From Sampler to Sower

Not fully sure what to think of this one.

If you know me, you know I am a lover of Hobbit-lore, and of their creator, J.R.R. Tolkien.  However, I’m not sure I’m ready to purchase his icon.

This icon, written in a hand clearly influenced by Byzantine iconography, is actually for sale from the Trinity Store.  Click the picture to see all the things they have for sale.  And while you’re at it, be sure to check out their “icon” of Albert Einstein too.

A screen capture of my old homepage.

And to think we laughed when a teen at our youth center declared one afternoon “I’m going to delete the Internet.”

He meant he was going to uninstall Internet Explorer on his laptop.  But that’s not what he said.  Ever since “I’m going to delete the Internet!” has become a running joke for us.

But it’s not so funny any more.

Last night, Yahoo! deleted Geocities.

Now, before you get too mad at Yahoo!, I should probably point out they had every right to do so.  They bought Geocities all the way back in January of 1999.  And they gave the world fair warning – the then-impending deletion was announced in April of this year.  We had six full months to get ready.

But still…

They deleted Geocities!

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Info visualization site Information is Beautiful recently released this visual comparison on how the world spends money called “The Billion Dollar Gram.”

The visual comparisons between what we spend a year on things like, say, Facebook and Erectile Dysfunction medication compared to things like what it would take to feed all the world’s children for a year, or preserving the Amazon Rain forest is rather telling.

Likewise, it’s fascinating to compare things like Walmart’s gross revenues and their annual profits, or the total amount spent on advertising worldwide, compared with the amount spent on online advertising.  It’s both interesting and thought provoking.  Click on the image on the right to see the full picture, or check it out after the jump to see what is, in my opinion, the most disturbing comparison. Oh, and while you’re at Information is beautiful, check out some of their other fascinating visualizations like surface area required to power the world on solar power alone, twitter stats, or music sales by medium.

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On May 14-16, we took a group of teens to Regional Celebrate Life at Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, IL. We were representing the Northeastern Indiana District Church of the Nazarene in an athletic and talent competition against students from Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan.

You can see my photos from the event on my flickr page.

Here is a video compilation of photos from the event:

My top ten favorite photos from the event are after the jump.

NEI-NYI President Dane Matthews and Celebrate Life Director Dan Garde contemplate the possibility of taking a bite out of a wad of pre-chewed gum.

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You’ve probably not noticed, but I’ve not been posting much lately.  I kinda wish I had a good excuse.  Maybe I could claim I gave it up for Lent.  Or that I’ve been swamped by really important ministry stuff, or that I’ve been working on a total makeover of the blog.  Or that I was hard at work as the secret architect behind President Obama’s toxic assets plan that’s singlehandedly revived Wall Street over the last 18 hours.

But no.  No good excuses. Just a season of busy-ness coupled with a relapse of laziness.  That and the intersection of a surfeit of work writing daily devotionals over at mybrandnewlife.org and a dearth of things I felt I needed to say.

Like I said, not good excuses.

But I’m climbing back in the saddle again.  I’m spending a few days at my alma mater attending what they call a “Holiness Summit.”  Wasn’t really sure what to expect when I signed up to attend.  Turns out it’s a couple days of a lot of preaching.  An opening service on Sunday followed by two days with four services a day.  That’s a lot of time in a pew.  But it’s been good, at least in moments.

You can follow in nearly-real-time on my Twitter feed @pastorbuhro.  I’m also planning on summarizing the services here on this blog as well as sharing my reactions.

That means there’ll probably be a flurry of posts here in the next couple of days.

I’m just making up for lost time.

Please feel free to chime in with comments below.  I’d love your help processing some of the things I’m hearing this week.

Don’t know who Apophis is?  It’s the Greek name for Apep, the archenemy of the Egyptian god Ra, also known as the Uncreator, a giant serpent that tries to swallow Ra (the Sun) as it passes through the underworld each night after setting in the West in order to rise again in the East.

The more important question though may not be who, but what.  What is Apophis?

Asteroid 99942 Apophis, formerly known as 2004 MN₄, is a near earth asteroid predicted to pass closer to earth than our orbiting satellites on Friday the 13th, April 2029  and may very well impact earth on it’s way back through seven years later.

I was fascinated by this after seeing astrophysicist and incredible public speaker Neil DeGrasse Tyson on the Daily Show a couple nights ago. And then today in my Google Reader was a post on Garr Renyold’s blog Presentation Zen examining what makes Tyson such a captivating educator.  There, as one of the examples of the way in which Tyson engages both his audience and his interviewer, is a video from last February in which Tyson speaks in greater detail about the possible Apophis impact.  In case you missed it, here it is:

Does this have anything to do with youth ministry?  I don’t know, you tell me.  It was just fascinating to me.

However Presentation Zen should be in every public speakers rss reader.  And that does apply to youth ministry.

Normally about not I’d be posting a weekly update about what happened this week at Water’s Edge.

However, with the Indianapolis area getting its biggest snow in 13 years Tuesday night (tied for #6 biggest accumulation since they started keeping track) we didn’t have any midweek services this week.

(Honestly, 12 inches doesn’t seem like that much, for someone from the land of lake effect snow, but hey, who’s counting?)  Here’s some proof of the snow instead.

Photos courtesy of my wife, Michelle.

My son, Bryce, lying in wait.

St Francis Contemplates the Accumulation

Sacrifice 10 Friends for a Free Whopper

First of all, I have to give all credit to Lifehacker for first bringing this to my attention.

Burger King is currently running a hilarious viral promotion.  They’ve developed a new Facebook app which will allow users to “sacrifice” 10 friends in exchange for a free whopper.  Install the app, drop two handfulls of friends, and get yourself a coupon for free food.

According to their promotional materials, an entry will even appear in your timeline highlighting the fact that your former confrere has been flame-broiled in pursuit of the king of sandwhiches.

I don’t normally post on Saturdays.  However, I had to take this opportunity to wish a Happy Birthday to one of my favorite authors, J.R.R. Tolkien.  Born in 1892, he’d be eleventy-seven today.

"I'm beautiful this way!"

If you subscribe to my Twitter feed, @pastorbuhro, or if you read it in the sidebar of this blog, you know I really enjoy listening to all the things my three-year-old daughter Mackenzie has to say. A few days ago I was listening to her play with her youngest brother (Brock, age 5) in their shared bedroom. They were in their dress-up toy box and I heard her explain, “I’m dressed up like Snow White because I’m beautiful this way.”

Of course I had to go and see just what she was talking about. And there she was, in her Snow White blouse, Bibleman cape, and pink toy high heels.

Being a good father, I knew I had to grab my new camera and get a picture of this fashion statement.

And being a good son I also knew I had to get the picture up on flickr so her Grandmas up north could see it.

But once all that was done, I began to think about what I’d just heard: my daughter, explaining to her brother, “I’m beautiful this way.” And that got me thinking.   I began wondering how many more years my daughter will be able to look into the mirror and say that.

I’d like to think that she will grow up into a confident young lady who, when asked, will explain,” I’m dressed like this because I’m beautiful this way.”  But thirteen years as a youth pastor makes me skeptical.

I’ve met very few young ladies who had the confidence to say “I’m beautiful this way.”  I’ve met a lot who said “I would be beautiful, if only I wasn’t so . . .”  I’ve met a lot who dressed to make up for a beauty they feared they lacked (even when they didn’t lack beauty at all.)  And I’ve seen far too many tragic consequences that come with this loss of confidence.

But I’ve met very few who look into the mirror and see beauty rather than flaws.

As a youth pastor, I know the struggle for positive body image is one that comes with adolescence for both boys and girls.

As a youth pastor, and more frighteningly as a father, I’m not sure what to do about it.

So I started to study.  Over the past week I’ve been reading everything I can get my hands on concerning developing positive body image in kids and teens.  Here’s what I’ve learned, presented not as an expert (i.e. someone who’s tried it and found that it works) but rather as a father and pastor looking for sound advice for helping his kids.

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