Author: Jonathan Blundell

I'm a husband, father of three, blogger, podcaster, author and media geek who is hoping to live a simple life and follow The Way.

Willow Creek says it was wrong

Interesting article about all the many programs Willow Creek offers… and the results of one of their latest studies…

Few would disagree that Willow Creek Community Church has been one of the most influential churches in America over the last thirty years. Willow, through its association, has promoted a vision of church that is big, programmatic, and comprehensive. This vision has been heavily influenced by the methods of secular business. James Twitchell, in his new book Shopping for God, reports that outside Bill Hybel’s office hangs a poster that says: “What is our business? Who is our customer? What does the customer consider value?” Directly or indirectly, this philosophy of ministry, that “church should be a big box with programs for people at every level of spiritual maturity to consume and engage” has impacted every evangelical church in the country.

So what happens when leaders of Willow Creek stand up and say, “We made a mistake”?…

“Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back it wasn’t helping people that much. Other things that we didn’t put that much money into and didn’t put much staff against is stuff our people are crying out for,” Pastor Bill Hybels said.

Are politicians cut from the same cloth?

From NPR:

Sen. Barack Obama and Vice President Dick Cheney are distant cousins. President Bush and Sen. John Kerry have dozens of shared relatives. Megan Smolenyak, chief family historian at ancestry.com, talks to Alex Cohen about tracing back the family tree.

Looks like Walt Disney is also George Bush’s 13th cousin, once removed… interesting.
Better get back to work on my family tree.

An imported fence – to keep out the imports

That huge fence along the US-Mexico border to keep out illegal imports immigrants is facing some scrutiny in Congress again.
Carlos Mencia says the US will need to use illegal immigrants just to get the fence built, but now lawmakers are concerned that the fence will be built with imported steel as well.
Something that makes the Chinese very happy and patriotic Americans not so much.
From NPR

Brownback may pull out today

Sen. Sam Brownback may pull out of the presidential race today, sighting a lack of funds as reason why.
Here’s to hoping he endorses Mike Huckabee or someone else he really believes in, rather than just simply endorsing a top tier candidate because they’re “top tier.” I’d even be happy if he endorsed Ron Paul, as long as he did it for the right reasons.