“Activists claim that the science in favor of transgender ‘care’ is settled. It’s not true. Thankfully this judge was willing to say it out loud.” - Breakpoint

“Whereas the Romans stuck their chest out and talked up their gloria, the early Christians sought to follow the lowly way of the Savior. That’s where, ultimately, the distinctiveness of Christian virtue is evident.” - Word by Word

By Brandon Crawford

We are long past the day when local churches could simply advertise their service times on a sign and expect a consistent flow of visitors to follow. The American people have retreated into their homes, and they do not want to be disturbed. Builders don’t install front porches anymore; they install back decks—with privacy fences wrapping all the way around them!

“Ramaswamy’s claim that ‘Antifa and BLM rioters roam free’ is also largely untrue. More than 10,000 protesters were arrested nationwide during the unrest following the death of George Floyd in the summer of 2020” - The Dispatch

“Larry Robbins recently retired after a 23-year career as a Community Chaplain, serving with his local police force. Through that time he also served on the pastoral staff of his church.” - P&D

“…the advertising for the ‘Unconditional Conference’ indicates clearly that this event is designed as a platform for normalizing the LGBTQ+ revolution while claiming that the conference represents ‘quieter middle space.’” - World

DBTS: Fundamentalism May Feel Safe, Because It Is

9Marks: Fundamentalism May Feel Safe, But It’s Shortsighted

“Prominent Christian researcher George Barna spoke at the Family Research Council’s Pray, Vote, Stand Summit Friday, discussing his new book Raising Spiritual Champions: Nurturing Your Child’s Heart, Mind, and Soul.” - CPost

“Our research shows that even those Americans who are most hostile toward the Bible value biblical behaviors like loving your neighbor, caring for creation, and welcoming the stranger” - BPNews

This article (part 6 in the series) posted at Sharper Iron in 2019. Read the series.

The sluggard “finds a native habitat in every soul…. When the alarm buzzes, he paws the snooze. When a work project calls for relentless focus, he quietly opens a new browser tab. When some unwelcome duty faces us… counsels, ‘Tomorrow.’” - Desiring God

The Theologically Driven podcast marked its 100th episode this week by posting its collected series on fundamentalism.

“Smith is the pastor of Family Church Village in West Palm Beach, Florida, and previously served as director of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware. He’s also served on the ERLC board since 2018.” - CPost

“We must address this problem head-on, explaining to our congregations why Western culture is pluralistic. Without diving too deeply into the philosophical weeds, I teach my church about Kant’s separation of faith from knowledge.” - Lifeway

“Mainline clergy are more supportive than their congregants of LGBTQ rights, more likely to have opposed the overturn of Roe v. Wade and less likely to believe America is in danger of losing its culture and identity.” - RNS

“Buchanan and his supporters wanted, at a minimum, to stop the leftward drift that they believed was happening in the United States on social issues…. it’s clear to me that Christian conservatives failed miserably in this endeavor.” - GetReligion

Read the series.

Receiving a call to be a guest speaker in a new church can be a wonderful experience! But, of course, being the guest often means that you will be traveling to get there.

In this article, I will deal with a pair of extremely practical, connected subjects that must be considered by any itinerant minister—the places we stay and the things we eat.

Certainly, much more could be said about these and other similar matters, but I hope that these few introductory thoughts will at least stir some who may benefit from them to think and plan ahead for ministry journeys. Failure to do so can quickly become disastrous!

“Those ‘unprecedented things’ include hearing the appeals of three churches declared by the Executive Committee to not be in friendly cooperation, a declaration messengers upheld in June. Two of those churches were so deemed due to their placing women in pastoral roles.” - BPNews

The story at RNS/Church Leaders: New Bob Jones University Podcast, Former Students and Faculty Blast ‘Insular’ Culture

“It’s been nearly a year since the research lab OpenAI quietly introduced the demo version of ChatGPT to the public… Google’s Bard and Meta’s open-source Llama 2, craft poetry and plays, write songs, and solve logic problems. Chatbots are now generating emails for marketers, code for developers, and grocery lists for home cooks.” - CToday

“Of the 698 who responded to the poll, slightly over half (50.1%) voted for ‘Good policies’; 38.7% voted for ‘Integrity/character’; 10% voted for Backbone; and only 1.3 % voted for Unifier.” - Michael Brown

“…after wrestling with this problem myself for a time, I want to share with you three reasons why I think the Lord keeps certain people from returning to our churches.” - Ref21

Read the series.

(John 3:1-11 with Ezekiel 36:25-27)

The concept of the New Birth—aka, “regeneration” (Titus 3:5) or “circumcision of the heart” (Deuteronomy 30:6, 5:28-29 and 10:16)—is found throughout Scripture, but Jesus’ words to Nicodemus are perhaps the Bible’s definitive text on this subject.

Yeshua and Nicodemus

The (ESV) text of John 3:1-11 is a good place to start our investigation:

“The theory of deontology says that humans are morally obligated to act in accordance with a certain set of principles and rules regardless of outcome.” - Word by Word

“There are three main bulwarks against abuse: staffing and screening, training and facilities, and reporting and response. Parents can identify whether these bulwarks are present in an organization.” - CPost

“The annual Sing! Global conference, held Sept. 4-6, drew some 8,500 Christian worship music leaders and other church musicians, pastors, vendors and hymn composers from as many as 35 countries.” - RNS

“They are numerous, and they are located in the heart of places with lots of people…. I wish I could write that these churches will make a comeback, but it’s still an unrealized possibility.” - Sam Rainer

“It was my pleasure to contribute to ‘The Drivetrain’ episode on theological triage. Al Mohler popularized this terminology for distinguishing the importance of Bible teachings in his 2005 article ‘A Call for Theological Triage and Christian Maturity.’” - Andy Naselli

“The group, which includes some of the biggest churches in the conference, will formally exit the denomination at a special session of the conference, or regional geographic body, on Nov. 4.” - RNS

“If…I had to choose only one book on pastoral theology to have in my library, I would pick The Christian Ministry by Charles Bridges (1794–1869).” - Desiring God