I’m an advocate for people moving out of suburbia for a number of reasons, but I can respect people’s decisions to stay there. Will Samson is one of those people I’ve come to see as a conscience suburbunite. He recently posted a letter from someone else about 10 Ways to Live Intentionally in the Suburbs and I think they are worth checking out:
1) Live with others from your church community
Whether you share your home with another person or family, or whether you have several families that have homes in close …

If you didn’t know, I’m writing this book. Just a fun little project, a fiction piece, an attempt to articulate in a creative form my feelings on how it looks like to live out the faith, following the Gospel.
I’m realizing following the Gospel is dangerous. I’m also realizing that following the Gospel is so obvious. There are some things Jesus says that are confusing and quite stuck in the cultural context, however most of what he said is pretty plain. In the book I’ve set up the characters in a …

The Nick and Josh Podcast starring none other then Me.

Some nice ways to Recycle Your Socks

I’ll take Jesus any day

there’s a time for peace and there is a time for wara time to forgive and a time to settle the scorea time for babies to lose their livesa time for hunger and genocidethis too shall be made right
-This Too Shall Be Made Right, Derek Webb, the Ringing Bell

“(There is a) basic philosophical problem when you begin turning over
administration of prisons to people who have an interest in keeping
people locked up” notes Jenni Gainsborough of the ACLU’s National
Prison Project. -in America’s Private Gulag [via]

I don’t usually completely repost someones writings, but since JesusManifesto is down and might be so indefinitely, I figured Mark wouldn’t mind. But what’s written below is not mine, it’s all Mark Van Steenwyk:
A while back, I listed some alternative economic practices.  Here’s a summary of them (go here for more details).

Abolish the tithe…

Care for the poor in your midst…

Financial accountability groups…

Spend less than 50% of your church budget on staff, building, and office expenses…

Support local economies…

When buying “globally” buy fair trade…

Minimize waste, reclaim waste…

Share stuff…

Devote tax returns to the …

Regardless what you think, Michael Moore is often brilliant. Why aren’t Christians doing this sort of thing?

If you have a kid, you should read Buy Buy Baby. [via]

Who cares about Miss America, we should be interested in Miss Landmine

“Gentrification: The displacement of poor women and people of color. The raising of rents and eradification of a single, poor and working-class women from neighborhoods once considered unsavory by people who didn’t live there. The demolition of housing projects. A money-driven process in which landowners and developers push people (in this case, many of them single mothers) out of their homes without thinking about where they will go. Gentrification is a premeditated process in which an imaginary bleach is poured onto a community and the only remaining color left in …

Since I’m not posting on a regular basis, due to writing my book, my video this week doesn’t have to fit into any particular category. So here is a few for you to enjoy.
This is the Truth is a Great innovative video. Watch it all the way through, you’ll be happy you did. (ht. Virgil)

If you’ve never seen liquid dancing, this is sweet.

I don’t know why he stopped, but Josh had put together some great videos.

Since I’m concentrating my writing efforts on this novel, I’m going to posts some quotes …

The book is rolling, but I’m taking a break for the weekend, read the first few chapters here.
So, I’ll just leave you with a video to enjoy this weekend.
NASCAR Coach Reveals Winning Strategy: ‘Drive Fast’

The Top Five Bible Verses? Really? [via]

I’ve begun writing my novel.
I got off to an exciting start and wrote over 5000 words the first day! That means I’m already 10% done!
If you’d like you can Read My Novel any time.
If you do read what I’ve written so far please lend me some encouragement!

Today, November 1st, I’m going to try and write a novel. I won’t finish it tomorrow, but I hope to finish something by the end of the month. I’m excited to do this for a number of reasons. As I might have mentioned before, both being a new father and beginning a new stage of life, I’ve been more anxious to articulate my feelings on how I see my faith being lived out. I’ve run into difficulties articulating this at times, and I’ve recently felt that this experiment in writing …

Here’s some creative street art.

The Star Tribune had a very positive article in the paper:
“More than 3,000 trained prisoners are earning $1 an hour, and time shaved off their sentences, for helping fight California’s wildfires.”
The article was extremely positive, interviewing an inmate and how he’s benefited from the experience, as well as well as the department of corrections who point out that it’s “saving state taxpayers an estimated $80 million per year.”
What’s not discussed or addressed, is whether or not the very act of prison labor is ethical. I don’t know if I’ve written …

I came across a very interesting video on a new friend’s blog the other day, and I wanted to post it for YouTubesday. However, It didn’t really relate to anything I’ve been talking about and I don’t have other videos to go along with it. So, in an effort to be completely un-unified and chaotic, here is a short collection of five videos, with no relation to each other or this post necessarily.