PILL BUG OR ROLY POLY?

The Viral Marketing Blog links to a REALLY cool site that offers a huge database of mapped dialect survey results for more than 100 questions.

Check it out!

10 TIPS ON WRITING THE LIVING WEB

Found a great article for those who write regularly on a blog or website. Check it out here.


(Thanks Jordan for the link.)

MY WIFE...

My wife, Amanda (who is pregnant) and I just saw a trailer for "The Passion of The Christ" on TV and she said:

"I'm gonna be a mess when we go to that movie because I cry when I watch a tuna fish commercial."

Ahhh... The joys of a pregnant wife.

LATE LATE FRIDAY NIGHT

It's 1:08AM and I've done nothing for the past 2 hours except watch The Nick & Jessica Show. Now I'm flipping between MTV's Unplugged featuring Nirvana and The Food Network.

I'm happy because I get to sleep in tomorrow.

Goodnight.

MARKETING THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST

Viral Marketing Blog has an interesting perspective on the marketing of The Passion of the Christ movie.

SCHAUMBURG STARBUCKS



Took a trip up to Schaumburg today to get away and focus on some things. This Starbucks is probably the coolest one I've ever seen (although there were some nice ones in NYC). This one easily seats over 100 people, has meeting areas which can be curtained off and even has very large bathrooms - which is nice, should you decide you want to do calisthenics after you pee.

CHRISTIAN TV ALMOST MADE ME BACKSLIDE TONIGHT

I just watched the most repulsive Christian TV show I think I’ve ever seen. It was a show featuring 2 individuals – one, a former celebrity and the other guy, an evangelist.

While I’m sure that their motives and hearts are in the right place, their approach to reaching people for Christ is, in my opinion, completely judgmental and tacky. They were street witnessing, using the Ten Commandments as a tool to help people see how sinful they are so that they could “sell” God to them.

For example, they were making the point, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain” and they were doing a street interview asking a woman if she had ever done that and after finally understanding what she was being asked she replied with, “Yes, I’ve done that.” The evangelist’s immediate response was, “Well then you blasphemed God!” She immediately looked perplexed.

In other scenes this guy was street witnessing and he wouldn’t even give people a chance to respond – he wouldn’t shut his mouth! He kept shooting out his “Christian” one-liners and “selling” his message. These people looked more confused after being approach then beforehand! My guess is that these people won’t be visiting a “Christian” church for a while.

What’s interesting is that they didn’t even actually show anyone “converting” on the show. Hmmm… I wonder why?!

What the @#*&$@*#&$ is wrong with people? This is why the unchurched of America think that Christians are a bunch of judgmental weirdos. To a large degree, they’re right.

I have to go now and get some Tums and then apologize to my TV for screaming at it.

How to never lose Pepsi's iTunes giveaway



A website has magically revealed how to never lose the Pepsi iTunes giveaway.

Is this about the equivilent of someone forgetting to proof the cover of Time Magazine?

Gotta run - lots of Pepsi's to buy.

See, I like these people's sense of humor.

EMERGING CHURCHES IN NEW YORK TIMES

The New York Times is writing about some emerging churches in Minneapolis and a few other places. Good article... (you have to be registered to read it. )

(Thanks Chris.)

NEW INTERNET WORMS SPREADING

FYI:

MSNBC is reporting about a new email worm rapidly making its way to a lot of people.

Please do not send it to me. Thanks.

FONTIFIER

Fontifier lets you design your own custom font based on your own handwriting for only $9. Pretty cool.

CHURCH'S FOCUS ON URBAN MISSIONS



I spent a couple of hours today in good conversation with two friends – Jim Larson (those are his feet...) and Matt Hook (nice meeting you Matt!) at a new coffeehouse downtown Aurora. Jim and Matt are involved in a local house church in Aurora. It was interesting and educational for me to hear how they are working at creating community in the urban environment of Aurora.

We talked about a lot of stuff, but the part I enjoyed discussing the most was our response (actually total guesses) to a question posed by Jim. The question was, “How do we help the modern/postmodern/emerging/etc. church become (or remain) globally minded, specifically towards missions (and in their case, urban missions)?”

Good question. Is it just a matter of educating? Exposing? Story telling? Maybe all of those things?

One of my thoughts was, "How do we help people develop concern for someone half way across the world when perhaps they’ve never taken interest in developing an authentic relationship with their unchurched next door neighbor?"

I guess it all ties in together.

Your thoughts?

WHERE ARE WE GOING WITH THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST?

Spencer Burke, founder of The Ooze, wrote an interesting article about the church's promotion, marketing and attitude towards Mel Gibson's new movie, "The Passion of The Christ." He shares some very good perspectives... Check it out here.

A few quotes from the article:

"First of all, I want to applaud the church for its boldness in supporting an R-rated movie. I don’t know about you, but I’ve heard plenty of sermons over the years on why Christian adults shouldn’t see R-rated movies. To discount a film purely because of its rating has always seemed a bit shortsighted and narrow to me. So I’m thrilled to think that perhaps we’re finally moving past a policy of blind abstinence."

Regarding the church's "marketing" of the film:

"After years of opposing popular culture and non-traditional art forms, I’m encouraged that we’re moving forward. I’m pleased to see that we’re attempting to address culture in the movie house, not just the “house of the Lord.” At the same time, however, I’m nervous that we’re attempting to shrink wrap the gospel and turn art—Mel Gibson’s personal vision of the crucifixion of Christ--into something it was never meant to be: propaganda.

The church marketing machine is strong. (Been to a Christian bookstore lately?) We can do bracelets, mugs and T-shirts with the best of them. But is it right? Are we interested in engaging with culture, or simply trying to convert people? When we invite friends to see the movie, will we feel that our night was a waste if we don’t get a chance to share The Four Laws? Is our agenda to buy people tickets so that the whole night feels like an awkward first date—you know, the “Well, he bought me dinner so I guess I have to kiss him,” scenario? Are we interested in people’s honest questions about the film, or only their response to the film (i.e. did they pray the prayer)?

My sense is that all our enthusiasm could actually backfire and keep people away from what may or may not be a great film. At the same time, however, all our efforts will no doubt demand a payoff. You just know that elders somewhere are going to be counting how many people attend post-February 25 services and trying to calculate how many people came to Christ because of this film."

These are some interesting thoughts. (Ok, now it's me - Scott - talking again...) At our church, we decided to do a follow up series entitled, "Jesus: Up Close & Personal" - it will be a series to look further into the life of Christ and hopefully answer people's questions that may arise after viewing the film.

We are encouraging people in our church community to invite someone to the movie and series with whom they have already begun establishing a relationship with. I think it will be odd for people to go up to complete strangers or their neighbors and invite them to this movie - ESPECIALLY if there has never been an attempt at developing a relationship with them. CHRISTIAN PEOPLE: Please do not do this. Let's quit living up to our stereotype that we are "selling God" to people. Let's work on relationships. (i.e. 'earning the right to be heard', 'people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.', etc...)

So as far as I'm concerned, I'm going to think about those in my life whom I have connected with and taken the time to get to know and maybe invite them - because it's a story that I want them to experience - for a lot of reasons. But I'm not going to look at this as a tool to "win" them. If that happens, great. But if not, that's ok too - I'll still be their friend, because I'm not their "friend" so that I can fix them or make them better. I'm their friend because I truly and authentically care for them. Besides, I have a lot of fixing that needs to be done in my life and no one but God has the ability to do that.

So I agree with Spencer when he says, "I’m interested in seeing people’s personal experiences and struggles with Jesus. I’m also interested in seeing films that go beyond blatant religious themes." Such a good statement...

SUNDAY NIGHT LEG ACHE

I have a leg ache.

In fact, almost every Sunday night I suffer from leg aches. It's weird, I know. I'm not sure why this happens, but every Sunday night I find myself laying on the couch flipping through lame, late night TV wondering why my leg hurts. I'm not sure if it's the way I stand when I'm speaking publically at church on Sundays or what, but it's driving me crazy.

Someone once told me that they thought it was stress related, but if that was the case my legs would be hurting all the time.

So, I do what I do every Sunday night - pop about 800mg of Ibuprofen and go to bed.

Beats a headache I guess.


p.s. Is it just me, or is Tom Cruise looking worse the older he gets?