Random Acts of Linkage #103

We begin with the traditional series that passes for humour — this week it’s bad puns and a classic comic panel. You have to respect a comic panel that has its own Wikipedia entry.

I just “affixed” a stamp to an envelope as the envelope instructed me to do. I realised that I enjoy affixing stamps. Does this make me a stamp affixionado?
My friend Max hates going up steep hills. He’s always been a bit of an anti-climb Max.
A man was charged with stealing ducks from a local pond in a small English village. When in court, the judge asked how he pleaded. He replied ‘Not guilty Mallard’.
My Father was a brick layer before he was sent to prison; to this day he still isn’t a free mason.
Our local Catholic church has plans to bring their parishioners to services by bus. They plan to call it mass transit.
A chicken crossing the road: poultry in motion.
A will is a dead giveaway.
Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
A backward poet writes inverse.
A plateau is a high form of flattery.
The short fortuneteller who escaped from prison: a small medium at large.

Yes, well, step right this way to the linkage…

Turns out I missed all of U2 Week on Letterman, but I can’t wait for their next album “Songs of Ascent” (via via).
New Toys, Same Problem: Evangelicals, Evangelism and the New “Altar Call”
David Fitch: Instilling Missional Habits in a Congregation — As You Walk Among Your Community. Excellent insights here.
“Christianity was born when an unnamed disciple looked into a tomb and saw that Jesus wasn’t history.” — Unknown, via Matt Stone
Another quote: “Torture is the imagination of the state. Eucharist is the imagination of the church.” — William Kavanagh, Torture and Eucharist: Theology, Politics, and the Body of Christ
A bit more definitional missional — Pam Hogeweide: The Missional Gig = LOVE
Do these mysterious stones mark the site of the Garden of Eden? (via) — seem just a bit farfetched?
Speaking of the literal Garden of Eden, give some good thought to Reading the Bible 101
omg. I seem to have an alarmingly high percentage of Christian Hipster about me. But shouldn’t that be “Jesus-Follower-Hipster”? I feel so…. categorized.
Two minutes with John Piper: Are You a Church or a Club?
Speaking of Piper, he’s issued a statement Testing David Wilkerson’s Prophecy, something Wilkerson calls An Urgent Message. I’m pretty much with Piper on this one. iMonk rants on it as well, taking on evangelical apocalyptic mania. He suggests giving examples of apocalyptic fever — my favorite is When Your Money Fails by Mary Stewart Relfe, Ph.D. Great stuff that I have catalogued under “humour” even though she didn’t mean it that way. I guess maybe Anwar Sadat really wasn’t the Antichrist after all, though.
Speaking of charismania, it seems Rick Joyner has issued a statement on Todd Bentley, who has remarried now (via). In the almost nine months since the implosion of the Lakeland thing, Bentley has stepped down from ministry, gotten divorced, been through “a true season of brokenness, hiddenness, [sic] and a long process of grieving” in addition to getting remarried and now seeking restoration to ministry. I’d comment further, but… meh. Status quo, not much else to say, is there?
Giant Gummy Bear … on a Stick Just making sure you’re still with me, still reading. No really, get yours for $9.95 …on a stick.
Is IE8 the end of the line for Internet Explorer? One can only hope… it would be to the utter joy of web developers everywhere. Unfortunately, they’ll be replacing it with something else that I’m sure they’ll find a way to screw up somehow. (via)
The event was extraordinary; get a closer look: Convincing Computer Animation Recreates Hudson Plane Landing
Are You Recession Ready? — “Churches stepped up after Katrina and Ike. Now we’re facing an economic hurricane.”
What happened to my blog last weekend, for any interested geeks.
Hey, did I mention I received a Millennia Award for Personal Participatory Media? Way cool, I’m joining a short-list of some pretty great people.
1000 Awesome Things
CNN: America becoming less Christian, survey finds. You’re all shocked, I know. via
This one’s for Scot McKnight: Patent Office. Original baseball patented 1883 by S.D. Castle
Now I’ve not been much of a fan of Willow Creek or the megachurch generally. But. There genuinely are a few good things that the megachurch can do by virtue of their size. And then I read where Tony Stiff asks, “What happens with Bill Hybels and Bono meet to talk about the church and aids? The answer took me through to an 8-part video series on YouTube with Hybels talking, interviewing Bono, challenging a group of pastors, and introducing World Vision, with some good concert footage as a side bonus. (You can click through to the other 7 parts from the link.)
Forge aligns with Missio
On Christian Pacifism: The Folly of the Cross: Groothuis’s Response to my ‘Confession’
Dan Edelen: A Dozen Sayings of Jesus That Will Change the World–If Christians Ever Believe Them
Committing breakfast in our hearts
A whole new perspective on commercial real estate — Willis Group Gets Free Naming Rights for Sears Tower. wow.
The New Calvinism in Time
unClick Google will make my AdSense revenues spike upward?
And finally, Remembering the Day the World Wide Web Was Born — Happy Birthday to the WWW.