Joni and Friends Family Camp

Almost every summer since 2003, my family has been blessed to attend the Joni and Friends Family Camp hosted by the Knoxville branch of J&F ministries.

If you don't know who Joni (pronounced "Johnny") is, then this brief bio will help:

A diving accident in 1967 left 17-year-old Joni Eareckson a quadriplegic in a wheelchair, unable to use her hands. After two years of rehabilitation, Joni re-entered the community with new skills and a fresh determination to help others in similar situations. Joni wrote of her experiences in her international bestselling biography, Joni. Her name is now recognized in countries around the world following the distribution in many languages of her biography and the full-length feature film JONI. She has personally visited more than 45 countries.

You can read the rest of Joni's bio at the J&F website.

It has been such a blessing to raise my own children in an environment where able-bodied people are a minority. I praise God for the J&F leadership that ministers year-round to those who are disabled in any fashion.

As their website says,

For nearly a quarter of a century, Joni and Friends has been dedicated to extending the love and message of Christ to people who are affected by disability, whether it is the disabled person, a family member, or friend. Our objective is to meet the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of this group of people in practical ways.

I praise God they are doing just that. And I am thankful that my family and I get to be a part of it. What a blessing it was to my heart last year when I asked Abby, then 5 yrs old, if she noticed any difference between her and the new friends she was making at Family Camp, some of whom are autistic, others have multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy (remember Blair's cousin Geri on Facts of Life?), and/or Down Syndrome. She simply did not see a difference. She didn't notice the wheelchairs and crutches, the abnormalities of speech or appearance. She simply saw them as friends. Just friends.

A Theological Vision for Ministry

The Gospel Coalition has spelled out in their theological vision for ministry how they "intend to discharge Christian ministry and interact with our culture in biblical and theological faithfulness."

The document answers these 5 questions:
1. How should we respond to the cultural crisis of truth?
2. How should we read the Bible?
3. How should we relate to the culture around us?
4. In what ways is the gospel unique?
5. What is gospel-centered ministry?

The first 3 questions address the epistemological issue, the hermeneutical issue, and the contextualization issue, respectfully.

It's a document of 3,846 words (10-20 minutes of reading).

Rollerskating Babies

HT: Mom!

The Role of Women in the Baptist Church

National Public Radio reports that Baptist Leaders are facing Challenges on the role of women.

Thunder and Rain in Worship

"I will call upon the Lord, that he may send thunder and rain."
1 Samuel 12:17

DIY Teleprompter for Worship Videos

At my church, we are doing more and more videos to show in worship. The videos are designed to promote, inspire, exhort, and invite. But in order to do these things well, the people used in the videos need to be able to make their presentations in a compelling way. Aside from natural talent, these folks need to either memorize their script or use a teleprompter. Since memorization is out of the question, I asked my Technical Director, Steve Ballast, to do a DIY teleprompter (from some instructions I found online). Check out Stephen's blog to see the results.

How to create a family mosaic

Andrea Denzler has an awesome project called AndreaMosaic, which lets you create digital mosaics out of your own pics. Very cool. Be sure to zoom in on my family pic to see all the tiny shots that create the bigger picture.

Amusing Ourselves to Death: The Cartoon

This cartoon by Stuart McMillen illustrates Neil Postman's book Amusing Ourselves to Death by setting side by side the philosophical claims from two other, more well-known books, George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. I haven't read Orwell's or Huxley's modern classics, and have only browsed my copy of Postman's book (probably because I fear that I will be too convicted by it). So this comic strip was actually very helpful!

HT: http://www.facebook.com/phil.breedlove

John Piper: Preaching as Worship

If you preach, or go to church regularly where you hear someone preach, please read this:

John Piper: Preaching as Worship

DIY Marriage Counseling

The Art of Manliness blog has posted a very helpful article called DIY Marriage Counseling.

In it, they report the findings from Dr. John Gottman's study of marriages "in a lab at the University of Washington." (Don't quite get how he did this.)

In a nutshell, Gottman's 20 year study revealed what he calls the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse that lead to divorce: Criticism (versus complaint), Contempt, Defensiveness, and Stonewalling.

The way to divorce-proof your marriage? Build up a "positive sentiment" reserve. You will fight, but Gottman says happy marriages have a 5-1 ratio of positive to negative interactions.

5 Magic Hours a Week
How do you build up the positive sentiment?
1) Connect before you leave (5 minutes/day)
2) Connect when you reunite (20 minutes/day)
3) Admire/appreciate - be specific! (5 minutes/day)
4) Initiate affection (5 minutes/day)
5) Date (3 hrs/week)

Please read the content of the blog post. It provides good insight not given here.

The Rebel's Guide to Joy: Philip Bliss

Today is the birthday of hymn writer Phillip Bliss, composer of two of my favorite hymns of all time: "Man of Sorrows! What a Name", and "I Will Sing of My Redeemer."

Thanks to Mars Hill Church for putting the bio together.

HT: Justin Taylor at Between Two Worlds

How Independence Day should affect Worship

A couple of years ago, I asked Bob Kauflin, Should July 4th Affect Our Sunday Planning?

He answers the question again today at his blog, Worship Matters.