Timothy's Thoughts

A fter several years of having the same website design, I’m sure our church website is due for a change. As website designs go, it has held up very well. That’s part of why I’m struggling with creating a new design. As is, it has all the things, and more, that you would expect from a church website design, so it isn’t easy to identify problems that need to be fixed. Mike Anderson, one of the developers of MarsHill.com, recently blogged about 5 Principles of Church Website Design . They are: Tell Them Why You Exist Give ’Em A Hook Cast A Wide Net Don’t Fake A Vibe Show The Story I’ve talked about all of these before in previous posts or in the book, in one form or another. Today, I want to focus on the first one. Mike Anderson’s solution was to put the statement “It’s all about Jesus” under the name of the church. My question is, is this enough? Granted, Mars Hill is not one church but several under one name, so we can expect they may have different needs and different goals than a...

N o matter how many times you read it, the Bible always has something that you haven’t seen before. Sometimes it is some deeper meaning that you haven’t seen. Sometimes it is something simple that you just hadn’t noticed before. This was the case for me last Wednesday night. We all know that God has many names. Perhaps you’ve participated in a worship service in which banners showing the names of God are carried in. You probably saw names like Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace, Jehovah, Emmanuel, Jesus, the Everlasting Father. There are so many beautiful names of God. Each one tells us something about the nature of God. It is an act of worship just to see those names before us and to read them off. But there’s one name for God that you aren’t likely to see on one of those banners. I believe it is God’s most unusual name. I don’t know why I hadn’t noticed it before. We were studying a passage that I’d read multiple times before. We were looking at the passage...

R ecently, I read an article by Tony Reinke that compared homosexuality to idolatry and made the argument that it leads to unhappiness. I don’t want to dwell on the issue of homosexuality alone, but broaden the discussion to all sin. So often, the basis for immorality is that it makes people happy. Two teenagers go out on a date and end up in bed together, but they enjoyed it, so what’s wrong with that? It is a childish argument. We’ve often heard children say to their parents, “you just don’t want me to have any fun.” And on the basis that immoral activity is fun (which is usually is when we’re doing it), it seems that morality is not fun. So we end up arguing for moral action on the basis that it is what God commands. It becomes a legalistic argument and we are trying to make it to people who have no concern for what God’s law says. What are we doing?! Have we forgotten the songs we learned growing up? “There is joy in serving Jesus!” “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my ...

D id you know that the Bible never said you must obey the speed limit? But I think it’s safe to say that most Christians would agree that God wants us to obey the traffic laws. We might not like obeying the speed limit, but we all agree that God wants us to obey the law of the land. I would say that most non-Christians would agree that God wants us to obey the traffic laws. If it is so obvious that God wants us to do something that isn’t specifically spelled out in his word, why then are people so anxious to find ways to dismiss those things that are? If a person ran a red light—something many people do—and we asked them if what they had done is wrong, they would say that it was. But what about something like fornication? It seems that the writers of television shows think it is the most normal thing in the world for unmarried people to sleep together. Going by what they show, if you aren’t sleeping with one of your co-workers, you are practically Amish. The way they tell it, fornica...

J oseph Stiglitz says the American dream is a myth. Joseph Stiglitz is a Nobel prize-winning economist. He states, “the U.S. used to think of itself as a middle-class country – but this is no longer true. Today, a child’s life chances are more dependent on the income of his or her parents than in Europe, or any other of the advanced industrial countries for which there are data.” It would seem that Stiglitz’s solution to this “problem” is to vote Democrat. I don’t agree that the gap between the rich and the middle class constitutes a breakdown in the American dream. Put simply, the American dream is that anyone from any social class has the opportunity to achieve prosperity through hard work. At an extreme, a person born to a crack addict could, through hard work, become the wealthy owner of a company. Granted, some people have fewer difficulties to overcome and having parents who will pay for college helps, but that doesn’t mean the American dream is a myth. There are a couple of ...

I hate to brag. I mean, I really hate to brag. I have this idea that my work should speak for itself. And I also find that bragging tends to shut down a conversation. I would rather come across as knowing less than I know than to miss the opportunity to learn from someone else’s perspective. Still, there might be something to be said for raising people’s awareness of one’s abilities. I have been responsible for one website for eight years. Recently, a man expressed interest in helping with the website. But this isn’t the offer for help that begins with “What can I do to help?” but rather, “I can show you how to do things better.” I’m willing to admit that there are people who know more than I do. I would be an idiot if I didn’t. At the company where I work, I’m surrounded by people who are brilliant at the jobs they do. At church, I see people with abilities that amaze me. So, when someone comes to me and says they know how to improve something, I’m inclined to listen. And when it...

D on Burke recently had an article in the Baptist Trumpet titled ‘Remember the Poor’: Are We Doing It Right? [June 13, 2012 issue] If you have time, I highly recommend you read his original article, but I’ll summarize what he said. He gave the example of stranger showing up at a church and asking for help to pay the rent. He went on to say that though it is common for people like this to show up at churches and we often help them, these are probably not the poor that Paul was talking about in Galatians 2:10 when he wrote, “Remember (to help) the poor.” Don suggests that this raises two questions: Who, exactly, are “the poor” and in what ways should we help them? Based on his study of the Bible, Don identifies four categories of poor: Those who want to be poor, those who are poor due to their choices, those who are poor due to short-term circumstances, and those who are poor due to long-term circumstances. As for how we should help the poor, he looked at what the Bible says about tha...