I know you’ve been waiting. And I’ve been compiling. I certainly don’t want to think I’ve been compiling for people who haven’t been waiting. And I certainly don’t want you to think that you’ve been waiting but that I haven’t been compiling. Welcome to The Weekly Town Crier. Your source for everything you missed because you weren’t looking.

See your house in a very cool interactive video from The Arcade Fire.

Read about some cool Miles Davis reissues.

See a guy who makes cool art and furniture from old computers.

Read about the author who claims that our young people are learning fake Christianity - from us.

See some McDonald’s food that doesn’t age.

Read this post wondering if Apple can save the iPod’s relevance.

R.I.P. Paste magazine (print edition).

Read what the Southern Baptists think of MMA.

Read as Ray Ortlund explores the difference between preaching Christ and preaching about Christ.

Read as the 9Marks e-journal takes on the topic of hell.

Read about the world’s oldest beer, recently found in a shipwreck.

The average Taco Bell is cleaner than your kitchen.

Read about the battle between Amazon and iTunes to provide you with television content.

Drinking alcohol in moderation is better for you than abstaining.

I’m on vacation, did you really expect more than this?!

Who has the most Twitter followers?

Browse this list of 8 historical symbols that don’t mean what you think they mean.

Download a Johnny Cash Folgers Ringtone. Wait, what?

Download Jay Bennett’s posthumous “Kicking At Perfumed Air” for a donation.

Read about Philly requiring bloggers to pay a $300 business license.

Read about the Kids in the Hall miniseries reunion.

Read as Ed Stetzer reminds us that we often forbid North American churches from what we require of foreign missionaries.

Read as Scot McKnight wonders if the “old coalition” of Evangelicalism is passing.

Read this piece noting that Cheer’s served Norm terrible, terrible beer.

Sometimes this and sometimes that but oftentimes but not always, the Town Crier. He scours the dregs to bring you the diamonds. It’s a thankless job and that’s not really why he does it but it might help if you did actually say thank you once in a while. I mean, seriously, do you think he just has all day to sit around and look for things that you might find interesting?! Like he’s your personal Yahoogle or something. Come on. You know better than that. Or do you? I’m beginning to wonder.

Watch this piece saying that if you want Flash on your iPhone, consider jailbreaking it.

Read Time’s piece considering the mainstream-ization of marijuana in CA.

Listen as Neue interviews Mark Driscoll.

Read as Justin Buzzard considers the death of the telephone call.

Read about the pastor who says that he hates homosexuality but is attracted to men.

Browse a list of 100 Pixar characters.

Read about the man who plans to tweet the entire Bible in three years.

Read about the perils of “Hipster Christianity.”

Read as Jared Wilson imagines what it might be like to ask Brian McLaren if he wants a glass of milk.

Read about a study trying to understand how technology affects our brains.

Read as the Barna group considers how often Americans “change faiths.”

R.I.P. Jazz photographer Herman Leonard.

R.I.P. Clark Pinnock.

R.I.P. Andy Hummel, founding member of Big Star.

R.I.P. Michael Been of The Call.

Street Fighter fish throw.

Read about the National Jazz Museum acquiring the Savory Collection.

Read the Wall Street Journal article saying that Christians may go around the world trying to help people, but they’re not sharing their faith.

Read one designer’s thoughts on making smoking more difficult for smokers.

See some unwelcome facts about fast food.

Read about a judge protecting Fred Phelps’ “right” to protest military funerals.

Read about the man who wants to help renovate America’s image abroad by redesigning our currency.

Read about young people moving away from wrist-watches and e-mail.

Browse this list of 15 things that should be free.

See Coral Ridge’s new logo and read the explanation.

Read as Christianity Today reviews Doug Burr’s O Ye Devastator.

Read Christianity Today’s review of Thad Cockrell’s To Be Loved.

Browse a brief history of the Internet.

Read the Resurgence’s profiles of “bans,” guys who aren’t men but boys.

Read about the brewing controversy between Marvin Olasky and Jim Wallis.

Read as the NY Times wonders why it’s taking so many young people so long to grow up.

Browse this gallery of bad band tattoos.

See a preview of Bob Dylan’s upcoming art showing.

Sometimes even the Town Crier needs a break and sometimes he comes back. He took a break and now he’s back. At least for now. Very few things are permanent. Don’t put your hope in the Town Crier, he will always let you down. He might bring some interesting things to your attention in the meantime, but sooner or later, he will disappoint you. He may pass along something you don’t like. He may take a break for a while. Blah blah blah.

Read this report that the next iPad is likely to include a camera.

Read about the class-action lawsuit against Apple over claims that reading on the iPad is “just like reading a book.”

Read Ed Stetzer’s post reminding us that every church, no matter what size, has tremendous potential for kingdom growth.

Read James Grant’s post on the future of evangelicalism.

Did Inception rip off Scrooge McDuck?

Read Time magazine’s profile of Wyclef Jean’s bid to be President of Haiti.

Read the LA Times’ coverage of Judge Walker’s overturning Proposition 8.

Read Al Mohler’s reaction to the Proposition 8 decision.

Read about Anne Rice “quitting Christianity.”

Read about the OR county that is shutting down and fining lemonade stands.

See a speed pipe-smoking contest.

Read about the release of the best film never released (up until now).

Browse Paste’s 2009 list of the best brewers of the decade.

Browse Paste’s list of the 30 best beer bars in the country. The only one I’ve actually been to is Gingerman in Austin. You?

Read as Paste reports that the Arrested Development movie script is half-way written.

Read as Christopher Hitchens discusses his cancer.

See incredible pictures of a pilot ejecting just in time.

Did the Old Spice campaign really work?

See 50 examples of great typography.

See some incredible pictures of some worship spaces.

Read NPR’s piece on the “Bed Intruder” phenomenon.

Read about the RIAA going after bloggers who posted Radiohead songs that were once given away by the band.

Ministry is a rough place. I’m not complaining, just stating the obvious. It requires the rare combination of a thick skin and a tender heart. Men often have one or the other but it’s rare to have both.

People with a thick skin are often calloused all the way through, with tough hearts. They (or at least they pretend) to not care what people say or think. They deflect anything and everything, often dishing out quite a bit in the process. People with tender hearts also often have tender skin, so much so that even the slightest pin-prick wounds them. They take everything personally and internally. Yes, these are stereotypes but I’ve met people who fit both stereotypes quite well.

But ministry requires both a thick skin and a tender heart. It requires that you care about people, empathize with them, rejoice with them and weep with them (Romans 12:15). But it also requires a thick skin. People will speak badly about you. People will speak badly to you. It’s a weird thing but some people will resent you for caring. You won’t care the way they want you to or they will generally resent being cared for. You need to learn to let people’s words and even dislike of you not be personal.

Whatever the reason, things will not always go well in ministry, and, odds are, your down-times in ministry will involve people sinning in one form or another; sometimes against you, sometimes not, but nearly always, hard-times in ministry involve sin and you can’t take it personally.

And when things sail roughly because of people’s sin (even sin against you), you can’t stop caring for them. Even if they resent you caring for them.

I’m not by any means saying that I have both or either of these things mastered, just that I’ve become aware of the need for both of them.

Last Saturday morning, Kristi went to some garage sales with her mom and the boys and I went out to test our skateboard ramp. When Kristi came home, Eli’s (our youngest of four boys) eyes and mouth had become a bit red and swollen, almost like he had gotten a bad sun-burn only in those areas, or like he was having an allergic reaction to something. We watched him all day Saturday, gave him some Benadryl and it didn’t get better or worse. By Sunday afternoon, it had begun to spread on his body and it began to look like he had a bad sunburn.

We took him to a pediatric urgent care Sunday evening and they said that it looked like an allergic reaction to something, they prescribed some Prednisone and referred us to an allergist. But, over the course of Monday, it became worse. We phoned our pediatrician’s triage nurse who referred us to Phoenix Children’s Hospital urgent care facility. Their initial concern was that it might be “Toxic Shock” or something related so they sent us to Phoenix Children’s Hospital’s emergency room for testing. Phoenix Children’s Hospital immediately admitted us, diagnosing Eli with “SSSS,” or”Staphylococcal Scalded Skin Syndrome.”

SSSS is a somewhat rare form of a staph infection involved naturally occurring staph cells that we all carry. In a certain number of children, usually 5 or under, something triggers these staph cells to release a toxin, which burns the skin. The mild cases (which Eli had) results in what seems to be a sunburn and minor blistering, but the severe cases can result in third degree burns. We were quarantined in the “infectious disease” section of the hospital. We were in the hospital beginning late Monday night and we were released Wednesday afternoon. Since it is somewhat rare, we had a parade of doctors and medical students coming by to look and ask questions.

I don’t know if you have ever had to admit a child to the hospital, but it’s not easy. In fact, it’s quite difficult. It downright sucks. Granted, Eli did not have anything life-threatening, but watching your tw0-year old son get an IV in his wrist and then having to hold him while he screams “DADDY, I SCARED!” is enough to break any Daddy’s heart. And it did.

The whole time we were in the hospital, I kept thinking about the song “How Deep The Father’s Love For Us (I was going to put a link to a video of this song here, but trust me, it’s very hard to find a good version).” There are times when I feel distant from God, but, thinking about how much I love my sons, what I would do for them, reminds me of how much the Father has loved us and how much He has done for us. If I can love my son this much and lay with him all night, how much has the Father loved us that Jesus died for us? It’s not that I didn’t already know these things, but when you’re in the hospital with one of your children, there’s a weight to these truths that penetrates your heart and reminds you afresh of grace.

I was reminded that opportunities to demonstrate and talk about God’s love and grace are always before us, we’re just not always aware of them. The first night we were there, I had the chance to talk with a nurse for about an hour-and-a-half. He was supposed to be asking me intake questions, but he kept asking about our family life. He wanted to know how Kristi and I have made it through 13 years of marriage, how I try to be a Daddy to four boys, how do we not treat them all the same. He had lots of questions about why our family seemed a bit different than many of the families that he encounters. I’ll be honest; I was dead-tired. It was 1:30 in the morning, my fourth son was being quarantined in the hospital and we had just traveled to and from Sierra Vista to do a funeral for some dear friends that day. I was a bit irritable. But I was reminded that, this was a perfect opportunity to tell this man that my wife and I have made it this far, we love our boys the way we do, because of Jesus. I was also convicted about how many similar opportunities I miss or ignore.

Recently at the Acts 29 pastor’s retreat, I remember Matt Chandler and some others talking about how there are certain times when you can actually feel the prayers of the saints on your behalf. This was one of those times for us. We have felt lifted up with strength and peace in the midst of a trial. We have felt loved and supported by people all across the country and it is humbling. It is one thing to offer prayer and help to others in need and it’s another to accept it. It is a healthy reminder that following Jesus is not an individual sport. We are all in this together. I hope that we can show to others the love and support that was shown to us. The world will know that we are belong to Jesus because of our love for one another (John 13:35). What a powerful apologetic.

We were released yesterday afternoon and have been home since. Eli is doing much better and it’s been amazing how quickly his skin has healed. He is on a very strong, very nasty oral antibiotic for ten days and eye drops, but he is not contagious. In fact, he’s playing with his brothers now. We’ve never been so happy to be back to the chaos. Thank you all for walking through this with us, for your prayers, service and support.

Some weeks you have more to give than others.

R.I.P. Dennis Hopper.

R.I.P. Rue McClanahan.

Read about iPad sales topping 2 million.

Read Tim Stevens on the shrinking 40%.

Watch Brian McLaren on pluralism.

See a giant sink hole that reportedly swallowed a three-story building.

Read about Daniel Lanois being in intenstive care after a motorcycle accident.

Read as the New York Times argues that an ugly toll of technology is impatience and forgetfulness.

Watch Steve Timmis.

Read about the Polish law that allows for castration of pedophiles and men who commit incest.

Read as Lifeway finds that Millennials value family above all else.

Read about many pastors having trouble finding employment.

Hear Doug Burr explain his newest album “O Ye Devastator,” ‘track by track.’

Read as Ira Glass discusses “wrongness.”

Read as Jonathan Dodson offers 7 pieces of advice for young preachers.

Read as Darrin Patrick considers “Control Tweaks.”

Read about the Southwest Airlines employee who discovered a package full of human heads.