Around the Horn – 1.14.10

Bible Reading Plan for 2010
If you don’t have a Bible reading plan, it’s still early enough to start.  Here’s a wonderful plan and here are some of the features of it:  The OT prophets are placed in (roughly) where they would have ministered chronologically. This helps break up the monotony of reading through huge chunks of narrative and prophets, by intermixing the two. It also helps you understand the historical and redemptive context for the prophets; The NT is organized into bodies of literature. You begin with the the Johannine body of literature (all the books written by John). Then you read Matthew and the other books written particularly for Jews. Next you read through Luke-Acts, you read through material written for Gentile audiences. Finally, there is Mark and Peter.  Overall, the variety and structure helps to ‘change things up’ enough that it doesn’t feel like every other time you’ve tried to read through the Bible.

Top 15 Signs Your Sermon Isn’t Going Well
Hmmmm.

National Cancer Institute Admits Abortion and Breast Cancer Link
U.S. National Cancer Institute researcher Dr. Louise Brinton, who was the chief organizer of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) workshop in 2003 that persuaded women that it was “well established” that “abortion is not associated with increased breast cancer risk,” has reversed her position and now admits that abortion and oral contraceptives raise breast cancer risks.

Long Live Organic Church!
What is Organic Church?  The term is fluid, but it contains at least three ingredients: Frustration with the-church-as-we-know-it, a focus on people (vs. programs) and mission (vs. institutional maintenance), and a vision to transform the world.

Porn – There’s An App for That
A free accountability software that runs in the background on your computer and scans your web browsing history.

Royally In Denial – 60,000 People Leave Episcopal Church in Last Two Years
Living Church Magazine reports that in 2007-08 our average Sunday attendance declined by 60,000 people. Ponder that reality: 60,000 people who were worshiping in Episcopal churches in 2006 were no longer there two years later. Buildings might remain, but no real churches. Imagine all those people, the equivalent of eleven whole dioceses, walking out of church one day and not returning. That is what has happened in the Episcopal Church in the space of two years.

Voice of The Martyrs
Around the world today, Christians suffer because they choose to follow Christ. From North Korea, where the dictatorship promotes itself as a godhead, to Somalia where Muslim militants execute Christians, to Colombia where believers exist in the midst of violent guerilla groups, followers of Jesus continue to dare to live for Christ.

The Risk of Catastrophic Victory
Another interesting article by Peggy Noonan.  The title alone is brilliant.

The Sacrament of the Sneer
We are presented with two models of discourse: Hume, in an angry sea of loss and tragedy — his son’s death in 1998 — found a life preserver in faith. He offered that life preserver to another drowning man. The other model has come from critics such as Shales, in a spittle-flinging rage at the mention of religion in public, comparing Hume to “Mary Poppins on the joys of a tidy room, or Ron Popeil on the glories of some amazing potato peeler.” Shales, of course, is engaged in proselytism of his own — for a secular fundamentalism that trivializes and banishes all other faiths. He distributes the sacrament of the sneer.  Who in this picture is more intolerant?

The Name of Jesus
I find it interesting how things can often occupy Christians’ minds. Sometimes our preoccupations are healthy, when they are the very things that preoccupy Jesus. But other times we become so preoccupied with secondary things that, in essence, they become idols.