Digressions » JakeBouma.com

Catalista has released an iPhone app that connects volunteers with opportunities. “Even beyond the mobile access to volunteer opportunity listings, what seems especially compelling about Catalista is the possibility that it could facilitate spontaneous, ad-hoc volunteering, whereby people with a few hours of unscheduled time on their hands can find and participate in local opportunities that they might not have been able to plan for otherwise.” 10/25/2009
Philosopher and theologian Philip Clayton is writing a new monthly column for Religion Dispatches. His first offering is Religion and Science: Toward a Postmodern Truce. “In the American public square today, it’s hard to find discussions of the interplay between science and religion that achieve what our society most needs: genuine self-criticism on both sides, born of the recognition that both sides will have to do some bending if any sort of truce is to be achieved.” His new book, Transforming Christian Theology: For Church and Society, is available for pre-order. 09/12/2009
James K.A. Smith’s advice on establishing a practice of reading: “Keep books in every room of the house. Pile them up on the end table or nightstand or back of the toilet. Have the books there, staring at you, inviting you, wooing you, calling to you, shaming you. Keep bumping into them. Pick them up and look at them. And even if you have a first job, resist signing up for cable and spend the end of each day reading. Then find a friend who loves to read (and, if possible, a spouse) and talk about books.” 09/01/2009
MailChimp, an email marketing company, recently announced that their free account, which formerly cost $10/month, now lets you send out 3,000 emails a month to up to 500 subscribers. If you’re not using this communication tool for your ministry, you no longer have a valid excuse. Here’s an example email I sent via MailChimp last year. 09/01/2009
Countering conventional wisdom, a brain-imaging study finds that, in risk-taking teens, the brain’s white matter looks like that of an adult. “After reviewing all of the neurodevelopment stuff, I couldn’t really find any link between brain development and adolescent risk-taking. Nobody denies that the brain develops or that teens take risks, but how the two got intertwined is beyond me.” Related: The Primal Teen. 08/27/2009
The Bait and Switch of Contemporary Christianity provocatively dissects the fine line between spiritual disciplines and becoming a “more decent human being.” “The point is that one can fill a life full of spiritual activities without ever, actually, trying to become a more decent human being. In fact, much of this activity can distract one from becoming a more decent human being. Worse, some of these activities make you worse, interpersonally speaking. Many churches are jerk factories.” 08/10/2009
Twitter Theology: 5 Ways Twitter Has Changed My Life and helped me be a better Disciple of Jesus by Leonard Sweet (@lensweet). “Jesus was a master at sound bytes that bite with terseness and immediacy. In fact, he was always twittering the gospel in pithy, memorable phrases, and even expressed his gospel in The Great Tweet: ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’ I suspect his followers would be well advised to RT (ReTweet) everything he said.” 08/05/2009
God and Majors from Inside Higher Ed. summarizes some new research about the correlation between college majors and religious observance. “Being a humanities or a social science major has a statistically significant negative effect on religiosity — measured by either religious attendance and how important students consider the importance of religion in their lives. The impact appears to be strongest in the social sciences.” 07/30/2009
I’m in New Orleans this week with my high school students at the ELCA Youth Gathering. We’re posting daily highlight videos on the blog and group-updating our Twitter account. Check it out! 07/24/2009
The LA Times provides a list of 61 essential postmodern novels. I’ve got some catching up to do; I’ve read less than 2%. 07/19/2009

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