Links to Go (April 3, 2014)

Why Christianity demands pacifism

By all means, let’s argue about war and peace, justice and God. And if, after all the arguments have been made, we’re thoroughly convinced of the need to drop bombs and deploy troops, then let’s go to war, with as much restraint and humility as we can muster.
But please, let’s not make fools of ourselves by imagining that in doing so we have Jesus Christ on our side, nodding and smiling at the slaughter.


Do Christians Actually Live Up to Their Christian Identity on Twitter?

“One of the recommendations I have is I don’t think you should use the verse from Matthew 18:15: ‘Have you brought this charge to this person privately,’ because you’re in sin if you haven’t?” Noble said. “Often times, when people disagree online or make a charge against someone for what they’ve done, it’s often a public sin, so someone will write something and lie publicly, and so that needs to be addressed publicly and that’s fair.”


Is an Online Church Really a Church?

Ideally, churches will have an online presence, but will strongly encourage life-on-life interaction where social media enhances rather than excuses community. This can be one more tool that we have to introduce people to Jesus Christ and His church. It is not going away anytime soon, so we cannot just ignore it. Instead, we need to learn how to use it for God’s glory. If not, we will become increasingly irrelevant in a world shaped by the Internet.


Are You Aiding and Abetting Apathy?

Sometimes we have to just take a step back and ask, “What are we doing here?” Christians are converted by the Word of truth (1 Pet. 1:23) and they are to long for the pure milk of the Word like newborn babies (1 Pet 2:1-3). When this is not happening it means that something has gone wrong. There is a clog in our spiritual artery somewhere. We need help in our sickness not affirmation. This is something to pray for God’s help in.


Cracking the pottery

I find that it’s almost essential to fall in love with an idea to invest the time it takes to make it good and worth sharing. And then, the hard part: deleting that idea when it’s just not what it could be. Too often, organizations are good at the first part, but struggle with the second. And so we defend expired business models, support the status quo and have a knee-jerk inclination to preserve what we’ve got.


3 Questions to Help You Manage Your Boss

  1. What does my leader need/want to know?
  2. When does my leader want to know it?
  3. How does my leader want to know it?

The New York Times’ 3 Worst Corrections On Christian Holidays

Finally, Orthodox believers do not believe that Santa Claus announced the Christ Child to the shepherds, or that elves were sent by Herod to kill Joseph in Egypt. It is also not customary for Christians to yell “Who DAT!” throughout worship services on All Saints Day. It turns out that the 12 days of Christmas have no relationship to a lobbying campaign by the American Manufacturers Association and the American Retail Association. And Easter is not “a celebration of the miraculous return of Cadbury eggs.”


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