When I first started this blog, I wanted to start practising writing, but I also wanted to point people into the direction of interesting and unusual thinking. For all the ills of the internet age, the ability to listen in on conversations of people of a different nationality, persuasion and opinion is unprecedented. We can learn alot from truly listening to one another, it’s the Jesus skill of a lifetime.

---

Receive articles like this once a week to your email sign up here

Leave this field empty if you're human:

---

Here are some things I think are worth listening to, mulling over and possibly even integrating into your life and thought this week;

What I’ve written here

The last time I posted a link list was january, so there was plenty posted in the interim right here on the blog;

• Training vs. Trying: The Key into Spiritual Disciplines Part 1
• Training vs. Trying: The Key into Spiritual Disciplines Part 2
• The 6 most important skills in Christian Leadership
• 4 Questions to ask before entering a conflict
• Matter Matters
• Surviving Seminary | An Interview with Anne Harrington
• How the invisible God becomes Visible – Part 1
• How the invisible God becomes Visible – Part 2

Theology

• I was teaching a class on worship last week and Robert Webber was extremely impactful in how I am beginning to think about worship as ‘storied’. You Pick up some of Webber’s insights from this interview with Trevin Wax from 2007.

• A second book I spent time in preparing for the teaching on worship, was this excellent resource from Chris Hall – Worshipping with the Church Fathers, read a review of that here.

• Kenny Borthwick was a church leader and national figure in the renewal movement in scotland during the time I lived there who has recently stepped out of his normal role due to health reasons. He has however picked up a daily blogging rhythm which is rich. I was particularly impacted by his reflections on making friends with time, read more of that here;

Are you finding the passing of time difficult? Perhaps you too have all of a sudden found yourself being carried down a way that you did not choose. It is unfamiliar. I hope you will discover treasures and beauties in God, in life, in the world around you, in your fellow human beings and even in yourself that you would never have discovered had you not found yourself travelling by a different way to a place whose shores you have not walked upon before. Give it time, make a friend of time and that can happen. You may find yourself one day telling others what I am telling you, and using the words of Jacob as though they had been written for you: “Truly God is in this place and I did not know it…. This is the gate of heaven.” As I close, I end with a P.S. which perhaps you will take tonight as a spiritual nightcap: I stored it in my head years back, source unknown. Whoever said it, this is what they said: It is good for us to spend time in the waiting room in the doctor’s surgery. It reminds us we are not in charge. Perhaps that may be the biggest blessing that God may bring for you out of what you are going through at this moment: God really is God.

• What Wouldn’t Jesus do? The run up to the US presidential elections is the ultimate in car-crash syndrome, you can’t look and you can’t look away. Here is a NY Times piece on Donald Trump Christian-ism.

• I recently posted two interview’s conducted by Mirsolave Volf on Joy, but here is a interview of Mirsolav Volf by David Brooks on “A conversation on character, flourishing and the good life”.

• I enjoyed Peter Leithart’s post on Gethsemane meaning, the wine-press of oil. Read more here, in a similar vein I recently posted some short thoughts on the significance of water.

• I loved Jim Martin’s 6 Helpful suggestions for any Christian Leader, a very different category of ideas from my recent post on Christian leadership skills and a superb compliment to that list.

• Im becoming a big fan of almost everything that James K.A. Smith has written that I can get my hands on. If I want to get familiar with ideas in books I often will read a number of reviews if I can’t get hold of the book itself. Here is a review of “Who’s afraid of Postmodernism? Taking Derrida, Lyotard ad Foucalt to Church by Jamie Smith.

• If you want to really engage the opposite side, it’s best to understand it – The Four Arguments for Affirming Same-Sex Marriages

• God’s chosen a particular type of freedom, not the freedom to be or do anyting in the way we normally imagine it, read more here

• Roger Olson is not happy with John Piper’s View of Arminianism

• This is a fascinating thought from Leithart on The Anger of Young Men

• This post on Fragile Worshipers hit me right between the eyes. Ouch.

Productivity

• Lots of time is spent (and potentially wasted) contriving new ways to be productive. Every one is keen to do meaningful work and not just busy work – it seems like Shawn Blanc’s words on Benjamin Franklin’s schedule get this right. Read more here

• Online education might not be the type of formation we need. These are important realities to consider when education becomes dis-embodied in the ways the internet offers us;

Rather, education is a matter of being helped to become something—taking on the disciplines, virtues, habits and skills of this craft through a relationship with someone who has lived and breathed this craft for a lifetime.

• Are you busy or just existentially bored?

Technology

• While I am not un-sympathetic to the concerns of the increasing intimising of technology, I am pretty attracted to smart home gadgets and even more to frictionless technologies like this amazon echo, read the review here.

• New apple products are on there way. Of course that is of no surprise but I haven’t lost a minor sense of anticipation for what interesting thing this technolgy behemoth will come up with next.

• Do you listen to podcasts? I’ve gotten in to them in the last 6 months and I highly recommend using this app OverCast, which just got a new update.

• Favorite Gear and Apps for Podcasting with an iPad via Tools and Toys

• Here is an interesting adaption that makes the apple charger a little less bulky Pre-order Ten One Design’s Blockhead Charger Adapter
• An interesting peel into Dropbox’s Exodus From the Amazon Cloud Empire
• Looks like Alfred 3 might on it’s way. Im a big fan of their launchbar!

Music

Stewart Garry a friend of my brother Josiah’s is releasing a new cinematic fingerstyle album, and it looks great. Check out the trailer below;

• Here are a couple NPR Desk Concerts you might enjoy!

Kronos Quartet

Oliver Mtukudzi

Miscellany

• I get a lot of traffic on this site to my ‘bag geek’ posts here writing about my tom bihn bag purchase here and here. They just covered new fabrics they are using if you are interested. Yes, that is a new level of bag geek!

• I like peeking into these random fringe sports, check out the Big Pictures coverage of 2016 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race

• I’ve been a distant admirer of Wendell Berry’s work and this movie about him sounds great, I wonder how I will ever get to see it in South Africa though! – Through Wendell Berry’s looking glass

• Scott Kelly’s year in space

• A difficult one to end on but the conflict in Yemen is really not receiving alot of international news coverage, even less these types of unseen horrors. Sixteen Nuns from Mother Teresa’s order were murdered and their lives and deaths deserve attention. Although it’s hard, you should read this account of their deaths and the surrounding circumstances here.

---

Receive articles like this once a week to your email sign up here

Leave this field empty if you're human:

---