Monday, July 13, 2009
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Theories of church growth
Andy Rowell has done of nice job of summarizing some of the main theories about church growth. He identifies 14 factors, and what strikes me about this list is how wide-ranging the ideas are. Makes me think that we don't really know what's going on. :-/
"I looked at work from seven researcher teams: Stark, Hout/Greeley/Wilde, Woolever/Bruce, Stetzer/Dodson, Olson, Chaves, and Thumma.
Here is a summary of the 14 factors which I document fully below: (1) witnessing, (2) strictness, (3) high fertility rates, (4) caring for children and youth, (5) high involvement, (6) welcoming new people, (7) leadership, (8) prayer, (9) being a church of 1000+ attendees or under 50 attendees, (10) being located in rural counties, (11) being in rapidly growing zip codes, (12) being in a tradition that is altering worship practices slightly but not too much, (13) churches that offer “intimacy and choice” and (14) attractive worship style, senior pastor, and church reputation."
Monday, July 06, 2009
Religion in Scandinavia
They seem to embrace religion but at a very shallow cultural level. Actually believing in God in a deep, moving manner is almost a faux pas.
Sounds like an interesting book.
Thanks David!
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Barn & Forsythia (pic)
Friday, July 03, 2009
Dancing contagion
It gives me hope that really, really bad dancers can make a difference in the world.
Thanks Adrienne!
Thursday, July 02, 2009
The answer
***
FOX News/Opinion Dynamics Poll [June, 2009]
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Today's obscure survey question:
A FoxNews survey asked the following question:
Who would you rather meet and have your picture taken with?...Barack Obama, the Pope, Hannah Montana, Tiger Woods?
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Guns to church?

A story posted on BBC:
"A pastor in the US state of Kentucky has told his flock to bring handguns to church in what he says is an effort to promote safe gun ownership."
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Red and yellow leaves (pic)
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Too much stats...
"Jacoby Ellsbury's Tuesday night was a historic occasion. Only twice since divisional play began has a Red Sox player hit two triples in a 4-hit performance."
Forgive me for not being overwhelmed....
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
Blognation
"According to a 2008 survey by Technorati, which runs a search engine for blogs, only 7.4 million out of the 133 million blogs the company tracks had been updated in the past 120 days. That translates to 95 percent of blogs being essentially abandoned, left to lie fallow on the Web, where they become public remnants of a dream — or at least an ambition — unfulfilled.
Judging from conversations with retired bloggers, many of the orphans were cast aside by people who had assumed that once they started blogging, the world would beat a path to their digital door....
Not all fallow blogs die from lack of reader interest. Some bloggers find themselves too busy — what with, say, homework and swim practice, or perhaps even housework and parenting. Others graduate to more immediate formats, like Twitter and Facebook. And a few — gasp — actually decide to reclaim some smidgen of personal privacy."
Thanks David!
Thursday, June 18, 2009
How to create a best-selling book title
Not wanting to be left behind, I think that I'll write a sure-fire best seller. How about this:
The Rise and Fall of American Christianity: The Story of a Freakonation by a Rogue Sociologist.
Any other ideas?
Thanks David!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
The usefulness of social construction
This is social construction... what could I use to construct that the flash drive isn't something to be taken away. After thinking about it for awhile, I came upon the perfect solution: I've tied it to one of the coffee cups that I sometimes use. There is a norm to leave other peoples' coffee cups alone, and it's not too heavy to carry around.
Haven't lost the flash drive since.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Birdhouse in fall (pic)
Friday, June 12, 2009
Stereotypes of conservative Christians as all political conservatives
"The additional vote of Conservative Protestants for Republican candidates, over and above that of Mainline American Protestants, is meager--about seven percentile points. Despite the depiction of Conservative Protestants by the media, by frightened liberals, and by the conservative leadership as if they were a massive and disciplined religio-political voting block, they are not. Indeed, we have argued, this image is a stereotype based on overgeneralization and prejudice. It is also a dangerous image because it marginalizes a major segment of American society because of inadequate information, bad information, and often no information at all. There may be alink between Conservative Christian religious convictions and political behavior but it is modest, even by social science standards." P. 69
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Funny student evaluation
While--we got our student evaluations back, and a student made this funny comment: "Try not to be so upbeat on super dull stuff." I'm not sure if this is a compliment (that I was upbeat) or a slam (that the material was super dull).
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Why to get married young
An excerpt from the article:
"In my research on young adults' romantic relationships, many women report feeling peer pressure to avoid giving serious thought to marriage until they're at least in their late 20s. If you're seeking a mate in college, you're considered a pariah, someone after her "MRS degree." Actively considering marriage when you're 20 or 21 seems so sappy, so unsexy, so anachronistic. Those who do fear to admit it -- it's that scandalous."






