“Sirens blared across Israel early Thursday as the country came to a standstill in an annual ritual honoring the 6 million Jews murdered during the Holocaust. People halted where they were walking, and drivers stopped their cars to get out of the vehicles as people bowed their heads in memory of the victims of the Nazi genocide.” - C.Index

“Among parents who had a child age 5 to 11 at the outset of the pandemic, the share who said this child used TikTok rose 11 percentage points (21% in 2020 to 32% in 2021). For parents with a child who was younger than 5 at the time of the first interview, there was a 4-point uptick from 1% to 5%.” - Pew

“What reasons do pastors give when asked why they’ve thought about stepping down for good? Stress, loneliness and political division are the three items that rise to the surface.” - Barna

“I’ve taught seminary students now for 26 years, and I’ve worked with hundreds of graduates in doctoral programs or local church events. I always want to know what leadership issues pastors wish someone had taught them. Here are twelve I hear often” - Chuck Lawless

“…things that are cool are ephemeral. What’s fashionable is, by the necessity of the rules of fashion, quickly obsolete. This is one of many reasons why chasing cool is a fool’s errand for churches and pastors, as I argue in my book Hipster Christianity: When Church and Cool Collide.” - TGC

Read the series.

Those who love holding a Bible in their hands—which they can read in their own language—should be aware of and grateful for the monumental importance of Dr. Martin Luther’s 10-month stay at the Wartburg Castle in 1521 and 1522.

It was during this time that Luther first translated the New Testament into German—in just 11 weeks! In so doing, he literally began the modern era of Bible translation.

“The new April 2022 issue of Themelios has 229 pages of editorials, articles, and book reviews. It is freely available in three formats: (1) PDF, (2) web version, and (3) Logos Bible Software.” - TGC

“Launching on May 1, the new denomination plans to uphold traditional, conservative Wesleyan theology but run on a lighter, leaner infrastructure that emphasizes grassroots accountability and ministry connections.” - C.Today

Related: Virginia church leaving UMC over LGBT debate, joining theologically conservative network

“We want to emphasize that none of the Buddhist teachers in the Boulder area knew about his plans to self-immolate on this Earth Day. …. we would have stopped him in any way possible.” - RNS

“Many of the headlines said the majority-conservative court ‘appeared sympathetic’ to the coach, which I disagree with. The justices appeared more confused by the conflicting narratives…. Breyer plaintively noted at one point: ‘One of my problems in this case, is that the parties seem to have different views of the facts.’” - Get Religion

“…some pastors may be tempted not to include a class on their own local church’s history. Not so fast! Your congregation’s story is worth retelling for at least three reasons.” - 9 Marks

“Over the last few months, in various corners of the internet I’ve started to notice a certain backlash against a ‘neo-fundamentalism’ that is (allegedly) emerging among conservative American Protestants.” - John Ehrett

Leadership development is one of those things that churches frequently talk about but rarely plan for or actually do. According to Ephesians 4:12-16, every church is responsible to train its members for gospel-advancing, church-building ministry. But how do we do that? Below is an example of the process our church uses to develop leaders for ministry:

The Three Step Process of Ministry Leadership Development at Community of Grace

“The largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States announced the release of its annual statistics on Monday, which were compiled by the PC(USA) Office of the General Assembly.” - C.Post

“To what degree then does Lewis’s imaginative constructions match what he believes to be reality, and to what degree has he gone beyond what he believes can be defended?” - Tim Miller

“My recent article, ‘Are We Preaching with Power?,’ kicked up some responses at Sharper Iron. The discussion was positive (a rarity on the internet), and it prompts this expansion of the theme.” - Don Johnson

“The youngest pastors (ages 18-44) are most likely to say they deal with stress in ministry (78%), while the oldest pastors (ages 65 and older) are the least likely (47%).” - C.Index

“If a ‘sphere’ like religious institutions is ‘sovereign’ within its domain, doesn’t that mean that there’s no way for another sphere (the state) to intervene even in the case of (say) clergy abuse? And if so, isn’t that troubling (perhaps discrediting of church autonomy)?” - Reason

“When we copy Scripture and carry it with us throughout the day, reading it and memorizing it, we make God’s Word a part of us. As Paul said, ‘Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly’ (Colossians 3:16).” - Randy Alcorn

Read the series.

“Twitter announced on Monday afternoon that it accepted Elon Musk’s offer to buy the company…. Twitter Board members unanimously accepted the deal.” - N. Review

“The U.S. Supreme Court weighed lengthy arguments April 25 regarding whether a high school football coach’s post-game prayer at midfield violates the First Amendment’s ban on government establishment of religion.” - BPNews

“A new report from the Christian school says Jemar Tisby’s chapel talk was a ‘mistake’ and critiques diversity teachings in an elective class and in resident assistant trainings.” - C.Today

Also, RNS: Grove City College rejects ‘wokeness,’ CRT in new report

“44% of pastors say they need to invest in learning better communication skills. Michael Nave, pastor of Cornerstone Church, joins Ben Mandrell… to discuss the Greatest Needs of Pastors study and what pastors can do to become better communicators.” - Lifeway

“Torn between ‘pro-Putin’ and ‘pro-prayer,’ only a minority have spoken out publicly against the invasion. Ukrainian seminary leaders call for repentance.” - C.Today

“We hold historically orthodox views on sexuality….Frankly, we approached the book with significant skepticism. However, we also must confess that as we read the book, some of our skepticism dissipated. We found much of it pleasantly surprising.” - TGC

“In 2015, two colleges affiliated with Baptist state conventions left the CCCU because they thought the association did not move swiftly enough to expel a small handful of member schools that decided to affirm same-sex marriage. … Cedarville University in Ohio and Union University in Tennessee, helped form a new association called the International Association of Christian Educators” - RNS

Adams’ warned that our level of freedom depends on a high level of self-restraint by the citizens. French: “The response to John Adams’s warning is not to arm the government with more power but to equip citizens with more virtue. And how do we do that?” - David French

“…it’s also a myth because work is not the opposite of life—it isn’t something separate from life. It’s an integral part of life, or at least it should be.” - TGC

Read the series.

The Covenant of Works (2)

According to covenant theologians the Covenant of Works was what Adam and Eve were under in the Garden of Eden. As it was a covenant of “works” this means that they were under obligation to maintain “perfect obedience” (Witsius, The Economy of the Covenants Between God and Man, I. 158; cf. Robertson, The Christ of the Covenants, 85). For the CT this is necessary because it is to be paralleled by Christ’s perfect obedience; an obedience which as “active obedience” is accrued to us alongside of Christ’s work on the cross.