“Our information at this point is both early and anecdotal, but we are hearing from numerous pastors that many church members who were frequent in their church attendance are now once-a-monthers. This observation lends itself to many questions. Is this trend temporary, one that will improve as COVID concerns wane?” - Thom Rainer

“I celebrate the science of the twentieth century. I have lived through the last half of it, when the number of wonders grew spectacularly. It is a source of great joy. But I lament as well, because we remain spiritually blind. We are crippled in praising God.” - Vern Poythress

“Moody Bible Institute leadership has issued an apologetic statement announcing the results of a lengthy investigation into the Chicago-based evangelical institution’s protocols amid charges it poorly handled sexual abuse allegations.” - C.Post

“While some may claim that eternal generation is an extra-biblical doctrine without scriptural warrant, Charles Lee Irons and Matthew Barrett demonstrate that the concept is seen throughout Scripture through familial imagery and other significant metaphors.” - Credo

“One of the primary reasons young adults joined churches was to find a spiritual home for their new kids. Now many young adults are opting to wait until a later age to have children. Some are deciding to be childless altogether.” - C.Post

Last Sunday, my son and I visited a nearby Orthodox Presbyterian Church. As a Baptist, I don’t quite fit in there, but then I don’t quite fit in at a lot of Baptist churches either!

I’d visited this church before, some years ago, but my son had never worshiped with Presbyterians. So for him it was an educational field trip, and for me it was a chance to catch up a bit with some friends and former students—and worship together.

Ecclesiastes 7:27-28 in the ESV reads:

27 Behold, this is what I found, says the Preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things— 28 which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found.

This is a difficult passage. Is it talking about wisdom or righteousness? Are these statistics an accurate reflection of the way it is, the way it was, or is it something else? Did Solomon have a problem looking down on women? Is this written from an “under the sun” depressed attitude, rather than taking into account divine revelation?

“Southern Baptists saw an uptick in church planting and kept relatively steady levels of giving despite COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020. But overall, the denomination experienced another year of decline, with the pandemic accelerating historically steep drops in membership and baptism.” - C.Today

“Prior to construction of a new road in northern Israel, archaeologists and local volunteers discovered a 1,500-year-old Greek inscription reading ‘Christ born of Mary.’ The inscription, which also mentions the early Christian bishop Theodosius, was on a stone portion of a doorway to a Byzantine church.” - C. Leaders

“What if we Christians want to influence public life, public policies? Then we have to search for and find middle axioms. These are ethical principles that have something in common with our Christian worldview but do not require full blooded and authentic Christian faith—to see their rightness. But this is not really ‘public theology.’” - Roger Olson

“It’s hard to speak into a friend’s life when you’re uncertain about a situation. To complicate matters, domestic abuse often means there’s danger. The situations are challenging. Walking with these tender souls takes patience and gentle persistence.” - TGC

“Caring about Israel is ‘essential’ to what being Jewish means to 45% of U.S. Jewish adults, and an additional 37% say it is ‘important, but not essential,’ according to a new Pew Research Center survey … . However, the survey found that Jewish Americans – much like the U.S. public overall – also hold widely differing views on Israel and its political leadership.” - Pew

“George Washington’s promise to American Jews helped define this nation. Breaking that promise would define us again.” - David French

Related

Pentecost is one of those events in the Christian calendar that hasn’t fared so well―so many people don’t know what to do with it! We know what happened, but the problem is what it means. Like so many discussions involving the Holy Spirit, Pentecost sometimes becomes a list of things that it doesn’t mean:

“The order also prohibited unfair treatment of houses of worship in emergency orders, explaining that the state government could ‘impose capacity or numerical restrictions on religious worship services and gatherings at places of worship that are either identical to, or at least as favorable as, the restrictions imposed on other similar gatherings of similar risk.’” - C.Post

“Have a normal conversation. …a normal conversation about life, sports, family, who has the best French fries, whatever. Somewhere along the way, a problem with a child, a health concern with a family member, or an issue at work will pop up. Just offer this: Would it be OK if, when I pray, I include that in my prayers?” - Lifeway

“This is why secular authorities must intervene. The Southern Baptist Convention has repeatedly demonstrated it will not take meaningful action to expose clergy predators, to rectify harm to survivors or even to assess the scope of the problem.” - RNS

“Smith started Friendly Neighbor Epidemiologist, a Facebook page, in March 2020 … Since then, the page, written in Smith’s friendly, informational voice, has grown to more than 96,000 followers. About half are evangelical Christians, she said. But threats and pushback have also followed” - C.Today

“We have been waiting for a book to help Christian teens navigate questions about sex and gender. This book seems to fit the bill… . Unfortunately, this is not the right book to give to teens in your life because its many strengths are intertwined with dangerous strands of worldly thinking.” - Ref21

There is no doubt that John’s chief function was to announce the arrival of the Coming One of OT expectation. Yet by his own admission he did not know Jesus as such until Jesus’ baptism (Jn. 1:33). Hence, for some time prior to his pointing to Jesus as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (Jn. 1:29), John preached less specifically of the imminent arrival of Israel’s Messiah. He testified that when he baptized Jesus, He saw the Holy Spirit descend upon Him in the form of a dove. He already knew that he was not worthy to loosen Messiah’s sandal strap (Mk. 1:7),¹ because the Coming One was mightier than he was (Mk. 1:7).

“European evangelist J. John thinks that it is. He notes growing numbers–a million over the last few years–attending his evangelistic events… the burgeoning number of evangelicals in France… large numbers of conversions to Christianity among Muslim immigrants. He focuses, though, on the sense he is picking up on that secularism is failing, and that the secularists are realizing it.” - Veith

“…love is not an involuntary thing. It is something we do purposefully based on our knowledge of the person we love. Nothing can be in the heart that is not first in the mind. And if we want to have an experience of God directly where we bypass the mind, we’re on a fool’s errand.” - R.C. Sproul

“Black Lives Matter expressed its ‘solidarity’ for Palestinians, advocating for ‘ending settler colonialism’ and Palestinian liberation in a tweet that implicitly undercut Israel after days of attacks in the region.” - C.Post

“Tingley is a Christian whose ‘faith informs his views concerning human nature, healthy relationships, and what paths and ways of thinking will enable his clients to achieve comfort with themselves and live happy and satisfied lives.’” - C.Post

“There is no such thing as a ‘safe’ level of drinking, with increased consumption of alcohol associated with poorer brain health… In an observational study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, researchers from the University of Oxford studied the relationship between the self-reported alcohol intake of some 25,000 people in the UK, and their brain scans.” - CNN

“Slated to go into effect on Sept. 1, Senate Bill 8 states that ‘a physician may not knowingly perform or induce an abortion on a pregnant woman if the physician detected a fetal heartbeat for the unborn child.’” - C.Post

Stay in China. This inexplicable message came from the London Missionary Society (L.M.S.) to Eric Liddell in late February of 1941.¹ He, his pregnant wife Flo, and their young two daughters had just evacuated Xiaochang in the Hubei Province to Tianjin on the northern coast. The Japanese army had wrecked havoc on the countryside. Helpless Chinese peasants lay in their wake. Liddell had seen their corpses and rescued a man laying among them who somehow had survived near decapitation. The Japanese soldiers generally left the foreign missionaries alone, but there was no guarantee of their safety. The world had devolved into chaos.

“Russell Moore is leaving the SBC’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, ending an occasionally controversial eight-year tenure, to take a role with Christianity Today.” - BPNews

“The pastor acknowledged the injunction, but chose to move forward with today’s service, ignoring requirements for social distancing, mask wearing and reduced capacity limits for attendees” - C.Post

“…I’m pro-life. I believe in saving the life of the unborn as much as those that are born…and medicine is pro-life.” - C.Leaders