Good interview on Ed Stetzer's blog. Speaking with the lead pastor of The Journey in St. Louis, Darrin Patrick, Ed hits on some great topics. Of particular interest to me is how he addresses the kingdom and the different levels of partnership between churches and other organizations. I'd love to hear any other thoughts!
Fascinating and creative look at how our consumer society contributes to the destruction of our planet and our own bodies: http://www.storyofstuff.com.
They talk about perceived obsolescence in the video. How true it is. All the messages we receive from fashion, pop culture, the media and marketing campaigns let us know how much we suck by not having the latest and greatest gadget. Coming back to the U.S. from Mexico City I was shocked by how many people were carrying iPhones. Despite all the talk of a desperate economy and trying times, I didn't see any tangible evidence that people were changing their consumer habits.
I was just receiving flack this morning from some fellow officers for drinking from an empty organic peanut butter jar in my room. In fact, I reuse all the glass bottles from salsa and peanut butter for storage. That allows me to store food safely without having to throw those out and buy other products. I find that to be resourceful, but that doesn't seem to be the sentiment of most Americans today.
Now, I'm far from perfect in my consumption habits, but I'm committed to playing a role in reviving our planet and a way of life that doesn't feed the monster. And unfortunately, I believe these habits flow from a more systemic problem that we might find in front of a mirror.
Just came across this comprehensive report and summary of some Twitter statistics. Check out the following stat:
150 followers is the magic number. In a particularly interesting data point from the survey, Sysomos found that Twitter users tended to "follow back" all their followers up until about 150 connections. Then the reciprocation rate fell off dramatically, which seems to indicate that this number may be the crossover point where people shift from using Twitter for more personal use to using it more for "lifecasting" their thoughts and actions to a community of people who they feel varying levels of connection to.
What's interesting is not the statistic itself but what it tells us about community. Dunbar's number, the theoretical limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships, is also set at 150. Pastors and church-planters often talk about the '200 ceiling', a typical peak in church attendance.
How could these numbers inform us about authentic and sustainable community?
As much as I'm saddened by the sudden departure of the King of Pop (really, I am), I'm much more impacted by the continuing social injustice around the world. The 700 Club just ran this story of some young women and their documentation of the crisis through Youth with a Mission.
I just thought I'd repost this article from behavioral scientist Daniel Goleman's blog. What do you think?
A recent comparison of the mental and physical health of Americans and Britons raises some intriguing questions. Consider these data points:In searching for explanations, the focus goes to the fact that Americans seem to value wealth and work over social connections, in the view of a British epidemiology team, led by Sir Michael Marmot at the University College London Medical School. One reason for this, of course, can be seen in the lack of social safety nets Americans face. Compare Britain, which like most European countries, has a far more humane social system: in England, a student might pay about $3,000 a year for a university education (and in other European countries the government pays the whole thing); everyone who retires in Britain gets both a company and a government pension; health care is free. Americans, by contrast, live in fear of losing health care, not having enough money to retire on, or huge education bills.
- Americans spend 2.5 more on health care than do Brits – yet have higher rates of diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, lung disease, and cancer.
- The richest, healthiest Americans are as sick as the poorest Brits.
- Americans work far longer than Brits (and other Europeans), and are more likely to hold two jobs – virtually unheard of in Britain.
Even among the well-to-do, contentment remains elusive: No matter how much people earn, their desires grow with their earning power. This insatiable pleasure-seeking has been called by Daniel Kahneman the “hedonic treadmill,” meaning that no matter what you have now, the yearning for more will grow proportionately – keeping you on an endless spending spree. Intriguingly, the country with highest rates of contentment worldwide is Denmark – whose people also have the lowest expectations for material comforts.
Add to America’s cultural malaise the fact that our networks of friends seems to be shrinking. Between 1985 and 2005, the average number of confidantes people reported dropped from three to two. By contrast, British and other European cultures place more importance on social connections than money. In Britain, for instance, every neighborhood has a pub, a place where neighbors go most nights to get together. By contrast, Americans disappear into their homes, doors locked.
This shrinking of personal contact may itself take a health toll. Carnegie Mellon psychologist Sheldon Cohen has found the more personal relationships a person has, the more healthy they are.
Iran's former crown prince and advocate for reform, Reza Pahlavi, becomes emotional while speaking about the current situation in Iran.
He says, "A movement was born on the 12th of June..." I pray the people of Iran will begin to taste freedom and not rest until they secure it.
For the full video, click here.
