Willow Creek Re-invention Announced

Willow Creek Steps Up to Feed Its 20,000 Attendants | Christianpost.com:

"Vision 2010, developed over the last 18 months, is a three-part plan that includes bolder witness to reaching people across the Chicagoland area, rethinking how to coach Christ followers and developing tools to help all churchgoers grow in Christian faith, and unleashing unprecedented levels of compassion into the world."

How was all of this decided? The same old way Bill figured out how to plant a church that people liked...

"When Senior Pastor Bill Hybels unveiled the vision two weeks ago, he highlighted church survey results that showed less satisfaction among long-time or fully devoted attendants compared to newcomers who were exploring Christianity. In the upcoming years, Willow Creek leaders will be altering the way they coach to teach attendants how to be "self-feeding individuals... An earlier experiment of the "Fuel Experience" revealed a positive response from all participants and results were consistent across age groups and spiritual stages."

The following comment is meant to be sarcastic:

So you mean, all I gotta do is poll everybody at church to see what their consumeristic, materialistic, idolatrous hearts "need" then just do that and I'll get me one big old mega church? Cool!

End of sarcasm.

Schreiner Preaching in Toronto

It was a joy to sit under Dr. Tom Schreiner’s ministry today at the SGF Annual Pastor’s Conference. Scheduling conflicts only allowed me to make it out for the one day, but we hope to have the audio of these messages posted soon on our sermonaudio site. If you cannot wait, you can download two messages here on the sovereignty of God in salvation by Tom from a couple of years ago.

Pastor Carl Muller preached an excellent message on Balance in the Christian Ministry. I highly commend it to any pastors who read this blog and will try to remember to post about it again once the audio is available.

Evangelical Leader Returns To Catholicism

Evangelical Leader Returns To Catholicism - washingtonpost.com:

"'At the end of the day, the reason for the Reformation was the debate over justification. If that is no longer an issue, I have to be Catholic,' Beckwith said. 'It seems to me that if there is not a very strong reason to be Protestant, then the default position should be to belong to the historic church.'

Such is the stunningly weak argument of the (now) former president of the Evangelical Theological Society! He switched teams last week and returned to Rome.

The most telling thing in this Washington Post article is the following quote:

On his blog last week, he said he wrestled with whether to inform the Evangelical Theological Society immediately of his intention to return to Catholicism, or to wait until the end of his term in November. He said he and his wife prayed for guidance and received an answer when a 16-year-old nephew asked him to take part in his Catholic confirmation ceremony tomorrow. 'I could not do that unless I was in full communion with the church,' Beckwith said."

Which just makes me think that many men decide their theology more by what they may lose, rather than what they could gain. Give me Christ, justification by faith alone and salvation by grace any day - even over family.

Matthew Henry on "He justified himself more than God"

Matthew Henry has a wonderful explanation of Job 32:2 where young Elihu is described as burning with anger against Job since "he justified himself more than God."

...that is, [he] took more care and pains to clear himself from the imputation of unrighteousness in being thus afflicted than to clear God from the imputation of unrighteousness in afflicting him, as if he were more concerned for his own honour than for God's; whereas he should, in the first place, have justified God and cleared his glory, and then he might well enough have left his own reputation to shift for itself. Note, A gracious heart is jealous for the honour of God, and cannot but be angry when that is neglected or postponed, or when any injury is done it. Nor is it any breach of the law of meekness to be angry at our friends when they are offensive to God.

Great Firefox Extension - Cooliris Previews

Cooliris Previews :: Firefox Add-ons

Justin Taylor wisely ditched the horrible Snap Preview from his Between Two Worlds blog last week. What a wonderful day!

But I would suggest something better that keeps the popping up of new windows all at the control of YOU, the user.

Cooliris is a little Firefox add-on that enables you to see a fully interactive pop-up window of any hyperlink you hover over for a specified period of time. (Actually, the option I use is the one that places a small blue square beside any link you hover over - then you just place your cursor on that box and the window magically appears!)

The window stays open on top of all else for as long as your cursor remains in it. The second you stray out of the box... bye bye window! You can also lock the window open in its own tab - and lots of other cool features.

I have used it for over a month now and really like it.

It's cool. And my name is not Iris.

Google Stinking Desktop!

Whenever it was GoogleDesktop came out, I installed it and loved it.

I have grown completely dependent on it... like a bean pole needs sunshine.

Then, on March 11, it stopped indexing.



I uninstalled. Re-installed. Joined discussion forums. Sent reports to Google. Threatened a multi-billion dollar lawsuit.

Nothing.

I am dying.

I have no memory. I know this (it is about all I can remember!). And I accept this. It has been this way since I scheduled a church musical when I was 16 and forgot to go - I was the Director. I work very hard at remembering things - I have all kinds of devices to aid my memory. GoogleDesktop was one such device. A vital device. A needed device. I am floundering without it!

This is a plea for help! Mercy! Aid! Assistance! Anything!!!!

I NEED MY GDS!!!!

So, This is Why I Joined Facebook

globeandmail.com: The new sex talk

"...many adults have not explored the world their kids inhabit online. And the growing information gap makes it difficult for them to protect or discipline their kids."

You can be my friend by clicking here!

Grace

"Number One Son" had surgery today that ended up going great.

It made me so very thankful for modern medicine, Sick Kids Hospital (Toronto), my son, my wife, my family, my extended family, my church family... the list goes on and on.

But mostly what it made me thankful for was the grace of God. He is so very good and in that goodness he continues to bless my boy. We sure don't mind if you pray for him. I won't go into the medical details here, but like almost everything with him, it was a little more than anyone bargained for! But, His grace was sufficient yet again. Poor guy is doped and dopey... about ready to hit the sack for the night.

"Rice Krispies" noise in boy's ear turns out to be nesting spiders

"Rice Krispies" noise in boy's ear turns out to be nesting spiders

Is this anyone else's greatest fear in life?!???

Dr. David Irvine said it looked like the boy had something in his ear when he examined him.

When he irrigated the ear, the first spider came out, dead. The other spider took a second dousing before it emerged, still alive. Both were about the size of a pencil eraser.

Jesse was given the spiders - now both dead - as a souvenir. He has taken them to school and his mother has taken them to work.

You See, This is Why Ecumenicalism and Universalism Will Never Work!

Norwegian soccer game between priests, imams cancelled over female factor

"A soccer game bringing Muslim imams and Christian priests "shoulder to shoulder" on a field in Norway was cancelled Saturday because the teams could not agree on whether women priests should take part...

"We found that out two days before, but because we thought it would be a nice conclusion of the conference we didn't want to call it off, so we decided to stage an all-men's team game instead," he said.

But when the church decided to drop its female players, the priest team captain walked out in protest."