It’s Jonathan Edwards Week!

I’ve decided to designate this as Jonathan Edwards Week, since it’s the week leading up to my class on Jonathan Edwards. And, to celebrate Jonathan Edwards Week, I’ll be posting a variety of Edwards links, quotes, and resources every day this week. (I will, of course, post on other issues as well. I couldn’t stick to one topic for an entire week if I wanted to.) So, if you’re interested in Edwards, stay tuned for more.

And, I thought the following clip would help get things started on the right note.

HT Brian’s Life

Flotsam and jetsam (10/21)

• According to a recent study, more people now link the Christian faith to being American.

Purdue University scholars found that between 1996 and 2004, Americans who saw Christian identity as a “very important” attribute of being American increased from 38 percent to 49 percent.

• Tim Stafford explains how people got invited to the Lausanne Conference.

The process started with a selection committee, chosen from the Lausanne network including one representative from each of 12 regions globally. That committee chose a selection director for each of 200 countries. According to Lindsay Brown, international director for Cape Town 2010, the committee looked for “Christian statesmen” who would be fair-minded in trying to represent the whole church in their country, not merely their friends or fellow church members. That chair gathered a selection committee, vested with the authority to choose delegates for their country.

• Religion News Service has an interview with John Dominic Crossan.

Any religion’s greatest prayers should be addressed to the whole world. If a prayer only speaks to you, that’s fine. But I would like to hear you speaking to all of us. The Lord’s Prayer is the greatest because it comes from the heart of Judaism and the lips of Christianity—but speaks to the conscience of the world.

• Brady Boyd offers a list of 10 things he wishes someone had told him when he started in  ministry. HT

Sheep bites can’t kill me, but the gnawing will make life miserable a few days each year.

• And, a new study suggests that the world may not end on Dec 21, 2012 after all. That’s a relief.