Good Reads

• 12 Reasons Why Public Worship Is Better than Private Worship: If you had the choice between private Bible reading and prayer, or going to church, which would you choose? The Puritans would choose church.

• Hitting Pause in the City: It is a constant struggle to try to find God and peace of mind in a city of almost 3 million people.

• The Option of Errancy: Debates about biblical inerrancy can often take a rather abstract quality. I have a lot of sympathy for those who struggle to understand why it matters whether the numbers in Numbers are completely accurate; after all, an awful lot of people who deny the Bible is inerrant nevertheless believe it is true, and authoritative, and even infallible, so what difference does it make if they think there might be the odd factual error in there?

• Rakoff and Hitchens on Death, with Nothing Afterward: In their end-of-life writing, however, both men struggled with the same question of how to await death in a godless world. In doing so, they reinvented the way we write about death, which is no longer the province of sublime exaltations and solemn majesty. Gone are the ethereal martyrs dying with smiles on their faces as they meet God. Death, for blessed heretics like Rakoff and Hitchens, is neither graceful nor dignified.

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Good Reads

• A Word to My Calvinist Friends: Leaving debates about the extent of the atonement aside for a moment, I want to point out something else that continues to trouble me – the equation of Calvinistic soteriology with the gospel itself. I wish, for the sake of all of us, that you would abandon this divisive rhetoric, not because it’s divisive but because it’s simply untrue. The gospel cannot be reduced to a particular view of soteriology.

• All Gospels Were Not Created Equal: the reason early church leaders privileged those particular four gospels was that they were so evidently the earliest and most authoritative texts, without serious competition. No body of cranky patriarchs sat around and said, “Well, we have to vote out Mary because it’s, um, a tad sexual. John can stay because it spiritualizes everything, and that’ll be useful in a century or so when we get political power.”

• Elie Wiesel on His Fear of Being the Last Holocaust Witness: Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel talks…about the fear of being the last one to bear witness to the crimes of the Nazis, and why the world still hasn’t learned the lessons of the past.

• Holy-wood: The Film Industry’s New Passion for Christ: With Russell Crowe playing Noah, Paul Verhoeven bringing us Jesus and Warner Bros tackling Moses, the movies are well and truly back in the good book

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Good Reads

• Politics and the Kingdom of God: Because of the cultural disconnect between our ideas about church and state and those of Scripture, approaches that try to strip-mine the Bible for principles for contemporary government and politics will go nowhere.

• The Top Three Myths about Myths: We all love to see supposed myths debunked, but these opinion articles and blog posts are not as straightforward as they seem. It’s important that readers know how to interpret them.

• I’m Tired of Hearing “The Gospel” (Warning: Mild Rant): It’s ubiquitous.  And it’s becoming an inflexible law.  We dare not face any issue without the requisite hat tip to “the gospel.”  If we do, there’s bound to be someone to write us a ticket for our verbal violation, to insist we missed a “gospel” opportunity.

• Confused by Complementarianism? You probably should be: Given that the issue of complementarianism is raising its head over at The Gospel Coalition, it provides an opportunity to reflect on an issue that has always perplexed me: why is the complementarian/egalitarian debate such a significant bone of contention in parachurch cobelligerent organisations whose stated purpose is to set aside issues which divide at a church level but which do not seem to impact directly upon the gospel?

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Good Reads

• Ten Things about Church You Should Know (But No One Had the Guts to Tell You): There is no sin in making little mistakes of spelling or grammar. We all make them. But in case you wanted to know (you probably don’t), or in case you wanted to mention it gently to someone else (more likely), here are ten tiny things to keep in mind as you lead in worship, prepare the bulletin, or just converse about the church service.

• Permission to Sin: Why the 7 Deadlies Aren’t So Terrible After All: Scientists have found that the seven deadly sins aren’t all bad. Consider this your official permission to give in to temptation.

• Top Ten Things Augustine Contributed to Philosophy: While Augustine had no formal education in philosophy, he was nevertheless an intuitive philosopher with varied interests. He also left a deep and abiding influence on Western philosophical thought. (Read part 2 here.)

• Schools Make Room for Religion (USA Today): Fifty years after the U.S. Supreme Court banned official prayers in public schools, religion remains alive and well on school campuses.

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Good Reads

• 30 Suggestions for Theological Students and Young Theologians: Remember that the fundamental work of theology is to understand the Bible, God’s Word, and apply it to the needs of people. Everything else—historical and linguistic expertise, exegetical acuteness and subtlety, knowledge of contemporary culture, and philosophical sophistication—must be subordinated to that fundamental goal. If it is not, you may be acclaimed as a historian, linguist, philosopher, or critic of culture, but you will not be a theologian.

• The Anti-Ecclesial Rhetoric of Emerging Church Movements: One of the things I have grown weary of in the last decade or so, is anti-ecclesial rhetoric. What I mean by this is the pitting of the ‘church’ over against Jesus, or ‘the established church’ over against more ‘organic’ models of Christianity (e.g. house churches, and the like).

• Foreshadowing: Why Literature Helps Us Understand the Scriptures: Foreshadowing is the way that writers hint about upcoming events or twists in a story.  For the careful reader, foreshadowing creates a particularly effective form of engagement, ultimately moving into the territory of dramatic irony, where the reader knows more than the characters in the story.

• Americans Increasingly Super-Sizing Their Churches: The researchers also found a new trend of people reporting that they regularly attend not only a megachurch, but another church as well. It’s not yet clear why people double up on their churches, but it’s likely that they’re getting something different from each church

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via Imgur

Good Reads

• Why You Shouldn’t Build a House on Your Next Mission Trip: The solution is more about creating opportunities for the local communities to own these projects. The jobs, the education, and the responsibility are all essential elements to helping developing nations break the cycle of poverty. This doesn’t mean that we need to stop showing up, but it does mean that we need to rethink what we do when we get there.

• Are We All Braggarts Now? Boasting isn’t just a problem on the Internet. In a society of unrelenting competition—where reality-show contestants duke it out for the approval of aging celebrities and pastors have publicists—is it any wonder we market ourselves relentlessly? (This one goes well with yesterday’s infographic on The Psychology of Social Networking.)

• 6 Reasons Why Mormons Are Beating Evangelicals in Church Growth: one religious group shows consistent growth year by year and decade by decade. Mormons, living in the same country and culture as evangelicals, keep growing their church. Why?

• Get Fired in the Interview: If there’s a deal-breaker between you and the church, it’s better for that to come out in the interview stage than after they’ve already hired you. Lay all your cards out on the table, and let the chips fall where they may.

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best escalator ever

Good Reads

• Will You Follow Jesus Even If Your Life Doesn’t Get Any Better?: C.S. Lewis halted a generation of would-be converts in their tracks when he famously said, “I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.”

• What’s Wrong with Patriarchy?: Complementarians “have been known to preface their remarks with the insistence that complementarianism is not to be confused with either patriarchalism or with mere traditionalism in men/women relationships. To some observers, however, all three expressions are roughly synonymous. So why do we insist on the difference?”

• 5 Corrosives to Faith: For most believers, the greatest danger to faith is not some cataclysmic event that dramatically pushes them away from God. Rather, it’s the slow, gradual dulling of their hearts toward Him. They lose all ability to “see” God, to perceive His activity on earth.

• Celebrate the City: What’s being questioned is this vision that where you live doesn’t matter; it’s what you do. There’s a new generation that’s not so sure that’s the best life. If you ask younger Americans where they want to be, they want to be in cities.

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Good Reads

• When We Say “Gospel,” Do We Really Mean “The Spirit?”: Evangelicals love to speak in theological shorthand. We employ phrases and terms that become popular, become a badge of identification, and over time get emptied of their meaning.

• The Growing Crisis Behind Brazil’s Evangelical Success Story:  It is increasingly clear that evangelicals in Brazil are today in the midst of a much larger crisis, starting with the difficulty—not to mention the impossibility—to define what it means to be evangelical.

• German Austerity’s Lutheran Core: We should read much deeper into Germany’s incomparably rich history, and in particular the indelible mark left by Martin Luther and the “mighty fortress” he built with his strain of Protestantism. Even today Germany, though religiously diverse and politically secular, defines itself and its mission through the writings and actions of the 16th century reformer.

• The Problem with ‘Incarnational Ministry’: there are serious problems at the core of most approaches to “incarnational ministry”—problems with biblical, theological, and practical implications.

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Why we never find anything on Mars (via 22 Words)

Good Reads

• 8 Ways to Coax New Ideas to the Surface: Research suggests that breakthrough feats tend to emerge from eight different ways of illuminating new possibilities: challenging, connecting, visualizing, collaborating, harmonizing, improvising, reorienting, and playing. (HT David Murray)

• Why Great Ideas Get Rejected: Have you ever debuted an exciting new idea to the world only to receive a lukewarm or even highly critical response? Well, get used to it. Mounting evidence shows that we all possess an inherent bias against creativity. The good news is there’s something we can do about it.

• Laypeople and the Mission of God: Every church must have a strategy and a process to equip people for ministry and mission. Thus, they create an environment where people are empowered and enabled to do ministry. Yet, and perhaps this is the greatest challenge in many churches, you have to recognize that there are many factors working AGAINST engaging all God’s people in ministry.

• Why “Leaders” Are Not the Church’s Greatest Need: Today, it is the rare pastor who does not think of himself first and foremost as a leader who must employ leadership skills to lead his people. Gone are the days when pastors thought of themselves as, well, ministers – those who “attend to the wants and needs of others.”

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via 22 Words

Good Reads

• The Five Great Mysteries of the Christian Faith: Are there more than these? Most certainly. But in theology, these are the biggies. These are the big pieces of our puzzle that are missing. Why are they missing? I don’t know. I just know they are. God chose not to tell us. I will ask him when I get there. But I will try to trust him until then. After all, don’t I have to borrow from his morality in order to judge him for leaving the puzzle unsolved? I think I will pass on that.

• Ambassadors of Glory for a Beaten-Down Church: I am very concerned about acceptable Sunday morning mediocrity, and I am persuaded that it is not primary a schedule or laziness problem. I am convinced it is a theological problem.

• The Gospel Is More than a Story: Rethinking Narrative and Testimony: Story is all the rage. Everyone pants to tell their personal narrative or to give the Bible a simpler and more relevant plot. Maybe it isn’t such a good idea.

• Are Butterflies Two Different Animals in One? The Death and Resurrection Theory: while a moth appears to be one animal, with a wormy start and a flying finish, it’s actually two animals — two in one! We start with a baby caterpillar that lives a full life and then dies, dissolves. There’s a pause. Then a new animal, the moth, springs to life, from the same cells, reincarnated.

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