What I see when I get a moment to pause and make a little sense of the world
The map included above marks in red the places of poverty in London. The section in gold marked areas of prosperity. The City Council was moved to action this redefinition of when it became clear that the least, the last, and the lost could be found around every corner.
Where do you find good ideas?
Do you often find ideas that change everything in a windowless conference room, with bottled water on the side table and a circle of critics and skeptics wearing suits looking at you as the clock ticks down to the 60 minutes allocated for this meeting?
If not, then why do you keep looking for them there?
The best ideas come out of the corner of our eye, the edge of our consciousness, in a flash. They are the result of misdirection and random collisions, not a grinding corporate onslaught. And yet we waste billions of dollars in time looking for them where they’re not.
A practical tip: buy a big box of real wooden blocks. Write a key factor/asset/strategy on each block in big letters. Play with the blocks. Build concrete things out of non-concrete concepts. Uninvite the devil’s advocate, since the devil doesn’t need one, he’s doing fine.
Have fun. Why not? It works.
Jesus said: “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples” (John 15:8).
When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well” (John 5:6)?
Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others (Philippians 2:4).
Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5).
So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17)!
Jesus said: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them” (Matthew 18:20).
Scot McKnight reminds us that we were created just shy of God for a reason. We were created to rule over creation on behalf of God. Our exploitation of that good purpose is sin. We would do well to remember (1) our high place in God’s plan and (2) that we have a great calling to fulfill. Let Scot speak for himself in this meditation on Psalm 8:
Creation is immense and God made it all, and the psalmist leads anyone listening to the majestic distance of God — and yet, yet, yet, even though immense and majestic, God both notices and pays attention to humans. The immensity contrasts with seeming insignificance — until one pays attention to the task of humans.
The psalmist says these things about the task of humans:1. They are just shy of God (8:5). Yes, that is exactly what the psalmist says.2. They are crowned — surely here the psalmist is thinking back to Genesis 1-2 — with “glory” and “honor” (8:5). That is, humans — Eikons of God — are kings.3. They are assigned the task of ruling over all things in creation: sheep and oxen, birds and water creatures.4. The Fall did not undo this task.5. Any NT reading shows that Jesus did precisely this: as Lord (1 Cor 15:27; Heb 2:6-8).
The Barna Group always offers an interesting take on the cultural views of Americans. I am not surprised to see that women, Protestants, and social conservatives are more likely than men, Catholics, and social liberals to talk about a personal relationship with Jesus. It is very interesting to see one more piece talking about the decline of a personal faith among the next generation (see David Kinnaman’s and Gabe Lyons’ work unCHRISTIAN). What other surprises do you see in this article?
In the age of Facebook, Twitter, and texting, many Americans feel more connected to people than ever, but a new national survey by The Barna Group shows that Americans are not just connected to each other. One of the dominant connections in people’s lives is with Jesus Christ. In fact, more people claim to be closely connected to Jesus Christ than have a Facebook page or Twitter account.
Close Relationship
The Barna study, conducted among a random sample of 1,002 U.S. adults, discovered that two out of every three adults (67%) claimed to have a “personal relationship” with Jesus that is currently active and that influences their life.
While a majority of most demographic segments said they had such an active and personal relationship with Jesus, some segments were more likely than others to claim such a connection. For instance, women (72%) were more likely than men (62%) to do so. Protestants were more likely than Catholics to cite such a relationship (82% versus 72%). People who describe themselves as mostly conservative on social and political matters were far more likely than those who see themselves as liberal on such issues to connect with Jesus (79% compared to 48%). And one of the most instructive findings was that the younger a person was, the less likely they were to claim to have an active and influential bond with Jesus. Specifically, while 72% of adults 65 or older and 70% of Boomers (i.e., ages 46 to 64) had such a relationship in place, 65% of Busters (i.e., ages 27 to 45) and only 52% of Mosaics (ages 18 to 26) did, as well.
Front Porch Reflections 
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