Worthy of Note This Week

Here's are a few items that caught my attention this past week -

At the top of list is a three part series of messages by Al Mohler entitled "Raising Teens in a Media Culture" . Links to all three parts in MP3 are listed below -

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Dr. Al Mohler offers this series of thoughtful messages about the pervasiveness of mass media (tv, movies, music, Internet, etc...) in our culture and its impact on our children. Obviously, it's a topic most pertinent for those with teenage children but it is also informative to anyone who is interested about how mass media has encroached on Christian family life. I found the messages a wonderfully sobering reminder to stay involved in leading my children through an increasingly media saturated world.

One of the points that Dr. Mohler makes is that it is impossible to really cut yourself off from the world of mass media - it's here to stay. As you would expect, he encourages parents to thoughtfully and intentionally monitor the content through the various mediums. The challenge with this is the sheer volume of content that is pumped through on a daily basis. To that end, Dr. Mohler offers a practical suggestion to limit the bandwidth of what our children are exposed to .... by simply saying no to certain things. I'd encourage you to listen for yourself... I plan to listen to these messages with Kathy to better understand what changes we need to make in our home.

Mark Lauterbach's blog, Gospel Driven Life has an interesting post on Christian liberty. It's a commentary on how we make choices about Christian lifestyle practices for which the Bible does not provide explicit guidance such as choices on permissible movies to watch, to homeschool or not to homeschool, etc... you get the idea. The interesting part of this post is the question he raises not merely on how we make those choices but the way we interact with others who may have come to a different decision on a particular issue.

Finally, I noticed that earlier this month, Church Report released the list of the 50 Most Influential Churches in America. Tim Keller's Redeemer Presbyterian Church (#16), John MacArthur's Grace Community Church (#31) and John Piper's Bethlehem Baptist (#42) made the cut. No Sovereign Grace churches were named...but there's always next year.