of the Church in Canada
The Gospel Coalition is holding a Canada Conference on this topic in late May.  While the event is being held nowhere near my home, this post contains information that will interest anyone working or worshiping in Canadian churches.

6) What People Gave Up for Lent 2012
Christianity Today offers this intriguing peek into this year’s Lent-related habits of Christians through some serious Twitter observation.  Somewhat serious, somewhat sarcastic, this short piece will cause a few smiles and a few shocks.

Have a great weekend, friends–renew yourself and reverence God.