Web Of Lies. . . Lies On The Web. . . .
This week’s news makes us think about lies. Former Major-Leaguer Roger Clemens is in court facing charges of lying to Congress. You watch the video tapes of Clemens and his accusers recounting markedly different stories, and you know that at…
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American Youth Ministry. . . What Would Dietrich See?
Stand back. . . take a look. . . and evaluate. We need to do that more, especially for those of us involved in 21st century North American youth ministry. I fear we don’t do it enough. . . and…
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Songs In The Key of Adolescence. . . Which One’s Best? . . .
So I had this great little conversation with my nephew yesterday. We were sitting by the pool with a 60s/70s station providing our Fourth of July soundtrack. The little game of “Name the Artist” I was playing with my brother-in-laws…
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The Voice. . . And What It Said. . .
I was a casual observer of “The Voice,” the NBC singing competition that – in my opinion – was much more engaging and fun than “American Idol.” If you followed the show, you know that Javier Colon was crowned “the…
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Yes, I Shock The Dog. . . .
I know the folks from PETA probably don’t like them, but I’m a big fan of the electric dog fence. I bought and installed mine about 16 years ago when we welcomed a big, beautiful Golden Retriever pup into the…
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Christian Celebrity. . . Good? Bad? Both?
Just got an email asking me to write a short piece on the pros and cons of Christian Celebrity. Yep, we’re a celebrity-obsessed culture and that celebrity-obsession is certainly a big part of life in the church culture. We’ve got…
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Reality and Ruin. . . .
Yesterday, I finished reading Prophetically Incorrect: A Christian Introduction to Media Criticism, by Robert H. Woods Jr. and Paul D. Patton. Simply stated. . . a great book on thinking critically, Christianly, and prophetically about media form and content and…
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What Have We Become??? . . . .
When I’d want to get my youth group kids to stand back and really take a critical look at something that was a big part of their lives, I would invite them into a little exercise that could have been…
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Heartbreaking. . . .
I was in college when one of my buddies said something to me that captured a universal truth in a way that I had never considered it before: “We’re all worshippers. We all worship something. We’ve been born to worship.…
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Rewarding? . . . Really? . . . .
Just like I wondered how my Dad ever survived a childhood without television, my kids wonder the same about my early years spent in the tech-free desert of the stone-age period known to them as the 60s and 70s. Technological…
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Internet Infidelity. . . .
The Anthony Weiner drama continues to unfold. While some are saying the story needs to simply go away, I disagree. It’s a story that needs to stay, be deconstructed, and be pondered as it’s really a story about the convergence…
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Do You Own Your iPhone. . . Or Does Your iPhone Own You? . . .
All this month I’ve been hunkered down doing research for our new “Digital Kids Initiative” here at CPYU. It’s our attempt to think Christianly about this brave new digital world that didn’t exist just a few short years ago. What…
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