Archive - Books RSS Feed

Hell – we can’t afford to be wrong

July 18, 2011 in Books

I recently preached on the topic ‘How can a loving God send people to hell?’, and I’ve continued to reflect on this topic, not least of all with all the discussion generated around Rob Bell’s ‘Love Wins’.

On Saturday night after church, I read ‘Erasing Hell’ by Francis Chan and Preston Sprinkle.

For a number of reasons it was a valuable read.

It acknowledged the heart-wrenching difficulties of this topic, and combined this with a strong desire to let God be God, and to honour Scripture.

It provided some correction, for example, the overwhelming lack of evidence for Bell’s contention that ‘hell is a garbage dump’, concluding “Much of what Bell says about hell relies upon a legend from the Middle Ages” (pages 56-61).

I also appreciated the seriousness with which Chan and Sprinkle approach the book. Right up front, they explain what is at stake with this doctrine:

“So I [Chan] decided to write a book about hell. And honestly – I’m scared to death.

I’m scared because so much is at stake. Think about it. If I say there is no hell, and it turns out that there is a hell, I may lead people into the very place I convinced them did not exist! If I say there is a hell, and I’m wrong, I may persuade people to spend their lives frantically warning loved ones about a terrifying place that isn’t real! When it comes to hell, we can’t afford to be wrong. This is not one of those doctrines where you can toss in your two cents, shrug your shoulders, and move on. Too much is at stake. Too many people are at stake. And the Bible has too much to say.” (pages 14-15)

I commend it to you.

Responding to the internet revolution

October 1, 2009 in Books, Christian Living, for Churches, Outreach, Pastors

I’ve come across two videos that neatly illustrate the rate at which the internet is growing, and the ways in which it is changing how we communicate, educate, create and distribute content, access information – just to name a few. Take a look at these two videos below. After you’ve seen them, ponder the following questions (and share your answers in the comments section):

1. which of the facts and figures do you find most staggering?
2. what are the implications for Christian living and ministry?

I’ve got my own thoughts (naturally!), but I’m keen to hear from you first.

Video 1: Did You Know 4.0

Video 2: Social Media Revolution

Study reveals technology driving generation gaps

April 28, 2009 in Books, for Churches, Outreach, Pastors

The Barna Group have just completed a study exploring “how technology is shaping different experiences and expectations among generations.” The study was done in America, but the results and implications are similar (I think) in other countries, such as Australia. I suggest you read the overview, but here are a couple of things I found interesting:

“Several spiritual elements were classified as emerging among the youngest three generations: listening to church podcasts and visiting their church website (measured for past year, not the past week). For their part, Elders have yet to move beyond limited digital access to spiritual content.”

Reflection: because different generations access technology differently, the people who are running churches (or holding the purse strings) need to be aware that people in their congregations and communities might be using technology (e.g. the internet) in different ways to how they do. This in turn affects our willingness to implement or try new technologies – church websites, podcasts, vodcats, Twitter, etc. You may not listen to podcasts, but if younger people in your church want to listen to your sermon on their ipod during the week – why not?!

“For church leaders, it is notable that a minority of churchgoing Mosaics and Busters are accessing their congregation’s podcasts and website. While technology keeps progressing and penetrating every aspect of life, churches have to work hard to keep pace with the way people access and use content, while also instructing churchgoers on the potency of electronic tools and techniques.”

Reflection: like it or not, technology is advancing at a pace never witnessed before. It’s hard to keep up with how technology is changing and being used. In part, this is why I launched Communicate Jesus – to help you stay on top of some of these advances. But it does open up some exciting possibilities for our ministries. Of course, these need to be considered and not adopted thoughtlessly, but let’s harness the potential, and discuss with one another the possibilities, without being scared off completely by the dangers.

On a related note, there’s interesting discussion on the pros and cons of Mars Hills global video campus plans, currently taking place at Michael Kellahan’s blog.

Read the media release with an overview of the study results.

Do you have any further reflections after reading the overview?

Trying to understand technology

February 12, 2009 in Books

“First we thought the PC was a calculator. Then we found out how to turn numbers into letters with ASCII – and we thought it was a typewriter. Then we discovered graphics, and we thought it was a television. With the World Wide Web, we’ve realised it’s a brochure”.

- Douglas Adams (quoted in “The reason your church must Twitter“)

A Delicious solution to managing your library

February 9, 2009 in Books, Christian Living, Pastors

Steve Boxwell is a student at Bible college who, among other things, loves books. This week, we’ve asked Steve to share how he stays on top of his large (and growing) book collection. If you have other suggestions for how to stay on top of your book collection, we’d love you to share them.

…

It’s one of the cruel architectural realities of Moore College that the fastest way for me to get home from class of an afternoon is through the College bookstore, Moore Books. This coupled with a book reading (and hoarding) habit spanning over a decade has meant that my book collection has become, well…biggish.

With a large personal library containing many gems of wisdom, I wanted to make it a resource that friends from church, College and the like could really benefit from, without the stress for me of having to remember where the books have all gone, and then chase them up.

Enter Delicious Library 2, which is a nifty little programme for Mac that I stumbled across late last year. It enables me to keep a digital record of all the books I own, where they are now and who has borrowed them in the past. Using the built in camera on my Macbook, I scan the barcode and it searches Amazon for the book’s details.

scanning-a-book

The book then appears on my digital shelf with all sorts of details, including current market value and even its Dewey decimal number for the anally retentive amongst us. CD, DVDs, board games and even power tools can also be kept in the Delicious library.

Delicious has heaps of features that I don’t use yet, but let me tell you how I am using it and three areas where I think it could be a helpful ministry tool.

  1. The first and most obvious way is that it takes the hard work out of loaning books. People rarely mean to steal Christian literature but sadly our memories often fail us and books may never return to their owner, thus preventing you from lending them out to others. Delicious synchronises with iCal (a calendar programme for Mac), so after a period of time which you can set, a polite automated email is sent out asking the borrower to please return the resource.
  2. Secondly, it keeps a record of all your books, which may come in handy for insurance purposes. Should something happen to our books, I would hopefully not have to quibble with my insurer over whether or not I am entitled to buy the New Bible Dictionary again.

    3. library-screenshot

  3. Thirdly, it empowers others to ask to borrow your books. The web publishing option means your friends or congregation can search part or all of your collection to see if you’ve got something on a topic that they might want to know more about. In an age where knowledge is a commodity, it’s nice that there are resources encouraging us to share what we have with one another.

Delicious does have limitations. As I mentioned, it searches Amazon for details about your books and as there is no Australian chapter (pardon the pun) of Amazon as yet, it means that books published in Australia may not be recognised. This just means you will have to enter them manually, which is quite straightforward. I have been pleasantly surprised by what it has recognised – of my 500ish books, only 20 of them weren’t found and most of those were obscure books put out by tiny publishers. Older books that pre-date the barcode (or even the ISBN) aren’t a problem as there are a range of other search options that mean your digital library accurately reflects your physical one.

Delicious is a free download for trial, and licensing costs $40US. To find out about the full range of features and to download it for yourself visit www.delicious-monster.com.

4 tech/ministry books on the menu

February 4, 2009 in Books

Four books have made their way onto my reading list this month (a couple might roll-over to next month!):

Have you read any of these? What did you think?

I’ll be reviewing them in future posts. Feel free to read along with me – it’ll be interesting to compare notes.

Page 1 of 212»