So sit back, kids, and let uncle Owen tell you about the time…

Jesus turned the water into wine…

The story is actually way better with words.

The project of learning has changed fundamentally in the past few decades. Not too long ago, much of education was a matter of learning how to find information. That’s no longer the case.

Thanks to the advent of the Internet, locating a wealth of information on any topic is as quick and easy as tapping a few words into your web browser.

Finding information is easy. Figuring out what to do with it is the new challenge. What sources are trustworthy? How do I prioritize what I find? What is the difference between fact and opinion? These are the kind of questions a contemporary education must prepare the learner to answer.

It’s true for academic subjects…and it’s true for the Bible, too. I can google “Jesus,” for example, with a few keystrokes. But fitting what I find into a helpful framework? That requires teaching:

“Perhaps it has not fully dawned on the preachers of our time that preaching needs to be preceded by strong programs of teaching. The preacher’s words fall on barren ground where the people have not first been taught how to…listen, how to weigh and evaluate, how to interpret the lines of Scripture that apper in the sermon — all these “how to’s” are the product of careful preparation, of teaching.” – Locke Bowman

Quoted in Effective Bible Teaching p. 38

That’s a good reminder. What learners really need from us as teachers is context. With a bird’s-eye perspective, students can filter inferior bits of info, map out the facts, and grasp the meaning.

ABC posted the image briefly to photo sharing service Instagram before hastily removing it. However, they couldn’t delete it before yours truly was able to snap this screen shot.

Can you spot the flub?

What’s in a name, anyway?

First class upgrade + an evangelical; just did. He’s too cool to see some telephoto shots.

According to analysis by That Could Be My Next Tweet, this could be what I post to twitter next. The website uses an algorithm  to spot common topics and word choices. Most of the hypothetical tweets generated are drunk-bird-chirping nonsense. But once in a while, there’s a gem. The tool also helps you see the kind of topics you talk about most.

Joel, this is Marty. I’m calling you from a cellphone, a real, handheld, portable cellphone.

Martin Cooper, speaking the first words ever said over a mobile phone. A Motorola engineer, Martin used his newly invented device to call Joel Engel, a rival at AT&T, on April 3, 1973. Many would say that the mobile phones have been rude and annoying ever sense.

See: This story from the BBC and this one from CNN for more

Sorry, there’s one swear word. If you cough loudly from :10-:12 you’ll miss it.

Or don’t, if you enjoy profanity. I won’t know.

This life’s dim windows of the soul / Distorts the heavens from pole to pole / And leads you to believe a lie / When you see with, not through, the eye.

William Blake, The Everlasting Gospel
sec. 5, line 101

But…If you fit in that tiny NRB demographic that’s into a micro blog like this, then click here to launch the tiny live feed.

You never know who will pop up!

“The story-driven nature of media makes it a powerful vehicle for sharing the Story — and for encouraging believers with accounts of others’ faithful lives.

Hebrews 12 talks about the “cloud of witnesses” that surrounds and encourages us. Media can populate that crowd with fellow believers we’d never meet otherwise! To me, this is the value of media in ministry. It’s not a substitute for face-to-face human interaction, but media can widen our perspective and deepen our resolve to persevere together.”

It’s too bad Christian media doesn’t put more effort into telling stories about well-lived lives.