Indexed: X=Y, Joy = Bacon
The other day, a friend Dylan introduced me to Indexed, a blog of insightful but funny graphs like this:
I’m now absolutely hooked, so wanted to point you towards it and share some of my favourites with you:
Category: Resources & Media
5 Top Blog Posts for January
So, over the last month I’ve been attempting to organise my blogging a lot more, focusing on investing time in the topics I want to research and learn more of and trying to be more methodical and more consistent with my writing.
I’d like to invite you to read over some of the popular posts you missed, and feel free to comment or discuss anything you find interesting. Here are some of the posts over the last month which have proved most popular with you guys:
AVATAR: 4 Perspectives on the Top Grossing Film Ever
Avatar is now officially the top grossing film of all-time worldwide, making (so far) $1,849,317,325 at the box office – that’s 1.85 billion dollars. I saw it a couple of weeks ago and was captivated simply by the sheer epic proportions of the film, let alone the wealth of meaning and metaphor behind it.
Since Avatar’s release bloggers, journalists and critics have attempted to analyse and reflect on the meaning behind the film. Here are four very different perspectives I’ve read recently, which all bring a different insight into the film’s setting and storyline:
Mission as Identity
We need to understand participation in God’s Mission as part of our very identity as followers of Jesus. Tim Chester got it spot on, writing on his blog yesterday:
For many people mission has become an event. We have guest services. Evangelistic courses. Street preaching. Youth programmes. There’s nothing wrong with these things. But mission is more than a slot into our schedules. It is an identity and a lifestyle. Mission is about living all of life, ordinary life, with gospel intentionality.
Haiti: The Church’s Finest Hour
World Relief has been empowering local churches to respond to the disaster in Haiti. From their news update:
Haiti’s local churches are rising to the challenge in their quake-ravaged communities – feeding and providing shelter for thousands of the most vulnerable survivors.
By the weekend, four local churches partnering with World Relief will be feeding 9,500 people hot meals – rice and beans for lunch and porridge for dinner – every day.
A local church in the Carrefour area has opened its doors to those who lost their homes, providing refuge for nearly 6,000 people in the community. Stepping out in faith, Pastor Jean Bathard Anthony began feeding the people with what few supplies he had. Now World Relief has come alongside Pastor Jean, assisting with food and water.
Haiti Emergency Appeal
Some of you may have noticed that I’ve added banners for Tearfund’s Haiti Appeal to the blog over the last few days.
Please consider either giving through Tearfund, an agency I trust wholeheartedly, or by following their link to the Disasters Emergency Committee website – and pray.
For more news and prayer points on the situation in Haiti click here.
The Evangelical Universalist: Does everyone get to go to heaven?
I’ve been following with interest Scot McKnight’s Jesus Creed blog, where he’s recently begun working through the rather contentious book: The Evangelical Universalist. Since it’s such a controversial theological issue, but also one which often sparks huge interest, I thought I’d draw your attention to Scot’s discussion of the book’s main arguments.
Are Mission and Worship the same?
I really enjoyed reading Julie Clawson’s reflections on the Missional Church and Worship, posted on her blog last week.
I think she’s spot on that there has to be something deeper to our worship than just the “cultural habits” of whatever style of worship music happens to be cool or whatever methods of prayer or devotion are currently in fashion.
Need design-work/web design/film production?
Three friends – Matt, Stef and Tom – have been hard at work launching their design business: The House That Love Built.
These guys are seriously three of the most talented people that I’ve ever met, each in their own media/design fields. Check out their growing portfolio of work on the THTLB website.
Top Blog Posts of 2009 and Plans for 2010
It’s that time of the year to look back over another year of blogging, and begin to form plans and ideas for the next year.
The most viewed blog post in 2009 was actually written in December 2008. Missional engagement and reflective learning was an explanation of some quick observations I made about the link between engaging in mission and the reflective learning cycle.
Here’s a quick quote from the original post (after the jump):
