Kris and I will be at St. Matthew’s Church Episcopal in Sterling, Va., next weekend. On April 19, 20, I’ll begin teaching a new course (Galatians) at Biblical Theological Seminary, and then on April 21 John Franke and I are working together for a morning conference on emerging culture and the gospel. (I see Biblical Seminary scheduled their annual golf outing when I am teaching!)

Bird watching: this week we saw some red-breasted mergansers, scaups, and the first sightings of an Eastern Bluebird and a Goldfinch.
For me, the story of the week: Say it ain’t so, Lou. The uber-scooper of Chicago sports is Barry Rozner. His story here is the clearest yet to say the Cubs paid all those salaries this off season so they make the Cubs attractive to high-roller-bidders. News item #2: the Tribune Co., owners of the Cubs, has now been purchased — and the Cubs at the end of this season.
Check out the Missional Journal writings of Dave Dunbar.
Emerging story of the week: Missouri Baptists.
Second emerging post of the week: Mark Devine. We have to applaud those who take the time to figure this movement out.
Now to a good emerging story: an emerging Christian’s story leads to an Abbey (in 3 parts).
Tom Boswell is baseball’s best writer, but Barry Rozner is close to him when Rozner writes about Ryne Sandberg. Had this been six years ago, our son would have been playing for Ryno. Julio, though, made everything fun.
1. Fox reports on global warming and species extinction.
2. Hillary’s on the gold path.
3. I support the FCC decision to ban use of cell phones on airplanes — but I do recommend they build a sound-proof small cubby hole room in the back where folks can go make phone calls.
4. Thanks to Matt Dabbs for pointing me to this: Jesus Creed made the Top Ten list for used book sales in the month of March at may favorite used book service, www.abebooks.com.
5. After reading this I felt like the AFLAC duck. (HT: Will Fitzgerald)
6. Faith and the brain.
7. If you are a pastor, you might want to reserve 15 minutes for this post-pastoral perspective. One might call this a “New Kind of Pastor.”
8. Did you see Geraldo Rivera and O’Reilly lock horns Thursday evening? An argument on steroids.
9. This deserves to be in my first level of links, but many of you may have seen it already: Mark Roberts has a nice series on the Stations of the Cross.
10. Congrats to Rachel, to Melissa, and to Donna.
Connection to each: both Rachel and Melissa were students in a class or two, and two of Donna’s children were in my class.
Sports:
The Greatest Sports Event of the Year is this weekend: The Masters. The golf course is winning, so here’s a great quotation: Scott Verplank, who shot 73, spoke for many when he said, “I’m very happy to be done.”
Shameless Plea: If any member of Augusta reads this blog, I’ll give you my cell number if you’re looking for a partner on that course.
On NCAA Men’s: the best set of guards opposing one another I can remember.
On NCAA Women’s: We are thrilled for Pat Summit, Candace Parker, and the Lady Vols. Too bad Rutgers didn’t have a good game. Why in the world would Gail Goestenkors leave Duke for Texas?