Serving Bread

What a busy week in the world! We started the week with Paris in jail and end the week with her out of jail. We started the week with an immigration bill that everyone hated but seemed the “best” of how congress does compromise and we end the week with another failure for President Bush’s domestic policy agenda.

I was taken aback by Time Magazine’s article this past week titled, “How The World Eats.” They compared the expenditures of several families across the globe. For example, the Melanders in Germany spend $500.07 a week on food. That’s a stark contrast to the Aboubakars of Chad who spend $1.23. The article also displayed pictures of each family with its weekly food allotment in front of them. It makes you think about the access we have to food in the west and how it’s not the norm around the world. (Actually, millions of Americans continue to go hungry and those on food stamps live on only $21 a week)

Another article that struck me as interesting and perhaps relevant to church outreach was found in Fast Company. It’s not the most ministry related magazine, but authors Chip and Dan Heath wrote a column off their book, Made to Stick: Why some ideas survive and others die. They try to figure out how a business or product sparks conversations. They seem to think that a product needs to promote chatter and buzz. This got me thinking on how to think about our ministry outreach in terms of promoting buzz. Stay tuned for my ideas.

In the blogosphere, one of the things that is worth noting is the candidacy of Ron Paul for the Repulican nomination for president. Most people are probably thinking, “Ron who???” That’s right.  The guy is a virtual unknown for those who get their news and information from traditional media outlets, but believe it or not, Ron Paul is the most (or in the top 3) searched item on Technorati (that’s right, more than Paris Hilton). And it’s not a recent thing, he’s been there for a couple months. His campaign managers are doing something right.

I also stumbled upon Tim Schmoyer’s blog, Life in Student Ministry. I don’t remember how I found him, but I was impressed by the design and resources he provides on his blog. It’s always nice to be inspired.

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Random and not-so-random articles and posts I have come across in the past week.

For an excellent article on the origins of the war/genocide/conflict in [tag]Darfur[/tag], check out the article from the Atlantic Monthly. It shows how the climate change has affected human relations. Skip the main article on [tag]global warming[/tag] (by Gregg Easterbrook). I wish “The Atlantic” would have a better standard on the kinds of articles it publishes. All speculation with sprinklings of science doesn’t make for that great reading.

Though I’m not a fan and disagree most of the time with Charles [tag]Krauthammer[/tag], I couldn’t but agree with his column in the recent “Time Magazine” about some liberals’ hypocrisy in their convictions regarding global warming. Buying “[tag]carbon credits[/tag]” to offset their lavish lifestyle doesn’t seem to me the most radical, effective, or even honest means means of combating our growing environmental crisis.

Last night, I went to bed with more joy after having read the article about a billionaire who is giving away his homes mansions to the [tag]homeless[/tag]. If only we had more models of the rich loving the poor in such radical ways.

In the blog world, I have enjoyed the commentary on [tag]Ephesians[/tag] over at Eternal Learning, with a bent on how to bring our finances under God’s authority.

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