Rudy Carrasco is smart and funny. He's a Latino doing urban ministry in Pasadena. He's tech savvy. If any of those vibes interest you, you might want to check him out (via joshsargent).

Rudy had two posts I want to steal:

1. a quote from James Q Wilson is the WSJ:

William Galston, once an assistant to President Clinton, put the matter simply. To avoid poverty, do three things: finish high school, marry before having a child, and produce the child after you are 20 years old. Only 8% of people who do all three will be poor; of those who fail to do them, 79% will be poor.

Obviously this is mostly correlation and not cause and effect. Doing these 3 things doesn't make you middle class, per se. But the correlation is powerful.

2. Mike Yaconelli's Getting Fired for the Glory of God. I read this in print and hadn't looked for it online. It's especially from the viewpoint of a youth minister.