“Many churches have chosen to do it on the first Sunday of every month. We decided not to do that… . Beginning in the late 1990’s we began dedicating an entire service to the Lord’s Table when we do it and it has been transformative for our church.” - Kevin Schaal

“The standoff revolves around a clause in a new contract with the state that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation and that Sunrise Children’s Services is refusing to sign.” - C.Leaders

“…far too many churches are handling designated giving in ways that can get them in trouble. That trouble can range from morale problems among members and staff to losing your non-profit status with the Internal Revenue Service.” - Thom Rainer

“At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is ‘not done’ to say it…” - Ben Edwards

What does it mean to be “one flesh”?

— Here’s a few questions to get into specifics:

Does ‘one flesh’ happen when you get married?

Does it happen with sex? Does first base count? Second? Third?

Something else?

Is it a continuing process that builds slowly or is it more of an on-off status that happens at a moment in time?

Is it undoable?

Is it possible to be one flesh with many partners?


— What are some interesting reads? I’m looking for both reliable and otherwise.

https://centralseminary.edu/programs/master-of-arts-in-biblical-counsel…

Central Baptist Theological Seminary announced last week that they are adding a Master’s of Arts in Biblical Counseling to their program offerings. According to their website, this will be the fifth program that CBTS currently offers, in addition to their MAT, MDiv, ThM, and DMin degrees.

Review of Richard B. Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels,* Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2017, 524 pages, paperback.

Richard B. Hays has established himself as one of the foremost NT scholars in the world, based on enduring works like The Moral Vision of the New Testament and Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul. He has been at the forefront of the study of such seemingly obtuse but telling elements of the study of the NT as “metalepsis” and “figural interpretation.”

“Televangelist Jim Bakker isn’t happy with cancel culture and believes his imprisonment for fraud in 1989 aided by ‘a group of preachers’ but mostly the media at the height of his ministry’s success was an early example of cancel culture.” - C.Post

“The National COVID-19 Church Attendance Project (NCCAP) represents our efforts to try to see the bigger picture. By gathering as many individual church stories as possible, from all over the country, we aim to provide a broad sense of the impact of COVID on the church and what the path to recovery has looked like so far.” - C.Today

“…we must keep ethics (or discipleship) at the forefront of our pursuit of technology because we recognize technology shapes us in countless ways.” - Jason Thacker

“After receiving a demand letter from the First Liberty Institute, officials at Hillsdale High School relented after pressuring student Elizabeth Turner to alter the valedictory speech for her June 6 graduation ceremony.” - C.Post

“The vast majority of adults in the United States support allowing marijuana to some extent, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. But opinions about whether and under what circumstances marijuana should be legal vary by Americans’ religious identity and their levels of religious commitment.” - Pew

“… I am essentially the bizarro version of them. I started off as a religious none in a non-religious home, graduated to being an atheist, then moved on to being an anti-theist, and wound up a Christian in the end.” - Grayson Gilbert

A tradition that was interrupted in 2020 by COVID-19 returned this week as pastors from throughout the Midwest—and farther away—gathered at the First Baptist Church of Rockford, Ill., on Monday for the 18th edition of the Conference on the Church for God’s Glory.

I feel like I get two Memorial Days when I attend this conference, which is always held on the Monday preceding Memorial Day weekend. This was the second time that I attended the meeting, and exhibited at it, as a church ministries representative for The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry.

“The revised memorial takes a longer view at the well-known story of the missionaries killed by the Waorani.” - C.Today

“We ought to think seriously, then, about the pain we inflict. Some pain is necessary, no doubt; but much of the pain we inflict with our words and actions, even when confrontation is called for, is unnecessary. Some of the pain we inflict comes from our own impatience, or frustration, or self-focus.” - Olinger

Along similar lines… What Francis Schaeffer Constantly Had to Remind Himself of When Doing Apologetics

“The fact is that most of the early American Baptists were Calvinists.That’s the second lesson we can learn from William Buell Sprague’s Annals of the American Baptist Pulpit, a follow-up piece to my earlier article on Baptists and Preaching.” - 9 Marks

“Whether the critiques come from politicians like Josh Hawley or pundits like Tucker Carlson, free-market conservatives are increasingly scolded for being overly committed to economic freedom. To no surprise, the Left continues its own critiques as it always has, spurring a strange, unspoken alliance among otherwise ideological foes.” - Acton

“As with much polling, the devil is in the conveniently omitted details.” - C.Today

When it comes to church participation, it is tempting to label the unenthused as probably unregenerate. Although this may be the case, it might be that professing believers who have lost the desire to come to church are simply socially anxious, isolated, and fearful of commitment. What I call “socially disconnected.”

“Researchers from the OHSU Casey Eye Institute in Portland, Oregon, have broken new ground in science, medicine, and surgery…. Known as the BRILLIANCE clinical trial, the procedure is designed to repair mutations in a particular gene that causes Leber congenital amaurosis type 10, also known as retinal dystrophy.” - Healthline

“In his recently-released book, Faithful Presence: The Promise and the Peril of Faith in the Public Square, Haslam draws upon his years of experience to highlight the redemptive role of faith in politics while offering biblical insight into the hot-button issues of today.” - C.Post

“…the view makes two claims: First, that men and women are equal image bearers worthy of equal honor and value; second, that men and women hold different roles, with men exercising a ‘headship’ that corresponds to a particular kind of authority in the church and the home. But while the word complementarian has traceable roots…its beliefs work out differently across church traditions.” - C.Today

Also out today: Kevin DeYoung Let Us Reason Together About Complementarianism

“In 2019, approximately 3,000 Protestant churches were started in the U.S., but 4,500 Protestant churches closed, according to estimates from Nashville-based Lifeway Research.” - LifeWay

“some Christians believe that, if aliens exist, they are a form of fallen angel (demons). But is it possible that other forms of intelligent alien life exist in the universe? The answer depends on how we interpret the Bible and what we believe about God’s sovereignty.” - TGC

“To truly understand how healthy we are as a church we have to know how we are caring for the three circles of people we are called to shepherd; our neighbors, our followers and our disciples.” - C.Leaders

“The day we received the report was one of the hardest we’ve had since he died. Yet there was also some comfort in it. It was comforting in the sense that he did nothing wrong and we did nothing wrong. It was comforting in the sense that the people who tried to save him did all they could… And it was comforting in the sense that it was so clearly an act of providence in which the Lord just took him. All we can do is bow the knee.” - Challies

“Do I need friends from different ideological camps? These questions, of course, are relevant to Christians: should we also value friendships like this?” - TGC

“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