Saturday, May 31, 2008
whither twitter
thanks.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
McCain, Obama, Clinton Joint Statement on Darfur
- read the entire statement here.
Rick Warren's PEACE 2.0
- Time has a piece on Rick's new modified plan
- Christianity Today has weighed in.
- The Christian Post covers it.
- The UK's Christian Today posts an article on the new initiative.
- The Orange County Register in Rick's backyard offers a treatment.
- and Leadership Network's DJ Chuang provides another one of his usually impressive around-the-rooms on the PD Summit and on PEACE 2.0 here.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
kenny sheppard on tony jones' book the new christians
- read kenny's full review on tony jones' book the new christians
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
A New Chapter: Goodbye USA TODAY; Hello Gallup!
I began working at USA TODAY in January of 1989 as a part-time Customer Service Representative shortly after I was laid-off from my data-entry job with the Washington Times.
At the time I was working on a degree in Management Information Systems. But when my dentist told me that I needed $1500 worth of dental work, I dropped out of school (it was my third degree anyway!) and became full-time so that I could get dental benefits! A year later I became a Customer Service Specialist and then I later became a Customer Service Supervisor. A few years into that, I decided to switch to a technical career within USA TODAY and became a Data Analyst, then a Database Administrator, then a Technical Manager. Then in 2002 I began working with a team of folks to roll out USA TODAY Subscriber Delivery Partners (which were usually other newspapers) first as a Circulation Manager and then finally as USA TODAY's National Home Delivery Circulation Manager also running a small group called Market Services.
It has been a wonderful ride.
The thing I'm most proud of is that we were able to expand USA TODAY's Home Delivery footprint from 20 million households to over 50 million households within a six year period.
A few years ago, I decided that I wanted to spend the rest of my life optimizing people systems for core value impact. I thoroughly enjoy reading about, writing about, and executing project management, conflict resolution, vision statement creation, running great meetings, in short all things org. And USA TODAY has provided me an optimal context to learn about these things and to practice them. I've written elsewhere about how much this has served me in ecclesial contexts. When I first came on staff at Cedar Ridge Community Church as a part-time small groups and adult education pastor in the late 90's, I used to say I didn't know if I had learned more about pastoring from seminary or from working for USA TODAY! And so with this decision to begin working to optimize people-systems, I started very intentionally looking for great organizations where I could do this. I never sent out my resume to tons of places, but over the course of maybe four years I worked to get jobs in just three organizations. I liked my job with USA TODAY; I wasn't in a great hurry, so I took my time looking. Gallup was the fourth organization I started looking seriously at about ten months ago.
A few years ago, USA TODAY began working with Gallup and their Q12 material (First Break all the Rules). Then about a year ago, USA TODAY asked me to become a Strengths Leader (Now Discover Your Strengths) working with my group - Market Services - and also with National Customer Service. I had the opportunity over the course of the year to teach the material and do one-on-one coaching, in addition to working with other USA TODAY directors and supervisors on their own coaching. I enjoyed it so much, I broached a conversation with Gallup about joining their team. After three months, testing, and six interviews, Gallup invited me to join their DC team a few weeks ago.
There may come an opportunity down the road for me to work some with the Gallup Faith group, though I also plan to continue writing for Leadership Network as long as they keep feeding me projects!
I begin 16 June and I'm very excited. I will miss my friends at USA TODAY and I told our director on the day I resigned that they have treated me like a prince.
I'm very grateful to both organizations and to God.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
please pray for susan's husband
At the age of 30, Noel Heikkinen's friend Susan died yesterday morning of a sudden blood infection. Please pray for her husband and her two year old soon.
See Noel's post for more and a video of Susan's testimony.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Toward an Understanding of "Missional"
Toward that end I've found some useful material online that I wanted to mention here.
- Andrew Jones has found what seems to be the earliest ecclesial use of the term in 1814 as detailed in his post Missional: First Occurrence of the Word.
- Andrew mentions Rick Meigs wonderful Friends of Missional Site, where in a side bar Rick explores some of the etymology of the term.
- When I contacted Rick to inquire as to the source of his info, he cited missiologist Ed Stetzer. I had earlier found a helpful series of post by Stetzer under the rubric "Meanings of Missional."
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
pls pray for the family of steven curtis chapman
"The 5-year-old daughter of contemporary Christian music star Steven Curtis Chapman was struck and killed Wednesday by a sport utility vehicle driven by her brother, authorities said."
- see the whole AP article
Interview with Todd Hunter

Charlie Wear and I recently had the chance to interview Todd regarding his new adventures in the latest issue of Next-Wave.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
but it's always like that
So in the last couple of days, I've been more aware than usual of my contingency on God.
But here's the thing: I'm always contingent on God. The next beat of my heart will only occur because God in his grace and mercy allows it. I believe that it's only the confluence of my earnest desire and the likelihood of what I want to happen actually happening that's precipitating my hanging on to an illusion of greater contingency at this moment.
But the truth is that always "in him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).
I need to remember this.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Sunday, May 18, 2008
a use of summize
stuff you don't know
See Seacoast's Mac Lake's brush with the law.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Associated Press: Another Church Attack
- see the full AP story
Sweet Freedom Whispered in My Ear
- I love the Chicago Manual of Style and I appreciate the convenience of being able to search the entire text online. I just renewed my online subscription.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Pls Pray for the Family and Friends of Forrest and Preston Pollack

Todd Rhoades of Leadership Network and Monday Morning Insight posts about the tragic plane crash that took the lives of Forrest Pollack and his 13 year old son Preston.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
LibraryThing and Shelfari
Monday, May 12, 2008
the emerging church is protean
I just wanted to make one observation. The cognitive dissonance to which Mattingly implicitly refers is not surprising considering the breadth of theologies - even theological methodologies - represented in the broad emerging church conversation.
In fact, I think even in the interview that Brian did reference the varied voices within the emerging church when Zoll asked:
"What are the weaknesses of the movement?"
Brian responded:
"A: Nobody had a master strategy for this. That creates weaknesses as well as strengths. It means you don't have anybody calling the shots and it means that things happen in a somewhat haphazard way. And I think there's a huge range of responses. ... Among evangelicals you have people who are not doing any theological rethinking at all. The theology that they inherited, they're staying with 100 percent. They're trying to do sort of methodological innovation (in styles of worship). And my personal feeling is that's great. Those'll be steps in a good direction... I'm not a purist about anything. I think it's all good. We're all trying to stumble along and take some steps in the right direction. Others of us are asking theological questions and that's always messy" (emphasis mine).
With this comment, Brian seems to be referring to those whom Ed Stetzer styles Reconstructionists in his influential Understanding the Emerging Church.
Those who might wish to dig a bit further into the differences that exist within the broad emerging church conversation can hardly do better than to read DJ Chuang's excellent many kinds of emerging church where he aggregates some of the more popular emerging church taxonomies.
A failure to appreciate the theological diversity within the movement itself would precipitate a significant degree of confusion and I don't believe that either Brian or anyone at Emergent would claim the position of spokesperson for a monolithic emerging church, despite Mattingly's reference to Brian as "the key figure." (And I'm not questioning that Brian has been a key figure in the history of the movement).
I think that perhaps the main common denominator of all stripes of emergers is a dissatisfaction with the status quo of the current institutional church and some degree of appreciation of the impact that modernity has had on her.
I know Emergent's Tony Jones has opined that the emerging church/emergent church distinction is an inside baseball conversation, but when the protean nature of the conversation isn't appreciated (or, at least, referenced), a significant degree of confusion is understandable.
AP: " Gospel singer Dottie Rambo dies in tour bus wreck in Mo."
...
Rambo was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame last year and the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame in 2006.
Rambo has had more than 2,500 published songs, including gospel classics such as "He Looked Beyond My Fault and Saw My Need" and the 1982 Gospel Music Association Song of the Year, "We Shall Behold Him.""
- see the whole AP article here. Very sad.
- Dottie Rambo's website
I doubt seriously that many readers of the faithmaps blog listened to Dottie Rambo. But she was a huge figure in what's termed "gospel music. "
Saturday, May 10, 2008
In Search of the Quintessential Baltimore Diner

This morning, Kenny Sheppard of Prolegomena fame and I continued our quest to find the quintessential Baltimore Diner. Kenny, his girlfriend Candace, and I (the picture was taken just after I detailed for Kenny and Candace what actually is in "Scrapple," a Delmarva breakfast delicacy) visited Frank's Diner near my house. So far we've visited
- The Double T,
- The Paper Moon,
- Overlea Diner,
- Golden West Cafe,
- Two Sisters Grill,
- Pete's Diner,
- & as of this AM, Frank's Diner
- Neal Gabler's Walt Disney,
- USA TODAY,
- southern accents,
- Nertz (or Popeye)
- Now Discover Your Strengths,
- The Bionic Woman,
- Bible translation theory,
- Charles Taylor's The Secular Age,
- marriage,
- the state of the Newspaper Industry,
- children,
- Walter Isaacson's Einstein,
- universal health care,
- Lost,
- the gender-variable size of the corpus callosum,
- memory and the brain stem,
- Gallup,
- Cedar Ridge Community Church
- Battlestar Galactica,
- Grace Community Church
- Pushing Daisies,
- Brian McLaren,
- JGA Pocock,
- What Color is My Parachute,
- salary negotiation techniques,
- Q12, and
- Ironman and Robert Downey, Jr.
Friday, May 09, 2008
Being President
As a sometime student of the American Presidency (my favorite reading is presidential biography), I very much appreciated Joel Achenbach's recent "Few Voters Know What the Presidency Really Entails."
Thursday, May 08, 2008
a faithmaps facebook group

As many faithmaps blog readers know, from 2002 until 2007 I moderated an online discussion group associated with faithmaps.org. In 2007, I could no longer keep up with the volume of discussion and had to set it aside. Recently one of the 'mappers - Rick Presley - suggested that I start a faithmaps group on facebook where former 'mappers (though I'm not limiting membership) could gather and interact. I've now created such a group and am announcing it to the blogosphere!
Thanks Rick; good idea. I always felt that I was the landlord who tore down the building forcing the tenants to scurry and now I'm hoping that 'mappers will enjoy this cozy new space!
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
An Around the Room on Evangelicalism
So far it features comments by Tim Keller, Justin Taylor, Darryl Dash, and others.
Todd Hunter on Three is Enough Groups
TiE groups assist three people in any aspect of human endeavor to be, through the empowering presence of the Spirit, ambassadors of the Kingdom in the rhythms and routines of their actual current life. Participation in a TiE group makes possible a couple of crucial practices (and re-practising Christianity is preeminent goal of TiE groups): one’s own spiritual transformation and an others-oriented, servant-hearted engagement with life."
Facebook: Little Help Please?
Any thoughts?
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
R Laird Harris with God
- from Covenant Seminary News & Events
Roger Overton let's us know that R Laird Harris passed away on Friday 25 April at the age of 97.
His Inspiration and Canonicity of the Bible was very helpful to me .
Monday, May 05, 2008
More than 10,000 Estimated Dead in Myanmar
- full story
"The Next Big Thing"
- Good advice from Chris Case
I can't comment intelligently on Driscoll's critique of The Shack, which Case mentions, but I thought Case's larger point was well worth noting.
Friday, May 02, 2008
iTunes Turns 5 Today
I cannot overstate how much I've enjoyed my Nano. I almost left it in a Panera Bread the other morning and my breakfast partner asked me what I would do if I lost it. My answer was that I would have a new one by the end of the day. Rare is the day when I haven't listened to it at least 2x and many days more times than that - usually while commuting, exercising, taking out the trash, washing dishes, or cleaning the house. However, most of the time I'm listening to unabridged audio books - usually a historical biography.
Previous posts on iTunes or the iPod:
On Not Buying a Mac
As I have made known that I was getting a new laptop and was researching various PC's - my friends who now own Macs have been acting very, very unusual. Instead of the normally loving and accepting relationships and interaction we normally have - I have been taunted, mocked, picked on and ridiculed - all for not buying a Mac. I believe I am seeing a platform-prejudice rising among recent Mac converts against those who do not choose to buy a Mac and remain using a PC. My dear, dear friends Bennett, Sarah and Kristin who all are recent Mac converts and others consistently have been sending me emails, subtle and not so subtle hints, text messages and photos on my cell phone about their view that I should not be using a PC. It feels like they are trying to convert me and they become perplexed when I have refused to convert.
Kem Meyer, (a PC user and fellow Dell owner who is on staff as the communications director at Granger Community Church in Indiana) and I have discussed this and found we have had the similar experience of seeing Mac users getting confused when you tell them you are very content and satisfied with a PC and don't see the need to change to Mac. So this Mac peer-pressure is not just a California thing, but something happening across the country."- See Dan Kimball's entire post on his experience of buying a new Dell.
