Category: Blogging

Friday, sweet Friday. I had a lot of fun blogging this week. I mean, it’s always fun, but it seemed like I had many more meaningful interactions with you all, whether in emails, on Facebook, or via Twitter.

It is always so encouraging to feel like I know some of you, without having met you in real life. It makes blogging so worth it.

I also happened upon some good reads and a few other interesting tidbits this week. Here’s my Friday Findings…

Don’t Invite Jesus into Your Heart. I listed this phrase on my Top 10 Christian Phrases I Never Want to Hear Again post, which was syndicated on Churchleaders.com, where a few readers attacked politely disagreed with me for adding that one. Well, lo and behold a pastor wrote about the same thing, only much more in depth, and I love it!

Feminists Make Bad Christian Wives. The lovely Nikki Weatherford, blogger, wife, and mom extraordinaire, wrote a great post called 10 Reasons Why I’d Make a Terrible Feminist. I’m not gonna lie…I wish I had written this.

Social Media and Evangelism? When you think of evangelizing, is social media one of the last things that comes to your mind? It is for me, but Peter Guirguis started the relevant, challenging, and practical site called Not Ashamed of the Gospel which exists to encourage believers to reach people with the Gospel via social media. I think it’s a brilliant idea.

Jesus Has Blue Eyes. One of the most beautiful, compelling, convicting, and inspiring things I’ve read in a long time. I don’t want to give anything away. Just go read it!

All Kinds of Awesome. The other night, I seriously lost 20 minutes of my life on Buzz Feed, perusing lists like this one and this one. I was laughing out loud, tears were streaming down my face, and it was pure awesomeness.

Measuring Yourself. And it wouldn’t be a true Friday Findings if I didn’t mention something from Frank Viola. His post The Peril of Measuring Yourself Against Others is a pitch perfect commentary on the dangers of comparison, stats, and rankings, and the need for true discipleship. If you are a blogger especially, read this.

I’m Getting Ads. Okay?  First, a bit of MR housekeeping…If you ever signed up to receive posts directly to your inbox, only to find you never received a single one, I apologize. I suck. Well, technology sucks sometimes. Anyhoo, it’s fixed, along with some other buggy things that were bogging down this here blog. Also, I wanted to ask you all if you would be terribly offended or run away if I started running ads on Modern Reject?

Because, I think it’s time. I used to feel conflicted about the issue, like Christian bloggers shouldn’t make a penny for writing. They should just be all pious and poor and stuff. But after reading a post from Micheal Hyatt about monetizing your blog without selling your soul, I changed my mind and have decided that ads aren’t immoral. So, hopefully you won’t mind once those precious little money-makers pop up in the next week or so.

Alright Rejects, what have you got to share with the rest of us? Something funny, shocking, weird, touching, none of the above? Let’s hear it!

Friday is upon us which means it is also Friday Findings–the day I share with you, all of the exciting, revelatory, mind-blowing (or so-so) stuff I found and/or read this week.

Let’s start it off…

The Art of Conversation is Dying. I’ve long worried about the phenomena of the death of real conversation, ever since my anti-Facebook anti-Twitter days. But then I became a blogger. The New York times  raises the issue in The Flight from Conversation, asking whether we are trading genuine conversation for nothing more than connection.

Gen X-ers Unite. I guess I am a Gen X-er, although I’ve never thought of myself as one. I found this interesting article which asks whether the workplace is being reshaped, much in part thanks to Gen X-ers, who see the world differently than generations past.

Stunning Pictures…of Kids. You may have seen some of these photos floating around the Internet. I had, but I hadn’t seen the whole collection of photos by father Jason Lee, who decided to take some of the most original and visually striking (not to mention funny) pictures of his two daughters.

Praying Isn’t Exactly What We Think. My wonderful friend Josh E. Merritt has a blog called Daily Leaps. Josh is without a doubt one of the wisest and most beautiful writers I know…and he’s only 22. He wrote a post about being fully immersed in prayer and how what we tend to think is acceptable prayer, is not all that God is after. I was personally convicted by this piece and hope you enjoy it too.

Get Over Being Criticized. Rachel Held Evans wrote a great post on 10 Tips for Dealing with Online Criticism. Man, I appreciated this post. Rachel gives such wise, grace-filled, yet practical advice. Especially if you’re a blogger, read this one!

20 Something Christians…This is For You. Frank Viola has a one-question survey in his blog just for 20 something Christians. It is a powerful and interesting question. The comments alone are worth reading. If you’re in your 20’s check it out.

Kiss My Facebook Page. If you have a crush on Modern Reject, which I assume you do, ’cause why wouldn’t you…if you have yet to do so, how about planting a big old “Like” on my Facebook page right now? You know you want to and I’ll be ever so thankful.

Okay, where did you find yourself this week? Read anything convicting? Discover something you just have to share? Go on, blow my mind with your awesomeness.

This week was a mixed bag for me–full of highs and a few lows. But God proved once again that He is faithful and stuff. You know, like we know He is, but tend to forget when things get ever so slightly uncomfortable. All that to say, I’m glad the week is almost over, but I’m looking forward to the next.

So here’s what I read and loved this week:

Tired of…God. Matthew Paul Turner wrote a post a few days ago that made me sigh deeply and nod my head in agreement. He’s tired of talking about God and not for the reasons you might suspect. I can empathize with him and have often felt the exact same way.

Blogging Sucks…Sometimes. This week was one of those weeks when I really question why I do this whole blogging thing. I joked on Facebook that I was leaving Modern Reject to start a DIY blog, which created quite a flurry of responses from you all. I was told I could never leave this blog. Ever. So thank you, but to serve as encouragement, Jason Boyett’s post over at ChurchLeaders.com about why Christian blogging ain’t so fun was just what I needed. If you have a blog, I think you will really relate to this post.

Christian Right or the Christian Left? Have you ever felt like you don’t fit in on either side of the Christian right or the Christian left? I have. I’m a bi-racial, homeschooling, tattooed, recycling, organic church leading, wife and mom of 3. Neither the left nor the right knows what to do with me. And let’s not even get started on my theology, which is just as varying and contradictory to both sides.

Well, Frank Viola wrote a post this week called 20 Reasons Why the Christian Right & the Christian Left Won’t Adopt Me. It is one of the best things I have read in a long time. I love this piece and I think Viola so succinctly captures what it is to belong to neither side, but rather to belong to the Family of God.

Porn, Raquel Welch, and the Power of Our Sexual Imagination. This was an interesting post in response to an interview the sex bombshell Raquel Welch recently gave, wherein she criticized porn for preventing people from forming their own ideas about sex and what’s erotic. Here’s a snippet: “Perhaps because women are considered less sexual, less visually stimulated, and less given to indulge our lusts, our sexual desires are not so heavily manipulated. However, we are not free to imagine what is beautiful about ourselves.”

Praying…or Not. Lastly, one of my favorite bloggers, Sammy Adebiyi wrote a great post called Why I Don’t Believe in Prayer. Sound intriguing? It is and it’s gooood. Turns out, according to him, I don’t believe in prayer either.

So there’s my faves from this week. A  lot of good reads. What did you find this week that you’d like to share? Any good blog posts? Your own blog post? Another discovery? Let’s hear it…

What a week it has been. After feeling a bit out of sorts last week, I’m back to feeling  like my old self. Whatever that means. I also found and enjoyed some pretty spiffy stuff on the web this week that I can’t wait to share in today’s Friday Findings.

So here we go…

Holy wow! Bananas! A Huge Surprise! I discovered on Tuesday, much to my amazement and surprise, that yours truly found her way onto Church Relevance’s Top 200 Church Blogs of 2012 list. I have to say, I was shocked. Still am, in fact, and feel convinced that someone made some type of clerical error. I’m secretly waiting for an email informing me of their mistake, but until that day comes, I’ll enjoy the honor.

In this bizarro twist of fate, Modern Reject landed at #118 on the list (You can check out the full list here). So many of the blogs I love, adore, admire, and stalk are on this list. Which also means I owe you a huge THANK YOU! Thank you for reading. Thank you for subscribing (you do subscribe, right?). Thank you for commenting. Thank you for being a part of this community and encouraging me every single day. You rule and I’m grateful.

The Mark of Love. This week, my hubster introduced me to a super cool Christian clothing company called Mend Mark. I have to say, I usually find Christian paraphernalia to be so cheesy or lame…but not this stuff. I’d actually wear these clothes. The company describes their products “as visual reminders of the life and death of Jesus, the greatest lover in history.” How sweet is that?

Forget the Church? Did you happen to see the recent cover of Newsweek with the provocative title “Forget the Church: Follow Jesus,”  with an article by Andrew Sullivan? Well, I took the bait, picked up the magazine and started reading. Then, I started cussing because I found it to be such a pile of drivel. {Sigh}. My husband told me to put the magazine down. I relented.

Suffice to say, I was bothered by it, but then I read Frank Viola’s response to the article. He nails it, in my opinion, as he astutely and effectively addresses the glaringly obvious errors in Sullivan’s thinking. Viola’s piece is called Christianity in Crisis (also the title of the original article) and is worth reading even if you happened to miss the Newsweek piece.

The Bible Gets Even Cooler. You may remember a few months back I did an interview with the uber-talented and creative Jim LePage, whose designs turn the books of the Bible into works of art. Well, now Jim and Troy DeShano are collaborating, along with several other illustrators, on a new effort called the Old and New Project.

I cannot begin to tell you how stunning, visually rich, and masterful these new pieces are. One of the designers in the collaboration is Jon Ashcroft, who actually designed Modern Reject (and ain’t she purdy?) Check out one of his Old and New Project pieces here. All  pieces in the project are available to purchase, so you can display them in your home. Go on…put some slick Jesus art on your walls and call it a day.

There you have it– a full week of awesomeness. So what made your awesome list this week? Please tell. I’m dying to know!

Somehow this week, I managed to take care of 3 other people, exercise insane amounts, including some rather painful P90X workouts that technically should be banned in the U.S. for unlawful bodily injury, and write the most posts in one week I have written since having a baby 6 months ago. Go me!

Whew. I’m exhausted, as well I should be.

But it doesn’t stop there. Oh no. And why should it when there are so many interesting, funny, inspiring things to partake of on the Interwebz.

Here’s what got me smiling this week…

I Bet that Gym Teacher Couldn’t Spell “Synecdoche” to Save Her Life from Alice Bradley’s blog Finslippy. I’ve mentioned Ms. Bradley on MR before. She happens to be one of my favorite writers, period. Right now, she’s running a little blog series on childhood teachers. {sigh} She is funnier than me on my funniest days and what’s better than reminiscing about childhood teachers?

Beyond Evangelical from Frank Viola. I mentioned this important series by Frank Viola a few weeks ago, and this is the last installment in the 7 part blog series, but also provides links to the other posts in the series.  I think Viola’s definition and assessment of what it means to be “beyond evangelical” is revelatory and not to be ignored.

Cheap art. No seriously. I have always dreamed of having a house filled with beautiful artwork–paintings hanging from wall to wall–a regular art gallery right in my living room. But alas, I grew up and realized that art is crazy expensive, unless you want to hang Justin Bieber posters from Hot Topic (which might not be too bad, ’cause I mean, it is the Biebs).

But a while ago, I discovered 20×200, which is an ongoing and rotating collection of artwork by talented artists that you can actually afford. Just a warning, if you click through, be prepared to lose an hour. Here is a painting by one of my favorite artists, Jennifer Sanchez.

March Madness is oh so good. I love March Madness. I am generally not a sports girl, but something about college basketball gets me geeked out. Yet, I assume most people don’t care and that is why I’m sharing this post from Mashable: 10 March Madness Brackets that Have Nothing to do with Basketball. Way cool list. Enjoy.

New Human Found. And lastly, speaking of geeky, I have a weird love affair with anthropology, archeology, and ancient cultures. My husband has had to endure far too many documentaries on Machu Pichu and the Aztecs. Well, scientists in China recently discovered the skeletal remains of what appears to be a “new human species.” Say what? I find these discoveries fascinating and I am always intrigued to see how God will reveal His consistency in design through them. Read the article and tell me what you think. A new human?

Well, looks like I was all over the place this week. What about you? Are you a March Madness fan? Any great discoveries you’d care to share? Lay it on me! I’d love to hear.