Doug Serven, one of viaRenovo's contributor's is a campus pastor, one of the world's only "hair artists" and a prolific reader. Here he shares his reading list from 2009 with brief comments and rankings (10 being high). Time to start reloading that nightstand... Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, L See - A melancholy book about 1840s China featuring footbinding. (8) Buffalo for the Broken Heart, D O'Brien - A rancher switches to buffalo. (6) Outliers, M ...

Avatar 2009 • Rated PG-13 Directed by James Cameron Warning: minor spoilers ahead Avatar is an scrumptious feast which sets a new standard for visual effects and imaginary worlds. That alone makes up for James Cameron using standard fare storytelling and tired cliches. The colors are so vivid and the imagination so active that I hardly noticed the flaws until the movie was long over. An oft repeated phrase in the film is “I see you” which the characters use to communicate a personal knowing and recognition. It is reminiscent of Native American language (as is much of the ...

The Barna group recently conducted a survey of Non-Christians between the ages of 16-29 on how they viewed evangelical Christians1. The results reflected much of what was seen in this video. Among other things we are seen as: Judgmental - 87% Hypocritical - 85% Old-Fashioned - 78% Out of touch with reality - 72% Insensitive to others - 70% Boring - 68% Confusing - 61% From a business perspective this is a public relations nightmare. From the perspective of ...

Wes Pickering is one of my favorite new artists. Andrew Osenga (formerly of Caedmon's Call) first introduced me to Wes and a song he wrote titled "Little Darling" which was written to a friend struggling with an eating disorder. Wes donated that song as a free download on the True Campaign, a non-profit organization I co-founded. As a result, Wes and I struck up a friendship, primarily through email and Facebook. During my last visit to Nashville Wes introduced me to ...

Adapted from a sermon given at Reformed University Fellowship, University of Oklahoma Women are beautiful. Women want to be beautiful, be seen as beautiful, be told they’re beautiful and on and on. There is a place in each woman’s heart for beauty. But what is beauty? Fergie is Fegalicious. She sings, “Fergalicious”: Make them boys go loco
 They want my treasure So they get their pleasures from my photo

 You can see me, you can’t squeeze me 
I ain’t easy, I ain’t sleazy 
I got reasons why I tease ‘em
 Boys just come and go like ...

Author and educator Craig Detweiler is interviewed about his books Matrix of Meaning and Into the Dark and finding God in the movies. Film: a matrix of meaning from CPX on Vimeo. What are your thoughts? Has God spoken to you through a particular film, book or TV show? How do you discern between what may be the voice of God and what might be too much soda and Junior Mints? Share your thoughts here. ~ Travis Stewart ...