As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
“To say rural pastors and rural congregations are forgotten is probably less true than to say rural churches and pastors (and really, small churches and their pastors everywhere) are often underrepresented and underutilized in denominational leadership and overlooked by Christian publishers and conference organizers. It’s not a matter of forgetting; it’s a matter of caring more about what we know and what we don’t know about rural ministry.” - C. Today
“Hobby Lobby Stores has filed a $7 million lawsuit in the United States against a former professor from the U.K.’s Oxford University who was arrested last year after being accused of stealing ancient Bible fragments from the university and selling them to the U.S. arts and crafts retail chain.” - C.Post
(Related at CT: Hobby Lobby Sues Oxford Professor for $7 Million)
“ ‘Literaler is better’ is a common trap. As with many common traps, there is some truth set in this one as bait. We’ll get to that. But first we have to reductio.” - Mark Ward
“…whenever I’m discouraged in my work, I pick up one of his books again and his life inspires me to continue. They’re not easy reads, but what he went through to bring them to us was remarkable, and it will change your perspective on ‘oppression’ forever.” - Phil Cooke
“The two cases against Newsom’s controversial measures in response to the novel coronavirus were filed by the Thomas More Society, a nonprofit law firm that takes on religious freedom cases.” - C.Post
“The following letter comes from The Works of the Rev. John Newton (London, 1808) pp. 346–353. Reader beware: Newton’s portraits are both humorous and piercing.” - Ref21
“Pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren announced Sunday, June 6, that he is stepping down from leading Saddleback Church, the Southern California megachurch he founded in 1980.” - C. Today
I opened the mail the other day to discover a letter from Answers in Genesis (“A Note from Ken Ham”). This wasn’t unusual. What was unusual was what Ken wanted. A color brochure fell out of the envelope. A new “Statement of Faith” from AiG. What was this about?
Ken had a challenge for me. He asked me to review “our updated statement of faith.” Then, he asked me to compare it to “your church’s/college’s statement of faith.” Ken encouraged me to provoke a discussion with leaders about why the church’s Statement didn’t match AiG’s. To be fair, Ken warned me “this could result in some hostility.” But, he declared, such a sacrifice was necessary to “help uncover compromise.”
“City data taken from Barna’s annual tracking research reveals that the top-ranked city for Bible-reading—Monroe, LA—roughly doubles the national percentage of participation, with 64 percent of the city’s residents saying they read the Bible at least weekly. Other markets that report regular Bible-reading are in close proximity, with the top five being located in the South.” - Barna
“God has given us a down payment of his very person in the Holy Spirit. He’s really serious about his relationship with us. Let us embrace him and anticipate all that is to come.” - Olinger
“Just 34% of Americans believed that trans-identified athletes should be allowed to play on sports teams that correspond to their gender identity. Support was highest among self-described liberals (63%), Democrats (55%), women (43%) and college graduates (40%).” - C.Post
Podcast 4: Dr. Mark Minnick overviews his session on what it means to be a man of God during these challenging times. - P&D
“Within the parachurch ministry, critics allege its recent approach to diversity has relied on critical race theory and resulted in ‘mission drift.’” - C.Today
By Marshall Fant. Republished with permission from Sowing & Reaping, Spring/Summer 2018.
Is your church a healthy church? If so, how do you know? If not, what should you do about it? By dictionary definition, health is “a condition in which someone or something is thriving or doing well.” To know whether a church is thriving or doing well, pastors and church leaders need to be willing to take an honest look at their ministries. Do you have an accurate view of your ministry, and are you willing to ask the right questions to get an honest evaluation of it?
“Today the Soviet Union is gone but newspeak and a thousand forms of disinformation thrive. I can do frontline reporting … and a reader will email to say I didn’t see what I saw because it doesn’t conform to a political narrative. She and the rest of us can fall prey to platform algorithms and manipulated content disgorged from a news cycle that never sleeps. It all leaves us in ‘a state of bloated exhaustion,’ writes Jeffrey Bilbro in his new book, Reading the Times: A Literary and Theological Inquiry in the News.” - TGC
Nationalists and globalists on both sides of the political divide … “While bigger issues still divide us and our parties today, this is one division that cuts across political partisanship. Thus, it should be of interest to all Christians, no matter their political persuasion, whether there is any guidance in the Christian tradition for sorting out these debates.” - Acton
“Denny Burk, professor of biblical studies at Boyce College, the undergraduate school of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, revealed … that he was aware of nearly 60 resolutions being submitted to the Resolutions Committee asking SBC messengers to condemn critical race theory.” - C.Post
“Whether short-term or long-term in nature, most of those serving in the church have seen their church’s numbers decline. What, then, creates a healthy ministry mindset during a downturn?” - Lifeway
“In this interview we discuss Barcellos’s new book, Trinity & Creation: A Scriptural and Confessional Account, a defense of the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo in classical Trinitarian perspective, over and against recent revisionist accounts.” - Credo
The judge said Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas lacked standing - C.Post
“Both parties have, at various times, hitched their wagons to populism. … Conservatives deserve special criticism for fomenting populism because conservatism is supposed to be temperamentally skeptical of excessive political passion.” - Goldberg
“I already have one of those,” said the taxi driver when I offered him one of the gospel tracts in my wallet. Since I live in a densely populated Asian city, the odds seemed slim he really had one. To my shock, the driver pulled an identical tract from the console between the seats.
“You gave it to me last time you rode in my taxi.” I did not remember him, but he remembered me and kept my tract. It’s hard to remember taxi drivers when all you see is the back of their heads.
About a year later, I was witnessing to another taxi driver, and the same thing occurred. He, too, still had the tract I had given him months before.
“Did you read it?” I asked him.
“No,” he replied.
“Half of young people (ages 13 to 25) thought their faith communities had done well managing the COVID pandemic even though 90% reported receiving no personal contact from clergy.” - RNS
“here are some guidelines that you should never, ever bend. Most of these are related to the safety of the children and volunteers.” - C.Leaders
“A legal representative for the Lentz family told Religion News Service that they ‘vehemently deny the allegations and, in addition to that, have irrefutable proof the events did not happen as they are being described.’” - C.Post
RNS: Sex abuse allegations by Carl Lentz’s former nanny put spotlight on Hillsong culture
“The SBC Annual Meeting will be off with a gavel slam in 15 days. I’ll be there along with around 15,000 other messengers, guests, media, and protesters… This is the unofficial SBC Voices guide to the Annual Meeting. Unofficial because I couldn’t get the other guys to sign on to it. Sometimes they don’t see the things I do.” - SBC Voices
“Sure enough, church planting has seemed to be all the rage for the last twenty years. But I want to take just a moment to offer five reasons that aspiring and existing pastors should consider before deciding to plant.” - 9 Marks
“This tendency to see contested public-policy issues—such as those concerning immigration, religious liberty, or economics—through the lens of modern political ideologies and party platforms before seeing them through the lens of the gospel is problematic.” - TGC
