Can you correctly identify the source of the following quote?

“You must defend those who are helpless and have no hope. Be fair and give justice to the poor and homeless.”

16% of Americans surveyed believed the statement came from President Obama–the number one response in the study. 9% said the Dalai Lama. Martin Luther King Jr. came in at 8%, and Oprah Winfrey garnered 4%. And 3% said Bono. Taken together, 54% of American misidentified the correct source. Only 13% got it right–the Bible (Proverbs 31:8-9).

“The survey illustrates the reason we created ‘The Poverty and Justice Bible,’” commented R. Lamar Vest, president of American Bible Society, “to highlight God’s concern for the poor, marginalized and oppressed.”

“The Poverty and Justice Bible seeks to challenge the notion that the Bible is outdated…

Last week I came across one of those news articles that makes you wonder if we’re all just flying upside down. This headline comes from the Telegraph in the UK”Council sets up scrutiny panel - to scrutinize its scrutiny panels”

A spokesperson from the Wealden District Council said a working party was established in July to oversee the decisions of its three existing scrutiny panels and to “scrutinize the Council’s scrutiny arrangements.” It sounds to me like the citizens of Wealden District are the ones getting scrutted…but I digress. The article continues:

Mark Wallace, from the Taxpayers Alliance, said: “Whilst it may be well-intentioned the council appear to have wrapped themselves up in knots and ended up in an absurd situation. By all means they should review their procedures but…

It all started with an email from my colleague Drew Dyck asking if I had a book by Dave Ferguson. He side commented: have you ever noticed that he looks like Edward Norton? I hadn’t. Then we started thinking about other pastoral look-a-likes.

The emails went back and forth. I’ve included some of my favorites below. There were other less complementary ones that we shall leave behind. There are a few that have stumped me. For example, one would think that figures as recognizable as Rob Bell or Shane Claiborne would be easy to match. But so far I’ve had no luck. Have you got additional submissions? I have no doubt that there are more.

Below are twelve that we’ve matched so far. Feel free to add to the nonsense.…

On Goldman Sach’s religious justification of enormous profit:

“We’re very important. We help companies to grow by helping them raise capital. Companies that grow create wealth. This, in turn, allows people to have jobs that create more growth and more wealth. It’s a virtuous circle. We have a social purpose…. We are doing God’s work.” -Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sach’s chairman and chief executive

“The injunction of Jesus to love others as ourselves is an endorsement of self-interest.” -Brian Griffiths, Goldman Sach’s international adviser

On James Dobson leaving the Focus on the Family radio program and ministry:

“We’ve been getting e-mails and phone calls from people saying how much Dr. Dobson has meant to them over the years. I wouldn’t characterize it as an enormous outpouring.” -Gary Schneeberger, Focus on the Family spokesman

“Focus…

In my role as the managing editor of Leadership Journal, I get dozens of free books from publishers nearly every week. They’re all looking for some free press, a review in the journal, a blurb on the blog, or just a little word of mouth buzz.

But when Zondervan sent me Deadly Viper Character Assassins: A Kung Fu Survival Guild for Life and Leadership by Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite, I was caught by surprise. (For the sake of full disclosure, Zondervan published my book The Divine Commodity.) Deadly Viper is about the size of a CD case, square, and clearly a very expensive book to design. Nearly every page is loaded with original artwork with a comicbook/kung fu/pan-Asian style.

I had two immediate reactions to the book. First, I can’t believe…

Mike Foster thinks we should stop calling ourselves “Pastor.” In a tweet last summer he wrote: “If I don’t make employees/clients call me ‘Creative Principal Mike’ then why do some expect ‘Pastor’ in front of their name?”

He’s not the only one dropping the “Pastor” prefix. Erwin McManus is known as the “Cultural Architect of Mosaic.” I’ve also met a few executive pastors who are the”Chief of Staff.”

Maybe they’re all on to something. After all, “pastor” doesn’t carry the cache it once did. According to one survey the profession of “pastor” is near the bottom of the list of most-respected professions…just above “car salesman.” To make matters worse, pastors don’t seem to think very highly of their profession either. The following stats come from The Fuller Institute, George Barna, and…

The Wizard of Oz was a mighty and powerful being to be feared and respected…until the curtain was drawn back and the Wizard turned out to be a mechanical façade created by a little man pushing buttons and pulling levers. The classic story came to mind this week as I heard two separate stories of megachurch pastors literally outsourcing their Bible study and exegetical sermon preparation work.Apparently the trend is not as uncommon as one might think, although I’m sure not every large church pastor utilizes the services of outsiders. The program works like this-a megachurch pastor has limited time and many obligation. He simply cannot pour hours of labor into studying the Bible, exegeting the texts, reading commentaries, and researching historical interpretations. So, he hires a credible…

I’m in Atlanta this week for the Catalyst Conference. The blog I manage for Leadership journal, Out of Ur, is one of the official blog sites for the event. I’ll be posting regularly on the site, as will Marshall Shelley, Kevin Miller, and Drew Dyck. You can keep track of what’s happening at OutofUr.com.

If you’re at Catalyst, let me know. It’d be nice to see some friends and interact with Leadership subscribers and Urbanites.

Last week I posted an excerpt of an article by Jonny Baker from “Grace,” an alternative worship community in London, about the hunger among the young for both liturgy and tradition. There have been a number of other resources documenting this same trend. And now Samuel Freedman from the NY Times has written about the movement of Protestants toward the Orthodox Church. Here’s a bit of his article:

The visible shift began in 1987 with the conversion of nearly 2,000 evangelical Christians, led by Peter E. Gillquist and other alumni of the Dallas Theological Seminary and the Campus Crusade for Christ. More recently, a wave of converts has arrived from such mainline Protestant denominations as the Episcopalian and Lutheran.

Some 70 percent of Antiochian Orthodox priests in the United States are converts, according…

Earlier this year, we published an issue of Leadership on the theme of “Rediscovered Roots: Timeless practices that keep us grounded and bring new life.” Jonny Baker, a leader of Grace, an alternative worship community in London, wrote a fantastic article for us called “Something Old, Something New.” In the piece he discusses the transformation of worship among the young away from a purely contemporary style toward an appreciation of history, liturgy, symbol, and even tradition.

I recently came across this cartoon called “The Evolution of a Worshiper” which reminded me of Baker’s article. The ‘toon progresses from an outwardly enthusiastic (can we call it Charismatic?) style, through the reserved form of popular evangelicalism, to the cynical postmodern with iPod and goatee, to the fully liturgical high-church Anglican. Can…