This week’s Free Stuff Friday is sponsored by Radius International.  They are giving away a conference package that includes: 2 tickets, a Radius pullover, and 4 books.

The winner will receive two free tickets to The Radius Conference being held June 28-29, 2023, at Grace Community Church, Sun Valley, CA. This event will be live in person or available as a live stream. John MacArthur, Costi Hinn, Ian Hamilton, Wayne Chen, Brooks Buser, Chad Vegas, and others from the Radius world will be live and in-person to teach on the Great Commission in today’s world.
The winner will receive a Radius International branded pullover. Size and gender options to be selected by the winner from available stock.
The winners will also receive four books that Radius International highly recommends:

No Shortcut to Success
A Manifesto for Modern Missions
By Matt Rhodes
Avoid “Get-Rich-Quick” Missions Strategies and Invest in Effective, Long-Term Ministry
Trendy new missions strategies are a dime a dozen, promising missionaries monumental results in record time. These strategies report explosive movements of people turning to Christ, but their claims are often dubious and they do little to ensure the health of believers or churches that remain. How can churches and missionaries address the urgent need to reach unreached people without falling for quick fixes?
In No Shortcut to Success, author and missionary Matt Rhodes implores Christians to stop chasing silver-bullet strategies and short-term missions, and instead embrace theologically robust and historically demonstrated methods of evangelism and discipleship—the same ones used by historic figures such as William Carey and Adoniram Judson. These great missionaries didn’t rush evangelism; they spent time studying Scripture, mastering foreign languages, and building long-term relationships. Rhodes explains that modern missionaries’ emphasis on minimal training and quick conversions can result in slipshod evangelism that harms the communities they intend to help. He also warns against underestimating the value of individual skill and effort—under the guise of “getting out of the Lord’s way”—and empowers Christians with practical, biblical steps to proactively engage unreached groups.

Missions By The Book
How Theology and Missions Walk Together
by Chad Vegas and Alex Kocman
Across the church, there is a rift between theology and missions. Bad theology produces bad missions, and bad missions fuels bad theology.
We wrongly think that we must choose between making a global impact and thinking deeply about the things of God. But the relationship between theology and missions is symbiotic—one cannot exist without the other. They walk hand-in-hand.

What Is the Mission of the Church?
Making Sense of Social Justice, Shalom, and the Great Commission
by Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert
Christians today define mission more broadly and variably than ever before. Are we, as the body of Christ, headed in the same direction or are we on divergent missions?
Some argue that the mission of the Church is to confront injustice and alleviate suffering, doing more to express God’s love for the world. Others are concerned that the church is in danger of losing its God-centeredness and thereby emphasize the proclamation of the gospel. It appears as though the misunderstanding of the mission persists.
Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert believe there is a lot that evangelicals can agree on if only we employ the right categories and build our theology of mission from the same biblical building blocks. Explaining key concepts like kingdom, gospel, and social justice, DeYoung and Gilbert help us to get on the same page―united by a common cause―and launch us forward into the true mission of the church.

John G Paton
Autobiography of the Pioneer Missionary to the New Hebrides
by John G. Paton
The autobiography of John G. Paton contains everything necessary to make it a missionary classic. Born into a Christian family near Dumfries in 1824, Paton’s early years were marked by a struggle against poverty. He was self-educated, and the training ground for his life’s work was the slums of Glasgow where he laboured with success as a city missionary. With ‘the wail of the perishing heathen in the South Seas’ continually sounding in his ears, he prepared himself to serve overseas and was ordained as a missionary to the New Hebrides in 1858. This group of thirty mountainous islands, so named by Captain Cook, with its unhealthy climate, was then inhabited by savages and cannibals. The first attempt to introduce Christianity to them resulted in John Williams and James Harris being clubbed to death of his wife and child within months of their arrival. Against the savagery and the superstition, despite the trials and the tragedies, Paton persevered and witnessed the triumph of the gospel in two of these South Sea islands. His life is almost without parallel in missionary annals and his account of it is moving and gripping.
TO ENTER
Giveaway Rules: You may enter one time.  The winner will be notified by email. The giveaway closes on Sunday, May 28th, 2023 at midnight.

Good morning from Oakville, Ontario! After many days of flight cancelations due to fog and volcanic ash, conditions in Unalaska finally cleared on Saturday and we were able to make our way back to Canada. We are glad to be home.

Today’s Kindle deals include a selection from Crossway (plus a few others).
(Yesterday on the blog: A Day’s Journey)
How the Customer Review Changed the World
“Of all the web’s achievements, one of its greatest is surely the sheer freedom of access to information it has given to billions of people around the world who would probably otherwise have never come near it.” That access to information has given us abilities we didn’t have before (at least in the same way)—abilities like reviewing anything and everything.
The Table of the Lord
I don’t necessarily agree with this argument for celebrating the Lord’s Supper at an actual table—something that was the practice of the churches I grew up in—but I enjoyed reading and considering it nonetheless.
The Unexpected Blessing of a Rural Church
“As I sat on a hard wooden pew in a tiny church listening to the preacher, my heart raced and beads of sweat covered my forehead. I blushed as I looked to and fro like a trapped rabbit before a hound dog, afraid to be seen if I moved, but filled with a panicked desire to flee. Even in my guilt and shame, my ears and eyes fixated on the pastor as every word he spoke resonated with and pierced my soul.”
Mercilessness in the Name of Mercy
Trevin Wax explains how the very notion of “mercy” can be misused and exploited. “Christianity—in holding people responsible for their actions—ennobles the sinner. Christianity affirms the value of human life and the reality of human freedom. Holding someone accountable is an aspect of showing mercy, of saying, You are a man and not a beast.”
The Common Grace of Conscience
This is a bit of a refresher on the common grace that is the human conscience.
Our Prayer-Answering God (when He says wait)
“As we send up our petitions in Jesus’ name, He at times delights to answer ‘yes’ to our prayers. At other times, He chooses to bring Himself glory by asking us to wait for our requests. His timing is perfect, and it’s possible to wait patiently in His strength.”
Flashback: Solemnity and Celebration, Exclusivity and Inclusivity
The Lord’s Supper is an occasion that is both grave and joyful. Part of the solemnity of the Lord’s Supper is related to its exclusivity—some are told to stay away. Part of the celebration of the Lord’s Supper is related to its inclusivity—so many have been invited to join in.

There cannot be a heaven without Christ. He is the sum total of bliss, the fountain from which heaven flows, the element of which heaven is composed. —Charles Spurgeon

This is going to be a week in which I post only the daily A La Carte articles. I returned from my last trip (which took me to several African nations) with an ugly bug bite and some kind of insect-borne illness. I’m trying to get that sorted and think I’m on the right track. But it has been a rough few days.

Logos users will find some good deals for pastor appreciation month. You’ll also want to look at this month’s free and nearly-free books.
(Yesterday on the blog: Could There Be a Worse Home Than This?)
The Porn Talk: Nine Ways Parents Can Lead Children
Parents will benefit from Garrett Kell’s thoughts on having the porn talk with their kids.
Competing Voices
“One evening, after speaking at a church gathering in Akron, a woman came up to me with an unusual request. She said, ‘You seem to really like stories…would you mind if I shared one with you?’” Who doesn’t like a good story?
The Christian Life Involves Dance, not Drudgery
This is a sweet one. “I feel so privileged to have this little girl in my life, and I am not even her daddy (just her daddy’s daddy). But that day, and every day since, everything in me has wanted to give her a sense of security, love, acceptance, and safety.”
Jesus Loves Me, This I Know
“The little girl talked fondly to her. In fact, she had never done otherwise. And though she had only one eye, and was blind in the other, and though deaf and unable to speak, she was adored. When the other children entered into the room she instinctively embraced the helpless doll even tighter. To her, this baby was precious and nobody else could have her.”
Does Scripture Agree with My Personal Experience?
“I was listening to a podcast recently regarding the subject of maintaining one’s deliverance and lukewarm Christianity. During this discussion between two former ex-New Agers, personal experiences alleging indwelling demons being cast out of them while being professing born-again believers was highlighted, along with no longer calling oneself a sinner but a saint. There was also a heavy emphasis on coming into agreement with God’s Word and speaking it over your situation.”
How to Use Your Hymnal
This is good guidance on using your hymnal.
Flashback: Two Habits of Successful Parents
It is an incredible honor that God allows us to create, birth, and raise other human beings made in his image. With this incredible honor comes great responsibility. You’re unlikely to fulfill this task well, or as well as you could have, without the input of the community God has given you. So take advantage of it!

The biggest reason for the ineffectiveness of contemporary Christianity is a failure to take seriously the radical difference that Jesus calls for as we follow him as King. —Alistair Begg