Thursday Three For All

It’s Thursday, kiddies: the day when I roll out a few things I’ve been reading over the past week. Three of ‘em, to be exact. Enjoy. (Remember: click on the bold print to read the entire article.)

Four Reasons Why Churches Become Insider-Focused. (via @_paulalexander)

It’s rare that I ever come across a church that started off as an insider-focused church. Most churches start with a desire to reach new people with the Gospel. In those early stages of a church plant they have to reach new people or they die due to a lack of viability.

So how does a church that’s eager to help people outside of the faith follow Jesus drift towards becoming insider focused and spending all of it’s energy taking care of people who are already convinced?

Here are the four most common reasons why churches become insider-focused:

The Simple Plan to Read More. (via @farnamstreet) This is way too simple (maybe that’s why it’s called “The Simple Plan…”) and yet we still don’t do it.

Did you ever want to read Moby Dick? Or Ulysses? Or some of Jane Austen’s books? Or David Foster Wallace’sInfinite Jest? Done! Start today. 25 pages. Then do it tomorrow. Read in the morning, read at lunch, read before bed, read at the dentist’s office…it doesn’t matter. Just get your pages in, day in and day out. And then you’ll be a person who reads the books everyone else simply talks about.

Baby Orangutans Learn the Ropes at Preschool. (HT @premiumfunny) That’s it. I just added “orangutan preschool substitute teacher” to my bucket list.