The adjacent possible—the shadow futures around us
Imagine, if you will, a simple 9-piece set of Legos that forms a small car—4 wheels, a chassis, a windshield, two axels, and a steering wheel. Try as you might to re-arrange these parts, its hard to form anything but a car. But what could you create if you had 20 pieces…a hundred pieces…a thousand... Read More
Nir Eyal and spiritual growth
I just finished spending one and a half eye-opening days with Nir Eyal. On Tuesday Nir hosted the Habit Summit with a stellar line-up of Silicon Valley rock stars from Facebook, Airbnb, Twitter, Expedia, etc. Nir is an expert in human behavior and recently published Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products. In my mind it... Read More
Guest Post on Obscurity
Centuries ago, in the deserts of Egypt an early Christian mystic scratched a prayer in the sands of the Scetes Dessert. He prayed this powerful prayer but one time and walked away, trusting that the gentle desert breeze would wash the words from this abandoned wasteland. The name of this godly mystic has faded from... Read More
Good ideas in disguise
This week at LunchNLearn we watched an insightful 23-minute presentation by Chris Dixon called “Good ideas that look like bad ideas” (GITLLBI). Dixon was speaking to the 2013 class of Y Combinator, a creative start-up funder and incubator in Silicon Valley. Dixon is an entrepreneur and a partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz so he sees thousands of... Read More
BJ Fogg and evangelism
One of the recent breakthrough ideas in human behavior comes out of Stanford University. In 2007 Professor B.J. Fogg began teaching what became known as “the Facebook Class.” Students in Fogg’s class developed apps for Facebook and Zinga resulting in products that made students wealthy overnight. These nouveau riche Stanford students could now live a lifestyle that... Read More
My books on Audible.com
Cutting for Stone: A Novel by Abraham Verghese Change or Die by Alan Deutschman The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas Blockbusters by Anita Elberse The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama Nickel and... Read More
My books on Kindle
Campus Renewal by Justin Christopher Center Church by Tim Keller Change Anything: The new science of personal success by Kerry Patterson et al Cool, Gray City of Love:49 Views of San Francisco by Gary Kamiya David and Goliath by Seth Godin Don’t Shoot: One Man, a Street Fellowship, and the End of Violence in Inner-city... Read More
How St. Patrick would exegete a city
A few weeks ago I spent a couple of delightful hours with Dr. Lauren Speeth, director of the Elfenworks and Director of the Center for Nonharming Ministries. Lauren is a fellow-graduate of Bakke Graduate University, an accomplished author, thought-leader and activist. She is one of the most original and refreshing leaders I have met in... Read More
Understanding MOOCs and online discipleship
A MOOC is a Massive Open Online Course aimed at large-scale participation and open access via the Web. MOOCs are a recent development in the area of distance education, and a progression of the kind of open education ideas that are becoming more prevalent today. As churches seek to teach, train disciple others over distance, or in a non-synchronic... Read More
Generosity and your marriage: Keep the flowers coming
Those brave souls who study marriage are continually looking for the positive behaviors that add to marital satisfaction and longevity. In October 2013 edition of the Journal of Marriage and Family, W. Bradford Wilcox from the University of Virginia and Jeffrey Dew from Utah State University released their findings from “the first empirical study of... Read More