by Denise Morris on 08/31/2007
So here's something: I'll be running a half marathon on Labor Day. Most of you don't know me personally so you don't understand how ridiculous it is to hear me talking about running for multiple miles. I hate running and I always have. It's painful and difficult and exhausting for me. But for some reason I decided to run 13.1 miles in honor of my birthday this weekend. (Apparently I've gone senile in my old age.) I began my training... Read more.
by Ted Slater on 08/31/2007
I brought up the question of "short-term missions" in yesterday's Boundless e-newsletter, asking our readers to tell me a bit about their experiences. A number of you wrote in, telling me about your time in such places as Mexico, Fiji, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Ukraine, Mozambique, with Hurricane Katrina evacuees, China, Ethiopia, Asia, Slovakia and Chile. Some of you spent a week or two, others have lived for years on "the mission field." I had several reasons for... Read more.
by Candice Watters on 08/31/2007
It seems the adults have left the building, or the society. Or maybe, in our generation, they never arrived. That's the premise of Diana West's new book, The Death of the Grown Up. In it she laments the growing popularity of perpetual adolescence, even among the elderly. And she's under fire from none other than the perpetual adolescents she criticizes. But it's not just the fool factor of an over-the-hill grandma still dressing like a twentysomething rock star. It's the... Read more.
by Suzanne Hadley Gosselin on 08/31/2007
We know worship is about God, not us. But in his article "The Real Worship War," Mark Labberton considers the connection between worship and loving our neighbor. For all of our apparent passion about God, in the end much of our worship seems to be mostly about us. We presume we can worship in a way that will find God but lose track of our neighbor. Yet it was this very pattern in Israel's worship life that brought God's judgment.... Read more.
by Steve Watters on 08/31/2007
I wanted to pass on another insight that came out of our interview with Dr. Scott Stanley. At one point I made the observation that we often think most of the hard work of marriage will be on the front end -- selecting the perfect mate God has for us and and then hoping it will be easy after that. Dr. Stanley responded by talking about dogs. Yep. You know, we all fall in love with the front end of... Read more.
by Motte Brown on 08/30/2007
Ben Stein is best known for his portrayal as the monotone economics teacher from the popular '80s movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off. You remember, "Bueller." (long pause) "Bueller." (long pause) "Bueller." But he also has a pretty impressive academic resume. He graduated from Columbia University with honors and was elected valedictorian of Yale Law School by his classmates. He's worked as a poverty lawyer, a trial lawyer and a university adjunct at three prominent universities. Stein also served as Richard... Read more.
by Denise Morris on 08/30/2007
My coworker, Matthew John, published an article today called "Entertainment: The Gospel of Avoidance." He talks mainly to the guys in this one, but the point of the article is relevant to all of us. In it, he mentions how easy it is to be distracted by different forms of media. We're constantly looking to avoid boredom, and in our culture today, being entertained often seems to be the most important goal in life: We are a highly entertained lot.... Read more.
by Candice Watters on 08/30/2007
One of the features of dating in our time is technology. Lots of my friends met their future husbands online. Whether on a matching service or through email, they started their relationships from behind computer screens. And as good as their connections were online, meeting offline for the first time was surprisingly awkward. Many were shocked by just how foreign the man seemed. They thought they knew him inside and out -- their phone and email conversations were so intimate.... Read more.
by Steve Watters on 08/30/2007
Guys, have you ever prayed for "a burning bush" to let you know that a girl was the right one for you? I know I did. In fact, my dad's experience of sensing God lead him to a specific church to find his future wife one day made me think that was the norm for Christian men seeking wives. But is it possible that we seek burning bushes because we want a shortcut around learning and applying the principles God... Read more.
by Suzanne Hadley Gosselin on 08/29/2007
Newsweek reports that China is making a move to prohibit reincarnation. In one of history's more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is "an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation." The reason for the law: the 72-year-old Dalai... Read more.
by Candice Watters on 08/29/2007
In keeping with my books theme (thanks to all you readers who commented and shared your favorite titles), is an article that says Evangelicals are nothing if not bad writers. "My fellow Evangelicals publish reams upon reams of prose. What we have not tended to write is anything recognized as having literary value by the literary world," writes Donald T. Williams, a Professor of English and Director of the School of Arts and Sciences at Toccoa Falls College in Georgia,... Read more.
by Motte Brown on 08/29/2007
In yesterday's Wall Street Journal, Elizabeth Holmes reports on the lack of career mentors for 20-somethings entering today's job market. Here's an excerpt explaining why: The mentor-mentee relationship used to be a partnership between a manager and a new hire. The experienced boss coached his rookie. When the newbie looked good, the boss looked better. Now, with managers stuck volleying emails, tackling expense-account systems and dodging high-velocity blame, time for teaching has evaporated. She says the HR answer to this... Read more.
by Suzanne Hadley Gosselin on 08/28/2007
Today Taliban militants agreed to release the 19 South Korean church volunteers held hostage for six weeks in Afghanistan. (Two of the original 23 hostages kidnapped on July 19 were killed in late July, while two others were freed earlier this month.) World Magazine reports: Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said that the South Koreans — mostly women in their 20s and 30s — would be freed "in the coming days" and that tribal elders would act as go-betweens. He... Read more.
by Steve Watters on 08/28/2007
I never formalized a mentoring relationship until I was in my thirties, but it seems like I've always had a mentor -- someone I've informally learned from about work, relationships, faith, money and life in general. An administrator at my Christian college gave me a valuable head start in publishing, leading teams and creativity. A professor in graduate school provided timely guidance on calling, marriage and starting a family. A couple of different mentors are currently giving me examples and... Read more.
by Denise Morris on 08/28/2007
A recent Newsweek article highlights Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee and his struggle to gain recognition in the polls. The article highlights the fact that Huckabee agrees with all of the major points of conservative politics: He explained he's unshakably pro-life, opposes same-sex marriage and supports the troop surge in Iraq. He promised to protect gun rights and vowed to abolish the Internal Revenue Service, the agency Republicans love to hate most. "I want April 15 to be just another... Read more.
by Candice Watters on 08/27/2007
Whenever I see a report on the skyrocketing cost of staging a wedding, I wonder how in the world we did it. With so many stories about the average wedding costing in the 30k range, I wonder how we managed to avoid a totally tacky affair for a mere 10k. What a bargain. But then I read a report about how the average cost is figured. The Wall Street Journal's Numbers Guy, Carl Bialik, says, The so-called average cost --... Read more.
by Suzanne Hadley Gosselin on 08/27/2007
We talk a lot of singleness theory here at Boundless. We hail the merits of preparing for marriage and family, give tips for getting out of the singleness rut and provide biblical perspective on courtship and marriage. It's easy to talk theory. For example, God most likely desires for you to marry and have a family or He has equipped you for celibate service. But what about everything in between? What about the woman eager to marry who has no... Read more.
by Motte Brown on 08/27/2007
Ted's post got me thinking about which colleges are most represented on the blog when measured by visits. So I did some checking and thought it'd be fun to announce a top ten. Over the last year (and it'll be a year August 31st since our first blog), Azusa Pacific University registered the most visits to our little blog with 1,246. Azusa Pacific is a Christian school in Southern California with an enrollment of about 4,200. Go Cougars! Here's the... Read more.
by Steve Watters on 08/27/2007
Ted wrote about retaining your faith in college. Would you believe, that college students are more likely to stay connected to church than those who don't go to college. In an interview with Christianity Today, Mark Regenerus (head of a research project on faith and education) makes this unconventional observation: ...we're now convinced that it's not higher education that secularizes, but rather the freedoms that young adults experience during this period of life. We think the story is in what... Read more.
by Ted Slater on 08/27/2007
About half of you who visit Boundless and The Line are in college, either undergrad or grad school. And so thousands of you have either made your way back to campus, or are preparing to do so over the coming weeks. University is an exciting place to learn, to grow friendships, to wrestle with ideas. It can also be dangerous to your faith, as seen by the number of Christians who lose their faith in college. Don't want to become... Read more.
by Motte Brown on 08/24/2007
I'm not talking about the magazine, I'm talking about the stock with the New York Stock Exchange ticker "PLA." In yesterday's Boundless article "Investing with a Conscience," Heather Koerner says that you might be contributing to Hugh Hefner's conglomerate without even knowing it. She asks, "Would it bother you?" I have to admit that I've never really thought about my investment dollars in terms of morality. My mutual funds are just that: "mutual funds." I balance my diversification and juggle... Read more.
by Suzanne Hadley Gosselin on 08/24/2007
Earlier this week, I posted on an interview with Josh Harris about evangelism and the church. Now I'd like to call your attention to his convictions on what is perhaps an even more pressing matter: Facebook. Harris writes: Last week, on a whim, I signed up for a Facebook account. I had no friends and no idea what I was doing. So I asked for advice and begged for friends. I got both. A bunch of people — everyone from... Read more.
by Steve Watters on 08/23/2007
I enjoyed Denise's post about choosing to love. That choice is a key ingredient for a loving relationship, but it comes on the other side of what's proving to be an almost impossible task -- choosing who to love. It's an issue Thomas Jeffries addressed in a Boundless article a while back. In that article, Jeffries talks about how difficult it's become for us to make good choices -- about purchases, work, faith, relationships, etc. -- in a world of... Read more.
by Denise Morris on 08/23/2007
We republished an article on TrueU.org today that talks about the choices we make when it comes to love. The author, Micah Wierenga, talks about his first year of marriage, when both he and his wife really realized what it means to choose to love someone. Unfortunately, our culture has made "falling in love" the most important aspect of a relationship. If those fuzzy feelings aren't strong enough or if they fade away, you better move on to someone else.... Read more.
by Motte Brown on 08/23/2007
As I am sure all vampire aficionados are aware, novelist Anne Rice has publicly endorsed Hillary Clinton for President. Her reason, odd as it may sound, is because she believes that Hillary and the Democrats are our nations best chance to "find a solution to the horror of abortion." She writes: I have heard many anti-abortion statements made by people who are not Democrats, but many of these statements do not strike me as constructive or convincing. I feel we... Read more.
by Suzanne Hadley Gosselin on 08/23/2007
In her article "Married With Children: Could Anything be Crazier?" Kate Bluett defends the increasingly counter-cultural path of permanent marriage and multiple children. Among issues she considers are the later marrying age, the increase of cohabitation and the decrease in childbearing. Of the transition from singlehood to marriage and family, Bluett writes: It is made harder by the fact that parenthood is losing its respect in the culture at large. This is, after all, the age in which father no... Read more.
by Ted Slater on 08/23/2007
I need to say at the outset that "worship" includes any reverent engagement with, or response to, the Lord. It can include acts of service, financial giving, working, eating, writing blog posts ... and singing. Bob Kauflin does a fine job further defining worship on his blog, WorshipMatters. In the context of this blog post, I'll use the term "worship" to mean songs we sing either about God or to God. So what is the "purpose" of such worship? I... Read more.
by Steve Watters on 08/22/2007
I don't know how I missed this yesterday, but apparently a winner was announced in the Best American Restroom contest. And the winner is Jungle Jim's International Market. I was a little bummed to see that the entry from a restaurant in Flushing, MI didn't win (that would have made for some creative headlines), but Jungle Jim's does deserve a prize for re-thinking the whole public restroom experience. Here's how their setup was described in a Fox News report: What... Read more.
by Ted Slater on 08/22/2007
Yes, weddings are deadly. At least, for me, mine was. Having been single for 36 years before finally getting married, I was concerned that I wouldn't make the transition well. I was concerned that many of the habits I picked up during my single years would be so ingrained that I'd continue them into my marriage, to the detriment of that marriage. "Habits" were a big part of who I was, pre-marriage. Habits like staying up late working on my... Read more.
by Candice Watters on 08/22/2007
Speaking of reading, it seems not everyone is bothered by a nightstand with just a lamp, alarm clock and box of tissues. "One in four adults say they read no books at all in the past year," says an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Tuesday. "The survey reveals a nation whose book readers, on the whole, can hardly be called ravenous. The typical person claimed to have read four books in the last year — half read more and half read... Read more.
by Candice Watters on 08/22/2007
Few things seem worse than a vacancy on my nightstand. To not have good books to read feels like not having any friends. Usually I have a stack of books there. But an article I read a few weeks back has me rethinking my list of must-reads. In it, the author chided Americans for not reading enough, but he also went on to chide those who do read, for only reading non-fiction. Not good enough he said. The really worthy,... Read more.
by Steve Watters on 08/22/2007
Conservative against liberal. Black against white. Mac against PC. Our culture likes to pit groups against each other. Not surprisingly, the issues we discuss on Boundless regarding marriage and singleness are often perceived as a pitting of one against the other. That hasn't been our intention. The main distinction we've tried to make is between a popular culture of singleness and the callings to either Biblical marriage or celibacy. There aren't a lot of differences between those on the path... Read more.
by Suzanne Hadley Gosselin on 08/21/2007
I recently saw a poster for a church in New York that read: As Christians, we're sorry for being self-righteous, judgmental b-------. A church for people who have given up on the church. While the sentiment may ring true for many in our generation, a declaration like this wounds my heart. And, I believe, it wounds Christ's heart, who "loved the church and gave himself up for her." Joshua Harris, 32-year-old pastor of Covenant Life Church, had some good things... Read more.
by Motte Brown on 08/21/2007
Speaking of eating... A relative went to a party a while back hosted by a couple from their church. During a break in the activities, she began looking at the photos displayed throughout the home. She focused in on a wedding picture of a young, thin couple and asked the host innocently, "Who are they?" The host responded, "That's us. I just love to eat." I thought of this story as I read a post on The Dallas Observer blog... Read more.
by Denise Morris on 08/21/2007
"Don't disagree with me because that will make me angry, and if I'm angry, I'll just have to call you names and attack your character." Welcome to politics and public discourse in the 21st century! Mark Early's last couple of BreakPoint commentaries have talked about the rising amount of anger and vitriol in our culture today. People on both the right and left have taken to name-calling, generalizations and downright hatred of those they disagree with. But Early points out... Read more.
by Ted Slater on 08/21/2007
What's wrong with the following sentences? "I threw." "The boy washed." "She picked up." What's wrong is that the verbs are transitive verbs, and require a "direct object." Those sentences omitted this "object." The following sentences are correct: "I threw the ball." "The boy washed his bicycle." "She picked up the penny." Now, what's wrong with the following sentence? "Here I am to worship." Again, what's wrong is that "worship" is a transitive verb, and therefore requires an "object." In... Read more.
by Steve Watters on 08/21/2007
Today would have been my dad's 60th birthday, but he died prematurely at 56. I posted last week about the time my dad met Elvis. As I re-read part 2 of that story, I was reminded of the way my dad sought in his life to speak truth in love -- and I was convicted about how much I still need to grow in that area. Early on in my dad's ministry, he studied the Christian faith fervently and he... Read more.
by Ted Slater on 08/20/2007
Jill wrote an e-mail to us today, referencing a meal she had last night of "lentils, carrots, and pepperoni." She then went on to ask what kinds of meals we ate during our "hungry years" -- the time in our 20s when we're growing more independent from our folks. I was 18 years old when a friend and I moved from our parents' homes in Michigan to an apartment in Texas, taking a year off from college to figure out... Read more.
by Ted Slater on 08/20/2007
I wrote about the non-apology apology about a year ago. Motte and Suzanne elaborated on the phenomenon in posts of their own. This past week we published an article by Carolyn McCulley, "The Art of the Apology," that further explores the fruitless act of using terms inherent in apologies, while ultimately not apologizing. We do it more than we think. And as we'd expect, in the end it accomplishes little. Have you ever caught yourself offering pseudo-apologies? What are some... Read more.
by Suzanne Hadley Gosselin on 08/20/2007
A recent poll on teens and what makes them happy comes out in favor of family, marriage and religious faith. According to Fox news: So you're between the ages of 13 and 24. What makes you happy? A worried, weary parent might imagine the answer to sound something like this: Sex, drugs, a little rock 'n' roll. Maybe some cash, or at least the car keys. Turns out the real answer is quite different. Spending time with family was the... Read more.
by Motte Brown on 08/17/2007
Tim Challies wrote a fairly comprehensive blog on hell yesterday ("comprehensive blog" is not an oxymoron for Tim). He does a great job of excerpting others who've written about it and adding his own commentary for a haunting vision of its "fiery horror." He begins with Eward Donnelly's Biblical Teaching on the Doctrines of Heaven and Hell, describing hell's "absolute poverty." The absolute poverty of hell is in its separation from God. All that people love and appreciate and enjoy... Read more.
by Steve Watters on 08/17/2007
The first time I flew over Colorado, I was mesmerized by what I thought were alien crop circles forming a circular patchwork of sorts across the Eastern plains. It turns out that the vegetation grows in circles because of the irrigation pattern the farmers use. My view from the sky was dramatically different from what I could see on the ground where everything just looked flat and nondescript. Just up the road from us, an amateur stunt pilot is offering... Read more.
by Denise Morris on 08/16/2007
I thought Ted's post on calling was interesting and brought up some good points. However, I would like to take the discussion in my post in a bit of a different direction. I have always known that I wanted to be a writer. When I was young, I wrote and illustrated my own "magazine," my dad would make copies of it for me at work, and I would sell it for 25 cents an issue. (If any of you would... Read more.
by Candice Watters on 08/16/2007
It's hard to remember a day when diversity was just a word in the dictionary. For decades now, it's been a cultural imperative, a heavy-handed expectation, an admissions goal from preschool to Ph.D. programs. Now a new study suggests maybe the glorification of diversity wasn't such a good idea after all. Harvard Professor and best-selling author Robert Putnam (Bowling Alone) has released the results of his massive study of the effects of ethnic diversity on communities. Conducting 30,000 interviews in... Read more.
by Suzanne Hadley Gosselin on 08/16/2007
This post is for women. As I single woman, I have come to know the vital importance of my friendships with females. These girlfriends encourage me, commiserate with me, pray with me, challenge me and love me. That's why I related to Camerin Courtney's story of meeting a girlfriend for coffee. During this conversation, she challenged her friend about accepting the attentions of a non-Christian and expressed her own longing for a marriage relationship like her parents'. I could think... Read more.
by Ted Slater on 08/16/2007
What are your callings? Do you ever think about your callings, your vocations? Do you even believe that the Lord has callings for you? I believe He does. And I believe He has more than one calling for each of us. Some have a calling to the medical profession, to help sick people get better. Others have a calling to minister the gospel as intercultural missionaries or pastors. Others have callings to engage with the academic community. Still others are... Read more.
by Steve Watters on 08/16/2007
August 16, 1977 was a day of mourning in my house. My dad must have played all of his Elvis records while listening to news about the King's premature death. This was the biggest in a series of rock star deaths that marked the seventies. It was a death my dad took very personally. Just shy of his 30th birthday, dad reflected on the string of rock bands he led and the time he got to hang out with Elvis... Read more.
by Motte Brown on 08/15/2007
According to a LATimes.com op-ed piece, America's wealth boom over the last decade has "spawned a vast new generation of rich kids." And in order to prevent them from becoming Paris Hiltons, parents are sending their 20-somethings to financial skills retreats in hopes they'll become "good stewards of wealth" instead of "pouty heiresses." But author Robert Franks doubts it will work: Today's rich kids may be cash-rich, but many are skills-poor, with little chance of growing their wealth or landing... Read more.
by Steve Watters on 08/15/2007
In a recent comment, "Justin" wrote, "If I don't want to get married until I'm 40, then that is between me and God. Not me and the congregation." I think by this statement it's fair to say Justin's concept of marriage fits into a category researcher Paul Amato describes as "individualistic." In a book that he (and a team of other researchers) wrote called Alone Together, Amato describes the transformation of marriage to the current individualistic focus: Marriage changed from... Read more.
by Ted Slater on 08/15/2007
Guys, this isn't a battle you can win. Just accept that women appreciate it when you close the lid. Don't question it. Just do it. Every time. That is all. Read more.
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