“…more than 85% of Americans believe that it is ‘somewhat important’ or ‘absolutely essential’ that an American have the right to choose any religion that they wish… But nearly 37% of people say that practices that inconvenience others are ‘definitely not’ or ‘not a very important part’ of religious freedom.” - RNS

“Below, we’ll share data from The Resilient Pastor … to explore current perspectives on the credibility of America’s pastors as well as insights from Packiam on pastoral trustworthiness and reliability.” - Barna

“Gen Z isn’t as cohesive as previous generations: the cultural references and growing-up experiences of a 25-year-old aren’t the same for a 19-year-old, and are different again for a 14-year-old.” - TGC

“In the spring of 1800, after six long years of saving, the day at last arrived when enough small coins lay in the rude box to afford a Bible. But now the challenge was to locate one. Her father had no idea where to look.” - Mark Minnick

Self-care sounds like man-centered psychobabble. It feels inherently selfish, contradicting biblical concepts such as self-denial and self-sacrifice. Why would a ministry-minded Christian pay special attention to himself or herself?

Let’s learn what self-care is, then see if any part aligns with Scripture. Perhaps it belongs on the trash pile of worldly philosophies. Or possibly common grace has made mankind instinctively conscious of a healthy practice.

“A new study conducted by Nashville-based Lifeway Research surveyed 1,000 Protestant pastors to learn their views on race and racial reconciliation in the church.” - BPNews

“I put the mic down to adjust my notes and then started back up with the talk. After about 30 seconds, I looked down and … I was talking into a water bottle like it was a microphone. The audience burst out in laughter and all I could do was smile and join them.” - C.Leaders

Pastor Tom Buck of First Baptist Church Lindale, Texas “takes issue with how Shaw explains navigating same-sex attraction and has called on Sam Allberry and The Gospel Coalition (TGC) not to support Shaw any longer.” - C.Leaders

“It’s not enough to understand and interpret the way we’ve always read certain passages of Scripture. We need to pay attention to what God is saying—through Phoebe and through the rest of the Scriptures.” - Conciliar Post

“Controversial Tennessee preacher Greg Locke has turned from claims of election fraud to conversations with demons.” - RNS

Related at Church Leaders: Greg Locke Claims a Devil Told Him About Six Witches in His Church, Another Who Leads Worship at Nashville Megachurch

“Authority and submission are difficult concepts in a society that’s fully committed itself to individual autonomy. … Dr. Bruce Ashford explains the unrivaled authority of God, and those authorities He has established throughout the created order.” - Breakpoint

“So, I humbly offer these suggestions to you (and me): If you don’t know it’s true, don’t communicate it. If you can’t prove it, don’t assert it, forward it, tweet it, or text it.” - Ken Brown

“In the summer of 2020, I led an online theology class for people in the church I pastor. I was blown away that over 1000 people engaged in the class, asked thoughtful questions, and walked through the material each week.” - Eric Geiger

“Two years into the pandemic, more religious institutions are asking themselves what a hybrid approach can and should look like.” - RNS

“Because he used the words ‘We baptize’ rather than ‘I baptize’ during the rite, thousands of baptisms have been deemed invalid.” - C.Leaders

My first exposure to the Qur’an

During the past three years, I have slowly made my journey through the canon of western literature.¹ Starting with Homer’s Iliad, I progressed through the ancient Greek, Hellenistic, and Roman authors and am now in the Middle Ages at the Qur’an. The Qur’an is one of the important and influential religious texts in western literature and the sacred scripture of Islam. Consequently, as a Christian from a non-Islamic cultural background, I wanted an informed guide to help me better understand the Qur’an and its historical and cultural context and meaning. Thankfully, I found Ayman S.

“Sometimes the true spiritual leaders of the first generation survive the temptations of such hero worship. But the generation that follows—the generation that sees the veneration of their forbears and aspires to it themselves—becomes corrupt because their motives are corrupt from the start.” - P&D

“I felt, for a time, unmoored. Like many seminary students, I had been praying for years to a God who I had pictured as being just like me, only larger….What happened during those early years of my academic study of theology was a kind of deconstruction. More properly, it was a correction.” - C.Today

“After more than 20 years of operation in Russia, New Life Radio moved to Odessa, Ukraine, several years ago in response to increasingly restrictive Russian laws. With the current threat of Russian military invasion, the station is preparing for another potential move of its headquarters.” - BPNews

“Are we supposed to stand up to lies? Of course. We have every right and responsibility to expose lies for what they are. … The question is, ‘What are we going to say and how are we going to say it?’ It doesn’t help our cause when people see Christians acting like the people that we’re trying to oppose.” - GetReligion

“For a volume that claims to be working ‘with an open mind’ and ‘not assuming anything’ (1), it reaches a remarkably predictable conclusion that just happens to fit with the pre-existing paradigm of Walter Bauer that has been in place for nearly 100 years.” - TGC

You may be thinking, why start a series on knowing God through suffering with the most abstract and difficult doctrine known to Christians? Why not start with something simpler, like mercy or faithfulness? All in due time.

I start with the Trinity because who God is in his fullness of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is the starting point for all our understanding about God. If we skip who God is at the very essence of his being, we may get off on the wrong foot. But even more importantly, the triune nature of God in his three persons is a gold mine for understanding the riches of God and his reasons for allowing his creatures to suffer.

“A new survey reveals that while a supermajority of white evangelical Protestants have taken at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, the group has the lowest vaccination rate among all demographic subgroups questioned.” - C.Post

“From a list of possible steps individuals could take to improve racial dynamics in the country, building diverse relationships is the most popular response (67% all U.S. adults, 70% practicing Christians).” - Barna

“Paul made no demands. He used his rights to protect himself on the one occasion and to protect the church on the other. His manner, however, suggests that he most of all tried not to make waves, then chose to make appeals when all other resources failed.” - Don Johnson

“I’ve written before about an experience I had while in seminary, when I doubted the Biggest Thing Ever—whether there’s a God, and whether any of this is true. Doubt is an important part of growing up.” - Olinger

“…recently I have been re-reading Lewis’s Mere Christianity with a class I am teaching, and I have been struck afresh by how, well, complementarian it is.” - CBMW

On Thursday, Feb. 2, 2017, I was getting ready for an elders’ meeting to be held that evening at Grace Bible Church in Portage, Wis., where I was serving as interim pastor.

During the afternoon, I received word that Maranatha had made the decision to terminate its football program.

Having heard the news, I did two things. First, I sat down and cried. Second, I called my mom.

“U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez of the Western District of Texas awarded the damages Monday (Feb. 7) to survivors and heirs of survivors of the Nov. 5, 2017, church shooting, months after determining that the U.S. government was 60 percent liable for the massacre.” - BPNews

“Christian nationalism was used to “bolster, justify and intensify the January 6 attack on the Capitol,” said Amanda Tyler, head of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, which sponsored the report along with the Freedom From Religion Foundation.” - RNS