“Reynolds ordered the rare session after the state Supreme Court declined in June to reinstate a practically identical law that she signed in 2018.” - C.Index

“Wilson is a member of the Baha’i faith, a religion introduced in the 19th century by Baháʼu’lláh… who claimed to receive a new revelation that, roughly speaking, placed him in the genealogy of ‘Manifestations of God’ stretching back to Abraham and including Krishna, Zoroaster, Buddha, Jesus Christ, and Muhammad.” - CToday

Or perhaps better—the imminence of death as related to prophecy.

The Imminence of Death—note that I didn’t say The Death of Imminence—though some want to quash the latter. Death isn’t a nice subject. Yet it’s one which demands our attention. Barring the Lord’s return for His church—in whatever context we think that will be—we’ll all have to cross the Great River of Death at some point.

Over the years I’ve seen a number of articles from a non-pretribulational rapture perspective rejecting the idea that Christ can return any moment. Packaged within these are admonitions that the church ought to prepare for a future Great Tribulation and the temporary reign of the Antichrist.

“This year’s Fourth of July moviegoing experience was a surprise. The top draw at the box office was not a feel-good blockbuster but a thriller about child sex trafficking.” - Acton

A 3 minute summary by David Bebbington - Credo

“But notice the quality, the character of Pentecost in verse 43. ‘Then fear came upon every soul.’ Fear. Awe. Reverence. Honour. Dignity. Sobriety. The fear of the Lord is at the heart of revival.” - P&D

“Most regular churchgoers say they would miss a weekly worship service at least once a year to avoid traveling in severe weather (77%), to enjoy an outdoor activity (55%) or to get some extra sleep (54%).” - Lifeway

“The fear of the Lord is a key concept in the Bible but is often misunderstood by Christians today. There are three elements of the fear of the Lord…” - DBTS Blog

The Sober Curious Are Challenging the Drinking Culture. Here’s Why That’s a Good Thing. . . .

Your oldest child heads off to college. A friend you led to Christ and have been discipling moves over 1,000 miles away. Your work contract ends and those you have seen and witnessed to daily for years fade from your life. Our time on earth often passes in cycles—family cycles, ministry cycles, and work cycles. We go from one phase to the next. What has been will be no more. What will be in the next phase is often unknown. Solomon wrote of these changes: “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). How do we respond to the changes brought about by the natural cycles of life?

“Advocates of the 7M mandate find their biblical warrant for retaking the culture in Revelation 17:8–10, a passage that describes a scarlet beast with seven heads which, John says, ‘are seven mountains’ (v. 9).” - TGC

“While feelings of loneliness and isolation have increased over the better part of a decade, pastors’ feelings of support from those around them have decreased.” - Barna

“What the Lancet research study confirms is that adolescent girls and boys today across multiple parts of the world experience earlier onset and a prolonged period of heightened emotional problems than those born previously…. with the greatest emotional risk for girls.” - IFS

“A new study looked at how worship leaders pick music for services — at a time when a handful of megachurches dominate the market.” - RNS

“Thirty-two percent of respondents expressed a ‘great deal’ or ‘fair amount’ of confidence in the Church and organized religion…. Twenty-six percent of Americans held a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in the public schools” - CPost

By Tom Zobrist. Read Part 1.

The Intern Makes a Commitment to Get Dirty

I have read several books over the years in relation to pastoral ministry and one of my favorites is They Smell Like Sheep by Dr. Lynn Anderson. Sheep are smelly and dumb. I remember butchering a sheep with my grandfather once. I had watched him butcher cows and helped him with chickens and sheep, but by far the sheep was the easiest to kill. We took it and hung it by its hind legs from a gambrel while the sheep baa’d and fought nary a bit. Then, grandpa slit its throat and soon we were eating fresh lamb.

“A letter dated July 3 from the [NAAF] leadership… urges Southern Baptists ‘to consider entering a time of prayer and dialogue’ about recent actions” - BPNews

Also…

“Now that I look back on that way of life, I’m not ashamed of it. Our legalism and separation from all ‘worldliness’ kept me from falling into many dangers.” - Olson

Article version at Text and Canon

“imagine my surprise when I opened Princeton historians Kevin Kruse and Julian Zelizer’s new edited volume on contemporary historical myths and found no essay—not a single one!—that challenged myths that came from the left.” - Hedgehog Review

“Judge Sutton, joined by the well-regarded Judge Amul Thapar, breathed life back into the law…. Judge Sutton is doubly skeptical when the ACLU asks the courts “to extend the constitutional guarantees to new territory” - World

Read the series.

“Bishop’s survey is based on an influential 1938 study that helped shape Southern Baptist church music in the 20th century. Published in 1939, that study used survey techniques popularized by George Gallup to gather data from 1,093 local congregations.” - RNS

Locke says his organization took down “All of them, all the rants. Not because what I said was wrong, but because when I became a man I put away childish things. And I’ve learned to say things better.” - CPost

“We asked over 400 people, mostly church leaders, to identify their lowest attended Sundays on a recurring basis. Though our study was not scientific… the large number of responses developed into a clear pattern.” - Church Answers

“Having sunset its church management products marketed under the Faithlife brand, including Equip, Live Stream, Giving and Sites, Logos will now move into the spotlight as the company’s primary public-facing brand encompassing the Logos Bible Study App, Proclaim, Lexham Press and other products.” - RNS

“The Psalms teach us to praise God with the full spectrum of human emotion, from rejoicing to lamenting, sometimes even within the same passage.” - TGC

Read the series.

I’m going to structure this series around several passages that tell churches how they ought to treat their pastors. I’d like to start with a passage at the end of Hebrews:

Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith (Heb 13.7).

We’re told to “remember” our pastor.

That sounds a little weak. Remember his name? Remember that he’s my pastor? Think kind thoughts about him? How’s that going to be of any help?

“How easy it is to succumb to what Charles Hummel called the ‘tyranny of the urgent.’” - Randy Alcorn

“Without question, modern liberalism is a target-rich environment. But so is the integralists’ alternative. Ultimately, it is their human anthropology that is false, and heretical—borrowing from, yet at the same time masking or distorting, Christian doctrine” - Law & Liberty