My wife and I spent a good part of our long holiday weekend tweaking our church’s website.  You should check it out and let us know what you think in the comments section.

Here’s Martin Luther King, Jr, singing his famous, “I have a dream…” speech.  C/o The Gregory Brothers.  Pretty cool.

Enjoy.

[Embedded video may not display correctly in RSS, Facebook, or Email subscription feeds.  If that's the case click through to the original post on my site to see the video displayed properly.]

The church I pastor just launched a new site: eastwoodbaptistonline.com.  Go check it out!

I only wish I was kidding.  The game is called Mass: We Pray.  They have a website up.  This has almost certainly got to be a joke.  You can read more about the “game” here.

Watch the game’s trailer below.  (For those of you reading this through an email subscription or Facebook, you may have to click through to the actual post on my site to see the embedded YouTube clip.)

[HT: Forward Progress via Challies]

Couldn’t resist posting this.  Very Cool.

(Note: If you’re reading this through an email subscription it’s likely that the embedded video will not appear.  You may have to click through to my actual site to view the clip.)

[HT: Cynical-C]

Writing at his blog, A Brick in the Valley, pastor and author, Chris Brauns, provides a quick little anecdote on the dangers of TV:

I am not saying all television is wrong. Once when the flu visited our house (though uninvited); one of our children watched Anne of Greene Gables during recovery.  It was a good thing.

But, let’s ask ourselves. Do we regularly administer videos, even good ones, to our children, in order to buy ourselves peace and quiet.

Do not let television be a drug that you administer to your children for your own benefit.

For more thoughts on watching TV you should check out my posts:

• John Piper on Watching TV
• 10 Reasons Why You Could Do Without Cable TV

After having clicked this link from Tim Challies and reading this blog’s article on the benefits of dropping cable TV, I decided to try my hand at crafting a similar list of reasons why there’s better things to do with your time.

Here’s what I had to build from.  It’s the list provided by The Wisdom and Folly Blog, by Jim and Amy Spiegel.  I’m just provinding the list’s tag lines.  Visit the original post for it’s author’s commentary.

1. Avoidance of commercials and the fueling of the consumer mentality.
2. Better stewardship of time.
3. Protection of children.
4. Avoidance of narcissisim, bad ethics, and poor reasoning.
5. Enhancement of aesthetic sense.

And here are my five reasons why you’d be better off without cable TV:

1. It could save you money.
   It’s simple math.  Paying $50-100 every month adds up.   Not paying it does too!
2. It may help you value people more.
   No cable TV?  Spend time with your wife.  Call your family or friends.  Visit with a neighbor.  Be a person for crying out loud.  Don’t just waste away alone in front of a television.
3. It will probably increase your attention span.
   Less commercials.  Less multiple-scene scenarios all going on at the same time.  More time to do other focus-building activities like #’s 4 and 5 below.
4. It gives you more time to read.
   Instead of flipping channels, flip pages.  Reading is a proven way to make you smarter.  It helps you think clearer, comprehend more fully, speak more articulately, and acquire other skills easier,
5. It will encourage productivity in almost every area of your life.
   Nothing feels better than a hard day’s work, complete with productivity and the personal sense of fulfillment that can only come from getting things done.  Get off the couch and do something.  No TV means much more oppotnity to do stuff!

There are other reasons, I’m sure.  These were just a few that I thought of.  Can you think of any other reasons why getting rid of cable TV is a good idea?

Let me preface this with that I do not have a really-cool, ultra-hip, super-expensive-monthly-plan iPhone.  Instead, I have one of these.  That being said, I still thought it was pretty cool when I read today where the cover of the upcoming June 1st New Yorker magazine was going to be a work of art that was produced on an iPhone.  That’s right, artist Jorge Colombo did a finger-painting on the popular iPhone app, Brushes, that will indeed grace the cover of the popular periodical. Here’s a short clip of the artist at work.

Read more about it here.

[HT: Gizmodo]

There are a number of reasons to read blogs, many of which have been adequately summed up here by ReadWriteWeb.com lead writer, Marshall Kirkpatrick.  If you don’t feel like reading through his longer, more polished list, then consider mine.  Here are my 3 reasons why you should consider reading blogs:

1. VARIETY
   No matter what it is you’re interested in, there’s a really great chance that there are a multitude of blogs that cover your topics of interest.  For me, I’m a theology buff/youth pastor/tech-geek-on-the-side-kind-of-a-guy.  What do you know?  There are more blogs out there related to these three things than I can even begin to read!
2. EXPOSURE
   Once you find some good blogs about a given subject, you’re immediately opened up to all the other good blogs on that subject.  The thing about blogs is that they help to create online community.  Great blogs link to, borrow from, and give credit to other great blogs.  So once you enter the world of reading blogs, it’s only a matter of a few clicks before you stumble upon links and blogs and sites that are great and that, for you, are absolutely brand new!
3. CURRENCY
   No, not money—although money can definitely made in the world of blogging.  I’m talking about “currency” in the sense that something is current or up to date.  Want to stay relevant?  Want to be on the cutting edge of whatever it is that you do or are into?  Then read the good blogs related to your field of endeavor.  They’re sure to keep you up to speed on whatever it is that you’re interested in.

Some people love Mac products.                             Some people don’t.

Which side do you fall on?