social justice

Tag Archives: social justice

Siggy’s Blogroll

Posted on October 19, 2009 at sometime around 7:29 pm

Jesus/Church Blogs

Brian McLaren: Liberal author, speaker, and activist for the Kingdom of God

Church Crunch: Technological/Web Thoughts for improving and advancing the mission of Jesus of Nazareth.

Church Matters: Helpful Biblical ideas for the local church.

Church Relevance: Free online resource created to help train ministries how to more effectively reach people.

Dan Kimball: California pastor and frequent blogger on the things of Jesus of Nazareth.

Donald Miller: Story teller. Progressive Christian thinker. Author of “Blue Like Jazz”.

LifeChurch.tv: Swerve’s purpose (LifeChurch.tv’s blog) is to share and learn from leaders who are passionate about reaching this world for Christ.

Matthew Paul Turner (Jesus Needs New PR): “The Christian Jon Stewart”, frequent blogger, author of “Churched: One Kid’s Journey Toward God Despite a Holy Mess”.

Michael Hyatt: CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, the largest Christian publishing company

Out of Ur: Top Christian blog for ministry leaders

Pete Wilson: Lead pastor of Cross Point Church in Nashville, TN.

Peter Rollins: Emerging teacher who just moved to NYC in late 2009. Author of “How (Not) to Speak of God”.

Ragamuffin Soul: Talented musician, teacher, and author, Carlos Whittaker. An authentic, real Christian.

Rainn Wilson’s Soul Pancake: Dwight from “The Office” has a team that seeks to “de-lamify” God and faith conversations

Relevant Magazine: Awesome magazine that “covers God, life, and progressive culture”. Great articles.

Rob Bell: Author and pastor. Writes great books and speaks even better sermons. Founder of Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids, MI.

Rod White: Progressive Brethren In Christ pastor in downtown Philly at Circle of Hope.

Scot McKnight: Frequent blogger on progressive Christianity

Shane Hipps: Progressive author and Christian preacher of emerging culture and a “third way faith”.

Stuff Christians Like: Humorous blog making fun of the stuff that Christians like

Tony Jones: Liberal Christian thinker and frequent blogger at Beliefnet

Worship

All About Worship: Worship Music Highlights

David Crowder: Worship leader who makes some good Jesus music.

Worship Matters: Bob Kauflin’s Thoughts and Resources on Worship (author of a book by the same title)

Worship Together: Worship resources and reviews.

…For more worship links, go to this previous post of mine: Online Worship Resources.

Music (I like Indie stuff, just so you know…)

Brooklyn Vegan: NYC-based indie music focused on music news.

Paste Magazine: Leading source of independent music reviews

Pitchfork: The indie elitist site.

Stereogum: A music-oriented blog that focuses mainly on independent and alternative music MP3s, videos, news, reviews, etc.

Others: Gorilla vs. Bear, LargeheartedBoy, IndieMuse.

Marketing

Barna Research Group: Visionary research on the intersection of culture and faith.

Church Marketing Stinks: Reasons why church marketing is awful and helpful solutions to fix it.

Seth Godin: The most brilliant mind on marketing and business alive. Well…possibly.

Missions/Social Justice Organizations

Hope International: Microfinancing for those in need.

International Justice Mission: Leading. Advancing. Overcoming. Bringing justice and awareness to humans in slavery.

World Vision: Huge Christian humanitarian charity organization.

Friends

A Family Without Borders: Friends from Minnesota who share their stories of adopting two children from Ethiopia.

Chris Flinchbaugh: Progressive writer, musician, and leader of my former house church.

Jen Siegrist: Friend from Lancaster who creates free music mixes that are always a good time.

Katie Klos: Infrequent blogger, but good friend from Geneva College and good writings on “Thoughts. Struggle. Faith.”

Rhys Searles: Friend from college who is a youth pastor in Nashville, TN.

Shawn Anthony: My former pastor, incredible writer/leader, frequent blogger on the Kingdom of God.

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*Note: Just because someone is listed on this blog roll does not mean I endorse everything they say. I read a variety of readings from a variety of people on a variety of topics. I also frequent a lot of other sites, but thought this could be helpful for people who were interested in some of my influences.

Posted in Jesus, Marketing, Miscellaneous | Also tagged blog, Blogroll, friends, Music, pastors, Resources, top blogs, Worship | Comments (0)

What Will Generation Y’s Greatest Social Issue Be?

Posted on January 27, 2009 at sometime around 2:47 pm

A few months back, I was the best man in my best friend’s wedding. It was one of the best weekends of my life, to watch and experience true love between two of my greatest friends was an honor to be a part of. Jessica looked beautiful and I could tell how excited Zac was for their future together. The inspiration I receive from these two servants of Christ cannot be understated.

I write that in positive light, while there was a moment of darkness that caught my attention over the celebration weekend. The day before the wedding, 4 of my best friends and I went to get our tuxes fitted in the morning before heading out to go play little bat. Little Bat is a hilarious/fun game of essentially baseball in a tennis court with a tennis ball and a souvenir bat. If you went to Geneva, you knew all about the Lil Bat buzz. This is part of my legacy at Geneva College. Haha. But back to the story (If you have ever heard a Sigmon story, you know how easy it is for me to get off track). So the tux guy is talking to us and drops a couple of f-bombs and we were a little taken back, but didn’t really think anything other than, “that was kind of unprofessional”. Then one of my friends, who had just spilled his heart over lunch over deciding whether or not to join up with the National Guard after not feeling fulfilled in what he is currently doing, is overheard by the attendant at this tuxedo shop. The attendant proceeds to tell us he just got out of the Army a year ago and how much (insert female private parts here) he got. That’s all he could talk about, this coming from a man who is now married. He talked about how overseas, not only does sex slavery occur often, it is actually encouraged by the governments.

Now this was not news to me, but this is how the tuxedo salesman was selling the army!!! Not only did I feel a tear coming to my eyes, I was absolutely filled with rage. I didn’t even know what to say or how to respond. My poor friend is responding with awkward laughter, while I am telling another buddy that I’m going to box this guy in the face. Luckily, we ended up just kind of mocking the guy to his face about what he had said and left it alone. In hindsight I wish I would have approached him about it, but anything I would have said would have only been filled with curse words in anger.

Which brings me to my point. I believe that the issue that my generation is going to work hard at trying to stop is sex trafficking. Nearly every sane human being can see the wrong in this activity, that NO human should be forced into this. I think that AIDS is the major issue of the generation before mine (and obviously still an issue to be working at), but that the major one for us will be this terrible crime against humanity. It is one of the hardest things to tackle as it is so underground and secret, but so many groups and organizations are helping. I know that for me, I cannot just keep going on my daily life, working for my own selfishness. I will give to causes that will effectively stop this. Anyone else in? Check these out and figure out what you will sacrifice for them:

http://wordmadeflesh.org/

http://www.ijm.org/

www.callandresponse.com

http://www.christianitytoday.com/tcw/2008/janfeb/2.21.html

http://www.theblindproject.com/

Photo courtesy: sonyapryr.