Here’s something we saw today as we sat in traffic in Mexico City. You may not be able to see it that great in the video, but it’s a driving advertisement for the CSI television show.
On the back of the trailer is a “crime scene” with a covered body, crime scene tape, cones, etc. It’s an interesting way to promote the show.
Things like this new video from Will.I.Am happen when artists and politics meet. I always think it’s interesting when celebrities try to leverage their fame to get something done.
Why should we listen any more to Oprah than we listen to the guy down the street? What do celebrities know about politics? Since when are they experts? Their voice is as important as the other guys, but not more important. We tend to take what they say with more authority, and I’m not sure why.
By the way, interesting use of the Spanish language and Latin celebrities. Their vote will be important in this election.
On the other hand, the video is great. I love how they are using new media to distribute messages to people. I like the initiative shown and the creativity. This kind of stuff needs to be happening. It appeals to voters and to the next generation. I think it will also have an impact in the election.
Original Youtube post.
Technorati Tags: Obama; Youtube; Election08
I’m going to try to start letting you know what I have been reading during the week. Maybe every Friday, I’ll post some interesting links from the week that I think make great reading.
So here it goes. Here are 5 posts I found interesting this week.
The Web 2.0 Pastor – Facebook and Status Updates: How can Facebook status updates and Twitter really help me get to know someone?
Blue Passport: Missionary Training: What did Darrell Whitman find when he surveyed several missions organizations about their strategy for missionary training?
DIY Creations & Homemade Wrinkle Release Tips: If you travel a lot, these tips are great for keeping your clothes wrinkle-free.
Why Some Speakers are Paid $10,000 for just a 40 minute speech: A great tip for improving your public speaking skills.
Adam’s Rules for Blogging: If you blog or are thinking about starting to blog, take a look at these rules for blogging.
Middle school is a period of most of our lives that we would love to forget. Our legs and arms grow too big for our bodies; our voices sound like we swallowed a frog, we begin to notice how bad we smell, and many other embarrassing things. Middle school is a self-esteem nightmare. The irony of middle school is we are happy when finally we “graduate” and become freshmen in high school.
Unfortunately, seminaries are not too much different than middle schools. They are full of academic competition, intellectual arguments, and ministry comparisons. A person with low self-esteem will probably not last more than a week in either a seminary or a middle school.
Even the faculty members at seminaries have problems with this. The degree that you have, and where you earned it, play into our competitive nature, causing us to intimidate others or be intimidated by others.
Shouldn’t the opposite be true? Shouldn’t seminaries be places to encourage and engage people in a loving manner without judging their intellectual ability or their ministry competency? Instead of chewing people up and spitting them out, shouldn’t we be “spurring one another on to love and good deeds?”
I’d love to see my seminary as a place where people feel welcomed and are seen as part of the same team, regardless of if they are studying theology, youth ministry, music, or Christian education. I’d love to see the professors that have been around forever and have their Ph.D look at the others as equals and respect them as experts in their field with something valuable to contribute to the school. I’d also love to see the new professors be less intimidated by the others, and it would be great if we weren’t all always trying to impress each other. We are, after all, part of the same body.
Once you’ve been a Christian for a while, it is easy to begin to “lean on your own understanding.” In other words, it’s easy to stop looking to God for the answer because you can look back to past experience and what seems to be common sense.
I think that’s an easy thing for missionaries, veteran youth workers, or even seminary students to do. We often fall into the trap of thinking that we have been in a million church services and have so much life experience that we can forget to consult the One who has the answers.
I have been guilty of this on more than one occasion. We need to seek God in all of our decisions, not just the ones where we don’t have “the answer.” What are you leaning on today? Your own understanding? Or the advice of the great counselor?
