Jesus Manifesto

When Thomas Nelson offered to send me a review copy of Jesus Manifesto: Restoring the Supremacy and Sovereignty of Jesus Christ I jumped on it. Putting two occasionally loose canons, Len Sweet and Frank Viola, in the same book was too intriguing.

My advance release copy is still en route, somewhere in the mail system, but I've read a good portion of the book online. From what I've seen this is solid stuff -- a book I wouldn't mind giving to non-believers or a long-time believer. It's about Jesus and his kingdom (how novel!) -- an extremely readable Basic Christianity for 2010. I'm guessing that a few people will be annoyed with it -- but probably not who you're thinking of.

I'd normally wait to mention a book until after I've finished reading it but I understand that it will be on release-day sale tomorrow (Tuesday, June 1st) on Amazon. So, don't buy it today. Wait until tomorrow, mosey on over to Amazon, and see if they're offering the rumored deal. I'm planning to buy another copy to give away.

BTW, the book has a website -- thejesusmanifesto.com

Random

✽ So, what happened to the Google dictionary? I'm so used to using Google to look up words I'm missing the automatic definition option that was in the upper right of the search results. I'm sure it's got to be there somewhere. But it's getting pretty cluttered on all the search engines.

✽ The English universities are discussing the possibility of trying to fast-track their bachelor degree programs -- squeezing them into two years. Most English bachelor degrees only require three years of study. We already have solid two-year college degree programs in the US -- but we call them "associate degrees." ~ BBC News

✽ How to get a response to your blog posts? Spell something wrong. ~ link (via)

✽ "'Google Maps Lawsuit: Woman Follows Directions, Gets Run Over' => Google should not replace one's brain!" ~ Laura Springer

✽ Now the weather service is saying that we should expect temperatures that could top the 110° mark by next weekend. No biggie. It's June in Phoenix. ~ AZCentral

Trinity Sunday

Today is Trinity Sunday.

I was taught that Trinity Sunday is the only day on the church calendar which is given over to a theological concept rather than an event or person in the Story. That is sorta' true. However, I want to suggest that the Trinity is not so much a theological concept as it is the relational foundation for the rest of the story.

Trinity Sunday always follows Pentecost Sunday in the Western Church calendar. Pentecost is when we encounter the confusing events surrounding the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the church -- rushing winds, dancing fire, and preachers doing their thing in languages they'd apparently not ever spoken before. It is as though the church fathers, who over time developed the calendar as a means to draw people into the Story, are saying to us -- Yes, Pentecost is a bit over the edge. But if you pause for another day and consider the relational context of the Trinity, it makes a lot more sense. Pentecost has a relational context and that is the Trinity.

You see, Trinity Sunday reminds us of the communal nature of God. God is one in essence (will, nature) but three "persons" living in community make up that being. IOW, at the core of God's single essence is his relational nature.

Some think of the mystery of the Trinity as having to do with the issue of one God existing as three "persons." And that is a bit of a mystery. But the greater mystery has to do with how it is that through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ we become participants in the divine community of the Three-in-One.

How is it that the God of the universe has set for us a place of fellowship at his Trinitarian table and welcomed us to the meal as family? How is it that he sends his Spirit to summon us to the meal and empowers us to share in it? Mystery. Wonder. Grace.

Certainly a day on the calendar isn't enough to do the Trinity justice. But it is a starting point.

"May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." ~ 2 Corinthians 13:14 (NLT)

Random

✽ The University of Guam wants to develop an engineering program. Yes!!! That is a realistic challenge and such a program would be of long-term benefit to all of the Western Pacific. ~ KUAM

✽ Quotable:

What (for-profit universities) get to do is to cherry pick the programs that are revenue producers and they have no obligation to provide the programs that are net revenue losers but may be absolutely essential to the public interest...

We have tended to focus on perceived rivalries among ourselves... We’ve got to understand the new reality: The folks that are eating your lunch are not the public institutions down the road, but these for-profit providers. ~ Kay Norton, president of the University of Northern Colorado

✽ Garrison Keillor on the end of the book publishing industry ~ NY Times

Tarrega's Study in E minor on concert uke

~ via

Random

✽ Good News: Africa's chronic brain drain problem may be starting to reverse itself. ~ BBC News

✽ Adopt a wild horse or burro ~ Desert News

✽ Great pictures of the volcanic eruptions (and fallout) in Ecuador and Guatemala ~ BBC News

✽ "CULTURE: Staunch fundamentalist surprised at final judgement to find King James not an acceptable substitute for King Jesus." ~ XIANITY

✽ Why Amish businesses have a 90% success rate -- "In short, many Amish would rather be righteous than rich -- a lesson that can apply to everyone from Microsoft to mom-and-pop stores." ~ RNS

✽ Daniel Flamberg summarizes The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism report that shows how social media writers differ substantially from the mainstream press (and from each other) -- "5 Ways Social Media Impacts Journalism" ~ iMedia Connection

Random

✽ Lemon-scented tomatoes, chocolate-colored persimmons, miniaturized garlic cloves, purple potatoes that taste buttery when cooked, carrots shaped like potatoes, strawberries shaped like carrots, star-shaped zucchini, and "watermelon" tomatoes — dark green on the outside with a juicy red flesh, red peppers with three times the usual amount of vitamins, and black chickpeas with extra antioxidants, worm-shaped berries, blue bananas -- Israel's surprising success with exotic crops ~ LA Times

✽ ASU's even-handed report without the rhetoric -- "Illegal Immigration: Perceptions and Realities" ~ link (.pdf)

✽ Quotable:

It’s hard to listen to people who criticize illegal immigration saying that those without papers just have to go back to their country and get in line. The truth is there is no line, no one is undocumented because they want to be... ~ Professor Lynn Marcus, co-director of an immigration clinic at the University of Arizona Law School

✽ My new favorite non-chocolate, non-citrus snack: Kirkland Signature Rice Crackers with Nuts -- "unique blend of authentic Asian-inspired snacks"

Does global culture displace local culture?

Stephen Dubner, looking at the work of Fernando Ferreira and Joel Waldfogel, is asking "Has American Pop Music Displaced Local Culture?" The answer, based on their study, is no.

My response is two-fold:

First, pop culture isn't really "American" but "global." Yo mon, trends can form anywhere in the world and easily leap from place to place.

Secondly, from what I've seen in the places I've traveled and worked, global pop culture does not displace local culture, it co-exists with it. Furthermore, as such it has contributed to the formation of a generation of culturally fluid people who can to one degree or another shift between global pop and local cultures with relative ease. This isn't to say that global and local cultures co-exist without tension but that generally speaking we now have a generation of people more willing to live with the tension.

Random

✽ The Goodwill runs career centers to assist people as they look for jobs. They have computer and internet access, job postings, training info, and more. ~ link

✽ A British scientist has been infected with a computer virus -- sorta'. ~ BBC News

✽ People in India and Pakistan are suffering under the current heat-wave. Many have become sick -- some have died. There are also water shortages in some areas. The good news is that the monsoon conditions are growing. Relief is on the way -- eventually. ~ BBC News

✽ Church of Sweden exodus continues -- as predicted. ~ The Local

The first question

The new question when you meet someone in the US is "Where do you live?" (Andy Crouch, Culture Making v-post). That's a good question. However, with people from other cultures I might be more inclined to ask about their families or clans first. Of course, in some cultures it is considered rude to ask any kind of a personal question of someone who doesn't know you.

I kind of like the Yapese way best. The first thing you do when you meet someone is tell a story that you like. If you really want to bless the people you meet -- and build a different kind of culture -- try telling them a story.

Immigration related...

✽ The US Justice Department is going to challenge Arizona's immigration law in federal court contending that it is "unconstitutional because it impinges on the federal government's inherent authority" to police the border.

"At the same time, the government officials said, the department's civil rights division is considering possible legal action against the law on the basis that it amounts to racial profiling of Latinos who are legally in Arizona but conceivably could be asked to provide documents proving their citizenship." ~ AZCentral

The constitutionality issue could get a hearing rather quickly but I wonder whether the racial profiling aspect will be/can be heard by the court until someone complains that he or she has been victimized under the new law.

✽ Mexico already has an immigration law very similar to Arizona's new law. And it doesn't seem to work there any better than it will work here. Mexico has a notoriously poor track-record when it comes to the treatment of undocumented aliens. We (both the US and Mexico) have got to rethink the way that we deal with people movements. ~ AZCentral

✽ The additional National Guard troops being sent to the Mexican border will not be enforcing US immigration laws. Their mission involves intercepting drug and gun smugglers. ~ link

✽ The Brits are pulling the plug on the National ID card program that they just started. ~ BBC News

Random

✽ "A lorry driver who was shown on YouTube driving along a motorway with a car trapped in front of his cab has been told he can keep his licence." ~ BBC News

✽ This is a bellwether for educational systems in other developed countries. "Up to a third of England's colleges may have to merge or work closely together in a federation basis in order to survive, principals are warning." ~ BBC News

✽ Michigan had the highest unemployment rate in the US (14.1%) in March but at the same time there were a lot of employers with positions that they couldn't fill. For many it makes more sense to draw unemployment benefits than to work and earn only slightly more. ~ link

✽ Quotable:

However, I believe that if the Church of England is going to survive and if God has a plan to reach everyone in our communities, then the local parish church is going to have to become missional. It will need to stop its focus on connecting the unchurched to worship services (however relevant they are) and start providing opportunities for the unchurched to join in with the church in the ongoing mission of God. ~ Gavin Tyte

✽ "Some 7.7m children under the age of five will die in 2010, down from 11.9m in 1990, according to a new study published online by the Lancet from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington." ~ The Economist

✽ Quotable:

...American evangelicals need a new strategy. This strategy must be founded upon humility, modesty, compassion, and humanity. We need to see our “opponents” as objects of love, however scornful they are of our values; however much they mock our convictions... ~ Jay Phelan

✽ Google's Pacman makes me realize that I really am a gamer. ~ link

✽ "Small Churches are the Next Big Thing" But are intentionally small churches any better than intentionally big ones? Of course not. But if they are small because that is a part of their mission-driven focus they might become more effective in impact. ~ Out of Ur

✽ Primer on Korean theology and how Karl Barth fits in ~ link

Random

✽ For better or worse, satellite churches are reaching into rural America. Here is a behind the scenes look at the technology. ~ link

✽ Serious crime in the US has dropped -- significantly -- in spite of the recession ~ link

✽ No matter what you do to him, it's hard to make Hitler work for your cause. And there is really no good reason that you'd want to try. ~ BBC News

✽ The House Church Revolution! is a free 50-page book available online. Frankly, I think that the house church advocates tend to over-simplfy history and read too much of their agenda into scripture. However, from a missional standpoint house churches can be a great option and should be taken as seriously as other expressions. Even if you don't buy into the whole package there is a lot to learn from this simple introduction by Rad Zdero. ~ link

✽ Bookmark: "Ten Rules to Create Engaging Elearning" ~ link

✽ With so much bad news coming from Thailand this month here is a good news story to put things in perspective -- "Thai AIDS Victims Find New Life, Hope" ~ link

✽ The Mexican Embassy has issued a statement in response to President Obama's decision to send 1,200 more soldiers to the border:

Regarding the Administration’s decision to send 1,200 National Guard servicemen to the US Southern border, the Government of Mexico trusts that this decision will help to channel additional US resources to enhance efforts to prevent the illegal flows of weapons and bulk cash into Mexico, which provide organized crime with its firepower and its ability to corrupt.

Additionally, the Government of Mexico expects that National Guard personnel will strengthen US operations in the fight against transnational organized crime that operates on both sides of our common border and that it will not, in accordance to its legal obligations, conduct activities directly linked to the enforcement of immigration laws... ~ link

Evangelicals and evolution

Evangelicals, evolution, and the resignation of Bruce Waltke are in the news. I'm with Dr Waltke on this one (although I'm not in the same scholarly league -- I definitely play in the Rookie minors). Evolution under the sovereign hand of God is possible.

The creation account in Genesis 1 is an accurate description of God's creative activity and sovereignty but the poetic genre itself suggests that it is not intended to be taken with modern precision or literalness. The days do not need to represent a specific amount of time nor do they need to be seen as an exact ordering of the creation process. The days are merely an ancient literary device to carry the message. There is a creator God who needs to be recognized as the one overall and who is ultimately in charge of all! The rest of scripture unpacks this good news.

The most effective, faithful pastors...

William Willimon is saying that "Today, the most effective, faithful pastors are making these moves:"

1. Move from caregivers to passionate, transformative leaders
   
   
2. Move from contented church of monopoly, to church in competitive, missional environment
   
   
3. Move from nonchalance about results to attentiveness to results
   
   
4. Move from preservation and sustaining to adaptation and supple, flexibility
   
   
5. Move from the pastor as head of an organization to the pastor as spiritual leader and congregational catalyst ~ link

What do you think? Has he nailed it? What would you add or subtract?

#3 seems pretty specific to the formerly mainline churches (Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian...). Evangelicals have traditionally had a more pragmatic results orientation. We try to reduce most everything to measurable results -- reducing the role of mystery.

If Bishop Willimon were putting the list together 10 years ago there would probably have been an emphasis on pastoral self-care and health. I'm not suggesting that such is unimportant -- only that the emphasis is shifting. It was assumed that if the pastor was healthy the church would become healthy.

I think that I'd add to the list -- the effective pastor of today is embracing the global shift and fluidity as the greatest opportunity for mission in the last 2,000 years. The world is shrinking through greater travel and communication. People groups are on the move on a scale never seen before. Cultures are changing through interaction with each other.

Random

✽ "Arpaio calls on Arizonans to boycott Mexico" -- Again, this illustrates Arizona's greatest challenge -- the need for level-headed leadership. ~ AZCentral.com

✽ "The number of Christians who speak Spanish as their first language is more than 25% greater than the number who speak English." ~ link

✽ Educators and administrators note that Google has another present for you. CloudCourse runs with Google Calendar and allows you to create and track learning activities, manage your waitlist, and a few other spiffy things you wish you didn't have to deal with. ~ Chronicle of Higher Education

✽ "A Resume Is Not Enough: How to Market Yourself Online" ~ Wall Street Journal

✽ US troops in Afghanistan now outnumber those in Iraq. 94,000 in Afghanistan compared to 92,000 in Iraq. ~ BBC News

✽ If you were in charge of fixing the gushing oil well in the Gulf, what would you do differently? There seem to be a lot of critics saying that BP isn't doing enough but no one seems to have a better plan in light of the current realities.

✽ "Why Johnny Can't Read the Bible" -- Take the quiz! ~ Christianity Today

✽ Quotable: "'Watchfulness' is a better word for leadership than 'vision'" ~ Gannon Sims

✽ Megachurches are doing something right -- "In Defense of Megachurches" ~ Scot McKnight

Supply and Demand of Professional Ministers

Sightings 5/24/10

by Martin E. Marty

(I was wanting to pull too many quotes from this column so I decided to share the whole thing. Sightings comes from the Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago Divinity School and is used here by permission. ~ Brad)

Public prayer, the kind Americans fight over a good deal, was not on the favorite “to-do” list of the Jesus of the Gospels. Just the opposite. He is heard saying: Don’t call attention to your praying in public. Go home and shut the door. Public action and teaching were a different matter. The King James Version of the Bible on which we teethed when young ran italicized summary capsules atop the pages. I was always stirred by one: “Here Jesus beginneth his public ministry.” He did not desert temple or synagogue or congregating, but ministry was for him a public affair, in marketplace, field, or wedding party.

It still is. I am not sure that “the public” is always aware of the public roles of the hundreds of thousands of men and women called to and being professionals in exercises of ministry. Most are in congregational service, but chaplaincies and agencies, attractive to so many, would not thrive or even exist were it not for the sustaining role of parishes and congregations. In all cases, the graduating seminarians of this season could merit the caption: “Here beginneth the public ministry of…” When ministry goes well, much else goes well, and when it suffers or causes suffering, much else goes ill.

This year national and local papers alike have been discussing the supply and demand of professional ministers. The general word is that – some sectors of evangelicalism aside – most graduates have to scramble and hope and wait for positions in church and synagogue alike. (The exception is Roman Catholicism, which experiences an almost catastrophic shortage of priests, but that is a different story.) As I write, I head off to speak at a Lutheran synodical assembly in downstate Illinois and a commencement at Louisville Presbyterian Seminary. There I will get close-up and personal impressions of how things are going with placement of long-term ministers and newcomers.

Don’t envy seminary leaders and placement people who have to calibrate and calculate and monitor supply and demand. The subtle word gets out that there’s a shortage, as there sometimes is, and by the time the fresh candidates graduate, there is an oversupply. And vice versa. To anticipate this month and this column, I have kept on file last Fall’s Colloquy, published by The Association of Theological Schools. It leads off with frank language which almost summarizes the current situation:

“Current prospects for theological school graduates are defined by several trends. * The job openings available to graduates have been steadily declining in number for the past four years. * Increasing numbers of MDiv graduates are undecided about full-time positions expected after graduation. * Those expecting parish ministry positions have declined. * In response to the economic depression, many retirement age pastors are choosing to postpone retirement. * The annual income required for servicing educational debt may limit job options for new graduates. * Placement and vocational counseling services consistently rank low among measures of student satisfaction.” There it is.

Many factors play their part. Plenty of young and mid-career people who seek meaning and are ready to serve are out there, finding their own way this side of professional ministry. Demography, geography, dual careers of married clergy, graduate school debt, declining rural and often inner-city churches, scandal that hits and hurts religious institutions, are all part of the mixture. Such institutions, such communities, are going through “a period of adjustment,” whose outcome is still uncertain. Seminary leaders and placement people, needless to say, are themselves scrambling and hoping.

Reference:
Colloquy and other ATS resources are online at www.ats.edu/Resources/Publications/Pages/Colloquy.aspx

Martin E. Marty's biography, current projects, publications, and contact information can be found at www.illuminos.com.

Random

✽ Pew Hispanic Center report:

• Mexicans now account for 32% of all immigrants living in this country. The second-largest nationality group of immigrants, Filipinos, account for just 5% of all immigrants in the US.
  
  
• More than half (55%) of the Mexican immigrants in this country are unauthorized. Overall, Mexicans comprise about six-in-ten (59%) of the estimated 11.9 million unauthorized immigrants in the US.
  
  
• No other country in the world has as many total immigrants from all countries as the United States has immigrants from Mexico alone.
  
  
• About 11% of everyone born in Mexico is currently living in the US."
  
  
• The current Mexican share of all foreign born living in the US—32%—is the highest concentration of immigrants to the US from a single country since the late 19th century. But it is not unprecedented. Irish immigrants represented a third or more of the immigrant population from 1850 to 1870. Germans were 26% to 30% of the foreign-born population from 1850 to 1900.

✽ This week's Brushstrokes -- online e-letter from MasterPiece Church ~ link

✽ "Pirates terrorize boaters on Texas lake" ~ link

✽ Recognizing the shift in Thai culture:

A sociologist who asked not to be named said politics had been reduced to a zero-sum game in recent years, where the voices of a centrist civil society, public intellectuals and media have been squeezed into silence...

Thai culture has gone through a dizzying transformation, he explained, in which old hierarchical values have been overturned through the processes of globalisation, communications and technology. Avoidance of confrontation, a belief in karma, the sacrifice of individual rights for a notion of the national good - all these have been weakened.

Thai villagers are no longer poor or uneducated - they want a larger slice of the economic pie, and they demand a voice, he said.

"Now is beyond the time to realise that these changes have occurred," the sociologist said... ~ link

✽ What constitutes "life"? NT Times: "Researchers Say They Created a ‘Synthetic Cell’" Well, it is less synthetic than it is hybrid. ~ link

Betsy's Graduation

It was a Chamber of Commerce day in Berkeley -- perfect for Betsy's first Cal graduation. This graduation was for the students in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology. One of her majors was "Genetics, Genomics, and Development." Her second major, for which we'll have another graduation on Saturday, was "Public Health."

This fall she is going to start a graduate program in genetics at UC San Francisco.

If you click on the picture you might be able to see the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

Random

✽ Now that Google Wave is open to everyone I guess I'm not going to be able to sell all those invites I've been saving. Oh well, business was pretty slow anyway. ~ link

✽ I've lived enough to understand both sides of the debate. But I more often than not end up siding with the younger folk on this one. Quit whining and you'll enjoy the multiculti ride! Read Damien Cave in the NY Times: "Forget sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll; immigration is a new generational fault line." ~ link

✽ This has some people in Oz worried.

By 2050, Australia’s 22-million population is projected to grow to almost 36 million, an increase of 65 percent — making it the fastest growing industrialized country in the world, according to the Population Reference Bureau in Washington.

The rate of expansion will be even higher than India’s, and almost double the world’s average, which is predicted to be 38 percent. The only country whose population is growing more than Australia is Saudi Arabia. ~ link

✽ "A New Tip: Honour Your Pastor, And Your Church Will Grow" -- I'd rephrase it slightly. Through words and actions give your people enough credit that they feel free to innovate and initiate, without putting a pastor at the center of everything, and the churches will grow in ways that the pastors cannot yet immagine. ~ link

✽ Tattoonomics, Part I -- Why do people get tattoos? ~ link

Random

✽ Bob Smietana has a solid article on the unraveling of Ergun Caner's story. Dr Caner is the seminary president at Liberty University and after 9-11 he spun a dramatic story about converting from a would-be terrorist to a Southern Baptist preacher. It's not looking good for Ergun. ~ link

✽ Fresh Expressions in The Times ~ link

✽ The Monsoon season has already begun in India. Typhoon season in the Western Pacific can't be too far behind. Might they be starting early this year? ~ link

✽ "An international team of scientists also found that rising temperatures had already driven 12% of Mexico's lizard populations to extinction." Maybe. ~ link

Random

✽ The Arizona CityFest with Luis Palau now has a place and a date -- Tempe Town Lake, March 19-20, 2011. That seems like a really good choice. ~ link

✽ Wall Street Journal: "Joblessness Hits the Pulpit" ~ link

✽ "'Grandstanding politicians in Los Angeles have jumped into our political business,' Arizona Republic sports columnist Dan Bickley wrote in Sunday's edition." Yeah, well, it's not like grandstanding is such a novelty in the contemporary Arizona political arena. Where are the statesmen? ~ link

✽ "You boycott us, we'll boycot you!" Silly. ~ link

✽ A fire that totaled National Office Supply in Barrigada, Guam is under investigation. It took nearly ten hours to extinguish the flames. (The building is entirely concrete -- floors, walls, ceiling...) The thing is that, this was the only real option for getting a lot of supplies on Guam. I disliked going in there because of the way that things were piled up and displayed. It was a mess and it felt like a fire waiting to happen. Perhaps they'll be able to get a fresh start out of this. ~ link

Random

✽ "I Know That You Want to Be Canadian" -- If it were not for the cold and/or cloudy winters it would be tempting. Are there really still mounted Mounties? ~ via

✽ The Micronesians have landed in California and they're apparently cold -- donning socks with flip-flops (or as they say, "slippers") because the temps are in the 70s. Indeed, it can be a bit of a shock to the system if you come from a place where it very rarely drops below 76° at night. You'll start to feel better once the tour makes its way through Arizona. ~ link

✽ Tullian Tchividjian's piece on renewing the world (adapted from his book Unfashionable: Making a Difference in the World by Being Different):

So, while Christians are to separate from the self-glorifying motives, God-ignoring goals, and subpar work standards of the world (our spiritual separation), we’re not to separate from the peoples, places, and things in the world (a spatial separation). We’re to be morally and spiritually distinct without being culturally segregated... ~ link

✽ LA Times: "What's really new about Arizona's new approach to illegal immigrants" -- pretty even-handed assessment. ~ link

✽ "'Palin Says 'We're All Arizonans Now' in Speech Defending State's Immigration Law." Ah, please spare us the political rhetoric. It doesn't help. If anything, Sarah Palin's public presence in Phoenix proves to those who want to boycott Arizona that we've all really gone off the deep-end and therefore, we need their vigilante-style solution. ~ link

✽ The University of California is doing some serious talking about offering online degrees. ~ link

✽ The Chinese government says that smoking will be banned in public starting next year. It is unclear how they're going to be able to enforce the ban in a culture in which tobacco is so thoroughly entrenched. ~ link

Random

✽ Great video highlighting the creative arts side of NewSong Church in Irvine, California. ~ link

✽ We went to see Alex Johnson, one of our MasterPiece teens, in "Caught in the Act." It was performed by the high schoolers at 91st Psalm Christian School. It is a really tiny school so I suspect that every high schooler in the student body had a part. Some of the high school drama that I've seen over the years has been pretty so-so. But this was quite delightful and fun to watch.

✽ I'm really proud of our good friend (and my former intern) Linda Hamill, who was ordained as a Minister of the Word for service in the Uniting Church in Australia. I'm sad that we couldn't be there. She and her husband, Mal, live in Roma, Queensland and serve several rural congregations. That a girl from rural South Dakota ends up ordained in the UCA is testimony to the fact that God is still full of surprises.

✽ For those trying to understand why people are annoyed with Facebook right now, Ed Stetzer's story illustrates the issue. Many of us who don't need a major privacy wall will perhaps decide that it doesn't really matter -- at least, yet. But there is a trend. I did up my privacy control the other day after I found certain vendors where displaying posts from some of the people on my friend list when I visited their webpages. I've never been all that keen about FB -- but there are so many friends there -- people with whom I want to stay connected.

Random

✽ If you're photocopying it -- it's probably still there on the copier's hard-drive -- accessible to whoever. ~ via

✽ "After decades of net decline, more US churches are being started each year than are being closed." ~ link

✽ They're going to remove the fanciful lizard art from Loop 101 in Scottsdale. The city paid $2 million in 1996 to have it included on the freeway walls. Sad. It feels like Arizona is suffering from a major regression. ~ link

✽ It's fashion week in Karachi -- really -- a spit-in-your-Taliban-face event. ~ link

✽ Next week is National Bike to Work week. I work from home but I'll ride to the Post Office to check the box -- if it stays below 100°. ~ link

✽ Walgreens will postpone carrying the Pathway Genomics genetic test kit because the FDA is questioning whether the kit is authorized. More job security for lawyers. ~ link

✽ One more thing to worry over -- Voyager 2 has been hijacked by space aliens who are attempting to contact earth, according to a German UFO expert. ~ link

✽ Back in Black - Glenn Beck's Nazi Tourette's ~ link

✽ A very very clever man, quite tuned into human nature, used Google Rankings to land a job. ~ link

✽ Guam Police Chief Paul Suba is resigning after a controversy sparked by a search warrant executed on a local television station's news department. There is never a dull moment in Guam politics. Of course, I'm now starting to think that Arizona is playing in the same political league. ~ link

UPDATE: None of the other news sources on Guam are yet corroborating this story. They are reporting that there are numerous calls for his resignation.

Arizona's ethnic studies legislation

The latest half-baked bill signed into law this week attempts to shut down ethnic studies programs in Arizona high schools. The fact is that these program do on occasion widen the ethnic divide. But this is one of those situations where the politicians are throwing the baby out with the bathwater. They are trying to appease some xenophobic voters who see homogenization as the solution to all of Arizona's issues.

The reality is that people more readily embrace the wider world when they are aware of, and appreciative of, their culture of origins. Just as students learn a second language better if they first learn to read and write in their original language, so will immigrants become more appreciative of other cultures if they are comfortable and informed about their original culture.

Even if the origins of the bill are well-intentioned (I'm not so sure that they are) it once again sends the wrong message. That message is -- In order to be a good American you have to look like, talk like, and think exactly like the Americans of European origin. This line of thought fails to appreciate the diversity of people and histories which drive the American engine. And when you combine this new law with the infamous immigration bill it sends a strong message to Hispanics (and African-Americans who also have ethnic studies programs) that they are second class citizens.

Radicalization of ethnic studies programs can occur if the ethnic group feels like it is under attack. If schools would go out of the way to embrace and affirm the groups in these programs the radicals would cease to have a cause -- or an audience.

If there are tensions in the schools because of these programs (at times there are) we need to sit down together and go through the long process of building trust. Tension in a controlled environment, such as a school, can actually be an asset and a teaching opportunity -- if leadership is willing to treat it as such. Knee-jerk legislation brings nothing constructive to the table and undermines the educational process.

Random

✽ George Barna's wise words on earning trust ~ link

✽ 4 "eco-friendly" weed killers -- boiling water, lemon juice, ground cover tarp, white vinegar ~ link

✽ More unusual fish activity -- rare Giant Oarfish discovered in Sweden. The last documented sighting of this fish in Swedish waters was in 1879. ~ link

✽ Softball-size hail hit Paul Cunningham’s roof. That dude is a storm magnet. ~ link

✽ Seth Godin on the new global divide -- "the line between people who are actively engaged in new ideas, actively seeking out change, actively engaging -- and people who accept what's given and slog along." ~ link

✽ I was looking at the incredible gigapan picture of Dubai. Where are all the people? There are secondary signs of life all over but it still looks eerily like a mega-ghost town. Too hot to be outside? ~ link

✽ Three children from El Salvador are unharmed after being rescued from human smugglers in Phoenix. ~ link

✽ Boycotting Arizona makes even less sense than the immigration law. It only ramps up the political rhetoric, contributing nothing constructive to the conversation. We need someone capable of leading a constructive conversation. Is there anyone in a position of responsibility willing to risk it and lead a civil conversation?

✽ Replacing traditional bricks with biomanufactured masonry could reduce world-wide carbon-dioxide emissions by 'at least' 800 million tons a year." ~ link (via)

✽ An online grad has donated $4 million to Saint Leo University. You just never know who is in your class and what they're capable of doing. ~ link

✽ The Moroccan government, apparently under pressure from Islamists, has been expelling foreign Christian workers from the North African country. ~ link

✽ Fr Joseph Fessio, a prominent Jesuit leader in Catholic higher education, is launching an innovative distance education college-credit program for Catholic high school students and homeschoolers. ~ link

✽ "The Great Mancession" -- how it is that men have become an endangered species in higher education. ~ link

✽ “We cannot abandon Haiti to celebrities and amateur aid workers!” ~ link

✽ Ancients were using pressurized water systems in the "New World" before the Spanish arrived. ~ link

Oblique strategies for climate diplomacy

Some sanity in the climate change discussion from The Economist:

The consensus view of climate change rejects this messy plurality by framing the issue as a classical environmental problem—in effect, carbon-dioxide pollution—and looking for a solution in the form of policies that directly or indirectly reduce the amount of carbon dioxide people emit. Climate diplomacy tries, at its best, to provide a range of strategies by which different countries with different capabilities can cooperate towards this common end, on the basis that natural science has revealed it to be what everyone wants, or should want. The degree to which debates about climate change have become debates about climate-change science reflects the fact that this way of looking at the issue presents “the science” as a reason to act; those who want action thus have an interest in exaggerrating the conclusions or certainty of the science, and those who do not wish to act are incentivised in the opposite direction.

The Hartwellites do not disagree with the science in general and certainly don’t think there is no reason to act. They simply doubt that action along this one axis (carbon-dioxide reduction) can ever be made politically compelling. Instead, their oblique strategies... are to concentrate on easy opportunities and efficiency, energy and dignity.

Read the whole article

Quotable

NY Times columnist David Leonhardt on Talk of the Nation:

...And the main problem isn't the war in Iraq, as expensive as it's been. It's not the stimulus program, as much money as that has caused. It's this long-term disconnect between the fact that, on the one hand, we like Medicare, we like social security, we like having a strong military, and on the other, we don't like paying the taxes to support all those benefits we want...

And there is a long history of societies, as they get richer, deciding that they want more services provided by the government. They want more health care. They want more education. They want more military. They want more of a safety net. And so it's actually quite natural and quite in keeping with history that as a society becomes richer, the share of its revenue that it devotes to government goes up.

Our problem is that we want to have it both ways. We do want to increase the size of our economy that goes to government. We just don't want to increase the size of our economy that goes to paying for that government. And that can't last. We either have to do things like get rid of Medicare in its current form and get tax - and keep taxes low, or we have to increase taxes. My sense is we have to do both. We have to increase taxes and also find ways to reduce the growth of spending in the future...

Five major trends affecting churches in the US

Tom Rainer:

1. Millennials are emerging as the largest generational mission field in over a century.
   
   
2. Millennials are leaving the church not because they are angry but because "they do not deem us as meaningful or relevant."
   
   
3. Boomers in perpetual denial over the loss of their youth will ignore senior adult ministries -- sending those ministries into "steep declines."
   
   
4. Boomers will become more receptive to the gospel.
   
   
5. Churches that expect to reach both Boomers and Millennials will reinvent themselves so that they are more family friendly.

~ Five Major Trends for Churches in America

Random

✽ Surprise! Grey whale spotted off the coast of Israel ~ link

✽ Financially stressed Crystal Cathedral has sold its retreat center. Will the institutions we are creating now become a burden to the next generation? ~ link

✽ Android-based phones are outselling iPhones. It was just a matter of time. ~ link

✽ Now illegal aliens are smuggling chicken pox into the US. And this is news? ~ link

✽ More important to Arizonans than immigration is the issue of "state's rights." And in many ways the whole half-baked immigration bill is really more about Arizona attempting to push a particular version of federalism than it is about addressing the porous border to the south. Politics. ~ link

✽ More than 1 million Arizonans are on food stamps -- up 30% in a year. ~ link

Random

✽ Good news: Researchers have discovered that broccoli may kill breast cancer stem cells. Bad news; you'd have to eat so much broccoli that it would kill you. Perhaps they'll be able to extract the sulforaphane and put it into pill form. ~ link

✽ Bananas and citrus were among Costco's top selling items last month. ~ link

✽ Because of the relative isolation Bogota is considered by many linguists as "ground zero for good Spanish." "The fact that a Colombian accent can be understood all over the Spanish-speaking world has helped turn many of the country’s telenovelas, or soap operas, into overseas hits." ~ link

✽ Australia is tightening the screws on the tobbaco industry. The latest wave of restrictions includes a requirement that cigarettes be sold only in plain packaging. ~ link

✽ Another misunderstanding of the separation of church and state concept: "Visitors at a Senior Citizen Center in Georgia were told they couldn’t pray over their meals since the government mostly paid for them." ~ link

✽ Phil Davidson left a comment on yesterday's Random post that I think is worth highlighting because it is really spot on:

...Another consequence of immigration laws is what the laws say not just to immigrants, but to the majority of citizens. I think part of the role of a leader is to prepare the people for what comes next, to teach the people how to think about it so that the people have the right reactions and do the right thing. When times of stress approach, it's important for leaders to help the people with attitude control: thankfulness and trust in God, so that we're ready to please God with the way we extend grace and hospitality. This is true for both political and religious leaders. Politicians can reap support by painting outsiders as enemies; or they can speak to the majority in a such way as to discourage resentment.

✽ Using Google Wave in the foreign language classroom ~ link

✽ If we're serious about crafting the future of the nation we need to focus on working with immigrants and their families now.

The United States population is today one-third non-white, and those groups accounted for 83 percent of national population growth from 2000 to 2008. Immigration continues to fuel our growth, too, and now nearly one-quarter of U.S. children have at least one immigrant parent. This coming-of-age generation, a little over 30 years from now, will stand on the precipice of our transition to a majority non-white nation. Large metropolitan areas will get there first, as their under-18 population had already reached majority non-white status by 2008. ~ State of Metropolitan America: On the Front Lines of Demographic Transformation from the Brookings Institution

✽ "More than 30,000 single moms have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan." ~ link

✽ So, if a credible researcher brings up a discrepancy on his blog it is not worthattention? But if the "mainstream media" starts talking about the same thing then it is time for action? ~ link

✽ Japan's picturesque Mount Fuji might be preparing for an eruption. ~ link

✽ Competition is good. "When Microsoft launches its latest business and personal software suite Office 2010 on Wednesday in New York, it will introduce a free version, Office Web Apps, to compete with Google." ~ link

✽ Chinese teachers reflect on their experiences of teaching in America ~ link

Sunday's Coming but where is the change?

The level of online chatter over the Sunday's Coming video satire is impressive. It seems to fall into two camps.

There are those who are offended that North Point Media would use time and money to make fun of the church's good intentions. Most people, however, rave about how convictingly accurate it is.

There is something missing, though. I have not yet seen anyone say, "Ya know, we now see how silly we look and shallow we are. We're going to stop doing that kind of thing."

No one seems to be saying, "I'm going to talk with our church leaders to see if we can figure out a way to start worshiping with more substance and less cheesy glitz."

Has anyone sent a Sunday's Coming link to their church leaders and asked them what they think of it? How are the pastors and "worship leaders" responding to these theses nailed to the church door?

Random

✽ A Cornish sailor found 24 hungry Pacific Islanders on Kanton Island. He called the UK Coastguard at Falmouth. They called the US Coast Guard in Honolulu to arrange for a food drop. International cooperation. The UK and US have historically shared oversight of the Kanton Atoll which is halfway between Hawaii and Fiji, although it is technically a part of the Republic of Kiribati. ~ link

✽ Tell me that we're not experiencing some kind of climate change chaos -- that it's ALL political. They had rain at the North Pole in April. ~ link (via)

✽ They're expecting a high turn-out for Monday's presidential election in the Philippines. ~ link

✽ A short history of Arizona's most recent bout of paranoia. ~ link

✽ Sometimes it is not so much about what you say as it is about how you say it.

White flight from the suburbs

Young whites are fleeing the suburbs and are heading into US cities. "Ten states, led by Arizona, surpass the nation in a 'cultural generation gap' in which the senior populations are disproportionately White and children are mostly minority." ~ link

This is descriptive of Laveen (village inside Phoenix), where we live, except that the suburban style housing is so new that the white seniors never had a chance to get established in this area.

When the foreclosure crisis hit the shift accelerated. We now have an area which was designed with owner-occupants in mind but which has become a rental haven.

The owner-occupants who are here are invested in the community -- vocal about schools and children's sports, etc. But my guess, based upon what is happening in my neighborhood, is that most of the people are un-invested renters. Even many of the owner-occupants are hesitant to invest in the community because they are on the verge of losing their houses and they figure they're going to be moving soon anyway.

"A new image of urban America is in the making," said William Frey, a demographer at Brookings who co-wrote the report. "What used to be White flight to the suburbs is turning into 'bright flight' to cities that have become magnets for aspiring young adults who see access to knowledge-based jobs, public transportation and a new city ambience as an attraction."

"This will not be the future for all cities, but this pattern in front-runners like Atlanta, Portland, Oregon, Raleigh, North Carolina, and Austin, Texas, shows that the old urban stereotypes no longer apply," he said.

Creative minds

NY Times article on creativity mentions the work of Rex Jung (research scientist at the Mind Research Network in Albuquerque and assistant research professor in the department of neurosurgery at the University of New Mexico):

“The brain appears to be an efficient superhighway that gets you from Point A to Point B” when it comes to intelligence, Dr Jung explained. “But in the regions of the brain related to creativity, there appears to be lots of little side roads with interesting detours, and meandering little byways.”

Although intelligence and skill are generally associated with the fast and efficient firing of neurons, subjects who tested high in creativity had thinner white matter and connecting axons that have the effect of slowing nerve traffic in the brain. This slowdown in the left frontal cortex, a region where emotional and cognitive abilities are integrated, Dr Jung suggested, “might allow for the linkage of more disparate ideas, more novelty and more creativity.” ~ link

Maybe there are advantages to slow and meandering. :-)

Random

✽ 13 days until Shrek ~ link

✽ Fastest growing religion in Latin America? Baha’is are expanding at a rate of over 12% per year. ~ link

✽ Americans spend billions trying to add some brown to their skin while Indians spend the money on whiteners. "Busting India's myths about skin color" ~ link

✽ The Filipino soap opera continues -- three Marcoses, including Imelda, running for public office in the PI. ~ link

How we get oil

(via)

Random

✽ As El Niño weakens the number of hurricanes usually rises. This is not such a good thing if you are living in a tent in Haiti. It also tends to mean that Arizona can expect the upcoming winter to be drier. ~ link

✽ It's official, there is now a clergy glut. This is an opportunity to move a lot of good trained people into new and creative mission endeavors. Forget the career track you thought you were on. That really belonged to a bygone era, anyway.

✽ Bypassed again -- "The 20 Most Brilliant Christian Professors" ~ link

✽ Using a scoop of smooth and rich chocolate chip/cookie dough ice cream at Scooptacular to deal with my disappointment.

✽ $99 Moby tablet designed for students on the way ~ link

✽ Story of the customs agent who stopped Faisal Shahzad from escaping ~ link

✽ Mobile phones and eLearning in Africa -- could be an opportunity ~ link

✽ "Live Church LA is Giving One Free Copy of ViralHope to Everyone who Comes this Sunday!" Is this "attractional" or "missional"? Just asking... ~ link

✽ So, it appears that no one is in charge of jolly old England? ~ link

"Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer

This clip has been circulating for the past couple of days. The thing that makes it humorous is that everyone assumes that it is poking fun at the church down the street.

Random

✽ Walmart de Mexico y Centroamerica is going to use wind power to operate 348 stores. ~ link

✽ Coming: group video chat on Skype -- but it will cost you. ~ link

✽ Headline news in Phoenix -- Police have arrested a 19-year-old for felony graffiting. I guess arrests for this ubiquitous (and annoying) crime must be pretty uncommon. ~ link

✽ George Fox's "green MDiv" -- My, aren't we getting specialized. ~ link

✽ The lines between urban, suburban, and rural in the US continue to blur -- "Poverty is encroaching on suburban enclaves -- even the most affluent of them. Many are ill-equipped to meet the new social-service needs..." ~ link

✽ Comedy Central is now going after Jesus. We probably just need to turn the other cheek on this one. "But Jesus was silent and made no reply..." (Mark 14;61) ~ link

✽ Cyberschools: An Education Renaissance (2010 Edition) by Glenn Jones is available as a free download. ~ link

✽ House churches in Gilbert, Arizona can relax. You're no longer illegal aliens. ~ link

✽ Geek Alert: day 2 of running Google Chrome beta -- only 1 Gears crash so far -- still smokin' fast... ~ link

✽ The huge mulch fire in Laveen appears to be out. It was still smoking until late this afternoon. This means that the students at Betty Fairfax High School will need to report for school tomorrow. And it means we can all open our windows again.

Random

✽ "The best commercial ever made..." ~ link (via)

✽ ¡Viva Los Soles!

✽ 1% of the world's fuel consumption could be saved just by using a ship hull design that is modeled on the water fern. ~ link

✽ Phoenix is ranked as the #2 city for recent college graduates. ~ link

✽ “Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.” ~ Alan Perlis

✽ Reality check -- Berkeley students should be smart enough to know that the politicians who put together Arizona's half-baked immigration law could care less if they are having a hunger strike or if the University of California administration issues a statement. ~ link

✽ The problem with Arizona is that we try to solve every problem by making a new law. Pretty soon we'll be as entangled as the California legal system. ~ link

✽ Google Chrome is still picking up speed. ~ link

✽ Chinese electric automaker BYD is going to build its North American headquarters in Los Angeles. ~ link

✽ Rule of thumb: Never borrow money to buy things which go down in value. ~ link

✽ Iowa and Texas are leading the US in wind power development. ~ link

✽ During my first visit to the new Common English Translation website I noticed what the CET does with Genesis 1:1. It's pretty bold considering how attached we are to "In the beginning...". I wonder what they're going to do with John 1:1. ~ link

✽ The US Air Force is starting to launch the next generation of GPS satellites -- accuracy to 3 feet. Does this mean that eventually the TomTom will actually know which lane I'm in? ~ link

More uke fun with Julia Nunes

Random

✽ CTmagazine on Twitter: "James Dobson switched his endorsement, saying Paul identifies with the tea party, 'My kind of man.'" -- Oh, now I get it. I thought Dobson was referring to St Paul and I was trying to figure out how he knew that the apostle was a tea drinker. ~ link

✽ Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo, which, contrary to the neo-Nazis whining on TV last night about Mexican celebrations in the US, is not Mexican Independence Day. It's probably a bigger holiday in the US than Mexico these days. As they say, ¡Viva México! ¡Viva Juárez! ¡Viva el 5 de mayo!

✽ The Phoenix Suns will be wearing their “Los Suns” jerseys tomorrow night as they take on the San Antiono Spurs -- and Arizona's immigration law. ~ link

✽ There are 1.2 million Hispanics living here in Maricopa County. I'm sitting in a restaurant down the street from our house and I'd say that right now 25% of the people in here are black (African-Americans and recent immigrants), 10% Asian, 20% Caucasian, 45% Hispanic/Mestizo. I hear English, Spanish, Spanglish, and Chinese -- with so many accents that it is hard to believe that anyone thinks that there is such a thing as a standard American-English accent. I like this place -- nice buzz -- even if it's just McDonald's. ~ link

✽ I had the brakes done on the Corolla today. The first place I checked, a national brand name auto care center, wanted over $1,100. I went down the street to another big name regional operation and they got the job done for less than $600 -- informing me that some of what the other shop said to do was unnecessary.

✽ Resource: House churches in North America ~ link

✽ Mark Goodacre's latest NT Pod post asks, "Was Luke an Historian?" ~ link

✽ I'm just not sure that there is a synoptic problem. Diversity of perspective isn't really problematic unless you're looking for 21st century scientific precision.

Uke fun

Vivian Burtness sent me the link to this Julia Nunes Uke YouTube. It was actually embedded in Steve Blow's Dallas Morning News blog post.

He was writing about the Lone Star Uke Fest and he observed, "...in case you didn't know, ukes are quite the thing right now. As local afficionado Noel Tardry told me (in touting UkeFest): 'Right now, the ukulele is not just an instrument, it's a movement.'

There's something modest and appealing about the ukulele and its fans."

Yep. ~ link

Random

✽ Erik Hedstrom has started a short-story blog. ~ link

✽ Arizona is pushing school districts to reassign instructors with heavy accents and other English shortcomings. I guess we're trying to weed out everyone from east of the Rockies. ~ link

Random

✽ American expats have become "toxic citizens" because of the "Patriot Act" ~ link

✽ Misdirected energy -- Please don't send your t-shirts to Africa. They don't need them. And they are getting in the way of economic development. ~ link

✽ Does the Lord's Supper -- the Eucharist -- happen at an altar or a table. Good discussion. ~ link

✽ A well-crafted, bulls-eye editorial in today's Arizona Republic rips pandering politicians, name by name, for failing to lead. The paper is a voice of perspective and sanity in the immigration debate. ~ link

✽ The backlash against Arizona's immigration law is apparently starting to affect out of state enrollment at the University of Arizona. Did the politicians even consider that there might be an economic ripple effect of their actions? We need some big-picture leaders. ~ link

✽ Good news from Guam -- Pacific Islands University has received its reaffirmation of accreditation notice. They're good to go for 10 more years. The other day Seth Godin was suggesting that a college education has lost its value because of the emphasis on "mass and sameness and rankings." PIU is definitely not "mass." It is totally unique in its mission and is completely off the radar when it comes to rankings. Refreshing.

✽ Record enrollment in Swedish language classes -- 84,300 taking Swedish for Immigrants -- up 14% ~ link

Praying Proverbs 29

John Notehelfer sent this simple reflection in his "Sunday Musings" for this weekend and it's worth posting in its entirety.

- - - - - - -

Greetings to all of you on the front lines of kingdom work abroad and at home.

I found myself wrestling with the immigration dilemma created by the new enforcement law that Arizona passed and is now causing yet another wave of bitter, angry responses and finger-pointing. It is so complex, and so much water has gone over the dam. The cry for action on so many fronts echoes throughout our country.

Here I was reading my chapter in Proverbs for the day (April 29), still looking at a clipping from the morning paper (dealing with the banking issues) – marked “Choice Words”: “Everything between the Book of Genesis and the deregulation of our banking sector proves that man, left alone, cannot regulate himself.”- Matt McLaughlin

Proverbs 29 has something to say about “Anger”

Verse 8 – “Mockers stir up a city, but wise men turn away anger”

“A gang of cynics can upset a while city; a group of sages can calm everyone down.” (The Message)

Verse 11 – “A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control”

“A fool lets it all hang out; a sage quietly mulls it over.” (The Message)

Verse 22 – “An angry man stirs up dissension, and a hot-tempered one commits many sins”

“Angry people stir up a lot of discord; the intemperate stir up trouble.”(The Message)


Proverbs 29 has something to say about “Leadership and Justice”

Verse 4 – “By justice a king gives a country stability, but one who is greedy for bribes tears it
down.”

“A leader of good judgment gives stability; an exploiting leader leaves a trail of waste.” (The Message)

Verse 12 – “If a ruler listens to lies, all his officials become wicked.”

“When a leader listens to malicious gossip, all the workers are infected with evil.” (The Message)

Verse 14 – “If a king judges the poor with fairness, his throne will always be secure.”

“Leadership gains authority and respect when the voiceless poor are treated fairly.” (The Message)

Verse 26 – “Many seek an audience with a ruler, but it is from the Lord that man gets justice.”

“Everyone tries to get help from a leader, but only God will give us justice” (The Message)

Footnote

Verse 25 – “Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe”

“The fear of human opinions disables; trusting in God protects you from that” (The Message)

I am praying for immigration reform that is both God-honoring and leads to law-abiding.

I am praying Proverbs 29.

Lovingly, John N