Church, Culture
John Beeson
Disney Shirts and Being Part of Something Big

I was handed my Mickey Mouse shirt as we packed and told this was what I would wear (I would be matching our son, Soren). Camille and Angel, meanwhile, wore matching Minnie ears and red tank tops. It seemed a little over-the-top to me, but I’ll do anything for my family. On the day of our Disney adventure, we woke up early, got into the virtual queue for the Star Wars ride (which happened to be the best ride at the park—don’t miss it!), and strode out of our hotel down Disney Way. It was then I began to notice something: we were not alone. We passed group after group in matching outfits. “Ahhhh,” I thought, “this is what people do!”

Disney Shirts and Being Part of Something Big
Recommendations, Counseling, Wisdom
John Beeson
This Week's Recommendations

  1. We’re living in the dystopian future Neil Postman predicted 40 years ago: Brett McCracken says, “From the rising of the sun to its going down, we scroll our way through the day. We scroll our way through life. And we are scrolling ourselves to death.”

  2. Five hard truths about marriage most couples learn too late: Psychologist Mark Travers’s findings echo truths in the Bible, “One of the biggest misconceptions about marriage is that truly compatible people don’t argue. But not only is conflict inevitable, it’s also essential.”

This Week's Recommendations
Biblical Studies, Christian Living, Death
John Beeson
Let not him who straps on his armor boast ...

We would do well to heed Ahab and Roosevelt’s warnings. In our contemporary world, shrunk by media, it is enticing to microwave hot takes for all types of issues. Geopolitical events, religious issues, and economic and social policies entice us to weigh in. We want to know what is right and wrong, good and evil, and we want to hold firm opinions in fields in which we have little to no experience.

Ben-hadad meant “son of Hadad,” the Syrian god of thunder. It’s a fitting name. He was booming and terrifying, but relatively harmless. There are a lot of Ben-hadads out there today, those who dial up every opinion to 100 decibels.

Let not him who straps on his armor boast himself as he who takes it off
Culture, Identity
John Beeson
The Worthlessness of Cool

When I was in high school, swimming was my best sport. I still remember the first time I saw Gary Hall, Jr. swim. I was a freshman and he was a senior. We were at the hallowed grounds of the Plummer Aquatic Center at Arizona State University in Tempe. Gary Hall, Jr.’s father was an Olympic swimmer and Gary Hall Jr. would one day join that class. In fact, Hall would go on to win ten Olympic medals. I had never seen anything like Hall in a pool before. At 6’6” and probably 225 pounds, Hall looked more like a linebacker than a swimmer. In the water, his body rose above the water higher than anyone else’s, seemingly buoyed at his hips by an invisible force. He swam freestyle with a hitch, almost strutting through the water.

The Worthlessness of Cool
Recommendations, Christian Living, Nature, Culture
John Beeson
This Week's Recommendations

  1. An age of extinction is coming. Here’s how to survive. Ross Douthat portends, “The bottleneck of the digital age is different: The new era is killing us softly, by drawing people out of the real and into the virtual, distracting us from the activities that sustain ordinary life, and finally making existence at a human scale seem obsolete.”

  2. Chickens, elephants, and the illusion of freedom. Donal shares a simple, but memorable story, ““the chicken is tied to a tree for so long, that when it is released, as long as it has the string on its ankle (do chickens have ankles?) it thinks it cannot go any further than the length of the original string. It is still attached in its own mind.”

This Week's Recommendations

Culture

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Constructing Culture: Character Over Charisma

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Constructing Culture: Character Over Charisma

My youth group was great, but I had never seen anything like this. Teens spilled out from the Youth Center into the lawn. Big-eyed, I wormed my way through the crowd toward the door where fog billowed out and the music boomed. The hip youth pastor emerged, smiling ear to ear with an entourage in tow. He greeted me and then moved past to welcome the mass of teens on the lawn.

The band launched into worship, and the youth pastor jumped onto the stage, delivering a powerful and passionate message to the hundreds of gathered teens.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. How was the pronunciation of God’s name lost? Great question! Andrew Case provides three possible answers to this question: “Why did the Israelites go from swearing by Yahweh’s name, using it in prayer, song, and greetings to forbidding its use altogether?”

  2. What’s the difference between venting and lamenting? Kyle Johnston begins, “Christians today are increasingly aware of the importance of emotions. This growing emotional awareness is a positive development—especially when we learn how to process those emotions with God! At the same time, and perhaps even connected to this heightened emotional awareness, there is a growing recognition of the importance of lament.”

  3. The man with the longest-term vision wins: Reagan Rose considers the life of Elon Musk and draws five conclusions from it. “With Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos the ambition to colonize space wasn’t some billionaire’s midlife crisis, it was the long-term vision that’s driven them since youth. And my contention here is that their success in other areas of life is not coincidental either.”

  4. Your conscience on a spectrum: Bobby Jamieson with a nuanced take on how we should listen to and form our conscience. He asks, “What happens when Christians disagree about what belongs in the black, white, or shaded sections? What if you think some act is a sin but another member of your church seems not to?”

  5. The doxology: Ben Rector’s rendition is beautifully haunting.

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Constructing Culture: We Are Contributors, Not Consumers

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Constructing Culture: We Are Contributors, Not Consumers

What do you look for when you look for a church that is a good fit for you? Maybe it’s the music? Perhaps it’s the preaching? Maybe it’s the children’s ministry?

5 STARS!

A quick scan through Google reviews of churches will give you a sense of how most people judge churches.

Here is a sampling of real reviews of churches around Tucson:

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. All together now: Morgan Housel begins, “The Brooklyn Bridge was the largest structure in the western hemisphere when it opened in 1883. It was almost twice as long as any suspension bridge built before it. People reasonably asked: Is it stable? Will it collapse?”

  2. Four privileges we enjoy as a friend of God: Mike McKinley explains, “we don’t have to come nervously and timidly into God’s presence (Heb. 4:16). We can have a bold and comfortable relationship with God–the VIP who puts all others to shame, because he loves us and has made us his friends and family.”

  3. No further: Cassie Watson with encouragement for weary souls, “The beams of the Son are about to spill over too. We’re in the dawn, awaiting the fullness of the new day. God is orchestrating human history, watching as each day unfolds with all its terror and toil and laughter and love. At just the right moment, he will say, “No further.” He’ll send Jesus back to end this world as we know it and bring in the new creation, where there’ll no longer be “mourning, nor crying, nor pain” (Rev. 21:4).”

  4. Ten diagnostic questions for the potential ideologue: Ken Barbic begins with this question, “Do you present opposing viewpoints in ways that your opponent would agree with?”

  5. Dennis Prager’s troubling defense of pornography: Carl Trueman says, “Many aspects of Prager’s comment are disturbing, not least his failure to address the dark nature of the pornography industry itself. But it is also instructive, because it exposes the superficiality of some of what passes for conservative thought today.”

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Constructing Culture: God Loves You and Your Neighbor

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Constructing Culture: God Loves You and Your Neighbor

“Won’t you be my neighbor?”

Mister Rogers earnestly sang those words on every one of the 895 episodes of his show. The question is so worn you might miss how profound it is. How many people would you ask to be your neighbor? The circle is probably pretty small, I bet. How many people do you know that you would want to live next to you? You know what that entails, right? They would expect you to enjoy dinners together, have game nights, and of course, you would be the first person they would call for that emergency babysitting need.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. Money is now more important to Americans than patriotism, religion, or kids: Peter Weber begins, “A Wall Street Journal/NORC poll released Monday found that "patriotism, religious faith, having children, and other priorities that helped define the national character for generations" have fallen steadily since 1998 and even 2019, the Journal reports.”

  2. Why do I need close friends? Roger Barrier shares, “Now, let me tell you a tragedy. Many people have no intimate friends. They are the loneliest people in the world. There is no one with whom they can open up. That’s why life is so tough.”

  3. The cost of fear: Karen Wade Hayes tells a simple story about baking a cake and fear. “As humans, we can be so impacted by fear that we hide or shrink back when new opportunities arise.”

  4. Five reasons you did not and cannot reinvent yourself: Lots of truth in this post by Brian Rosner. He says, “Human beings are social animals. A growing body of research—some parts surprising, some parts amusing—indicates the extent to which we are profoundly relational creatures and pushes against any notion that anyone is a self-made self.”

  5. An open letter to teens facing doubts about Christianity: Rebecca McLaughlin’s thoughts are winsome and true, “Sometimes you find yourself wondering what is really true. What if modern science has disproved God? What if Christians really are just bigots for not embracing same-sex marriage? What if all religions are equal paths to truth?”

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Constructing Culture: The Bible Is Our Source

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Constructing Culture: The Bible Is Our Source

Some time ago we were house hunting and found a beautiful home on pristine land near our home. The problem is that the property cannot hook up to city water and its wells have dried up. Unsurprisingly the value plummeted. What use is a property with no water source?

Not much.

Many live in a spiritual house with no water source.

What do you draw from as your spiritual source? Most draw from many sources: their conscience, self-help gurus, their counselor, their friends, podcasts, and news sources.

There is nothing wrong with any of these sources of guidance. But they are not the source that we depend on for truth.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. Are you well-paid? Compare your salary to the average US income: Among the highest paid jobs are Chief executives and nurse anesthetists. Among the lowest paid are childcare workers and lifeguards. Jack Caporal begins, “When you look at your paycheck, are you happy with what you see? Or do you wonder if you should make more?”

  2. Where is your faith? Mary Nolte reflects on faith and the death of her child. “I will never forget standing in the ICU at her bedside, feeling as if I was not really living this nightmare, that I had somehow stumbled into someone else’s reality. This couldn’t be. This shouldn’t be. In that moment, as the doctors and nurses who crowded around her stepped back and looked at us standing there, our faces stricken with unbelief, our hearts pounding with denial, a silent wail forming in the deepest part of our souls, the lead cardiologist said, “Let’s give the parents the last few moments with her,” and the room emptied.”

  3. Overcome your enemies by dying: Peter Krohl asks, “What do you do when people turn against you? When those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ come after you for daring to follow him? When nitpicking and backstabbing are the standard operating procedure in the workplace? When family members use guilt and pressure to manipulate you into doing what they want?”

  4. The crucifixion stories are embarrassing, and that’s a good thing: Robby Lashua explains, “Since the disciples, who were trying to convert people to Christianity, recorded these embarrassing details, we can conclude they were being extremely honest about what happened. They didn’t sugarcoat anything. They gave us the raw details, even though it could damage their cause.”

  5. Should we automate the CEO? Interesting article projecting the impact of job automation in the future. Zachary Crockett explains, “Last August, NetDragon Websoft — a Hong Kong-based online gaming firm with $2.1B in annual revenue — appointed a CEO to helm its flagship subsidiary. The new chief, Tang Yu, was responsible for all of the typical duties of a company figurehead: reviewing high-level analytics, making leadership decisions, assessing risks, and fostering an efficient workplace. She worked 24/7, didn’t sleep, and was compensated $0 per year. But there was a catch: Yu wasn’t a human. She was a virtual robot powered by artificial intelligence.”

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Constructing Culture: The Gospel Changes Everything

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Constructing Culture: The Gospel Changes Everything

Many Christians think about the gospel as merely the entry gate into Christianity. It’s a gate opened with an invitation to faith (“Do you confess you are a sinner and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior?”) and walked through with a prayer of salvation.

There is truth in that understanding of the gospel. But only about as much truth as believing that the earth is a sphere or that Albert Einstein was human. They are correct statements, but little of reality has been stated. There’s so much more we can (and should) say.

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Constructing Culture: God Is Big and God Is Good

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Constructing Culture: God Is Big and God Is Good

A few years ago our staff created a staff culture document (you can read more about that journey here). It was a vital part of our journey for our staff. It helped change the course of who we are.

Last year we began to take that same journey with our church. We created a church culture document. The purpose of this document is to express who we are at our best and who we aspire to be in the future, by the grace of God. 

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