:: cawleyblog ::

What Does it Mean to Write Well? | David Foster Wallace

“In the broadest possible sense, writing well means to communicate clearly and interestingly and in a way that feels alive to the reader. Where there’s some kind of relationship between the writer and the reader — even though it’s mediated by a kind of text — there’s an electricity about it"

David Foster Wallace, Quack This Way, 25-26

When Kingdoms Collide in the Pulpit...

[I know this made its way around via twitter and countless memes. I'm posting it here for myself]

Redeemer Fellowship Turns Five

Redeemer Turns Five from Redeemer Fellowship on Vimeo.

Read More Here @ redeemerkansascity.org

The Life Long Cultivation of Soil (and People)

“Don’t treat your soil like dirt.

A field is like a reputation…it takes a lifetime to build a good one, and an instant to ruin it.”

 Pritchard, Gaining Ground

 

(HT: 1,001 Rules for My Unborn Son)

The Chief Ways We Experience Community?

In a fragmented society in which major institutions like the church and the community no longer play the same role of bringing people together, owning identical possessions becomes one of the chief ways in which we experience community, overcoming our pattern through shared patterns of consumption

Daniel Harris, Cute, Quaint, Hungry and Romantic: The Aesthetics of Consumerism, 75-6

Changing the Composition of the Soil

"To change the community, you have to change the composition of the soil. We are the soil!"

Guerilla Gardener in South Central LA

The Way We Think About Charity is Dead Wrong

"This is what happens when we confuse morality with frugality"
Stunning. Absolutely Brilliant!

Found this TED TALK thanks to :

If you have any interest at all in non-profit world, this dude just crushed it. Well worth 18 minutesbit.ly/ZBIxy2

— John Bryson (@johnwbryson) March 29, 2013

The Most Essential Thing God Does in all of Human History

When I pray, I am not praying to a philosophically complicated absentee creator. When I manage to pay attention to the continual love song, I am not trying to envisage the impossible-to-imagine domain beyond the universe. I do not picture kings, thrones, crystal pavements, or any of the possible cosmological updatings of these things. I look across, not up; I look into the world, not out or away. When I pray I see a face, a human face among other human faces. It is a face in an angry crowd, a crowd engorged by the confidence that it is doing the right thing, that it is being virtuous. The man in the middle of the crowd does not look virtuous. He looks tired and frightened and battered by the passions around him. But he is the crowd's focus and centre. The centre of everything, in fact, because if you are a Christian you do not believe that the characteristic action of the God of everything is to mould the course of the universe powerfully from afar. For a Christian, the most essential thing does in time, in all of human history, is to be that man in the crowd; a man under arrest, and on his way to our common catastrophe.

Francis Spufford, Unapologetic (107-108)

Small Things, Done Consistently, in Strategic Places

In my experience, the greatest successes don’t come from grandiose scenarios of good intentions engendered by temporarily pumped-up motivation. Rather, the most lasting and significant positive effects result from small things, done consistently, in strategic places.

—David Allen

(source)

INFOGRAPHIC: Fathoming Amazon (via frugaldad)

Source: Frugaldad.com

The Atrocities of the Deep V

Urbanized's Failure to Rightly Account for the Suburbs?

Urbanized— A documentary I'm very much looking forward to. Gary Hustwit's mojo. Think Helvetica for cities

City Limits: 'Ubranized' Underestimates the Allure of the 'burbs— Interesting commentary and critique of the limits of Hustwit's treatment of the suburbs from Greg Hanscom. Particularly, this quote:

When the final 2010 Census came in, it made clear that we're not walking away from our lawn tractors and two-car garages anytime soon. An analysis of eight metro areas, including Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Austin revealed that in the past decade, 96 percent of the population growth occurred in the suburbs. Some took great exception to this analysis, but Brookings' Frey laterconfided, "The sad truth of the matter is that there's really very little information on this back-to-the-city thing, at least from a demographic standpoint."

No doubt this would benefit from some nuancing, but it doesn't change my passion for the city in the least. Nor does it change my conviction that the proportional absence of Christians in the urban cores everywhere should lead Christians to move into the city, despite what demographics are saying (or not saying).

Either way, I can't wait to see the film!

Adoption Story from Redeemer Family

Kansas City Star on The Parsons Adoption

I love the friends God has brought into my life. I met Jeremy & Ashley Parsons over four years ago when we were in the early stages of gathering a core group for Redeemer . They are amazing people, great friends, grace-filled leaders, and people who have leaned on the kindness of God through much change, transition, and turmoil.

Thrilling for me to see the Star run a story on their adoption. Eager to see God move more people in our church family in this way — and eager to celebrate with them when He provides.

"Tell me how you measure me, and I'll tell you how I behave"

I live my life via 3x5 notecards. I look at them all day long. Consequently, I love looking at blogs like this one . And, for many reasons, I cannot stop looking at this card.

iPhoneography: August Members' Meeting @ Redeemer

Evolution of the Hipster

(HT: Cosper)

Chicago Bootcamp

Excited to be back in Chicago and serve church planters at the upcoming Acts 29 Chicago Bootcamp . The dates are September 15 - 16. Register here now

If you don't already have it, buy Darrin Patrick's book, Church Planter: The Man, the Message, the Mission

Church Planter: The Man, the Message, the Mission

ChurchPlanting, A29

Jesus Storybook Bible Kindle Edition $2.99

No idea how long this price lasts for the Kindle edition of the Jesus Storybook Bible, but I picked mine up today and can't recommend this strongly enough! Katie and I read this to Quinn everyday, and I think it is honestly one of the best introductions to biblical theology there is. I give dozens of the hardbacks away every year as well as use it every time I teach Redeemer DNA

Cawleys Still Alive & Well

The Most Dangerous Thing the Church Can Do

"We may do well to recognize what seems to be the consistent thrust of the whole Bible—that unless and until, in faith, the future of the world becomes more important than the future of the church, the church has no future. As Jesus put it, the most dangerous thing you can do is seek to save your life . . ."

(Ralph Winter, Six Essential Components of World Evangelization)