Saturday Six-Pack (23)

Imagine: A “Saturday Six-Pack” arriving on… wait for it… Saturday!

After two weeks of lateness and a week of absence, I’ve regained my position on the top of the pile!

Here’s your weekly fodder of faith, ministry, and who-knows-what tossed in!

If you need help starting, begin with my two *Picks of the Week*, and move from there.

For a steady stream of such links, follow me on Twitter ( @JasonBandura ) to the right of this post.  Sharp quotes and solid articles are tweeted 3-4 times daily.

Today’s edition:

1) Why Churches Should Euthanize Small Groups
Being part of a leadership team that has significantly increased our emphasis on Small Groups in recent years, this title grabbed me.  Author and pastor Brian Jones points out a few of the struggles that many of us have experienced…

2) What Legalists and Atheists Cannot Understand (*PICK OF THE WEEK*)
This little piece from the Gospel Coalition revolves around a late night visit between Christian apologist Larry Alex Taunton, Oxford mathematician John Lennox and the late Christopher Hitchens, author of “God is Not Great”.  Throw in some rich references to my favourite portion of Scripture, and I freely recommend this one.

3) Fourteen Indispensable Leadership Quotes from Jim Collins
Jim Collins is recognized across the board as a voice of wisdom on the theme of leadership. Here, Thom Rainer captures a couple touchdowns’ worth of his best bits.

4) Why Women are More Religious than Men
For Psychology Today, Nigel Barber puts forth a theory that I confess to find quite weak. A strand of truth is here, but more than anything, this article served to enlighten me on why people of faith must live out their convictions or else risk observers like Mr. Barber largely missing the whole point.

5) You Are Not a Computer (Try as You May)
Here’s my favourite line from this great piece from the Harvard Business Review is this: “What information consumes is rather obvious. It consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”  That opinion was shared in 1970, and it is abundantly on-the-mark today.  Some thought-provoking stuff here on how to live well within the “information age”.  If I had a third *PICK OF THE WEEK*, I’d put it here.

6) The Science of Productivity (*PICK OF THE WEEK*)
I just discovered Gregory Ciotti’s site: SparringMind.  This post features a three-minute video (which I tweeted a link to, earlier today) that breaks down some of the science behind our minds work and how we might better work within that framework to be more efficient in spending our time and energy. Quite fascinating to me!

May your week be full of awareness and enjoyment of the God who already fills it with Himself and every good thing.  Blessings on you, my friends.

YOUR TURN: Direct other readers to the best stuff with a comment below, or weigh in on what you read.  Your input makes this post better!

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Saturday Six-Pack (4)

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.