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A Tear Jerker From Heaven by Robert Bianco (USA Today)

Posted by Ed and Lois

Based on the book “The Five People You Meet In Heaven” by Mitch Albom. It’s on ABC TV Sunday night at 8:00.

Written by talk-show host and Tuesdays With Morrie author Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet in Heaven is one of those gift-shop inspirational parables that usually are more popular with book buyers than book critics. Come the holidays, those tales tend to plop on the TV screen like a honey-coated Christmas goose.

Happily for us, Albom’s story is stronger at its core than most. And Albom, director Lloyd Kramer and producers Robert Halmi Sr. and Jr. have transferred it to film in its best imaginable version. Stripped to its essentials, beautifully acted and gorgeously produced, a Heaven that might have struck some as simplistic and preachy is now closer to simple and profound.

Heaven is a modern twist on The Christmas Carol, with an emotionally damaged hero being led to salvation by five people in heaven rather than three ghosts on Earth. In Albom’s vision, the five people you meet are not necessarily the most important people in your life or the ones you loved the most. They’re five people who can illuminate your life.

Full Post http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/reviews/2004-12-02-five-people_x.htm

Becoming A Cultural Redemptive by Brian Orme (The Ooze)

Posted by Ed and Lois

Question: Should we be creating seperate places to meet people (a Christian sub-culture), or interacting with them on their own turf? (Isn’t it our turf too?) I think the answers are all yes. The problem for me is that I can disappear into our sub-culture, and never come out.

There is something within every culture that seeks to replicate the redemptive story of God. It may be somewhat unrecognizable at times, but the desire to be redeemed—to be set free, to be bought out of our bondage to selfishness, to watch God transform negative experiences into good—flows through every man. It’s amazing to see how strongly we identify with certain films and art because of this desire. Every weekend, thousands of people flood into cinemas to connect with characters and stories of redemption. Braveheart, Finding Nemo, The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption are just a few films that capture this theme.

How do we join God in His mission and connect Christ with culture? In many ways, the connection is already there, waiting to be illumined. We don’t need to go out and buy all the latest CDs or DVDs or watch hours of MTV, we just need to be observant and intentional about what we see happening in culture and what we see God doing. The culture cries out, and all creation for that fact, for redemption. In some places, the cry may be subtle or masked, and in others, there is a wild plea.

Becoming a cultural redemptive means that we are willing to connect with the expressions of our culture in order to translate the message of the kingdom: a message of freedom and a new start.

Full Post http://www.theooze.com/articles/article.cfm?id=956

Bono In The New York Times

Posted by Ed and Lois

“There’s cathedrals and the alleyway in our music. I think the alleyway is usually on the way to the cathedral, where you can hear your own footsteps and you’re slightly nervous and looking over your shoulder and wondering if there’s somebody following you. And then you get there and you realize there was somebody following you: It’s God.”

The Best U2 Review

Posted by Ed and Lois

A four star review of ” How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb”  by Jeffrey Overstreet

The best disk of the year by a band of Christ-followers (Mostly), who don’t lead worship in their home church every Sunday.

There are several recurring themes that run through the album:

The world is off-balance and going wrong.

The more you see of it, the harder it is to see anything clearly, so hang on to the innocent perspective of a child as long as you can.

True, faithful, unwavering love ... not just between a man and a woman, but between a father and a son, between a mentor and a child, between one nation and another ... is the only way to preserve innocence in the midst of it.

If we survive at all, it’s because of God’s blessings.

So the proper response is to share the blessings we’ve been given rather than hoarding them, to kneel, and call on one of God’s many sacred names, in what little time we have left.

This is an older, wiser U2, the grownup looking back at the boy and at the reckless adolescent, and smiling sadly. At the same time, it’s a band that knows their days are numbered, that can see the end coming, and that are ready to start framing their phrases as fatherly ... perhaps even grandfatherly ... advice

Full reviewhttp://promontoryartists.org/lookingcloser/music/howtodismantle.htm

CONNECTION POWER | Power Visitor - Growth Calculator

Posted by Mike Boyink

ARE YOU READY FOR A WAKEUP CALL?

Do you spend all of your church growth resources on attracting visitors?

Did you know, for church growth, that visitor retention is up to 10 times more important than visitor volume?
You can now learn the mathematics of church growth by playing “what if” scenarios on our calculator. Discover for yourself how much more important raising your visitor retention rate is to your church’s growth than visitor volume rate.

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Sometimes reality is funnier (and on second thought sadder) than any satire. I get a sick stomach seeing stuff like this.