Success! We made it all the way to eastern Turkey and delivered the goods – hundreds of blankets, baby food, warm winter clothes and other items donated by kind people (mainly Kurdish) people in Antalya. The team: Selchuk, who kindly navigated and translated for us, Priscilla from Germany (Jesus Freaks) and me. We were…
Read MoreTransporting Blankets for Turkish Earthquake
Turkey: Today we are loading up the truck with blankets and warm winter clothes that have been donated by Turks in the Antalya area. The drive to Van and surrounding cities in the earthquake zone is 1400kms which should take about 23 hours to drive. Family will stay here. I might be gone a while.…
Read MoreEarthquake in Turkey. Have truck. Will travel.
YES we are in Turkey. NO we are not affected by the earthquake. Thanks for all your emails and tweets. The earthquake is devastating. Over 200 dead. Pakistan sources suggest 1000 dead. Numbers will rise because there are hundreds missing and many are trapped under rubble. (Photo: Reuters/Ali Ihsan Ozturk/Anadolu Agency. HT: Christian Post) Turkey is a…
Read MoreLargest capital flight since the Exodus?
The Exodus provided Bob Marley with one of his greatest songs but the actual event in Egypt, which occurred around (1312 BCE), some cost the country some serious coin. When the persecuted Hebrews left Egypt, they took took gold, silver, clothes, as well as significant human resources. And now it’s happening again! Not with the Hebrews,…
Read MoreABCD: Association of Born-again Church Dropouts
“People leave the church as turtles or skunks. . . Turtles crawl quietly out the back door, without bringing attention to the protest of their silent withdrawal. Skunks leave at the front, where everyone can see them, where they can let everyone know how badly they will be missed,how they should have been listened to.…
Read MoreChoosing leaders wisely
This is part of the presentation I am working on for next week in Prague. Sometimes we choose poorly based on appearance. Sometimes its the law of preferential attraction that forces our hand and we end up settling for the familiar. It takes faith to notice Galilee over Jerusalem, David over Saul, Jacob over Esau. But…
Read MoreDonated kindles and iPads
Hey. If you have an old model Kindle or an outdated iPad, and you need a good reason to upgrade, here’s that excuse you are looking for: Our kids are homeschooled and lugging around paper books is sooooooo early 21st Centrury. We want to migrate to ebooks and ereaders and reduce the books in our backpacks.…
Read MoreInnovative worship shift
“The edges and images of congregational vitality continually shifted over the last half of the twentieth century“. David A. Roozen. From “A Decade of Change in American Congregations 2000-2010” [PDF] which claims to be the largest national survey of congregations ever conducted in the U.S. HT: Faith Communities Today, TJ
Read MoreDan Peek, America, and great music
[Update: Great comments below from Dan’s brother, Tom] Right now I am listening to America, the band. They are one of my favorite bands of all time. I am a BIG FAN of their hugely successful songs from the early 70’s including . . Ventura Highway (one of my personal favorites, a song with incredible accoustic guitar riffs…
Read MoreConfessional Atheism
Worth a read . . . “. . . A new confessional atheism has emerged, one ready to hawk its wares in the religious marketplace and compete for the souls of children.” Luke Bretherton, Humanism and atheism as civil religions Related: Skinny on New Atheism
Read MoreRemembering Steve Jobs (1955-2011)
I can’t begin to tell you how my life is different because of Steve Jobs. We will miss him!
Read MoreChurch in Korea Loses Cred
The Korean Protestant church attracts over 400 billion Korean Won (USD 340 million) in revenue every year. But only 3% of that money makes it to the less fortunate. That’s great news for Mercedes Benz, but bad news for the poor. According to the international blog community, the Korean church is decreasing in numbers, bleeding credibiltiy and…
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