Category: Resources

“God’s Not Dead” and the Angry Atheist Professor: That Was Not My Experience – I’m concerned that the movie God’s Not Dead perpetuates a false stereotype: that of the bully atheist philosophy professor who is out to destroy every Christian student’s faith. I’m sure there are some of those professors out there. But I doubt that they are a majority.

I Didn’t Have Time – This actually means, “it wasn’t important enough.” It wasn’t a high priority, fun, distracting, profitable or urgent enough to make it to the top of the list.

Youth-Driven Culture – The trend of exalting youth and sidelining the elderly stems from a deeper problem summed up in the expression, “Newer is better.” We celebrate the new and innovative while looking down on the past and tradition. There is a compelling vitality to youth and to new ideas, but that does not mean there is no wisdom to be found in the past.

Why Some Teachers Are Banning Laptops From The Classroom – Notes taken by hand are almost always more useful than typed notes, because more thoughtful selectivity goes into them; plus there are multiple cognitive benefits to writing by hand. And people who use laptops in class see their grades decline — and even contribute to lowering the grades of other people.

My Students Don’t Know How to Have a Conversation –
Students’ reliance on screens for communication is detracting—and distracting—from their engagement in real-time talk.

The Best Jobs of 2014 – According to CareerCast’s “Best Jobs of 2014” report, employers are paying big bucks to lure employees that understand data, code and math (which really translates to “data analytics”). In fact, jobs that depend on these geeky skills comprise half of the top 10 jobs of 2014.

18 Principles From Pixar’s Culture – The new book from Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar, is a must-read. Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration is fascinating in its portrayal of Pixar’s history of successes and failures, and insightful in its boiling down of Pixar experience into transferable principles. Here are 18 lessons we can learn from the book. 

Cancer Is Terrible. Christ is Better.

I Love My Black Letter Bible – It’s foolish to downplay the Bible’s black-lettered pages if for no other reason than they’re fulfilling a red-lettered promise.

Heaven is Scary…For Real – Yes, the Bible teaches that heaven is a place of ultimate comfort, with “no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4). But it is also a place where the reality of God’s unbridled majesty reigns supreme – and that’s scary.

What’s Wrong With Producing A “Worship Experience?” – Is it problematic that churches produce worship experiences?

Celebration Influences Destination – Churches become what they celebrate, so churches must examine both what they celebrate and what they want to become.

Nifty graft on discovering your calling – I’m looking for the sweet spot where God wants me to be. 

China on course to become ‘world’s most Christian nation’ within 15 years. – The number of Christians in Communist China is growing so steadily that it by 2030 it could have more churchgoers than America.

A must watch if you grew up in the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, or 80’s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2t-8_b7hNs

You’re Waking Up Wrong – Own a smartphone? Do you start the day checking email, Facebook, etc…. If so, it’s a stressful way to start the day, but so many of us do it. We can’t help it.

Three Tips on Being a Friend of Sinners – If Jesus was a friend of sinners, we should be too, it seems — somehow, someway. And instantly, this discussion can drift into a much bigger one about Christians and culture and all that.

 REST – This is not about sleep but about a model for making meetings meaningful. Have you been in a boring or meaningless meeting lately? If so, you might want to take a look at this.

99 Resources to Make Your Personal and Business Life Hum – The right tool can make me more efficient and save hours of my time.

7 Reasons We Don’t Make Disciples – Today, mentoring young people is the most fulfilling thing I do. I enjoy preaching to crowds, but if I have to choose between speaking to an audience of a thousand or talking to a small group of spiritually hungry young leaders, I would choose the latter every time. That’s because relational discipleship is the lost art of Jesus and the secret of New Testament ministry.

Christians Get Depressed Too – David Murray, in relation to his book Christians Get Depressed Too, has released 5 short videos about Christians and depression. These videos present five Christians with five very different stories of depression and of how God gave them hope and help to recover

Love People, Not Evangelism

http://vimeo.com/90669059

Where Everyone in the World is Migrating – It’s no secret that the world’s population is on the move, but it’s rare to get a glimpse of where that flow is happening. In a study released in today’s Science, a team of geographers used data snapshots to create a broad analysis of global migrations over 20 years.

What Americans Like Best About Their Favorite Teachers – What attribute do Americans find most compelling in the teacher they have identified as having the greatest impact on their lives?

Knowledge and Zeal – Zeal without knowledge is dangerous because we can be deeply and sincerely passionate and completely misguided because we don’t know the truth. Knowledge without zeal is equally dangerous. We can become scholastic bookworms who seek to know more and more about God without knowing Him. What is needed is both zeal and knowledge. 

Millennials and the false “gospel of nice” – One might argue that young evangelicals aren’t fleeing core conservative institutions, but flooding them. Perhaps the doom and gloom story seems familiar – if also wrong – because we’ve heard it so many times before. As young scholar Matthew Lee Anderson puts it, the “change or die narrative is presented as a perennial problem.”

Distracted From Shepherding a Child’s Heart – At some point, putting the phone down becomes a matter of spiritual warfare.

How To Share Your Faith Without Being A Jerk – Why do we sometimes come off like insensitive jerks when telling others about Jesus? I think it comes down to the too-often “forced” nature of our presentations of the gospel. No one needs the way we present the gospel to be a sharp stick that is poked in their eye.

Tim Hawkins on Multitasking – Tim always helps me to laugh at myself!