i think many of us know of unicef for the little boxes they make for kids to go around and collect change. i am thinking about that change as i see this photo gallery submitted for their photo of the year. the winning one is called 'walking barefoot through misery' taken by a 21 year old girl.
Culture
things on tab : stories sex religion church teens and technology
as part of my new integration of lifestream stuff into my blogs newer look. i've been plugging a lot of stuff into my gavin del.icio.us account. so you can track back to these and other links of interest long after this posting (and others) have cycled out of view. i'm working on figuring out how i like stumbleupon or digg.
- simply my favorite story of a teenager & faith that i've read in a long time. here is his official website & a powerful youtube video testimony
- in similar news, jolly blogger announces he has cancer
- a big deal with the episcopalian church break up is, what to do with the property? the umc has the same set up, so this is interesting news for me.
- the wifey wanted me to read this.. its true, i have bad sleeping habits. sage advice?
- i'd say this is pretty darn cool for perkins school of theology
- poor pastor, at least he's got his congregation
- muslim teenagers growing up in america. not so easy to keep to traditional rules
- 10 questions that separate girls from women.. how do you answer?
- some united methodist churches talk merger
- inside of the bernard madoff's 'scam of the century' (though, this century is kinda young)
- phyllis tickle and peter rollins talk emergence shop
- a lot of folks upset or happy about rick warren doing the invocation. this one caught my eye though. ben witherington always has a thorough thought on the subject
- if you missed my sex week challenge article
- reverend mommy's prayer musings and her last supper lunch box
- locking down your own data
- turbulent cleric on reimagining the world a sermon of sorts
- asbo jesus at it again
- sky lowe mccracken highlights the troubles of a methodist university
- chris brogan on the distinctions of a blog post versus twitter post & how to see that in the whole social media spectrum
- is a green shift in home ownership going to save economic times?
- jason's many hats
- newspapers are still figuring out the whole conversation thing, by techcrunch
- top 10 photography tips and tricks plus why you should shoot in raw format
- josh's guide to God blessed college football bowl games
youth marketing trends : ministry still applies
the part that caught my eye first was #4, marketing is no longer something that you do ‘to’ youth but ‘with’ youth. sounds like relationships, which should be at the heart of ministry.
sex week challenge revist : commentary for umportal
a few weeks back i made a simple commentary about ed young's sex week challenge to his congregation. amy forbus asked if i would expand on my feelings for a commentary for the umportal. i'm never short on something to say so i gave it a go. it will go into print for the reporter next month, but is online now as 'sex challenge misses the mark.'
….
Having followed Mr. Young closely and watched his sermons online, I know he has some good reasons why sex is an important part of a marriage relationship. But his pandering with the news media outlets and their need for one-line quotations only simplified an otherwise complicated issue.
Let me suggest we should not be talking about sex as a “foundation” for our marriages. Before we should be having sex, we should figure out how we are friends with our spouses and others. If we are to “reclaim sex” as
God’s great gift from the seduction of culture we have to start at the deep core, not the symptom. The deep core we need to address is how we are friends in love, not lovers in bed.
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go read more of why sex challenge misses the mark
ordinary radicals review : my life as i knew it
some time back i ordered my own copy of 'the ordinary radicals' a documentary by jamie moffett and focusing on the people and experiences that circled around the jesus for president book tour.
i was super stoked about the documentary. had these ideas of all the different people it would profile and story.
when i got the documentary i watched it at the first opportunity. my emotional reactions were somewhat uneasy, there was some stuff in there that made me uncomfortable, which i felt strange about because all the concepts and ideas were things i have been familiar with through readings of shane's books or others. many of the people in the video i had heard of and got what i would expect. but some of the lesser known, or unknown folks, stories were way powerful.
the documentary got really long for me. almost 2 hours in length it felt long. i might have done a shorter movie length with continued stories on a website. that might allow for more adaptability and continued conversations.. might even have a place where people upload their own videos of stuff they are doing.
at the end of it all the documentary ended up in moorestown, nj which was funny to me. i went to church at first umc in moorestown, growing up next door in cinnaminson. i spent many years with the people of moorestown. they were doing a contrast of moorestown and camden, which only are about five miles apart (with cinnaminson in part of the middle of that 5 miles). camden is notoriously one of the most violent and poverty stricken places.
what is funny to me is that i hung out in camden too. it was for various reasons, but i remember doing a driving lesson through parts of camden to pick up the next student. there was shopping spots and even a night club as i remember visiting. in my early days of hs we played various schools from in and around camden in sports (that changed when our schools restructured the whole league system). the waterfront was built up with the aquarium and concert amphitheater to check out. then there were my emt days where we went to cooper hospital over and over again. though i knew camden to be a dangerous place by reputation it was never some huge stark contrast.. but then again, back in those days moorestown isn't what it is today either. the divide of haves and have nots may have just gotten so much bigger.
back to ordinary radicals. its a good movie, great for stirring conversation. wish it was shorter to get allow people to get to that conversation without feeling they are leaving something out. as for teaching spots it has some great testimonies to pull from to share specific thoughts on empire, money, mission, homelessness, government, and more.