Random Acts of Linkage #26

I suppose I should dub this the back-to-school edition of my weekly Random Acts of Linkage. By the series number, I guess it’s also the 6-month mark. I have a lot of “remaindered” stuff at the moment, as I’ve been setting aside a few topics for further reflection once I get a little further past the missional series, which is now 14 posts… the most recent one contains a sidebar with links to the preceding ones. Meanwhile, I’m still thinking about the nature of Christian community, and what a missional community looks like in relation to that.

1. Which wolf will you feed?
2. Tim Bednar’s Semi-definitive list of “church sector” Web 2.0 applications: an old post that mysteriously popped up in my RSS reader this week.
3. Time:
   

   At a time when the country was bitterly debating the role of religion in public life, we thought [Billy] Graham’s 50-year courtship of–and courtship by–11 Presidents was a story that needed to be told. Perhaps more than anyone else, he had shaped the contours of American public religion and had seen close up how the Oval Office affects people. We wondered what the world’s most powerful men wanted from the world’s most famous preacher.

   from Billy Graham, Pastor In Chief.

4. American Rhetoric: Top 100 Speeches, ranked and available as text, with most also in MP3. #95, Elie Wiesel: The Perils of Indifference; JFK gets 6 spots on the list, all in the top 50 — no bonus points for guessing what #1 is, by a man with 3 spots of his own in the top 50. 6 entries for FDR, who has two of the top five.
5. 200 More Links: Time’s list of 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present and OpenCulture Audiobook Podcast Collection – Download Free Audiobooks (lists downloadable MP3 Audio books plus a number of podcasts in case you can’t get enough.)
6. Heather rejects authority, or at least that “under the covering” kind of teaching about authority where if we don’t listen to our pastor, the devil will mess us up and God won’t stop him. Or something like that. “Call me an anarchist,” she says. Okay… and good on ya, Heather.
7. You know, I was joking when I said that we should replace the word “missional” with something like “missionist.” I guess I was close though, as it looks like Dave DeVries has given up on the Wikipedia definition of “missional” and coined a new word for himself: he’s a “missionalist”, which uses more exclamation marks but is otherwise related to missional, with specific qualifications — and he’s looking for more of them. Me, I’m not even done defining “missional” yet! ;^)
8. Speaking of the verbage, Dan Kimball says missional = emerging church. I think I’ve covered that one early on in my series as an “alternate” meaning, but not, I think, a helpful one. Kimball rightly suggests that the missional “part of the conversation certainly seems to be gaining steam and interest from churches of all types. So I really hope the missional outward thinking is something that grows stronger and lasts.” The problem is, if we use the term “missional” interchangeably with “emerging church” as Kimball and others do, it will hinder the acceptance of missional thought in traditional churches.
9. In the ongoing poster-wars, there are the posters of the week which take a very direct swipe at the boys whose mothers never told them not to play with matches, nor to say nothing at all if they can think of nothing nice. These ones are seriously amusing… “Grace” is a highlight. ;^)
10. Three missional book recommendations from Scot McKnight, and a few more resources recommended by Alan Roxburgh
11. Easter Egg — Google Earth’s Hidden Surprise: A Flight Simulator
12. Bob (who is never short of madmen) is doing his own series on a proposed kind of missional order for their community to cycle through in four stages: renovation, mission, diversity, and community. 6 posts: Missional Order, MO: Part 1- Renovation, MO: Part 2 – Mission, MO: Part 3 – Diversity, MO: Part 4 – Community, and MO: Reprise. Maybe he should consider joining a group of us (including TSK) to discuss further next month… there’s still some room, but space is limited.
13. Many mentions of Pavarotti’s passing… he sang with just about everyone — some more unlikely than others.
14. New blog on the block: Geography of Grace. Dig the tagline — “Grace is like water it flows downhill and pools up in the lowest places.” Now that’s chewy.
15. If you know what a CLB is without using the mouseover to check, you might resonate with being All Meetinged Out. I winced at the first paragraph… formerly known as a meeting attender?
16. Bob Hyatt points out a fair critique of the emerging church.
17. Jonny Baker reviews Tess Ward’s Celtic Wheel of the Year: Old Celtic and Christian Prayers — looks like a good resource.
18. Several people have highlighted Sally Morgenthaler’s article at Allelon — it’s a painfully insightful read for anyone who is or was involved in worship, and for the rest of us who just felt worship-driven.
19. Speaking of -driven on the charismaniac fringe, I really enjoyed Craig Van Gelder’s article on Spirit-Led Ministry. I think I’ve mentioned that several of us have been seeing the need for more talk of the Holy Spirit in the (emerging and) missional conversation.