Friday, August 10, 2012

Around the Horn

First, while there continues to be a debate about the role the church gathered should play in evangelism, here’s a good post about things that affect guests and their decisions to come back. For all the bad press being “seeker-sensitive” has gotten, most churches need some more of it, particularly in terms of the basic expression of common graces to guests.

Second, in the category of really strange, NBC faced a little brouhaha last week over a commercial of a gymnast monkey that aired after a US athlete won a gold medal in gymnastics. While I think a good number of people are calloused to the ongoing affects of the racial past, I join with John Hinderaker in wondering just what kind of people, upon seeing a monkey, think “African-American.”

Third, speaking of African-Americans, a Mississippi church recently made the national news for refusing to allow a black couple in their church to marry in their church building. Now they have apologized for it. Oh. Okay. Then it’s all better. What I want to know is this: Where’s the leadership here? Where’s the pastor who is standing up to call on these people (the complainers, not the couple) to repent of their sinfulness under the threat of church discipline? Sadly, he was trying to make peace. Which reminds me of something I said a while back: You can't lead if you are not willing to disappoint, and maybe even infuriate people. Here was a chance; he missed it.

Last, here’s a sort of humorous piece about debates online. The author here has obviously been around the block a few times. 

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