How The Internet Brings Us Together

I'm almost positive I've posted this before - many, many years ago - but in the midst of this presidential primary season, it seems particularly apropos. 

Thank you to Dave Walker for creating it.

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I just discovered [img] (better known to us non-graphic artist-y types as insert image) last week... and I want to recommend it to my readers who are

1. well-versed in evangelical subculture
2. have a sense of humor

Those of you who are not both 1 & 2 are still welcome to read it - it's a really great webcomic - but you're not really the target audience.

The creator (Wes Molebash) has tackled small group dynamics, hipster disciples, shy bladder syndrome, Christian celebrity, coffee enthusiasts, technology, eHarmony... and a host of other topics. It's funny & thought-provoking.

How Many Lumps Do You Want?

First things first - if you haven't seen the entire classic Bugs Bunny cartoon ("Rabbit's Kin"), you need to remedy that as soon as possible. (And while you're at it, make sure you see two other great Looney Tunes masterpieces: "Hair-Raising Hare" and "Rabbit Seasoning".)

More to the point, I feel an awful lot like Pete Puma right now, thanks to the reading & studying I'm getting the chance to do. (Being "between churches" means I have the luxury of studying without struggling to craft a message for next Sunday...)

It's as if God had a big hammer and was pounding a significant piece of capital T truth into my brain.

From Steve Brown's book, three free sins:

Prison, public humiliation, shame & failure are a big price to pay for freedom. But then again, maybe not. In fact, it may have been worth it all. Jim Bakker is dangerous now, because he doesn't have anything to protect.

From Paul David Tripps's book, Dangerous Calling:

In pastoral ministry, it is very tempting to look horizontally for what you have already been given in Christ. It is possible to be a pastor and a functional identity amnesiac. When I am, I begin to need my worth, inner sense of well-being, meaning, and purpose affirmed by the people & programs of the church. Rather than the hope & courage that come from resting my identity in Christ, my ministry becomes captured & shaped by the treasure of a series of temporary horizontal affirmations of my value & worth. This robs me of ministry boldness and makes me all too focused on how those in the circle of my ministry are responding to me.

From The Message (a Bible paraphrase), 2 Thessalonians 2:15-17:

So, friends, take a firm stand, feet on the ground and head high. Keep a tight grip on what you were taught, whether in personal conversation or by our letter. May Jesus himself and God our Father, who reached out in love and surprised you with gifts of unending help and confidence, put a fresh heart in you, invigorate your work, enliven your speech.

The question of the day is whether I'm going to take these knocks on my spiritual noggin seriously, or if I'm going to blow them off and default into a life & ministry defined by the opinion of everyone besides my Audience of One.

While doing studious (and important!) research for writing this piece, I stumbled upon What's Up, Doc: Top 10 Classic Looney Tunes Cartoons. Kiss productivity goodbye... and, of course, you're welcome.

Duty Calls

This Is Me

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Church History 101

Back when I was still in youth ministry (yes, yes, I know - prior to Y2K and my current fascination w/reality TV), I managed to run into a cartoonist named Rob Suggs. Well, Rob & I never actually met face-to-face... but somehow we connected (thanks to a short-lived humor newsletter he published) and exchanged snail mail.

Because Rob had a sense of humor, I felt comfortable telling him that one of my youth (hello, Kyle - weird that you're a responsible adult now) had nicknamed me the "Mack Daddy" because, I guess, I was always hugging & kissing Shari Jo. (That or he was being sarcastic - as I like Kyle & enjoy a certain personal ignorance about how I'm perceived by others, I'm going to go with the positive "I love my wife & I don't care who knows it" spin.) Rob began addressing all of his letters to me to the "Reverend Mack Daddy Jackson," which always caused some raised eyebrows from our secretarial staff.

I always thought it was cool that I had a "personal relationship" with Rob... since I'd been reading his cartoons since my college years, thanks to HIS magazine. (An aside: Relevant Magazine is really well done and is the spiritual heir of two great magazines - HIS, published by InterVarsity, and Cornerstone, published by JPUSA.)

One of the things I thought was really nifty was his Church History 101 series, in which he attempted to condense a couple of semesters of seminary classes into 7 pages of densely drawn & written "highlight reels". For the most part, I think he was successful... and so, when I found that these 20+ year old pages were available on Rob's website, I decided you needed to see them! (These were originally published in the aforementioned HIS magazine over the course of a school year.)

• Lesson One: Heroes & Heretics
• Lesson Two: Councils & Controversies
• Lesson Three: Crusades & Cathedrals
• Lesson Four: Rebellion & Reform
• Lesson Five: Reason & Revival
• Lesson Six: Activists & Academics
• Lesson Seven: Students Go for the Globe

I'll let our resident church historian (hi, Scott!) comment on these... but for most of you, this will be the most painless way to get a decent glimpse at the history of the Christian church with as little pain as possible.

The Gospel Blimp

Talk about a blast from the past! It's a pdf file... but it's worth your time to download & read, esp. if you're living somewhere inside the evangelical bubble. (And, yes, it's from the 70's - and isn't it interesting that it's still so timely?!)

Thanks to Reformissionary for pointing it out...

56 Geeks

This picture is:

• A. funny
• B. sad
• C. someone is following me around & drawing pictures of me
• D. all of the above

Seriously, I could qualify for at least 8 of those portraits over the span of my life. Yikes.

Sorry about no picture here & having to follow the link... but I don't want to steal this guy's thunder.

This Could SO Easily Be Me

from, no surprise, the Dilbert site...

Stumbling, Thanks to Firefox

I feel like a traitor.

A little history to explain:

• When I first connected with the Internet, I did so through CompuServe, back when the whole "World Wide Web" wasn't so worldwide & the folks at CompuServe primarily channeled you through their glorified BBS systems... and then, attempting to stem the tide, finally let users onto Usenet.
• My first real browser, when I graduated to actually using a browser, was Netscape Navigator, which I dearly loved. But when we changed from OS7 to, well, whatever we changed to, Netscape was pretty unstable in the new enviroment, leading me to...
• ...sell out to the Dark Side of the Force and begin using Internet Explorer. (The less said about this blighted period in my life, the better.)
• With our most recent computer upgrade, I had access to OSX and Apple's own browser, Safari - which I used (mostly) happily...
• ...until I visited my folks earlier this month and got to try out Firefox on my mom's Mac G5. The features were roughly comparable to Safari - but the thing that got me to turn traitor was that Blogspot (who host all of the blogs I write) supports Firefox & only has a patchwork editor in Safari.

Parting is such sweet sorrow.

The other thing that Firefox has given me is StumbleUpon, a weird little Web-cruising add-on that recommends sites based on your preferences. I've found some interesting things I'll be sharing you, starting with this picture with this post - Shari & I both laughed so hard at this we nearly cried. (Picture found at http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/pickover/pc/manwoman.html)

Strategery

This is not just a problem for businesses creating widgets... I've been around too many churches that live here, as well.

In fact, I wonder how many churches over the past 20 years declared their allegiance to the 7 Step Strategy or the 5 Purposes or the Emerging Conversation... and still do things pretty much the same way covered up with a thick layer of denial & bluster?

Sigh.

Find this cartoon at dilbert.com

Been There, Done That

This wouldn't be so darn funny if it hadn't actually happened to me once or twice. (Thankfully, not here at NewLife.)

Credits: found this on MMI who found it here

Pummeling Mr. Ed

Sometimes, in the church circles I run in, certain individuals talk about a piece of music or a particular event "speaking to them". Well, this bit of Dilbert spoke to me big-time about a number of areas of my life:

• Gaming: I am so very, very tired of the whole "Ameritrash/Eurosnoot" thing...
• Church: This goes double for the whole "private prayer language"/"beverage alcohol" snipe hunt some of the leadership in my denomination seem to think is more important than Christ-like character or actual reading of the Bible... (btw, if this doesn't make sense to you, don't sweat it. This is one of the those moments where Ira Glass is, sadly, wrong.)
• American Idol: If a faux-hawk made out of ponytails can't convince people to stop voting for Sanjaya, nothing can.

Cartoon Week Continues Here @ aka pastor guy

I found this on the GetReligion.org website... the story it's attached to isn't even the issue. The drawing is funny & sad & all-too-true... all at the same time.

What's your favorite pair? (If you're like me, you're not going to post that publicly.)

If we claim that we're free of sin, we're only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—he won't let us down; he'll be true to himself. He'll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing. If we claim that we've never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God—make a liar out of him. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God. 1 John 1:8-10 (The Message)

How The Internet Brings the World Together

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

You Too Can Be A Blogger

Absolutely no comment necessary.

Right?

Dogbert, Who Should Win "American Inventor" Hands Down

Dogbert may well have advanced the cause of psychology light years forward - putting him with such notables as Freud, Jung, & Homer J. Simpson. (Pithy quote: "Trying is the first step towards failure.")

Can you tell it's been a rough week? :-)

No surprise... this is a Dilbert cartoon.

If Only...

...oh, if only I could have seen this version of Titanic first. I'd have 3 hours of my life back.

Bun-O-Vision

thanks to Invisible Craig for showing me the light!

I Feel This Way On Mondays...

...thankfully, not every Monday. Now, here's hoping our new worship & youth pastor doesn't take this wrong. (He he he... hi, Aaron!)

Theologian of the Year: Dogbert

This is brilliant. Ab-so-lutely brilliant. from dilbert.com