“…’most conservative evangelicals gave up on the politics of character in 2016’ and still consider their relationship to Trump as a pragmatic bargain.” - CToday

“Leading worship while dressed as characters from the Toy Story franchise suggests theological problems that go way beyond debates about the nature of Paul’s teaching on eldership.” - Carl Trueman

“Among Deneen’s more outlandish proposals is the suggestion that the separation of Church and State be abolished. Pointing to rising ‘deaths of despair,’ Deneen insists that it is not enough to ‘ensure [the people’s] freedom to pursue’ essential goods of human life, such as religious faith.” - Juicy Ecumenism

See also, at Providence: A New Vital Center?

Lessons from Blaise Pascal - Reasons to Believe

“in response to his proclamation that America is a Christian nation not a Jewish nation, the crowd [in the video] begins to chant, ‘Christ is King! Christ is King!’” - Michael Brown

Read the series.

(Matthew 2:23, Genesis 28:10-17 with John 1:43-51)

Jesus as Netzer

Jesus was just beginning to assemble His band of key disciples. The first chapter of John’s Gospel introduces us to Nathaniel (probably also known as Bartholomew). During their initial meeting, Yeshua dazzles Nathaniel and then shares a midrash to describe the nature of His ministry.

“…in what is known as jus in bello, just war doctrine says that for a war, or even part of a war, to be considered moral, it must only be done for the right reasons and in the right ways.” - Breakpoint

“The profound message of Ecclesiastes is needed today more than ever. Yet much recent evangelical scholarship has accepted and assumed critical views of Qoheleth the speaker and his speech, rendering almost the entire book practically useless to Bible teachers and preachers.” - Themelios

(Overview of latest Themelios)

“A message to our community: in a previously-uploaded version of the 911 S/T launch film, a landmark was removed. This was a mistake, and we apologize for any offense caused. Your comments on this video were appreciated.” - CPost

“Almost 7 in 10 pastors (69%) believe there is a growing sense of fear within their churches about the future of the nation and world.” - Lifeway

“Hummel contends that dispensationalism shaped not just American fundamentalism or evangelicalism but the United States as a whole. To this day, he writes, dispensationalism remains ‘one of America’s most resilient and popular religious traditions’ ” - CToday

“What caused Van Til to reject classic natural theology? More importantly, was Van Til correct to pit classic natural theology against a supposedly Reformed version of it?” - Credo

“The mature music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven—the Viennese Classical composers—reflects the best ideals of the Enlightenment in that it embodies rational clarity and order and makes a direct appeal to the listener without undue obscurity.” - Imaginative Conservative

Walking Worthy Into the Future

The Business Leadership Summit is intended for Christian leaders that own their own business or manage at least five employees. Faith has designed this event to be an encouragement to Christian business leaders, to create an avenue of networking with like-minded professionals, to help leaders sharpen skills in various aspects of business, and to help attendees grow spiritually through better understanding of Biblical concepts of operating a business.

More info: https://faith.edu/events/business-leadership-summit/

“I conclude that men should be both strong and gentle—tough and tender, authoritative and compassionate, brick and velvet.” - Andy Naselli

“The film may have a minor plot, but it asks major questions. Barbie is creating plenty of community and controversy, both online and in real life.” - TGC

“if the church uses its time and energy and resources to steer a course toward a mission that the Lord never gave them, they are most likely neglecting or convoluting in some way their actual mission.” - P&D

“When asked about their confidence in God’s existence, 50% say they know God exists and have no doubts, according to the latest General Social Survey (GSS).” - Lifeway

Read the series.

We began this series in Hebrews 13, and we return there for this next step. Hebrews 13.17 reads,

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.

I didn’t start off with this one, because I think there are necessary prerequisites to this step. We needed first to think about how we value our pastor and the work he does. Now it’s time for the difficult part.

“We used to call Ukraine a Captive Nation, and would pray for its liberation. Now that it has liberated itself and Moscow is waging bloody war to reconquer it, those who are urging us to be indifferent or hostile to its cause need to offer better arguments than they have so far.” - L&L

“One thing should be very clear, Bill Gothard and IBYC/IBLP was not a fundamentalist group. It was a broadly evangelical ministry.” - P&D

NPR interviews Moore on his new book: Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America - NPR

I often use Powerpoint when teaching Sunday School, but my slide templates are old and boring. I was wondering if you all had a decent free or inexpensive source for high quality slide templates?

“Sligar, a former trustee of the seminary, said that Southwestern’s financial crisis puts the SBC’s relationships with individual churches at risk. Working together is built on trust, especially when it comes to money” - RNS

“For the foreseeable future, there will be no institutional barrier to demagoguery, viciousness, or incompetence to be found within the nominating processes. The only barrier will be the voters themselves.” - Public Discourse

Read the rest of the series.

Many believers use an alternate code-language I call “Christianese.” It’s a special language that perhaps only folks from an American Christian subculture will understand. For example, we don’t leave a congregation because we don’t like the pastor; we leave because we “aren’t being fed.” We don’t decline to help in a certain ministry because we hate the idea of it. No, we decline because “God isn’t calling me to that, right now” or because “I don’t have peace about that.” A pastor doesn’t leave a congregation because he had an affair. Instead, he had a “moral failure.”

“Many Christians spiritualize the word joy, contrasting it with happiness and portraying it as independent of emotion or pleasure. Some claim that joy is a fruit of the Spirit and therefore not an emotion.” - Randy Alcorn

“Each of these authors has written a volume recognizing the significance of Du Mez’s line of critique and pointing toward the proper antidote to toxic masculinity: a more faithful appropriation of biblical ideas about manhood.” - TGC

“Many alive today remember when Sojourners expressed some genuine commitment to Biblical sexual morality…. Now, theological and Biblical concepts get twisted to serve progressive agendas and positions.” - World

Religious Liberty Doesn’t Have to Make Polarization Worse - CToday