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The New York Times reports on new census data. Very interesting stuff. It opens up a whole world of questions for me: What will ministry look like here (NYC, Manhattan, Harlem) in the next few years? What does this mean for those of us who moved here with missional motives? Stay, go? Will the changing economy change the trends?

 On November 16th, I had the opportunity to preach during our stewardship series, "The Conversion of the Wallet." I was given the topic of "Tithe, Taxes, and the Kingdom" to explore the relationship between Jesus' teaching on taxes and giving in relationship to the Kingdom of God. Below you'll find the manuscript and mp3. 

I came back across something this week which I've been hoping to try out for a while: Aviary. Aviary aims to be an entire online suite of graphic design tools. Seems the creators are very, well...creative. There are tons of tools in the works, all of which are named after different birds in the 'aviary.' The tools themselves are a break away from typical graphic design thinking. It's still in beta, and you can only try out a few tools, but more are to come.

You can sign up for a free account and give it a whirl. Phoenix is the standard image editor (think Photoshop), Toucan will help you get the perfect color swatches, and Peacock...well.. I'm not sure what it does yet. Aviary describes it as a Visual Laboratory. Cool.

And for professional designers who need more than the free package, you can get an all access package for $150/year. At that price, you'll be designing for 10 years for the price of Creative Suite 4.

Once again, Reformation Day is upon us. I wish I had a Martin Luther costume. This Friday marks the 491st anniversary of Luther's posting of his 95 theses on the Whittenburg Church door. Enter Calvin, Zwingli, Knox, others, and the rest is history. Happy Reformation day everyone!

In case anyone feels like celebrating with me, Ligonier Ministries is offering an ESV Reformation Study Bible for a gift of any amount. Huzzah!

Statistics show it's A Dangerous Time to be a Black Baby.