Some Racist Bullies Picked A Fight With An 11-Year-Old Kid And Lost In Glorious Patriotic Splendor
So this amazing kid, Sebastien De La Cruz, a mariachi singer from the last season of “America’s Got Talent,” was asked at the last moment to sing the national anthem in the town he was born and raised in, San Antonio, Texas, USA, for the NBA Finals. He wore his mariachi outfit, which led to every xenophobic and ignorant person on Twitter saying some truly insipid, vile, racist things.
Fortunately for us, he handles such things with typical can-do American spirit. It only takes him 22 seconds to slap the ignorance right off their faces, in the classiest way possible
Encore! NBA crowd roars for 11-year-old mariachi
An 11-year-old Latino boy whose singing of the national anthem at the NBA Finals set off a barrage of racist tweets earned a roaring ovation in an encore performance before Game 4 between the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat on Thursday night.
What do our young people really get from us?
Here are some potential ways I think that happens.
- Service projects. We ask our young people to be part of a one day, or even a one week, project. If this is all they see, they never understand that service is a lifestyle attitude. If not careful, the project is more about the youth group experience than about the people we are serving.
- Youth worship. When these are done in ways that really relate to the perceived needs and desires of young people, it becomes easy for them to think that worship is really all about them. So worship that does not cater to them is seen as dull and not meaningful.
- Youth fellowship. Spending the majority of time together has the potential to develop young people that are very narrow in their thinking and very selfish in their expectations of what fellowship really is.
The Dangers of Online Christianity
Social media can be a great way to glorify God. However, it can quickly become an addiction and feed our narcissism. It can choke out healthy relationships and can cause envy and jealousy to take root in our hearts. For some of us, we may need to get rid of our Facebook or Twitter if it has become a disruptive idol in our lives. Others may need to take a break for a certain amount of time. I’m sure all of us could benefit from that. Still some may not have a problem and have been able to retain that healthy balance with using social media. Whichever group we find ourselves in, let us use God’s good gifts to grow into healthy, mature disciples that love each other and love the local church. And in turn, encourage others to do the same.
The Hypocrisy of a Warring Christian
Christians should be the ones begging for guns and tanks and planes and ships to be mothballed. Turn them into museum pieces. Tell our children what it used to be like when men and women had to go to war and actually kill each other. Instead of this ridiculous love affair we have with our modern day “horse and chariot,” should we not be learning to lean upon the outstretched arm and mighty hand of God?
Bold, Daring Audacity Vs The Pretty Boy Preachers
By my observation, this is often true. Many preachers just want to be ‘nice.’ They cherish being winsome above being earnest. They desire popularity above faithfulness. They tremble more at the thought of offending their congregation, than they fear the thought of offending their God.
Markers of a church planting movement #6: Community & Creativity
Spirituality formed by Jesus unleashes God’s people to be prophetic voices in the church and world, as their imaginations conform to the “mind of Christ.” God designed humanity in the image of the divine, with the ability to demonstrate creativity through various artistic expressions. The more we engage with the creative flow of God, the more our imagination is unlocked and free to dream of new ways of being human.
4 Ways to Make Jubilee the Mission of the Church
If Jesus’ mission entailed ushering in Jubilee, and the church follows Jesus, then Jubilee must be part of our message also. How sad if, like Israel, the church also overlooks the climax of sabbath, the celebration of Jubilee.
Only a small number of you are reading all the way through articles on the Web. I’ve long suspected this, because so many smart-alecks jump in to the comments to make points that get mentioned later in the piece. But now I’ve got proof. I asked Josh Schwartz, a data scientist at the traffic analysis firm Chartbeat, to look at how people scroll through Slate articles. Schwartz also did a similar analysis for other sites that use Chartbeat and have allowed the firm to include their traffic in its aggregate analyses.