We hope this picture is indicative of what KU will do to UNC tomorrow. (Playing the underdog card.)

Like what you read? Don't forget to bookmark this post or subscribe to the feed.

I've been holding out a little, but now it's Final Four time. Here are some links to get you started.

Nice Breakdown of the Final Four teams by ESPN's Andy Katz
FOX's Jeff Goodman asks, What Can Cost Each Team the Title?
Goodman, again, (I like the guy) identifies 10 Matchups to Watch in the Final Four - including a bunch of KU-UNC confrontations.

And now, the more Jayhawk focused stuff...

Does KU Want to Run with North Carolina? (Heck yes)
The Kansas 'Oop - with diagrams
The nation's only Objective, Unbiased Analyst Picks KU to Win it All

Hold on to your seats--with four #1 seeds in the Final Four, history is about to be made.

Like what you read? Don't forget to bookmark this post or subscribe to the feed.

The KU-UNC showdown is the late game tomorrow, which means you have enough time to play this awesome Rock Chalk Rap at least a couple dozen times before tip-off. Aidan digs it. Big head nod to BicMedia.

Highlights: "A quick whipping for them hippies up at Portland State "..."Your Cinderella story's boring me"..."C'mon everybody, storm the court, 'cause we've got a score to settle with that ol' boy Roy"..."Shake it like it's Final Four"

Like what you read? Don't forget to bookmark this post or subscribe to the feed.

Not in a messy, smash-mouth way, but splitting up nevertheless. Something I've thought a lot about recently is the way the content here tends to fall into one of two contrasting categories. Here's how I would describe them, roughly.

Category 1
arts & culture news--movies, music, tv
mainstream books
coffee discussion
NCAA basketball
random family anecdotes

Category 2
Christian spirituality thoughts
emerging church news
church planting
Christian books
personal, spiritual reflection

When I started this blog almost four years ago, I decided to try and write for a strange, hybrid Christian/outsider audience by making no assumptions about where people were coming from. My theological convictions were either implicit, "smuggled in" (C.S. Lewis) or presented in an explanatory way--and it worked, to the extent that I had readers who were very much on a spiritual journey, one that hadn't reached Jesus yet. As I got immersed in seminary, I started writing more frequently about explicitly Christian topics and reviewing a bunch of Christian books, which was a different approach, but also good.

As of this week, I'm launching a blog where I will think out loud about knowing Jesus, living out my theology, and making risky plans, so it will have a personal, sometimes confessional flavor.

However, to the extent that I try to do both things at once, this blog takes on a split personality and becomes more "eclectic" than I really want it to be. I've concluded that I want to write in both "genres," and be able to both: 1) talk overtly about church planting and Bible verses--you know, insider Christian stuff, or, 2) post a dozen NCAA hoops pieces in a row without baffling some people who were looking for spiritual content (if you know what I mean).

As of this week, I'm launching a blog where I will think out loud about knowing Jesus, living out my theology, and making risky plans, so it will have a personal, sometimes confessional flavor. (That "Category 2" above.) This is where I'll write about stuff like emerging church and Christian books and tell you outright what's going on with our church planting plans. Go take a look. (Hint: If you refresh the page, you'll get different pictures in the header.) There's not a ton of content yet, but you can check out permanent links like "Our Story," "My Theology," etc. If you feel so inclined, you can also subscribe to the RSS feed over there. :) I won't be switching anyone over automatically, because...

For the time being, BitterSweetLife will become a dedicated arts and culture blog ("Category 1") where my Christianity will be implicit, not at the forefront. Eventually, I intent to relaunch BitterSweetLife as well, but one thing at a time.

This leaves you with some options. If you like the spiritual content you've found here, you can head over to the new blog and subscribe. If you like the cultural content here, you can stick around. If you like both, make sure you're subscribed to both blogs. Fair enough?

Thanks for bearing with me as I sort this out.

Like what you read? Don't forget to bookmark this post or subscribe to the feed.

Freebies are usually freebies for a reason. Not this time. This month (April), Christian Audio is giving away free MP3 downloads of G.K. Chesterton's classic mystery/theodicy/philosophy novel, The Man Who Was Thursday. I love this book, and chances are you've never read anything quite like it. Go download it and put it on your iPod now (coupon code APR2008).

Delete a few pop albums if need to free up room.

HT: Between Two Worlds.

Like what you read? Don't forget to bookmark this post or subscribe to the feed.

CT has an interview up with Steve Taylor, director of the upcoming Blue Like Jazz movie. Apparently the screen play is finished, with input from Donald Miller, and production starts in May. ETA is the first half of 2009.

Among other things, we learn that Taylor's last directing project was The Second Chance, starring Michael W. Smith. (Hmm?) But Taylor wants Tim Keller to make a cameo in the film. (Hmm.) So maybe those two items balance each other out.

My recommendation: Definitely, definitely, definitely read the book first on this one.

Like what you read? Don't forget to bookmark this post or subscribe to the feed.

This just in. Not only are Tobey Maguire's Spiderman days over, but a Spiderman-Superman crossover movie is in the works, with Spidey and the Man of Steel duking it out in the buildings and airspace of NY/Metropolis. I'm not sure how I feel about this. On second thought, I feel dubious. Spiderman was always my favorite comic book hero and I like what Maguire brought to that role. New Spiderman: Jake Gyllenhaal.

Let's see, what else should you know about this move? You should know it was posted on April 1.

Like what you read? Don't forget to bookmark this post or subscribe to the feed.

In my experience, books on "leadership" are a dime a dozen, but I was pleasantly surprised by this book by two pastor/scholars, which may be ironic given the volume's title.

Overcoming the Dark Side of Leadership was valuable to me in an immediate way because it dealt with issues that were already surfacing in my life but which I lacked an interpretive grid to evaluate. Gary McIntosh and Samuel Rima provide a framework for assessing the pressures and influences that make us who we are. At the risk of sounding like a Star Wars knock-off, they call this sum total of our formation the "dark side" because it typically operates in the background, shaping our motives and behavior covertly.

The authors pick up on a variety of life indicators that we can identify en route to sketching a portrait of our personal strengths and weaknesses. Their research is cogent and their presentation is convincing. Like every other book on leadership, Overcoming the Dark Side has its share of definitions, charts, and principles, but the emphasis on self discovery (ideally leading to honest self disclosure) give the work an added dimension of helpfulness.

On this note, Overcoming's chapters and appendix packs a punch more reminescent of an operating table than the typical book afterthoughts (get it?). McIntosh and Rima take phrases like Narcissistic, Compulsive, Passive-Aggressive, Codependent, and Paranoid, and make them up close and personal to the point where they stop being stock one-liners and begin acting as useful diagnostic tools. Is this a lot of fun? Not really, but it's kind of like tracing a radiating, migratory pain down to a specific, operable sector of your body: not pleasant, but it's cool to have that tumor out.

I recommend Overcoming the Dark Side of Leadership for anyone in a leadership position. Why? Because our personal histories continues to form us, even when we're unaware of it, and grace works more quickly on our sharp edges when we can work and pray with accurate knowledge of our liabilities and gifts. Such knowledge not only fosters humility, it makes us safer for the people we serve, more likely to play to our God-given strengths, less likely to burn out or self-destruct.

** I award this book two stars--well worth your time.

Like what you read? Don't forget to bookmark this post or subscribe to the feed.

Like what you read? Don't forget to bookmark this post or subscribe to the feed.

Aidan is innately suspicious of anything that doesn't produce electronic sounds with push-button efficiency.

Like what you read? Don't forget to bookmark this post or subscribe to the feed.