Year: 2009

  • Why Piper’s Going to Tweet

    If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em?

    So far I’ve been resisting Twitter. I have an account, and as of this afternoon, 11 followers. I signed up several weeks ago but until this afternoon had not posted a tweet.

    When I invited pros and cons on a recent Facebook post, cons outweighed the pros by about 7:1. My schedule is pretty full and I’d rather build in some margin for my soul than follow hundreds of my friends’ latest meal selection. I’m an early adopter, but tech still has to earn its way into my calendar.

    Enter Pastor John Piper, who I know feels far more strongly and deeply about media intrusion than I do. Yet, Piper says he’s going to Tweet:

    I see two kinds of response to social Internet media like blogging, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and others.

    One says: These media tend to shorten attention spans, weaken discursive reasoning, lure people away from Scripture and prayer, disembody relationships, feed the fires of narcissism, cater to the craving for attention, fill the world with drivel, shrink the soul’s capacity for greatness, and make us second-handers who comment on life when we ought to be living it. So boycott them and write books (not blogs) about the problem.

    The other response says: Yes, there is truth in all of that, but instead of boycotting, try to fill these media with as much provocative, reasonable, Bible-saturated, prayerful, relational, Christ-exalting, truth-driven, serious, creative pointers to true greatness as you can. [more]

    Still thinking about it. Convince me.

  • Twenty Years Ago Today…

    Who can forget the grainy image of one courageous student staring down a column of tanks? Twenty years ago today the Chinese government chose lethal force to deal with a swelling student-led movement in Tiananmen Square. That fateful decision appears to have triggered one of the greatest spiritual awakenings in church history. The exponential growth of China’s church in the past two decades, particularly among the educated elite, is nothing short of miraculous.

    The idea that students can change the world is not a new one. King Nebuchadnezzar understood this when he selected Daniel and his three Israelite friends to receive the best education Babylon had to offer 2,600 years ago. The king sought attractive, skilled, wise and competent youths to be educated for three years. At the end of that time they were to stand before the king. (Daniel 1:1-7) In the same way, today’s governments, corporations and advertisers invest millions of dollars each year attempting to influence students and the choices they will make for the rest of their lives.

    Like it or not, today’s students will shape tomorrow’s culture.


  • How Do You Measure a Man?

    Here’s a pretty good plumb line:

    The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stand at times of challenge and controversy. – Martin Luther King Jr.