Thursday Notes

As many as 80,000 Assyrian Christians have fled Iraq. The article doesn't say how many of them have ended up in Turlock. Based on what I occasionally see on the local Assyrian television channel, the major Assyrian centers in the US seem to be Chicago, San Jose, and Turlock.
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Apparently the Pope disapproves of Harry Potter. I wonder if he has actually read Harry Potter. Unfortunately the journalists haven't explored that angle -- at least not yet.

UPDATE: Bob Smietana, a solid journalist who is passionate about fairness and completeness, sends the following Roman Catholic link which suggests that the Pope may not be as disapproving of Harry as some are reporting.
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Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is retiring from the Supreme Court so that she can take care of her sick husband. Now four female senators are urging her to stay on, hoping that she might become the Chief Justice.

She would make a great chief justice but her priorities are already right. It's not like she is wimping out. She is stepping down to fulfill a higher calling.
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Participants in the Covenant Midwinter Conference last January were given a stack of books -- a small library of assorted titles that various people thought pastors should read. Mine promptly went onto my shelf for future consideration maybe someday. After all, I already have a huge stack of active titles on my desk -- books that I'm trying to plow through because I already know they are interesting.

Among the cast-off titles which got put onto my shelf was Scot McKnight's The Jesus Creed.

However, after reading some of the posts on Scot's blog this past month I decided that I needed to dig through the shelf pile and find it. And it was definitely worth it. I just finished The Jesus Creed this morning.

This is a great book -- a very readable and engaging discussion about how God forms us as Jesus followers. This is accessible theology for ordinary people.

I also found in that pile a copy of the companion guide. Now I'm trying to figure out the best way to put together a group this fall to work through it.

Life is full of little surprises. There are probably a few other gems in that pile of books, too.
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Think and write more clearly in 97 simple steps. (Thanks, Kottke)