An Alluring, But Possibly Misguided, Strategy For Change

While reading about Francis Schaffer, I ran across an interesting Wiki article on "Dominionism," essentially the idea that we should establish political policies based on religious beliefs.

While at first glance, the idea of our laws and national policies flowing out of our deeply-held religious convictions seems good, I can't help but wonder - does such a strategy actually crowd out the Gospel as the change-agent, and instead replace it with a human-centric construct? I'm all in favor of our laws reflecting godly principles, but are the laws themselves the engine that will produce life-change in men and women, and thus what we should striving for, or is communicating via our life the Good News of the gospel, the real difference maker?

For an interesting look at this concept, check out Jon Meacham's American Gospel.


Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

Lists and Links

Cool sites you might (or might not) know about:

• Newseum Newspaper front page images - check out the daily front pages of over 400 newspapers from around North America and the world.
• Center for Parent/Youth Understanding - Walt Mueller's site about all-things-youth-culture
• Mentalfloss.com - it's descriptive phrase says it all. "Where knowledge junkies get their fix."
• E-Sword.net - free, quite comprehensive, Bible study software.
• C-Span.org - politics, history, fascinating archives, etc.

Speaking of lists, be sure to check out ninetyandnine.com's first all "Top 10" issue this coming week.


Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

Ephemeron

Lots of unrelated stuff today ...

• Bought a new (used) car yesterday. To quote my salesman, "the internet has changed everything. Now, there's so much information out there." Gone are the days of oily-haired, slick, sleight-of-mouth hawkers of drivable wares. Now, it's reputation that's king. Bad experiences at a dealership means bad pub which means slow sales. Fortunately, I had a good experience (if that's what you can call arranging finance agreements after the Feds have raised rates 16 times.) We got a good car at a decent price. Of course, my wife gets to drive it more than I do.
• Duct tape. Nothing is more versatile. Now my fellow ninetyandnine bloggers have taken it to another level.
• So a guy says he killed JonBenet Ramsey. But now, the confession is being questioned. My take - the loss of JonBenet ten years ago was indeed tragic. But what about all the kids who are abducted, abused or killed? Why the utter fascination by the talking heads about one particular case? Though again, it's utterly tragic, there are JonBenet's everywhere, and nobody seems to make nearly as big a deal about them.
• One of the greatest words in the English language is "home." For the first time in quite a while, I get to be there this weekend.

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

Missions and the Y Chromosome

Interesting discussion about mission trips in the General Youth Division today.

In our weekly GYD Staff Meeting this morning, we talked about Apostolic Youth Corps (AYC) and the students who are signing up for long-term missions trips (this is a new "feature" of AYC that we began offering this year, in addition to the more traditional short term summer trips).

In January 2006 we had three young ladies spend three months at the University of Warsaw in Warsaw, Poland. This fall we'll be having, you guessed it, three young ladies (different individuals) serving three months in Costa Rica.

Here's my question. Where are the guys? Believe me, we'll send whomever is willing to go, and we're thrilled to send just ladies, but fellas, where are you? Any ideas on the apparent gender disparity for long-term (multiple months) mission commitments?

By the way, speaking of mission trips, the GYD hosted an AYC trip to Honduras this summer. The Missouri District Youth Department is currently hosting a similar trip to Honduras, and a young adult is blogging. Good stuff.


Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

A Monday Walk

My oldest daughter started kindergarten yesterday. I had been scheduled to speak at a church on Sunday night, which would mean that I would be unable to get home to walk her to school on her first day. So ... I cancelled being at the church Sunday night and came home that afternoon.

Preaching is great. But walking your baby to school? No comparison.


Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!