We should thank the Area 51 Raid organizers for all the memes (see here and here). It started as a joke back in June, when college student Matty Roberts created a Facebook event. “Storm Area 51, they can’t stop all of us” the title suggested. The event posting went viral and some 2 million people RSVP’d prompting a very real response from the US Air Force. Roberts quit laughing when FBI agents showed up at his door. In the end, the event was re-imagined as a music festival which turned into three different competing music festivals. Local towns near the base, which of course don’t amount to much which is the very reason it is located there, became concerned about thousands of tourists and festival goers showing up. Rachel, NV, has a population of 50 and only 1 hotel.
Well that was fun. Here’s a few more items you may or may not have seen before. Continue reading
A short Facebook exchange this morning led me to search The Master’s Table for references to hell. The only post with hell in the title was a link to a sermon on the Unity website. Here is the full text of that sermon, preached at Unity Baptist Church on October 4, 2015. The scripture text is 
Some people on Facebook and Twitter do not read comments as a matter of course. Sometimes a comment thread provides useful context but often they just make me angry. I will sometimes argue with strangers on the internet because, you know, you can’t just let people that are wrong walk around thinking they are right. (I say that tongue in cheek.) As brick-and-mortar LifeWay stores come to end they have several deals on Bibles right now online. I have seen ads in my Facebook newsfeed in the past week for a KJV Minister’s Bibles, a CSB “Ancient Faith” Study Bible and the NKJV large print Bible pictured above. There are several different Bibles, some up to 50% off, with many of the sales lasting only 48 hours.
I understand the significance of high production value. Our desire is to bring the very best before God in his house. A congregation expects, as well they should, for the preacher to be prepared. Sermon prep begins on Monday or Tuesday (and sometimes weeks or even months in advance) not on Saturday evening or before church on Sunday morning. Bible teachers and worship leaders, soloists, music directors, choirs and praise band members are all expected to put in time working together and practicing. And in this day and age you need the crew in sound, projection and lighting to go over the program, discussing transitions and the order of service. There is nothing wrong and in fact there is a lot right about devoting time and energy to prepare for worship. But what has slowly happened over the past 20 or 30 years, from my point of view, is that worship has morphed into a spectator sport. Authentic worship is not something we are to sit and watch. I don’t know who said it first but the term I like to use for that activity is worshiptainment. I do not believe that is what God desires. 
Paul Wilkinson blogs at 
