Explorations into theology, technology, leadership, and culture.
Devastating, unfathomable, bewildering, horrifying. That’s the best my mind can do with today’s events at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut with an hour’s reflection. This post is one way I’m trying to process it all. Politicians are posturing. Parents are weeping. The self-righteous are cursing. My friends (and myself) are asking things like: “How […]
The following is a recounting of a true story involving my grandfather, Fred Heerema, during World War II. I remember the story originally being told in various forms by my grandmother. This telling is by my father, Jim, and was originally published in the Des Moines Register sometime prior to 2002. (We’re still hunting down […]
After my last post, some folks wanted more detail, I won’t give it. I’ll give you more philosophy. The disparate opinions on “who to vote for” held by good, trustworthy, and faith-filled brothers, including several major christian thought leaders (Billy Graham, Randy Alcorn, R.C. Sproul Jr., Ray Comfort, and others) makes this point evident: There […]
(Updated: I am a terrible writer without a proofreader. Also, the reaction has been as expected. :() I will not vote for Barack Obama. My rationale is simple: he holds a vastly different ideology on what government should be than I do. VASTLY different. So that part is easy. I don’t need to take time […]
“So… App.net, it’s like Twitter, only with way less people on it, and you have to pay for it… uh….” Right? Two things happened recently that convinced me to take the App.net plunge. First, they changed their pricing scheme, lowering the bar to entry. I can try it for a month for $5, rather than […]
In studying for an upcoming talk, I pulled out one of my top 10 favorite modern Christian books: Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life to remind myself of what Don Whitney says about corporate worship as a spiritual discipline (to help us grow in godliness.) I commend this book to every believer, unreservedly, but allow […]
Last week’s rant about professionalism in Web design was supposed to be a short intro to this post. Basically my point was going to be that the profession of Web design and development has leveled up many times over the last decade, and it looks like some great industry standard practices are starting to settle […]
Reflecting back on 10 years of ministry, this excerpt from the prologue of The Worship Sourcebook resounds with truth to me:
(Note that this post has been festering for a few years now, and is not inspired by actual, recent events. This wasn’t supposed to be a rant. It was supposed to be a post linking to some really cool new tools, with a brief intro. Oh, well. I’ll do that later.) One of the things […]
I have about three political posts brewing due to the upcoming election, which is currently causing me a lot of grief (I do not have a candidate to vote for, which I intend to explain later.) There is a popular quote by Martin Luther that caught my attention this morning: “Better to be ruled by […]
I love gadgets. Always have. On hand, I typically have one of the newest computers from Apple, an iPad, and an iPhone, and a number of other cool tools: a Dot Grid journal, the perfect pen, the best mouse, a good flashlight, a nice bag to carry them all in. The design of all this […]
I just saw this book on The Gospel Coalition Blog. It looks wonderful. A few key points from an interview with the author: Theology as a pilgrimage Kapic urges humility in doing theology, and from this perspective: “Our different personalities and experiences often shape — in one way or another —how we approach and understand […]