There is resistance to the gospel that naturally arises anytime a Christian calls a non-Christian to faith and repentance in Christ. There is also a resistance when a non-Christian feels like a Christian is giving them a sales pitch, rather than being a true friend to them.
These two kinds of resistance are not the same. [...]
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I bet that right now, there are many proven executives and marketplace leaders across the body of Christ who could gain a large new media audience in short order. Could pastors do more to encourage them to do this? I wonder if just a nudge in the right direction wouldn’t make a big difference.
From my [...]
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This is #4 in my response to Jacob Vanhorn’s outstanding questions on new media presence (see first, second, and third posts). It is humbling and sobering to address these questions. I don’t presume any special insights, but would ask anyone reading any of these thoughts to test them against the wisdom of others, bring them [...]
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In my first and second posts on new media presence, I was responding to Jacob Vanhorn’s questions at a pretty basic level. Now I’d like to focus the idea of leadership training, which he called out specifically.
I advocate a strong emphasis on training not only pastors, but also members who are called to the marketplace. [...]
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We are continuing our exploration of pastor Jacob Vanhorn’s great questions on new media and the idea of “presence.” I’d like to isolate one-way vs. two-way communication approaches to gain presence. New media is all about two-way, though a remnant of one-way still holds sway in many circles, especially those where marketing budgets are [...]
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Following my essay on New Media and the Christian Message, pastor Jacob Vanhorn asked me:
How do you recommend balancing the very real value of ‘presence’ with the distance that is involved in much of new media? First from a theological idea of ‘presence’ and then implementation.
As a pastor on the street, I am asking:
What impact [...]
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“Man is now by nature a great, but tragic figure. Like some character in a Shakespearean tragedy, he still stands on center stage, but bears the marks of his own tragic destruction.”
- Sinclair Ferguson
—–
RECAP
As I have had time to reflect further, I see now that Ferguson’s statement succinctly captures the theological and existential tension [...]
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In a very important show of the underlying love and compassion of Christianity–often overlooked as Christians contend for the truthfulness of our claims over against left-liberal views–Dr. Al Mohler offered this exhortation today:
Pray for Ted Kennedy
-Albert Mohler
Sen. Edward Kennedy underwent brain surgery on Monday in an effort to deal with the deadly cancer [...]
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The comments by some dear friends (aka Randy, Paula, and Simon) on this post on American Idol are important and timely, and I am deeply grateful for them. They remind me the importance of setting some context for a post like that, especially since I am implicitly, if not explicitly, endorsing the show, even while [...]
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Posted in Christianity, Communication, Frontline Leadership, tagged american idol, christian, david archuleta, david cook, onerepublic, rocky, simon cowell on May 22, 2008 | 8 Comments »
Despite the fluff and immodesty of the American Idol finale shows, I found them thrilling and, if you don’t mind, even faith-building (Sorry, Kerrin!) . It’s for the same reason Rocky is my favorite movie and movie character of all time. It’s why my boys of 5 and 2 are already hearing repeatedly from Dad [...]
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