Web Safari

This week's Web Safari is going to seem a bit heavy on religion articles for some of you, particularly articles that are somewhat critical of things that are going on in American Evangelical forms of Christianity. Those articles are going to get their own special grouping, so you can either avoid them or zoom right to them.

Religion Links and Articles

1. A woman who was at the forefront of the movement promoting Worship as Evangelism has written an article explaining why she no longer promotes that idea. A very insightful article discussing what worship should and shouldn't be.

"In 2001 a worship-driven congregation in my area finally did a survey as to who they were really reaching, and they were shocked. They'd thought their congregation was at least 50 percent unchurched. The real number was 3 percent."

2. A funny and insightful cartoon from Brant Hansen.

3. Related to the first article, David Fitch has written about some of the problems with the megachurch movement. Just because "good things are happening" doesn't mean that it justifies everything that is going on.

4. Barna has a new study out: A New Generation Expresses its Skepticism and Frustration with Christianity. This article is a overview of topics that will be discussed indepth in a new book, UnChristian by David Kinnaman. In short, there are more non-Christian 16-29 year olds than in any other generation, and they have much less favorable views of Christianity than previous generations. Not only that, but young Christians in the 16-29 year old age group tend to increasingly agree with many of the views of their non-Christian counterparts.

When young people were asked to identify their impressions of Christianity, one of the common themes was "Christianity is changed from what it used to be" and "Christianity in today’s society no longer looks like Jesus." These comments were the most frequent unprompted images that young people called to mind, mentioned by one-quarter of both young non-Christians (23%) and born again Christians (22%).

Kinnaman explained, "That’s where the term 'unChristian' came from. Young people are very candid. In our interviews, we kept encountering young people - both those inside the church and outside of it - who said that something was broken in the present-day expression of Christianity. Their perceptions about Christianity were not always accurate, but what surprised me was not only the severity of their frustration with Christians, but also how frequently young born again Christians expressed some of the very same comments as young non-Christians."

Other Interesting and Miscellaneous Links

1. Jenna Bush has a book being published that was inspired by her work with UNICEF in Panama.

2. Several new species of animals and orchids have been discovered in Vietnam.

3. Would you be more likely to stop at a humorous stop sign? Apparently a Chicago suburb thinks so.

4. "Recession" is a word being heard more commonly again. This article discusses 5 Reasons why it's looming. I have to say, that working in a business that is dependent on the spending patterns of the wealthiest people in the U.S., we can already see a crunch happening.

5. Soda flavors that are reminiscent of a football locker room? Yuck! Take your pick from Dirt, Sports Cream, Perspiration, and Natural Field Turf. Again, yuck!