People are being very critical of Google right now, and some of their decisions that they see going against the 'Open Web' policy. Laurent Eschenauer:​

We are developers, and hacking the future is what we do best. So, time to wake up and start building alternatives.

Laurent is writing to Google's dropping support for XMPP in Hangouts and eventually RSS in Chrome and SMTP ​in Gmail. 

 ​He's right though - there are plenty of developers out there with plenty of great ideas, better ideas than Google. We need to remember that Google talks a good talk but in the end, they are a company out to make money. And we are not Google's customers, we are the product. 

The Hashtag Video Series is a free, brotherhood-sponsored and brotherhood-funded video series for teens in the Churches of Christ. First started in 2012 by Scott Bond at Spring Meadows Church of Christ, the Hashtag Video Series was a set of 12 videos magnifying the Gospel of Christ to teenagers. Over 300 churches signed up to particpate in over 70 countries on 6 continents - over 12,000 teens experienced video messages from the Gospel through Hashtag last year. 

2013 is proving more ambitious as high-profile speakers like Lonnie Jones and David Skidmore provided messages for the series with filming this past week. The quality has been kicked up a notch and you can expect the same great content from the first series. This year the theme for our 13 videos and skits is For His Glory. We hope to spotlight the issues in teenagers’ lives with subjects such as Fighting, Sports, and Relationships - all For His Glory. Lonnie Jones and his SWAT Skit Team from Huntsville, Alabama will add a new dimension to our series and provide extra content to illustrate points as well. By offering videos for free, we believe we can impact a large number of people for Christ.

All this, however, is not free to produce. Daniel Howell, minister for a congregation in Metropolis, Illinois, has provided excellent HD video capture and editing. Speakers are paid for their time and travel. Materials will be produced and promoted for the new series. 

So we need your help. You can help us out in two ways - purchase a subscription to Hashtag Media content at hashtagmedia.us, filled with all sorts of brotherhood content for teens that is current, relevant, and scriptural. Subscriptions get you all the resources that are released every month, and these resources are filled with illustrations, scripture, stories, and loads of content to keep your youth classes going. Subscriptions are $199 a year. 

The second way you can help is to commit to making a yearly donation to Hashtag for $1000. This isn’t cheap by any means, but you will be helping to fund the next generation of high-quality content for our young people. 

We hope that Hashtag has helped your ministries and churches grow, and we hope that we can grow with your help to magnify the Gospel in this world. 

Click here to go to the donation page for Hashtag. ​

I love the show Parks & Recreation. It's not the most Christian show, and it won't teach me any values for my life, but it's silly and it makes me laugh. ​

I love the character of Ron Swanson. Ron is a manly, unforgiving, uncompromising individual who will not be derailed from how he wants to live his life. And he's hilarious. ​

In a recent episode, his character was ​being forced to talk about motivation, and how to become motivated in the workplace. Ron then said: 

There's only three ways to motivate people: money, fear and hunger. ​

The quip was meant to be funny, but is it true?

It's true in the world. People will do almost anything for money. We've seen people kill other people for money. We've seen people intimidate with fear to get what they want. We've seen hunger ravage entire nations and motivate people to do what they have to do to live. ​

What about in the Church? I think in the 1950's, fear was a great motivator for people coming to Christ. Fire and brimstone sermons from high pulpits made lots of people think about the Gospel. ​But fear doesn't work anymore, in my opinion. Fear as a motivator in the church just doesn't bode well with people and families any more. 

So what does? Some people in the Church say we're losing people right and left. Some people are saying that our kids go off to college and never come back. Others say that those same kids go off to college but go back to church later in their 20's and 30's. ​

So what are we using as a motivator today in the Church? ​

​Love should be our prime motivator, but often times isn't. Most times it's the need for connectivity and community that brings people to the Church. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that just like the Gospel in the first century, we should always be pressing forward, and in some places, it feels to me like we're still motivating with fear instead of love. ​

1 John 4.20-21:​

If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. ​

Words of wisdom from Rick Warren today: ​

This was a guest post on Michael Whitworth's Start2Finish blog today. For the original post, click here. ​

In my early days in college I was dating a girl whose father was a preacher, as if I wasn't afraid of going home to visit her parents enough already. I dated this girl for over a year and I went to her home several times. Every time we would go to worship, she had a young man who was a friend of hers who liked to sit beside her every time she was there. He was four or five and loved to color with crayons. 

Every time my girlfriend's father would preach, he had a handout. These would be passed out to the congregation at the start of the sermon and the people could follow along with notes and fill in the blanks. 

The young man who was sitting beside us would immediately get the paper and turn it over and start scribbling on the blank side opposite the nicely formatted notes on the other side. He would "draw" pictures of ships, planes, or cars. He would even sometimes give them to me or my girlfriend to keep after services. 

Proverbs 16 begins by talking about plans. Verse 3 specifically says that if we commit our work to the Lord that our plans will be established. 

How do we make plans in our lives? How do we go about all the planning and figuring and saving for all the different things we want to do? 

And, in those plans, is God a factor? 

We live in a horribly busy world. I kind of get irritated when kids in my youth group complain about boredom. I can't remember the last time I was truly bored with nothing to do. And when I think about where I've been, I've been busy making plans for years. I've been going to college, getting married, having children, running a ministry, getting caught up in events and hobbies - you get the point. Most of us are incredibly busy people. 

The Bible in many ways says that, in a nutshell: if your plans don't involve God, then they really don't even matter in the long run. 

If you're making plans without God, it's like drawing on the opposite side of the paper. After we're done, our crayon scratches and lines look like foolishness. God's plans were neatly put on the front side of the paper, we just didn't bother to look at it. We wanted to do it ourselves. We wanted to make our own plans without consulting God. 

At this time of the year, we honor those who graduate from high school. Do we ask our 18 year olds how God factors into their plans? What college they will attend? How they intend to grow as a Christian away from the nest?

What about choosing a spouse? Do we ask if this person is going to help me get to heaven? Of do we just think they are " the one" we're supposed to be with?

Maybe you or members of your family have health concerns. Have you prayed to God about it? Have you asked Him for His will to be done? 

You see, we can get carried away in life making plans for our future and forget to factor God in, to make Him the center of our plans for life. We forget that God is one who delivers us, watches out for us, and keeps us safe. 

One of the big overall themes of Proverbs is wisdom. Having wisdom, making good decisions. A wise man or woman seeks God's plans for their life first. If we do that, then we can know that everything in our lives will fall into place.