Random

> I'VE REQUESTED an invite for Google's new cloud-based music service -- music beta. (I wonder how long can they keep a service named "beta" in beta? Will it ever get out? They do have a sense of humor at Google.) I wonder if I'll be chosen. Last year I responded to a message from Google and signed up to become a Google Chrome laptop tester. So far, the free laptop hasn't shown up on my doorstep. But every time I hear the UPS truck my heart starts beating faster.

> SAMOA is messing with the International Dateline -- trying to sync up with the Asian Rim countries. Of course, American Samoa isn't buying in. Chaos ahead. Everyone needs to do it or no one. ~ link

> NON-LINEAR LEADERSHIP:

Many aspects of leadership are linear, and many leaders are linear thinkers. But there’s a non-linear kind of leadership where it’s not just about getting A, then B, then C done. It’s not just about a strategic plan. Non?linear leadership involves the creation of culture. How do you build a culture in an organization that unleashes energy? To me, that’s really at the core of what it means to be a great leader. ~ Nancy Ortberg

> SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP in a frenzied world:

I have found praying the Lord’s Prayer in a slow meditative fashion to be a tremendously helpful spiritual discipline in resisting a frenzied life. Just taking time to do so provides an oasis from both the external complexities and the internal compulsions in my life. But this teaching of Jesus also instructs my soul in what to pray for. ~ Robert Fryling

> FINALLY A GOLF BALL for the duffer league ~ link

> WHY TEENS bail on church ~ link

> DREW DYCK: "It takes more than pizza and video games ('fired up entertainment and watered down gospel') to give young people a faith that endures." ~ Leadership Journal

Over the past year I've conducted dozens of interviews with 20-somethings who have walked away from their Christian faith. Among the most surprising findings was this: nearly all of these "leavers" reported having positive experiences in youth group... 

Of course there's nothing wrong with pizza and video games. The real problem is when they displace spiritual formation and teaching the Bible. And ultimately that's the greatest danger of being overly reliant on an entertainment model. It's not just that we can't compete with the world's amusements. It's not only that we get locked into a cycle of serving up ever-increasing measures of fun. Rather it's that we're distracted from doing the real work of youth ministry—fostering robust faith. 

Jim Rayburn, the founder of Young Life, liked to say, "It's a sin to bore a kid with the gospel." A generation later, that philosophy morphed into an entertainment based gospel that has actually produced entertainment numbness and an avoidance of the gospel's harder teachings. Somehow we thought we could sweeten the gospel message for young people to make it easier for them to swallow, but it turns out that they're choking on our concoction. 

In the end, pizza and video games don't transform lives. Young people are transformed by truth clearly presented. They're drawn to a cause to live and die for. In other words, they want the unvarnished gospel. When we present that gospel, with all its hard demands and radical implications, we'll be speaking the language they long to, and need to, hear.

> PERHAPS IT'S TIME to just get rid of ALL the specialty license plates. At some point the whole thing puts the government in the awkward position of deciding what is and isn't appropriate. ~ USA Today

> THE CEB finds a welcome at Fuller Theological Seminary ~ link

> EVERETT WILSON'S 1987 title Ideas That Change the Churchis now available through Kindle. Sometimes what is new makes good thinking of the past accessible. I think that Everett's ideas are going to be a bit out of the box regardless of when he wrote them down. He isn't far out but he frames things in a slightly different way and that gets us thinking.

> SALON'S STORY ON Harold Camping and his May 21st rapture prediction is even-handed. There is not a snarky or disrespectful comment in there. Sometimes commentary is totally unnecessary. ~ link

> ISN'T MAY21st the day that the planets are lining up? ~ Time

> OKAY, NOW THEY have our attention! UK scientists are worried that global warming will affect wifi signals. However, the whole thing leaves me puzzled. If wifi works fine here in the desert, where we can go for days in July and August with blistering temperatures over 115°, how is it that a few degrees warmer in normally cool and damp England will meltdown the interweb thingy? ~ link