Tag: Mars Hill Audio

Ken Myers: After Evangelism

Ken Myers of Mars Hill Audio will be speaking on: After Evangelism: Discipleship and the Cultural Life of Churches at Gordon-Conwell’s campus in South Hamilton, Massachusetts on Tuesday, February 24, 2009. Wish I could attend. Myers is as robust cultural critic and apologist. His thoughtful Mars Hill Audio program turns out volume after volume of diverse, well-researched, and engaging interviews and theological reflection.

Here is a Description of this Event: Since pastors are eager to reach many people with the message of the Gospel, they are often encouraged to adopt conventional cultural forms so as to reach people “where they are.” But the Gospel is not just a message to be accepted, but a way of life that is often out of sync with the way of life our culture extols. In this seminar, Ken Myers will offer a framework for assessing the common cultural practices and sensibilities, arguing that discipleship requires a more prophetic stance toward the culture around us than many churches seem willing to embrace.

Specific topics include…
(1) Wise Shepherds or Winsome Cruise Directors? Lessons from Titus on Cultural Ecology
(2) Consumer Goods: How Commodification Undermines Authority
(3) Idol Pursuits: How Celebrity Corrupts Identity
(4) A Way With Words: How Aliteracy Threatens Wisdom

Speaker Information: Ken Myers is the host and producer of the MARS HILL AUDIO Journal, an audio magazine exploring the dynamics of contemporary culture. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland, where he studied film theory and criticism, and of Westminster Theological Seminary. Formerly a producer for National Public Radio, he has worked on publishing projects with Charles Colson and Richard John Neuhaus. He is the author of All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes: Christian and Popular Culture (Crossway, 1989), and is working on a book entitled After Evangelism: Discipleship and the Cultural Life of Churches.

New Mars Hill Audio

Here is the line-up for the newest installment of Mars Hill Audio Journal (88):

Diana Pavlac Glyer, on how the members of The
Inklings (C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Owen Barfield,
etc.) influenced each other’s thinking and writing

Michael J. Lewis, on what the Body Worlds exhibits
assembled by Günther von Hagens reveal about our
attitudes toward human nature

Steve Talbott, on how the aims of education are
distracted by technology

Darryl Tippins, on why we sing

Everett Ferguson, on the place of music in the Early
Church

Alexander Lingas, on the tradition of music in the
Eastern churches

Calvin Stapert, on the nature of meaning in music 

Primers on Pullman and the Golden Compass

With the theatrical release of The Golden Compass, all kinds of rumors and reviews are floating around about Philip Pullman and the Golden Compass. Opinions and convictions are being formed left and right, some informed other in ignorance. If you are remotely interested in forming an informed opinion, read the books and see the movie. If you are looking for some discernment before plunging in head first, here are a two excellent resources:

  • Mars Hill Audio piece on Philip Pullman (w/ excellent literary critique from Alan Jacobs).
  • Atlantic Monthly article entitled “How Hollywood Saved God.”