Sunday Superlatives: 4/10/11


by Rachel Held Evans Read Distraction Free

I am now taking nominations for Sunday Superlatives! If an article or blog post strikes you, send me a link and nomination via Twitter or Facebook and I’ll give you credit should it make it to my list! 

Around the Blogosphere…

Most Convicting (nominated by Alise Wright): 
David Nilsen with “Coping with Disappointment When Calvinists Refuse to Be Jerks”
“I think one of the problems with most of us who consider ourselves progressive Christians is that we live in constant expectation of being judged by our fellow believers who are more conservative. It happens sometimes, but not nearly as often as we look for it.” 

 Best Conversation-Starter:
Donald Miller with “Should the Church be led by teachers and scholars?”

Wisest (nominated by Margaret Feinberg):
Gary David Stratton with “Meanness Wins”
I especially love “Saint Paul’s Blogging Checklist” 

Funniest (nominated by Micah Odor):
BoingBoing with “Top 7 Worst Website Names”

Most Practical – For Bloggers:
ProBlogger with “15 Blogger Resources Not Previously Featured on ProBlogger”
#8  is my personal favorite! ;-)

Most Practical – For Writers:
Jody Hedlund with “4 Ways to Make Your Writing Schedule Work”

Most Practical – For Prayers:
Crystal Rowe with “Lectio Divina”

Biggest Book Released (nominated by Liz Lemon):
Food Blogga with “The Encyclopedia of Sandwiches”

Best Series:
Mason Slater with “The Future of Evangelicalism”

Best Analysis:
Conor Friedersdorf with “Why College Students Are Losing Their Religion”
“…The most problematic part of Mr. Prager's argument is the lack of agency he gives to religions and their congregations. They're cast as powerless in the face of university influence that is somehow made out to be irresistible.”

Most Eye-Opening (nominated by Elizabeth Esther and Matthew Paul Turner)
20/20 Investigates an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist Church

Most Likely to Relate to Recent Conversations: 
Sarah Markley with “Doubt Isn’t A Bad Word”
“If we’ve gotten to 25 or 35 or 45 without a little bit of water-in-the-lungs doubt, then there is something we’re ignoring and there are questions we aren’t asking.”

Most Likely to Receive Hate Mail:
My friend Karl Giberson with “Jesus Would Believe in Evolution and So Should You”

Most Sobering (nominated by Trisha Gilbertson):
Kathy Escobar with “Why Sometimes I Get Sad”

Best Writing: 
Michelle DeRusha with “The Obit Writer”

Most Provocative:
Elizabeth Esther with “Polygamy: A New Trend for Christians?”

In Social Networking...

Funniest Tweet:
OHnewsroom with “Reporter: ‘I don’t think she likes me very much.’ Managing Editor: ‘Honey, you’re a journalist. Nobody likes you.’”

Best Facebook Thread:
Over on my Facebook page, I posted this question: “If I wanted to start an online magazine called ‘Christianity Tomorrow,’ who should I invite to be part of the writing staff? I'm thinking young, influential Christian leaders.”  The responses that came in were fantastic, making me really wish I had the time and resources to get something like this off the ground!

On the Blog…

Most Popular Post:
For Parents of Doubting Children – (A Guest Post from my Dad!)

Most Popular Comment (with 10 “likes): 
Karl (in response to The Apologetics Movement Created a Monster) wrote: 

…Reminds me of what Frederica Matthewes-Green says here about the differences that developed between the eastern churches and western Christianity in the centuries following the great schism. I particularly like the second paragraph below:

"Once unchained from the need for consensus with other bishops the Western Church continued freely developing Christian doctrine . . . As Western Christian theology grew more elaborately defined, it offered more fodder for protest, and eventually for Protestantism. Five hundred years after the East-West split the Reformation emerged, spurred by a desire to whittle back to the simpler original. But though some Reformers read the Church Fathers and made an effort to learn from Orthodox leaders, barriers of geography, culture, and language made cross-fertilization difficult. For the most part the Reformers relied on the Bible as their only guide, and it’s a book that sincere people can interpret in wildly different ways, as shown by the existence of nearly twenty-five thousand different Protestant “Bible-based” denominations. Subsequent generations continued the split from ancient practice. Like untrained gardeners going into an overgrown garden, successors to the Reformers hacked about with machetes, slashing unknowingly through material that had been affirmed for the first thousand years: the sacraments, the honoring of Mary, the eucharistic Real Presence. Protestants were trying to rediscover the ancient Church, but instead they created a dancing array of sorcerer’s apprentice brooms, all trying to sweep one another clean." 

"The constant experience of doctrinal disagreements contributed to a Western tendency to make the Christian experience more about ideas than about heart-driven living faith, more what you think than what you do; more assensus than fiducia, more ideas about God than surrender to him. The Orthodox Church, escaping this sort of discord, could admire a butterfly without having to pin its head to a board."

Got any additional nominations? 

What happened on YOUR blog this week?

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