We’ve scoured the web and found the best links, videos and articles for you to enjoy. Onto this week’s best….

• Without a doubt, the coolest business card you’ll ever see. (And the most expensive – $5 a piece!)
• Pictures from the first 36 hours of the BP oil spill. It looks like a war zone. These are the photos BP does not want you to see!
• Still clueless about the LOST finale? SuperPunch provides an extended explanation of what went down on the last LOST.
• Ban Comic Sans. Like, fa’ real.
• The 50 worst inventions of all time. Could we append the list to include Comic Sans?
• “Does God never march with Armies?“
• We had a lengthy, solid discussion around the issue of bi-vocationalism in the modern day pastorate. Read the post and weigh-in with your opinion.

What a great looking bunch of links! Check ‘em out and, above all, have a SAFE and FUN Memorial Day weekend. Thank a veteran!

Recently we sat down with author and editor-extraordinaire, Kevin Hendricks, to chat about his latest literary creation, Addition by Adoption: Kids, Causes & 140 Characters. Aside from being a fellow Bethel grad and running his own communications company, Monkey Outta Nowhere, Kevin’s an adopting dad. His book talks about his experience with adoption while integrating his social media life into the fold. Yes, it can be done!

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In one of my last classes at Bethel Seminary, I stumbled onto a discussion board dialogue that left me thinking. Thinking deeply, in fact.

Two of my friends were discussing burn out in the North American church. More specifically the heavy demands put on pastors. While the conversation initially held my attention because of burnout, it ended up leaving me wondering about the future role of pastors in the church.

My friends went back and forth on a few exchanges in this thread. Then one of them–a man who is characteristically reserved about his personal life–let us in a little bit to where he was at personally. It was telling … and quite refreshing. He said:
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Coming soon to an online church near you? The virtual choir.

For the true multi-sensory experience, listen to this song while reading today’s post.

The show is over. LOST is complete. Everyone is okay.

That’s what I took away from last night’s LOST series finale: they were all okay. That was my thought as the curtain closed on LOST. “They all made it.”

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We’ve scoured the web and found the best links, videos and articles for you to enjoy. Onto this week’s best….

• 20 awesome things you probably never knew about bacon. Oh yeah, THEY’RE AWESOME!
• Pop Rocks are fodder for pop culture lore. Watch what happens when a baby eats some.
• We celebrated Pentecost this past week on the liturgical calendar. What does Pentecost mean for you, red or revival?
• Have you ever emailed a celeb/hero/company big wig and never received a reply? Here’s some steps to take to ensure they write you back.
• If you work out your body, why not work out your mind? Train to be a better blogger here.
• And finally, my favorite post here on the blog from last week. Author Scott Belsky stopped by to say “hello” after I wrote a post about his newest book … and John Basedow.

And there you have. Links that are sure to entertain for hours … Or at least a few minutes. Enjoy. And don’t say we never gave you anything! PEACE.

I’d love it if you could find your way to the Twin Cities June 6-8 to join me for Faith Lift. I’ll be presenting on pastoring in the digital world. There will be lots of Lutherans there. Plus, I’m pretty sure these guys will be in attendance.

Do it. It’ll be fun.

Ponder this with me.

Thanks to Skype, I can do pre-marriage counseling with couples that live halfway across the country. Offline trumps online, but the possibility to meet up “face-to-face” is possible wherever there’s an internet connection.

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Scott Belsky’s latest book, Making Ideas Happen, is making me dream less. For the record, that’s a good thing. I think it should be required reading for all church workers for that very reason. Less “pie-in-the-sky” dreaming and more “hand-to-the-plow” action.

Those of us in ministry have a nasty habit of brainstorming a stock pile of ideas to further the reality of Christ and then sitting back on our haunches. “You do it!” we seem to say to God. We believe falsely that if we simply conjure up the idea in our heads, God has some sort of obligation to magically materialize those dreams right before our eyes. We turn following God into a spiritualized version of John Basedow–”If you can dream it, you can achieve it!” Yuck.

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Cynthia Ware is a pro. I’ve been privileged enough to collaborate with her on a few projects recently and I’m consistently impressed by her expertise and care. She knows church. She knows new media–for pity’s sakes she has a degree in it! She gets it.

I was researching for a workshop I’ll be leading at Faith Lift in the Twin Cities next month and I came across this gem from Cynthia. The title of the article is “Technology and the Virtual Church”, but it focuses on the very fabric that makes up the clothes of the Body of Christ. It’s all-encompassing. The vision that Cynthia lays out is compelling. Superb.

Here’s a portion of the article that struck me. Cynthia contrasts the culture of the church with the mindset of the “rest” of the world:

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