Twitter assumes that the most relevant information is the most recent information. Twitter amplifies this by publishing a list of current trending topics based on an analysis of the latest tweets. A word or phrase can trend when a significant number of people start tweeting about that word or phrase. For example, during the Urbana 2012 conference, “#u12” became the number one trend in the St Louis area for most of the conference in fact there were nearly 40,000 tweets on the hashtag or about seven tweets per minute around the clock for the duration of the event. Read more
Archive for Evangelism
Dreaming – The gospel according to Monsters University
Dreaming & Significance
Think back to when you were a kid. What did you want to be when you grew up?
I remember when I was in pre-school and the teacher asked us that question. Horses amazed me and I thought it would be awesome if I could ride a horse when I grew up. As I got a little bit older, I wanted to be a baseball player! In Monsters University, Mike Wazowski wanted to be a Scarer. I think these desires give us a clue about something deep within each one of us. We all long for a life of significance.
In the movie, Mike headed off to college to be in the scare program at Monsters University. When he gets there, he finds out about the scare games, a chance to prove you’re the best scarer in the whole school! Mike studies hard, but on the final exam, the dean kicks him out of the program because he’s not good enough. Which raises another deeper issue. What do we do when our plans fail?
Living the adventure
Recently while staying at a friends house, I was playing with my daughter and their two daughters and I witnessed an interesting dichotomy. As I lay on the floor, tired from moving out of our house, the girls started running around me. I reached out, pretending to grab one of them which began an hour long game. As you might imagine, the game was simple, try to run past Brian without getting caught. Every time they would run past, they would scream with delight. Read more
AIDs: our response
I was half way through college before I realized that not everybody had the same opportunities that I did.
I was working at a summer camp where the leader had us play a simulation. The simulation was simple. Take a step forward if the statement applied to you. Stay put if it doesn’t.
I remember the first statement. “Take a step forward if your family had multiple book shelves.” I took a step forward.
Take a step forward if your family had a cabin. sportfogadás tippmix My immediate family didn’t have a cabin, but my grandparents did and we went there almost every weekend during the summer. Take a step forward if your father went to college. My father went to North Dakota State University. Take a step forward if you mother went to college. My mom went to Moorehead State University. Take a step forward if your family had a computer. My family had a LOT of computers.
By the end of the experiment Read more
Thriving in college
A lot is made about Christians managing to survive college and for good reason, depending on which statistics you read, 60%-80% of Christian students in High School leave their faith in college. bukméker lap That’s a lot! What happens? What are the problems that Christian students face when they head onto the college campus? There are a lot of problems that I see Christian students face when they get to college. I’m going to focus on two of the more common problems that I see. Then I want to talk about how to thrive in college so you’re not just surviving.
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What is that smell?
I am not a real big fan of coffee. In fact I don’t drink it and neither does my wife. Coffee has a smell that is unmistakable. It fills a room. When you leave a coffee shop everyone you meet for the rest of the day will know where you have been. Different coffee shops have different smells. My wife can even tell me which coffee shop I have been working at depending on the smell on my cloths. Folders had a whole series of commercials that finished with a little jingle. Why do I go to coffee shops? Primarily the wifi. Secondarily the tea. I love tea, but tea doesn’t have the same smell. It doesn’t stick with you the rest of the day. Read more
Evangelism and Culture
God is at work drawing people to himself. I am excited! Students are leaving their lives of sin and choosing to follow Jesus. Over the past two and a half years at Bemidji State we have seen 57 students make decisions to follow Jesus and I expect that we will see more. Nationally, InterVarsity is seeing one of the largest harvests in history. We are living in exciting times. What’s happening? I believe God is using a generational issue to raise up followers to fulfill his mission. The mission is to care about the world. Students care about injustice. The good news is that God does too! What’s going on?