Check out this video our student ministry, The Rock, made for their upcoming New Year’s Aid event.
Love it. The statistics are incredibly powerful and are presented in an engaging way so that you don’t just forget them. Huge props to them for this video, and for the event, which if you’ve been around MBC for a little while you’ll know is a pretty awesome event that does a ton of good.
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Category: Random
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If you know me then chances are you know that The David Crowder*Band is probably my favorite band around. I’ve seen them several times in concert and I absolutely love listening to them.
They bring a freshness to the Christian music genre with their amazing music (which is always on the edge and well, just different) and their thoughtful and poetic lyrics.
I got the chance the other night to attend their concert down in DC and it was pretty incredible. I went with a big group of friends and after the show we got the chance to go backstage and meet the band briefly.
I wish I could get hair like this.
Anyhow, if you haven’t checked out their new CD, “Church Music,” you owe it to yourself to pick it up.
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Category: Christian Music
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Life Lesson #2: It always pays to read the WHOLE ingredients list. The comma, in fact, does not indicate the end of the ingredient.
What’s even more funny is that this is the second time I have completely missed that clause and had just put cold chocolate chips into the mix. It’s only after the fact that I underlined the part about melting it. What’s even funnier is that we got the bright idea to somewhat melt the chocolate to soften it up this time. Only to realize a few minutes later we should have melted it all the way.
Life Lesson #3: Sometimes when you go off-book it turns out even better.
The end result today was a semi-chocolatey icing with chocolate chunks. It actually is a lot more fun that just boring chocolate icing. So sometimes the directions are just telling you the tried and true.
Going off the beaten path can be more risky, but the rewards are usually higher.
Oh, and in case you’re curious, here’s the end result:
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Category: Life Lessons
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A study recently came out by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, which said that, contrary to popular belief, Internet use is not linked to isolation, but rather is helpful in creating more diverse social networks.
I think that we can all agree that Facebook, Twitter, and the myriad other social networking sites out there increase the size of our networks, and increase the diversity of people we know.
However, it is a stretch to say that they create deeper relationships (which the study does not claim, but people seem to be jumping to that conclusion) or that the relationships are even the same.
In fact, the study says that our “core” networks, the people we can talk to about very important issues in our lives, have actually shrunk.
The 2008 survey of 2,512 adults did find that Americans’ core discussion networks — that group of people you count on being able to confide in — has gotten smaller in the past two decades. It’s down, on average, to about two people instead of three. They’ve also become less diverse because they contain fewer friends and more family members.
From Yahoo! News
I think the new normal we are entering into is one where we are becoming stretched thin because of the over-emphasis on utilizing technology alone to interact with people.
Author Shane Hipps says this in his book, Flickering Pixels (which I highly recommend for anyone interested in the intersection of technology and faith):
“Our nomadic life is a strange one. We drift and journey alone. However, because we are constantly bumping up against digital avatars and acquaintances, we are hardly aware of our isolation. Electronic technology can fragment us even as we pursue connection.”
We are unaware of our true isolation because we are constantly coming into contact with something that, by itself, cannot serve as a replacement.
I am not saying that online community or connections are invalid. Quite the opposite. The study proves that people in fact grow and diversify their community through the use of online tools. I am highly in favor of this! In fact, I think that everyone should utilize technology to do just this.
However, I think that it must be a compliment to physical interaction and community. We cannot become so reliant on technology (whether that is the internet, phones, or whatever may come) to keep us together that we become disconnected physically.
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Category: Internet Campus, Thoughts on Ministry
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