Good Reads - 3/31/06

Some posts I recommend from the past few days:

With The DaVinci Code movie coming out soon and the plethora of books which debunk the theology of Dan Brown's novel, how about a different approach? At Middlebrow, we find "9 Art Bloopers in the DaVinci Code." Here's one of 'em:

The Mona Lisa didn’t go by that name. We don’t know what name it went by during Leonardo’s lifetime, but it was the biographer Vasari who called it Mona Lisa long after Leonardo’s death, and the name didn’t really stick as definitive until the 19th century. This only matters if, following “symbologist” Robert Langdon’s lead, you’re supposed to re-arrange the letters to spell Amon L’Isa. Not a challenging anagram, exactly, and not very enlightening at that. But the point is that if you did this, you’d be re-arranging letters Leonardo didn’t arrange in the first place, which would be silly.

(A tip of the ol' ballcap to Charlie at Another Think.)

Sick and tired of reading my thoughts about what's wrong with church? Here's an old post I stumbled upon at DTOUR called Escape From Consumer Church which does a fine job of exploring the idea of what church is all about.

Ben Witherington answers his own question in What's Wrong with Prospering? The Gospel According to Joel Osteen. This is a must read if you've ever wrestled with the idea of stewardship and wealth.

What about prospering as a preacher? Todd at Monday Morning Insight reprints part of an article from John Koessler about the purpose of ministry in Finding Your True North in Ministry.

Is there supposed to be a separation between Christians and everyone else? After a far-too-lengthy absence, Chad is back at Eternal Revolution and he returns with a shot across the bow of the good ship Separation. Read When the Walls Come Crumbling Down.

And on the lighter side, it's not something to read, but you really need to listen to Hello pastor... at Ship of Fools. Running a church to please everybody is impossible, especially when there's a guy there who has had at least 1400 messages from the Lord.

Enjoy!