“The Texas Supreme Court on Friday (March 11) effectively ended the primary legal challenge to the Texas law known as SB8, which limits abortion to the first six weeks of pregnancy by allowing private citizens to sue anyone who ‘aids or abets’ an abortion after that time.” - RNS

“the more you talk about things in Sunday announcements, the less effective the messaging for everything is.” - C.Leaders

“…that immersive power should raise questions. … What happens, for example, if VR safety protocols can’t filter out disturbing content? But the more powerful dilemmas are Class 2 questions or ‘What happens if this technology does work perfectly?’” - Breakpoint

“One can’t help but note that Michael Bird, who co-hosts a podcast with Aimee Byrd, seems to have embarked on a similar trajectory around the same time. In 2012, Bird wrote a book wherein he affirmed male headship as ‘normative’ and ‘indisputable.’ Today, he disputes male headship and says he has changed his mind.” - CBMW

Catastrophic Consequences

Something has changed. Christianity no longer shapes society. Culture-shifting Christian thinkers, artists, musicians, and writers have all but disappeared. The church is no longer able to meet the intellectual challenges it now faces. Why has this happened and what can be done about it? These are the questions Travis Dickinson, professor of philosophy at Dallas Baptist University, seeks to answer in his new book, Logic and the Way of Jesus: Thinking Critically and Christianly (B&H Academic, 2022).

“The team tasked with searching for a new president & CEO of the SBC Executive Committee is asking for prayer. The group also has launched a 21-day prayer initiative and created a day-by-day guide to encourage specific prayers for each day the rest of the month.” - BPNews

“Anabaptist Bruxy Cavey preached ‘Jesus over religion’ and drew record crowds of Canadians who were put off by traditional church. Now they’re reckoning with their former leader’s misconduct.” - CToday

More at RNS: Bruxy Cavey’s former megachurch debates allegations: Sex abuse or an affair? and

“Tolerance used to mean that real differences were allowed to coexist and to be vigorously debated…. When you engage someone who buys into the new ‘tolerance,’ the conversation … will inevitably end with something like this: ‘What’s true for you is true for you, and I am glad that it works for you, but it’s not for me.’” - P&D

Tucked inside the inside flap of the dust jacket were two sparkling diamonds. First was a long list of “Influential Leaders in Contemporary Christendom,” compiled by Archer Weniger. Next was a pamphlet published by Dollar that provided a taxonomy of fundamentalist organizations, schools, radio ministries, camps, etc.

I will never forget the third Sunday in March of 2020.

On Saturday, March 14, I attended my first Prophecy Up Close event hosted by The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, in the Milwaukee area. That night, we drove down to Mendota, IL, to prepare for our ministry at Mendota Bible Church.

“An AdelFi study conducted by Lifeway Research found that having a Christian worldview impacts the way young adults (ages 25-40) manage their money, which is most evident in that Christians give nearly three times as much money as non-Christians.” - C.Index

“On March 9, 2022 at 6:33 am, Edward John Nelson entered eternity…. We praise the Lord for the 98 years He gave us with Dr. Nelson.” - Facebook

“California, particularly Southern California, is my favorite place I have ever lived. It beats out Oregon, Missouri, and even Texas….Yes, secular cultural ideas and ideals dominate the mindset – but that’s true in every global mission field.” - BPNews

“Plans to create a full communion partnership between The Episcopal Church and The United Methodist Church have been put on hold again due to the UMC postponing its General Conference.” - C.Post

“Majorities of workers who quit a job in 2021 say low pay (63%), no opportunities for advancement (63%) and feeling disrespected at work (57%) were reasons why they quit, according to the Feb. 7-13 survey.” - Pew

“When the University of Northampton added a trigger warning to George Orwell’s 1984 last year, a fresh round of conversations about speech and censorship followed. What do people in a free society owe each other when it comes to our words?” - Breakpoint

Psalm 62:1b, “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I…”

One of the hardest things about planning for my retirement is realizing that, for many people, my presence as pastor of Highland Park Church has been one of life’s few “givens.” I feel sad about that. Many folks have known me as their pastor for their entire lives, while others have known me for all or most of their adult lives. So much around us is changing, and we especially appreciate the people and things that do not.

Someone described a pastor as someone who is there with us through life. We are there when people hatch (are born), match (are married), patch (when they need counseling or have relational issues) and dispatch (funerals).

“Churches in the ‘Wheaton of Ukraine,’ a suburb of Kyiv, help residents escape war as one member gives his life trying to save a fleeing family.” - C.Today

“Medical personnel will begin treating wounded Ukrainians at a clinic outside Lviv’s train station on Tuesday. The underground field hospital is expected to open Wednesday.” - RNS

“instead of protesting the ‘rights and wrongs’ of counseling, let’s start from a point of agreement that our holistic health contains aspects—physical, spiritual, intellectual, and emotional health—that God created in us and are, thus, worthy of our care.” - Lifeway

“While not himself a Southern Baptist, MacArthur nevertheless has a considerable measure of theological and ideological alignment with the CBN, and a number of Twitter users responded positively to the announcement.” - C.Leaders

“God calls us to share the world, to share our homes, and to share our churches with people who are weak…. And we ought to be gentle and patient and merciful in those weaknesses.” - Challies

Read the series.

“These last two years have been often odd and sometimes painful ones for church leaders. In fact, they’ve been the strangest years of my 40+ years of ministry. Nevertheless, I’m excited about some things I’m seeing in churches these days.” - Chuck Lawless

“In 1979, sociologist Christopher Lasch wrote The Culture of Narcissism, arguing that as the bonds of religious identity and family erode, Americans were increasingly looking inward for security and meaning. In such a culture, feelings and subjective experiences aren’t just considered the most important thing in the world: They’re considered the most accurate view of the world.” - Breakpoint

“First, it’s not presented as exhaustive; there’s no command to think only about things on this list. Second, there are times when the Bible itself tells us to think about manifestly negative, even sinful things—to consider the way of the fool, for example.” - Olinger

“When a man ignores his moral responsibility and refuses to live within the limits of the natural order, including his own nature, then he has lost the mark of his distinction among creatures. At that point, he is no better than a beast, ruled by whims and passions; raw nature has won out.” - Acton

“The imprecatory psalms give us permission to push boldly against evil.” - C.Today

A new fundamentalism has arrived on the scene in the evangelical world. It’s kinda like legacy fundamentalism, but also kinda not. In this video essay, I review components of generic, faithful Christianity, define and give examples of second-stage legacy Baptist fundamentalism, then make some observations of and connections to the 2022 evangelical scene to decribe this “new fundamentalism.”

“Homer Rodeheaver has quite a lot to do with all kinds of gospel music, as Kevin Mungons and Douglas Yeo demonstrate in their fascinating, eminently readable biography of a wildly underrated and rarely appreciated figure who made a significant impact on sacred music, Black and white.” - C.Today