Good Reads

• Is Megachurch the New Liberalism?: Once again, the megachurches are on the leading edge. We must pray that they will lead into faithfulness, and not into a new liberalism.

• Do Denominations Still Matter?: Denominations are, at their core, structures that help support and enable a diversity of Christians. They are not Christianity; they merely make space for different varieties of faith to flourish. If we can understand denominational labels as descriptors rather than terms of value—who is right and who is wrong—perhaps we can see beyond the walls that separate us and begin to see the beautiful diversity there is among Christians. This may not be easy, but here are some reasons it’s worth trying.

• The Gospel and Immigration: If you want to disrupt a beautifully harmonious dinner party, all you have to do is bring up the radioactive issue of immigration. There might not be a more heated political topic in contemporary American life.

• My Son Went to Heaven and All I Got Was a No. 1 Best Seller: Whichever side of this divide you sit on, you’re unlikely to seek rapprochement with the other. In our à la carte media world, most of us seek only to reinforce what we already think, and it’s zealots who drive the discourse.

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Good Reads

• Why Fiction Is Good for You (Boston.com): Studies show that when we read nonfiction, we read with our shields up. We are critical and skeptical. But when we are absorbed in a story, we drop our intellectual guard. We are moved emotionally, and this seems to make us rubbery and easy to shape.

• Pastors: Keep Your ‘Gray” Areas Off the Stage: when you hold up “gray” areas as if they’re black-and-white, right-or-wrong issues, you needlessly alienate people.

• The Digital Gender Divide: Girls may not run the world, but they dominate on the web.

• Three Types of Christian Scholarship: While most of us will see ourselves as more of one than the others…, we need to be careful. Of course we need to recognize the dangers in our own leanings and listen to the critiques of the others, but more than that, we need to be continually committed to finding balance

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via Imgur

Good Reads

• The Call and Agenda for Pastor-Theologians: The church wants education and needs theological leaders. In this day when many pastors lead non-theologically, and academics work in a way that is lost on the people of God, we need pastor-theologians who can minister the Word in ways that edify the saints and offer a winsome public witness to the goodness, truth, and beauty of the Lord and his will for us.

• The Failure of Christianity Is a Myth: The Enlightenment had to tell that story because it had to tell history with itself as the goal and the center, while Christianity had an entirely different eschatology — so the Enlightenment pushed religion into the private world and told it stay put.

• Make That Digital Elephant Disappear: There is an illusion—an act far more enchanting than having an elephant disappear before your eyes—that has spread far and wide across the world wide web. It’s an illusion that is captivating millions. The line of thinking goes something like this: if it’s online then it’s easy. If it’s digital then it’s inexpensive. If it’s composed of bits and bytes then it’s quick.

• What’s Wrong with Inerrancy?: It is not hard to see why non-evangelicals might object to the idea of an inerrant Bible. But why would someone who has already bothered to affirm that the Bible is true, and God-breathed, struggle with the idea that it does not contain mistakes? Come to think of it, what does it even mean to say that something contains mistakes but is nonetheless true?

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Just Hangin' Out (via everywhere)

Good Reads

• Was John the First Baptist? Was John’s baptism the first baptism the world knew? Commentators are not quite agreed on the history of Christian baptism. Obviously Christians baptize, and obviously Jews don’t. But was John the Baptist the first to actually baptize? Or were the Jews doing baptisms in the inter-testamental period?

• Questions about Contextualization: Of course, contextualization is not merely a communications issue.  Proponents really offer contextualization as a necessary missiological strategy.  The intent is to find ways to faithfully communicate the gospel message to other cultures (though not all missiologists and practitioners hold to this principle or are successful at its application).  In the domestic context, doing missions where we live, I have a few questions and thoughts I’m trying to flesh out.

• Coaching Young Leaders Effectively: Seven Observations: Young, developing leaders are looking for relationship, and they will receive coaching and mentoring from those with whom they have relationship.

• America’s “Angriest” Theologian Faces Lynching Tree: When he was boy growing up in rural Arkansas, James Cone would often stand at his window at night, looking for a sign that his father was still alive. Cone had reason to worry. He lived in a small, segregated town in the age of Jim Crow. And his father, Charlie Cone, was a marked man.

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