How to Google God

Few topics incite discussion as much as effective discipleship. Most of the time, the debate centers around the content of effective discipleship; what is it a Christian should be able to do, or know, or be? Other times the discussion revolves around the method of discipleship, such as whether it should be a classroom experience or carry more of a mentoring dynamic.

In a recent address at The New York Times Schools for Tomorrow conference, former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers offered a new dynamic to the conversation.

Namely, how a changing world is changing learning.

His premise was that despite a rapidly changing world, education has changed very little:

“Students take four courses a term, each meeting for about three hours a week, usually with a teacher standing in front of the room. Students are evaluated on the basis of examination essays handwritten in blue books and relatively short research papers. Instructors are organized into departments, most of which bear the same names they did when the grandparents of today’s students were undergraduates. A vast majority of students still major in one or two disciplines centered on a particular department.”

But, wonders Summers, suppose the system was altered to reflect “the structure of society and what we now understand about how people learn?”

Daily Headline News

Grief Could Join List of Disorders

In a bitter skirmish over the definition of depression, a new report contends that a proposed change to the diagnosis would characterize grieving as a disorder and greatly increase the number of people treated for it.  (Carey, The New York Times)

House approves bill to allow religious symbols on war memorials

The House Tuesday approved a measure that seeks to permit religious symbols on federal war memorials, a response to a court ruling that declared a cross atop a San Diego war memorial violated the Constitution. (Simon, Los Angeles Times)

Vanderbilt's Christian Legal Society says anti-bias policy discriminates

Vanderbilt University Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos sent an email Friday assuring students and others the school doesn’t want to limit religious freedoom. (Deville, The Tennessean)

Today's college freshmen hitting books harder, study says

This year's college freshmen are more studious than their counterparts of the past few years, says an annual survey released today on their high school academic habits. (Marklein, USA Today)

The Choice For Integrity

Are you living your life to your fullest potential? Studies show that one out of every three adults say they are not, and only a slim majority would say they are "mostly" becoming all that they could be. Many feel held back by something in their past, choices made that now define who they are. But what if new choices could be made? What if going from "good" to "great" is, in the end, a choice?  If so, what would those choices be? Throughout January Senior Pastor Jim White explores the idea of pursuing our potential in "Great by Choice," a look at the five areas where choices matter most to who we are, and who we can become.