Jesus predicts twitter...

And in this passage, the ones that had the most to fear from it were the Pharisees. Apparently, Jesus didn't like the trending topic among the religious leaders of the day.

Iteration and Duffer's Drift

Joe Carter is an evangelical that writes on the First Things blog "First Thoughts". Last week he posted a list of the most influential books in his life. It was fun to have been influenced by some of the same books (Schaeffer, Johnson, Hewitt, Sire, Postman, Grudem), and to be reminded of some that I've been wanting to get around to for a while (Card, Sobol, Wolfe).

One on the list, "The Defence of Duffer's Drift" is available online. It appears it is recommended reading for US Marines. Being relatively short, and wanting to see what kind of stuff Marines read, I started in. While it started slowly and in a style of writing I'm not accustomed, to read the first "dream" (there are six of these dreams that function as chapters) quickly requires the curious reader to continue on through the next five. In short: A green (unexperienced) military commander has a dream where he is given the task of defending a position from the attacking enemy. Each dream is a record of his attempts to do so and the things he learns each time in failure, with each lesson building upon the previous one.

As I read it, I realized how important iteration is in any undertaking. As much as I want to get things right the first time, often times the best path towards victory is to try and fail. Learn from the mistakes. Try again. Learn more. Repeat. Eventually, the victory will be won.

Do I iterate in my job? Do I let one failure stop me? Or do I learn from the failure and try again? Ministry, relationships, support raising, projects...do I learn from my mistakes, or just quit because of them? As an engineering graduate who appreciates mathematical terms with practical implications, I lift my glass high and propose a toast: "To Iteration!" Hear, hear!

Genesis 41; Mark 11; Job 7; Romans 11 – For the Love of God

Enjoyed this post from D.A. Carson's devotional today. It ends with the quote below about the interaction of Jesus with the teachers of the law in Mark 11...

Genesis 41; Mark 11; Job 7; Romans 11 – For the Love of God

A pair of pastoral implications flow from this exchange. The first is that some people cannot penetrate to Jesus’ true identity and ministry, even when they ask questions that seem to be penetrating, because in reality their minds are made up, and all they are really looking for is ammunition to destroy him. The second is that sometimes a wise answer is an indirect one that avoids traps while exposing the two-faced perversity of the interlocutor. While Christians should normally be forthright, we should never be naive.

History

It is hard not to be a little frustrated that my education did not make history more compelling. Perhaps much of the problem is that history is often taught without any unifying theme or sense of an eschaton.

I've just been reminded of a series by Susan Wise Bauer that is going to cover world history in four volumes. The first volume is already out, and the next one is coming out later this month. Here is an excerpt from the Books and Culture newsletter I received in my inbox this morning...

Don't ask me how, but Susan Wise Bauer—while raising four children with her pastor-husband in Virginia, presiding over a little publishing enterprise she founded, speaking to homeschoolers and other interested parties, and teaching now and then at the College of William & Mary—is writing the history of the world. Not the history of salt, or the history of the year 1492, or the history of the color blue. No, the whole shebang.

Read the rest (and find a link to an interview with Bauer) here.

Though I'm thinking about getting these for my kids, I have a feeling they would fill in some gaps in my understanding of history.

If you stumble upon this post, I'd love for you to comment below with some of your favorite works of history.

Star lecturer, local tutor

Listened to another TWIG podcast while running. One of the topics led them to discuss iTunesU and how it has the potential to change the way education is done. "Star lecturer, local tutors" was an idea fleshed out by Jeff Jarvis, one of the contributors. As I was on the treadmill listening to the conversation, I realized this is exactly what many of the big churches are doing right now. Mars Hill, Life Church, North Point...they really use the "star lecturer, local tutor" paradigm. Is this the natural result of the technology available? Is this good? Bad? Neither?

I thought about Campus Crusade and what the implications are for us. Are we the local tutors for college students? Or do we as staff aspire to the "star lecturer" role? I doubt it.

But perhaps there is an opportunity for us. We don't have just one star lecturer, we have tons. They are spread out all over the country and world, but they all have our DNA of "win, build, send" built in to them. If they lived down the street from us, we would have them speak at our campus weekly meeting as often as they would come. What if we began to use the available technology to have talks given via distance? My first thought was just other nearby universities in our region. What if a speaker in Bozeman, MT gave a talk on Wed night and knew that not only MSU would be watching, but WSU and UI as well? The speaker could connect with the audience in front of them as well as the distance audience. We could expose our students to the best in the region, yet not need the expense of travel and the associated financial and emotional cost on the speaker and local ministry.

There are technology and cost issues to be addressed, as well as learning how to present well (both by the speaker and the distance audience) in this new medium. I've also thought about development. If we show a distance speaker, it is one less chance for the local staff to be developed. But I have a feeling that gifted communicators will find themselves with opportunity to develop, and those that don't have the raw material to be great speakers will be able to focus on areas where their strengths can be utilized. It also could reduce stress on small staff teams that need to think about quality talks at their weekly meeting every week.

What would be the objective of doing this? It's not just putting on a better weekly meeting. It's building our DNA in to our campus movements, expanding our vision from our campus to the region, country, and world, and it's exposing our movements to great communicators. That's good for students and staff.

Step one seems to be trying this out with a narrow focus. Perhaps recording a weekly meeting talk in one location, putting it on Vimeo/other, and then showing it at another weekly meeting the following day/week. Are there any additional factors to consider?