What will people say at your funeral?

Last Monday night I went to Marysville to attend the funeral of Jim Wiggins. Jim was a long time member of the church and an incredible man. In fact, I have never been to a funeral where it was clear that someone was so universally loved--and I've been to a lot of funerals.

It got me thinking--wouldn't it be great to have the kind of legacy that Jim has? Kind of makes you think about your life, doesn't it? In the end, the only thing people will remember fondly are, did you love God, and, did you love people?

Impulsive Shopping

I read recently an online article named "5 Sneaky Mall Tricks." It detailed ways that shopping malls work to get us to spend more money than we originally planned.

One of those ways was putting escalators far apart so that you have to walk past more shops and items in order to get to the next escalator. In doing this, we will pass by items we didn't come to buy and buy them anyway.

Boy, we sure are easily manipulated! But we really shouldn't blame them--it is the materialism in us. Why do you think we are so impulsive in buying?

"Bully" video game brings up issue of violence and media

Sorry for the publishing delay--I've spent the last five days dealing with a nasty bug. Anyway.

A news article today about a new video game coming out in October named "Bully" that is the subject of some controversy. At first, I thought perhaps that the player would be a bully, which would certainly promote bad behavior.

Instead, "the game's main character is 15-year-old Jimmy Hopkins, who must defend himself against school bullies at a fictional U.S. boarding school called Bullworth Academy, while dealing with characters ranging from nerds and jocks to authoritarian prefects."

I suppose that is not so bad, though this video game maker is also the maker of Grand Theft Auto--a violent and sexually graphic video game.

I grew up playing fantasy computer games, but they had no sexual content, were always good guys vs. bad guys, and were not so graphic in their violence. Do today's games cross the line? Do video games create violent tendencies in kids? What do you think?

How can we use technology in church (in and out of worship)?

An artcle just released by Reuters said that diamonds are no longer a girl's best friend,. According to a new U.S. study, three of four women would prefer a new plasma TV to a diamond necklace. The study also found that women were found on average to own 6.6 technology devices while men own 6.9--a virtual tie, and a surprising reversal.

When women are preferring tech gadgets to diamonds, we know that we have reached a paradigm shift in our culture. Technology is becoming ubiquitous.

Which brings up issue of the church and technology. While we now have powerpoint displays, we are still pretty low-tech in most all of our churches. How could we use things such as the web, text messaging, imagery, etc. more effectively both inside and outside of our worship? (Matt, any ideas?)