Friday, September 24, 2010

Reciprocation

image Where I am at this point in my life and ministry I owe to mentors. At least the good part of what I do and who I am. One man that has walked me through some of my life's most difficult challenges is Carl Mims. He's prayed with me and has always been the source of the sagest wisdom.

Fifteen years ago when I launched to plant a church, he dug a bunch of really great stuff from his storage unit to add tremendous value to my garage sale ministry-launching-fund-raiser. I couldn't believe the quality of the stuff he just gave away to me. His items were the hottest, best, and most quickly sold.

When horrible tragedy hit my family about three years ago, Carl prayed and counseled me through it in the most gentle and encouraging way. We walked me through my grief. Several weeks ago, tragedy stuck his family and the medical bills have piled into a small mountain. 

On August 10th, 2010, Carly Mims was in a ATV quading accident while visiting our family in Cedar City, Utah. At first glance, her injuries seemed fairly minor. While at the family doctor getting a cut stitched up, it became apparent that Carly was seriously injured. She was rushed to the ER where they stabilized her and airlifted her to Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City. To read the full story of the accident, please click here.

This Saturday, a garage sale will be held to raise money for Carly, Carl's daughter. Details are here. I've dug the best stuff I can find (it doesn't begin to touch the value or sacrifice the Mims have shown our family), and loaded up my van and hauled it over to my buddy Kelly's house to sell tomorrow. I hit up my neighbors for their stuff, too. It's a chance to make a dent in the debt I owe this man.

Now go forth and buy our stuff and bless the Mims family.

HT: CarlyMims.com and Spectacular Carly Mims Charity Benefit Garage Sale Extravaganza!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Mission Opportunities: Open Letter on Digital Media and the Great Commission

Tony Whittaker, Coordinator of Internet Evangelism Day, emailed me a link to this open letter published on their website. It's a great article about the far-reaching opportunities of using the Internet and related technologies for reaching the world for Christ.

Open Letter on Digital Media and the Great Commission.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Interview at RelevantMagazine.com

I interviewed Pastor Tullian Tchividjian last spring just before the release of his new book Surprised by Grace. RelevantMagazine.com posted my review of the book, and yesterday they posted my interview. Please check it out and tweet it or share it on Facebook. Thanks!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Bubba experiments with Windows Movie Maker

Here’s Aaron playing with the new out-of-the-box Dell we got him for school.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Resurrection Sunday Dance

Check out this group do the Resurrection Sunday Dance, performed by a flash-mob (all members of one church) in Budapest last Easter.

HT: Digital Evangelism

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

ATW Slide Show

Sara Tress took these amazing photos on a recent missionary service outreach trip.

Saturday, September 04, 2010

Are You a Hipster Christian?

I just read this article in Christianity Today. It's a sidebar to this article.image

Are you a Hipster Christian? If you read books by these authors, you might be.

C. S. Lewis, Walker Percy, Dorothy Sayers, Terry Eagleton, Donald Miller, Evelyn Underhill, Anne Lamott, George MacDonald, Shakespeare, Plato, Augustine, Annie Dillard, Martin Buber, Wendell Berry, Tim Keller, N. T. Wright, Fyodor Dostoevsky, A. W. Tozer, Flannery O'Connor, Jacques Ellul, Thomas Merton, Shusaku Endo, Lauren Winner, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Shane Claiborne, Henri Nouwen, Paul Tillich, Karl Barth, Dallas Willard, John Steinbeck, Jim Wallis, William Faulkner, Eugene Peterson, Thomas à Kempis, Emily Dickinson, Marilynne Robinson

If your favorite directors of silver screen faire are listed below, you might be a Hipster Christian.

Wim Wenders, Sofia Coppola, Spike Jonze, The Coen Brothers, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, Carl Dreyer, Robert Bresson, Yasujiro Ozu, Terrence Malick, Martin Scorsese, Krzysztof Kiesślowski, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Andrei Tarkovsky, Jane Campion, Wes Anderson, Paul Thomas, Anderson David Gordon Green, Gus Van Sant, Ingma Bergman, Jia Zhangke, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Alfonso Cuarón

If you groove to any of the following artists, you may be cooler than you know. You just might be a Hipster Christian.

Sufjan Stevens, Pedro the Lion, Radiohead, Coldplay, Damien Jurado, Bob Dylan, The National, My Brightest Diamond, Rosie Thomas, Denison Witmer, Bifrost Arts, U2, John Mark McMillan, Mutemath, Future of Forestry, Andrew Bird, Animal Collective, Over the Rhine, Hem, Vigilantes of Love, Larry Norman, Love Song, Jars of Clay, Low, Neko Case, Arcade Fire, Kanye West, Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses, Ron Sexsmith, She & Him, The Swell Season, Feist, Vampire Weekend, Joanna Newsom

Friday, September 03, 2010

Donald Miller on Relevant Podcast

Last year I received a rebuking email from producers at Relevant when I edited out the parts of a their podcast and two part interview of Donald Miller into my own uninterrupted Miller Mash. Since then, they've published one of my book reviews so I'll go ahead and play ball and just give you the links to their recent interview of Miller.

Part 1: http://www.relevantmagazine.com/media/podcast-archives/19109-112009-author-don-miller

Part 2: http://www.relevantmagazine.com/media/podcast-archives/19164-112709-don-miller

enjoy...

The Mentoring Project - Rewriting the Story from The Mentoring Project on Vimeo.





Francis Chan Explains

Francis Chan has tremendous influence as one of America's new crop of young preachers reaching young Americans. Recently, he announced that he was leaving the comforts and confines of his mega church and launch into a new adventure in faith. He's not exactly sure what that looks like, but he senses the stirring of God's Spirit and the confirmation of scripture. As a spiritual leader, Chan knows he must lead by example. Here's what he told his church:

"My hope is that maybe even as I jump and make this transition, I really believe there are many of you in this room that have felt an uneasiness about your life ... this tension like there's something more the Lord's leading you to," he said. "It's scary to let go ... [but] we're talking about God who's giving us every breath, who loved us so much that he willingly gave His one and only son and now I'm not going to trust Him?" (source)

My friend Greg sent me the following video of Mark Driscoll, Josh Harris, and Francis Chan having a roundtable discussion about Chan's decision. I was immediately struck by how challenged Driscoll appeared to be by Chan's new ministry direction. He (Driscoll) seemed even to be a bit defensive. But Chan articulates and communicates clearly and humbly. Check it out for yourself.

What's Next for Francis Chan? A Conversation with Mark Driscoll and Joshua Harris from Ben Peays on Vimeo.







Wednesday, September 01, 2010

J. Oswald Sanders FREE

This month's free audio download is the classic by J. Oswald Sanders, Spiritual Leadership.

Christianaudio and Moody Publishers have partnered together for the month of September 2010 to bring you the audiobook download of Spiritual Leadership for FREE!

Instructions: Add the download to your cart and use the coupon code SEP2010 when prompted to receive this month's free download! You must use the code to receive the download for free. Already use the code and need to download again? You can always log into the My Account section of our site and re-download the free title, up to one year later.

HTML 5 Experiment

I apologize if this is just too geeky. HTML 5 is the latest version of the computer coding language behind websites. It’s the coding that tells your computer’s browser what to display.

Anyway, it’s pretty cool and will morph the way we communicate through web pages. If you have Google’s Chrome browser, check out this link:

http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/

It’s an interactive video featuring the streets where you grew up. It takes about five minutes to watch. It’s pretty cool.

wilderness downtown