Freebie Friday: Expelled Movie trailor

Wow. I am very interested and excited to see this movie. It comes out tonight!

Greg Stier wrote a review about it in his blog. he's already seen it! (no fair!)

Other sites to check out relating Expelled:

http://www.expelledthemovie.com/

http://www.getexpelled.com/

Random: About Me, my acting

Here are some amazingly goofy movies, some friends of mine and I made for fun.
Originally we had our website and wanted to tour doing some comedy gigs but that never happened. Enjoy and get a laugh or 2:

Social Networks

Wow, social networking online is extremely popular right now. I think that over the past few years, the internet has really changed in content towards more rich social media and more forms of social networking. Gen X and Y love rich forms of media like videos, pictures, and HTML gadgets and tools that use Flash and Java and other IT devices and codes. Anyways the internet is changing so much an articles I recently read claims of a better way, and it is coming soon.

Today I want to share some neat Christian social networking sites. But first I want to expose to you an extensive list of social networking sites from Wikipedia. It is amazing how many there are out there. Yes, Facebook and Myspace are still number one and two here in the USA, but there some interesting genre-specific communities, as well as neat networks based in other countries - all online.

The most interesting fact is that this list, is not exhaustive. It does not even touch some of the really neat Christian social networks! Which is why I am posting today. I am going to provide to you some of the neat Christian networks, and my list is not exhaustive at all, these are a few of my favorites:

http://www.ShoutLife.com - This is similar to Myspace.

http://www.GodTube.com - Similar to Youtube.

http://www.Iyouthminstry.com - Really cool if you are a youth minister.

http://www.xianz.com/- Like Myspace, but better!

http://www.mychurch.org/- facebook for churches.

http://www.faithbase.com/- I have not explored it yet.

I hope you find these helpful. I have been studying a lot about social networks, so do not be surprised if you see more posts about them.
I want to leave you with a funny video about Facebook.

Faith and Reason: Love and Evangelism

You have heard that it was said, "Love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?
—Matthew 5:43-47

That last part of the verse really gets at me: "Do not even the pagans do that?"

This is a great question, and I have heard skeptics and lost friends ask the same question..."they say they are a Christian...but I have seen the way (so and so) live....do not even the pagans do that?"
[Okay, so they probably say some thing like, "doesn't that evil, sinning, non-religious, liar -who lives down the street, the one that claims to be an angry militant atheist- (nothing against 'angry militant atheists', I was just making an illustration...) - live a better life than those 'Christians?' ]

My point is that fellowship alone is not enough to share the Gospel. It is not enough to hang out with and love your best Christian friends and to put little to no effort in loving your non-believing neighbors. The Scripture is pointing us towards loving our neighbors and enemies more than ourselves. It is pointing us towards sharing the Gospel and true love to everyone and not just our best friends.

This really stuck out to me and I really needed to share that. Because do not even the pagans have great fellowship within their own circle of friends?

high school to college transition

"Josh McDowell addressed this in his latest book, The Last Christian Generation, where he documented that research indicates that anywhere from 69 to 94 percent of our youth are leaving the church after high school. And few are returning."

taken from probe.org "what's happening to out youth?"

In this article, Raymond Bohlin addresses issues related to the transition from high school to college.

The article tracks back to (and very briefly mentions) another website that talks about The Triangle of Discouragement.

The triangle is really small and hard to read. But on the three sides of the triangle are three "lifestyles" students today feel they have to perform at. There is the High School corner, the Church corner, and the Home corner. The point of the article and triangle is to show how challenging and harmful this dual-lifestyle is. At each end of the triangle the student feels like "I do not measure up" at school. "I am failing" in my spiritual walk.

The point is that students at high school have a difficult time "living up" to the expectations from home and high school. When church also becomes another expectation, another failure, students just leave. And it is a popular trend for high school students to graduate and go off to college and to not return to the church.

Check out these additional resources for more information and help in making this critical transition (from high school to college) easier and more fruitful:

• www.youthtransitionnetwork.org: Official site for Youth Transition Network.

• www.liveabove.com offers resources for youth leaders to help their students make the transition and offers help for students in locating a campus ministry and even a Christian roommate.

• college101seminars.com offers informational programs for churches and secular institutions on helping their students make a profitable transition.

• Conversations CD—this information page introduces a tool designed to help navigate the pitfalls of higher learning, construct a biblical worldview, answer life’s toughest questions and make great grades. The well-done sections on making better grades hosted by Dr. Walter Bradley are worth their weight in gold.

• www.boundless.org/college contains links for articles designed to help Christians survive and thrive in college (and beyond). Ask Theophilus is particularly helpful.

• TrueU.org is a general site for students of faith.

© 2008 Probe Ministries

Obviously one of the biggest things we can do is change the approach and the way church reaches out to students (high school and college both).