DVD Review...Expelled

I have toyed with watching Expelled for a number of months. I was having trouble getting motivated. Nevertheless, I mustered the energy and plunged in. So here is my brief review:

Premise: Those in professional academia find themselves punished if they don't fully adhere to Darwinian biological evolution.

To this end there are a number of interviews and examples.

Premise 2: The questioning of Darwininsm and the entertaining of Intelligent Design is not an adherently religious issue. Creationism is definitely alluded to as junk science.

Characters: Some of the characters are charismatic. Ben Stein is very charismatic in his own calculated dweeby uber-smart way. There is also a scientist who is interviewed in France. Very well spoken. These characters allow the viewer to see the issue as personal as well as scientific.

Arch enemy of all things anti-Darwin Richard Dawkins comes off as reactionary. For the record I detest Dawkins anti-religious views. But creative editing had to be used for such a smart man to always appear in such a negative light.

Conclusion: I would give Expelled a C+. I like the premise of the movie. I like Ben Stein. But like my review on Sicko by Michael Moore, it is clear that the intent was not to enter the marketplace of ideas but to denigrate one side of the argument.

I agree that there is a propaganda machine behind the Darwin position but my suspicion radar goes off when everyone on the other side is portrayed as wrong and reactionary. Smart people come to their conclusions for reasons. Those reasons may be wrong but they have reasons.

I do agree w/ the section which pointed to the real heart of the issue: It's not about science alone. It is about the worldview that becomes the filter for the science.

Leadership focused...

My posts and book choices have reflected a renewed interest in leadership. Oddly, this new interest was birthed out of a renewed interest in an old childhood TV favorite: Star Trek ~ the original series.

Traditionally, I have been a Spock fan. But lately I've have admired the scripted leadership of Capt Kirk. The man has got his leadership moves down.

~ He loves to lead from out front.
~ He is approachable w/o ever losing the air of command.
~ He is smart.
~ There is no doubt the crew and the success of the mission comes before himself.

Now you know.

Book #19 for 2009

I just finished the 'leadership' classic 'The Prince.'

Machiavelli wrote this some 500 years ago in the context of Middle Ages rulers and their leadership. So some of the quotes are far from what a business man or contemporary leader would adhere to but the principles are still very relevant.

Some quotes...

"He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command."

"Never was anything great achieved without danger."

"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."

The Prince being just a little more than 100 pages is well worth the short investment of time

Book #18

It has been said that leaders don't read about leadership. They read about people who lead.

The dream is about "G" who was somewhat of a teen entrepreneur prodigy.

I love reading about people who do start ups, pioneers and church planters.
Long story short "G" started an internet based business out of his bedroom when he was 16 and later sold it for $40 million when he was 18. A few years later he started another internet venture and sold it for $300 million in his early 20s.

I liked the business side of the book. His personal life was boring, so it was no surprise it was boring to read about.

Overall a quick read of a couple hundred pages, double spaced.

Recommended.

Books 16 & 17

Finished two books...

1. Greatness: A comparison between Churchill & Reagan.
Starts off sllooowww. Some of the beginning as filler material. Such as is it necessary to compare the elementary and high school educations? It did get interesting near the end when there was the comparison on Communism. It was there that greatness was really exhibited.

A good read if you can stay with it.

2. Spark! The brain/exercise connection.
Interesting theme. Some good anecdotes. For my reading taste too much content trying to over-prove the main thesis. Exercise effects mental health.

A good book to skim.

Yeah, tacky...but good

3/4 of our small groups were in session this Wed. It was a great night! The totals appear to be 43 adults and 6 children over 3 different groups.

The McQueens smoked everyone by jumping from 6 participants last week to 18! 300% gain.
Every other group was also in the double digit realm.

Next week the Men's Fight Club comes on line. This should help us easily break 50 for the small group participants.

Here's an interesting article from Time mag. BTW I am a Calvinist. No, don't trust Time mag to give a solid definition. Ask don't assume.

Book #15 The Death of Ivan Illych

The Death...Illych is a fictional Russian classic by Leo Tolstoy.

The premise is a young man spends his life climbing the social ladder. When he appears to be secure in all the right circles, having the right friends and earning the right salary he comes down with a painful terminal disease.

He then embarks on an internal journey that fluctuates between bitterness and wondering if his live had any meaning.

My analysis: Clearly great literature. Truly engaging. Depressing.

It is worth the read but make sure you read it on a sunny day with a roomful of cooing babies. Otherwise it just drags you down emotionally.

Michelle

On March 12th @ 4;20 am my sister Michelle suddenly passed away.

She had been chronically ill w/ acute diabetes but there had been no out of the ordinary decline or warning signs. The best we can ascertain is she had a heart attack @ home.

She was 44.

Things I am trying to learn/have learned in the last 4 days:

(1)My theology has not changed. Pain has a way of magnifying cracks in our belief systems if they aren't sufficiently rooted.

(2)Do the hardest things so others don't have to. During the whole ordeal I wanted to find ways to shield and run interference for my parents. So, there were difficult phone calls and tough decisions that I tried to make for them when possible.

(3)John 11 is different now.

(4)My toughest moments to date have been: (A)Telling my Dad that Shell had died.
I got half way through that and Lisa had to finish it. (B)Being consoled by Zak. (C)Thinking how good the Gospel is. I Cor 15.

(5)The importance of people. By nature I am somewhat of a loner and introvert. I thought that when tragedy hit I would want to be alone. The opposite was true. This actually surprised me.

Sometime I'll attach a pic to this post for reference.

Book #14 Dream Manager

The premise is the fictional account of Admiral Cleaning Co fighting turnover by hiring a Dream Manager.

The DM is tasked to help the employees meet their dreams and thus add value to their lives and a sense of meaning to their jobs.

I am not a big fan of the parable business book genre. But all in all it has a good premise and is worth the time it takes to read this short work.

DVD Reviews

Two of the latest movies I have watched...
Sicko: Not a Moore fan. He clearly was biased in what he was going for America health care is bad, European is good.

In spite of knowing his bias he made a case.


Forbidden Kingdom...ZZZzzzzzzzzz.

Exciting changes...

Some things that have been modified around the church is exciting.

Without over-hyping I really believe we'll find ourselves in new territory in regards to connecting and growing as a church as well as seeing people come to faith in Christ.

I specifically refer to the implementation of growth (small) groups.

With this new system in place we should be able to exceed our Wed gatherings and thus won't be meeting as a church body on Wed nights. Clearly this leaves the Wed Children & Youth Ministry to roll into Sun PM which is fine.

The other modification is that as 3-22-09 we will be starting evening church @ 5pm. This will help with some extra time needed for the Children/Youth ministries. We are hoping this allows us to not feel so rushed to get home, get the kids in the tub etc.

All great moves. Very pumped at how AFBC is going to step up and embrace the much needed adjustments.

Ohhh baby...

It has been pointed out to me that I don't have a commitment to anyone genre of music. This is true. As is the case with most people I like what I like w/o giving it a lot of thought.

This rendition of Nothing Else Matters by Apocalyptica is in-cred-ible.

I am no fan of Metallica but when M. is done this way I could get into it.

Enjoy.

Books 12 & 13

Since the last post I have been working through a couple of different books. Both these are by Ed Stetzer.

The first is Planting Missional Churches


The second book is Breaking the Missional Code



Both books focus on the understanding of your particular context (building a church in Alexandria KY is different than building one in NYC).

In addition building a church that understands reaching out to see others truly saved and also serving in the world. The dangers have been liberal churches are strong on serving but weak on Gospel. Fundamental churches are weak on serving but strong on the Gospel. Missional churches want to be right on both.

Stetzer is a solid thinker and able author. These two books are strong contributions to the continued understanding of the shifting spiritual landscape America is experiencing.