Welcome to the new site. The video below explains a little about why I transferred over to Posterous (and it allows me the opportunity to simultaneously make a bit of a fool of myself and test out some of their features). Be sure to update your feed reader with the new RSS feed so we can stay connected.

Update 13 March 2010: You may have noticed that there are several hundred posts that pre-date this one, and that is because I recently merged much of my old blog with this one. This was the first post I posted when I switched over to Posterous. All the previous posts were originally published on my old Blogger blog.

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Earlier today I found a nice used copy of John Stott's book on preaching, Between Two Worlds (which now, somewhat ironically, sits right beside Martyn Lloyd-Jones', Preaching and Preachers, on the bookshelf). I opened the book at random to page 69, where I found this:

It is difficult to imagine the world in the year A.D. 2000, by which time versatile micro-processors are likely to be as common as simple calculators are today. We should certainly welcome the fact that the silicon chip will transcend human brain-power, as the machine has transcended human muscle-power. Much less welcome will be the probable reduction of human contact as the new electronic network renders personal relationships ever less necessary. In such a dehumanized society the fellowship of the local church will become increasingly important, whose members meet one another, and talk and listen to one another in person rather than on screen. In this human context of mutual love the speaking and hearing of the Word of God is also likely to become more necessary for the preservation of our humanness, not less.

I guess he was off by a few years, as the social networking revolution came along a little later than 2000, but he made a pretty fair assessment back in 1982 when the book was published.

What do you make of his call to the local church in response?

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Back in July of last year, I posted a list here of forty-two suggestions for resisting modernity. The list was compiled by one of my professors, John Muether. I appreciated the list a lot, and keep it on my bulletin board in my office where I look over it every now and then.

The other day, after reading one of Human3rror's posts on blogging tips where he suggested that having a post series is a good thing, I decided that taking a number of the items on this list and blogging about them once a week (on Monday) would make for an interesting series. I plan to take that up starting next week Monday.

For now, though, I need your help. I can't come up with a title for this series. My initial idea was to go with alliteration, but as you can see from the title to this post, I have yet to come up with a synonym for "resisting" that begins with an "M." If you've got any ideas, I'd love to hear your suggestions (it doesn't even need to be English). I'm open to switching days as well if you can think of something good that incorporates another day of the week.

Update, March 2: In the end, I decided to go with John's suggestion of using the term mortify. As he mentions in the comments here, that term has had robust usage in Reformed spirituality. You will find it often, for example, in the writings of the Puritans, who, incidentally, are also responsible for helping us recapture the idea of being pilgrims. Since the focus the Christian pilgrimage and of this series and list is to help us gain some perspective on what it means to live in but not be of the world, I chose to employ the title, "Mondays are for Mortifying Modernity."

Thanks for all your suggestions!

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I linked to this the other day over at GoingtoSeminary.com, but I want to do it again here just to get the word out, because it is such a great resource. You may have seen it linked to already somewhere, but in case you haven't, check this out.

J.R. Woodward, who is the director of Kairos Los Angeles, a network of neighborhood churches in LA, has compiled what can only be described as the definitive list of resources available on the web for information about the theology, history, and recent developments of the missional church movement. Books, articles, blogs, even a video, you name it—it's all there. What he has put together must have taken him hours, and we owe him a great deal of thanks for his efforts. Virtually anything you want to know about the missional church can be found here. Be sure to check it out.
(HT: Tony Stiff)

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At least Mark Driscoll thinks we should.

I have a friend who has a remarkable aversion to technology. He is like a brother to me, and he really is a great guy, but I cannot believe how someone the same age as me can be so inept when it comes to computers and cell phones and all kinds of technology. Like me, he has automotive interests, but his lack of technological savvy keeps him rooted in the belief that carburetors are the only proper method of fuel delivery for an engine. When I lived with him for a few months, I spent two hours watching him try and hook up a DVD player. And I really do not have to worry about him reading this because I am not sure he knows how to get on to the internet.

As he is studying for the ministry, I have on numerous occasions tried to persuade him to do what he can to learn about technology and make use of its resourcefulness. I told him that since it plays such a major role in our culture, he should at least be familiar with it. Just recently, I listened to a talk Mark Driscoll gave in the UK last month on what he thinks are some of the crucial elements of being a missional church. Among other things, he also made the case for involvement in and familiarity with popular culture and technology.

I think he makes a good point. What are significant parts of the lives of people in our culture, especially teenagers and people in their twenties? Television and movies. Magazines. Music. The social networking stuff--Facebook, Twitter, MySpace. These mediums play such a significant role in the lives of people in our society, Driscoll argues, that we need to know what is filtering into their minds and influencing how they think and live. He actually advocates purchasing a TiVo, spending time on the Internet (especially Web 2.0 related things, where so many people reveal a great deal about themselves), and listening to morning talk shows on your drive to work. Interestingly, this is almost the complete opposite position of John Muether, whose tactics for resisting modernity I mentioned a few weeks ago here. Muether's argument was that many of these choices are uncritical concessions to modern culture which we need to resist and challenge.

What do you think? Should we all go out and see The Dark Knight? Should we read GQ and People? Do we need a Facebook profile or a blog? Driscoll makes the case that we should. Do you agree?

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Type "Finding Chuck Norris" into the Google search bar.

Click "I'm Feeling Lucky".

Now go hide.

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A big high-five goes to Mikey for finding this one. The challenge is to create a fake album cover using a random article from Wikipedia for the artist's name, a number of words from a page of random quotes for the album title, and a random photo from Flickr for the background image. I enjoyed this challenge so much that I made a few different ones.

Mikey got the challenge from Typophile, and here are the rules:

You will create an album cover for a fictitious band, using a
fictitious album name and an image from Flickr. Follow these
steps below. Design your album and post it on your blog.

1. The first article title on the Wikipedia Random Articles page
is the name of your band.

2. The last four words of the very last quotation on the Random
Quotations page is the title of your album.

3. The third picture in Flickr’s Interesting Photos From The Last
7 Days will be your album cover.

4. Use your graphics application of choice to throw them together,
and post the result.

If you go to Typophile's blog you can see a lot of other results people have come up with. Join in, make your own album covers. It's tons of fun. Let me know if you've made one so I can check it out. The possibilities in this challenge are endless.

*"Black Power" image © Fabiola Medeiros

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