Thursday, April 28, 2005

Is there an 'Apprentice'?

The only show I watch on TV has come to be "The Apprentice" with all of its pomp and circumstances. The Donald truly carries the show with his personality alone. Loved or hated, he cannot be ignored.

This series' potential apprentices, though, seem rather incompetent. Are these the best and brightest we have to offer? By about midway through this 'interview', my wife and I had decided that none of this class were worthy of being hired by Trump in contrast to the previous edition which seemed to have at least 3 if not more worthy candidates. Trump should have just fired all of these candidates and started with a clean slate. MARKETING is the key just about every week, and none of these candidates seem extremely blessed in the skills of marketing. What do lawyers know about marketing unless they are accustomed to ambulance chasing and posting pictures of themselves on billboards?

So will Trump take a lawyer, a Mary Kay sales pro, a shoe shine entrepreneur, or a real estate entrepeneur? I'm going to stick with Kendra, the real estate entrepreneur.

Sunday, April 10, 2005

Goodbye MapQuest

Hello, Google Maps. Check it out, especially the satellite image feature. I can see myself through the window as I type this. Honest.

Saturday, April 09, 2005

Church Marketing

"Big Enough to Serve You, Small Enough to Care"

A local church's radio ad invites people to attend their worship service because their church is "big enough to serve you, small enough to care." Whether or not a church should "advertise" in the first place is a matter of a more thorough discussion, but the above slogan caught my attention because of the way that it sounds like some sort of service is being offered or sold. A quick Google on the matter, and you'll find several businesses with the same slogan:

Acres Power Equipment Company
Manry Rawls HR
Marquise Equipment Leasing
D. B. Withrow Painting Co.

Okay, even if you haven't thought through what the church is supposed to be, surely some alarms go off in your head when a church is advertising with the same slogan as equipment, painting, and HR companies. Truth be told, too many churches see themselves precisely in this light - as some sort of community service organization that needs to promote its 'services' to be successful.

Being salt and light in this world is one thing, but when the church loses the biblical understanding that it is the body of Christ, made up of believers who gather to worship and minister together, the church has ceased to exist. Just because a group of people gather weekly and call themselves a church does not mean that they really are. While the church in question may in reality be the most biblically-grounded body of believers that have just succumbed to a questionable marketing tactic, there are a 103 more out there in this city trying everything they can to promote themselves as an attractive group to join.

Monday, April 04, 2005

Evangelicals and the Pope

"We should be unembarrassed and unhesitant to declare our admiration for John Paul II's courageous stand against Communism, his bold defense of human dignity and human life, and his robust and substantial defense of truth in the face of postmodernism. In many of the great battles of our day, evangelicals found John Paul II to be a key ally."

Thus writes Dr. Albert Mohler today concerning how evangelicals should understand the papacy. The death of Pope John Paul II is certainly not a time for evangelicals to voice our differences with the man, but it is a perfect time to revisit just what the differences are between Catholics and Evangelicals, and Dr. Mohler demonstrates several of these as they concern the office of the papacy. And so Mohler also writes:

"Even in his most recent book, released in the United States just days before his death, John Paul II continued to define the work of Christ as that which is added to human effort. Like the church he served, John Paul II rejected justification by faith."

Christians, if we are not justified by faith alone, then what in the world does Ephesians 2:8-10 mean? What about the entirety of the book of Romans? and Galatians? Even as we admire John Paul II, now is the time, as much as ever, to ask the tough questions of the Christian faith and pray that biblical truth would be the source by which all who call themselves Christians would find their anchor.

Read Dr. Mohler's entire article.