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I get tidbits of things to read now and then, and I usually end up sending them to Sharon while I'm at work. The other day, it hit me that I'd love to share some of these articles or blog posts that either impact me, move me, or describe something/someone I'm really interested in. I subscribe to blog and news updates from the New York Times, so it's no coincidence that most of these can be found on their site.

1. Judith Warner muses that maybe it's not the "kids these days" who are so godless or nuts... maybe it's just their parents.

The next two are dear to my heart:
2. A piece from the New York Times just a few months ago about my other home church, The Journey, that I left when I returned from St. Louis. It talks about one of the surprisingly (or not) controversial programs we did there called Theology at the Bottleworks (beer and the Bible? OMG!). The church caught a lot of flak over it, but that program along with many other things are part of why The Journey is still perhaps the best church model I have ever been a part of. God bless Pastor Darrin and the whole lot of 'em.

3. Another piece from the Times about Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, probably the toughest mission field in the God-Blessed U.S. of A. I am starting to re-read one of his books, The Radical Reformission, for the third time in the hopes of finally finishing it. I got another of his books for Christmas, and I am looking quite forward to it. I have re-read now the first chapter, and Pastor Mark has some refreshing and eye-opening ways of understanding how Jesus pursued the people of the world. Great reading.

4. Dr. Anthony Bradley has an interesting piece on the Death of Personal Blogging. He makes some good points about how silly personal blogging can be: that it takes up arguably wasted bandwidth and provides a forum for whiny pseudo-theological pontification and/or angry attacks on various political/religious/other figures of the day; and no one really reads them. I'd plead guilty to ALMOST all of these (though if Sarah Palin ever climbs out of that slime-pit of irrelevance where she belongs, I'll be batting 1.000... oh wait.) However, it is still the best way other than Facebook to keep my friends and family updated on my thoughts.

My only other thought about blogging is this: that I intend to be fully accountable for whatever I say. I don't think I was fully prepared to be that in previous attempts at blogging (embarrassing hilarity ensued, trust me). But I am, now.