May the Lord be with you and bless you today.

Today’s Kindle deals include a book for moms, a book for men, and several other good picks as well like a helpful book on personal finance.

(Yesterday on the blog: Are You Binding the Wound or Aggravating It?)

Joe Carter: “Most pastors and church leaders know exactly what to do when members face a health crisis or the loss of loved ones, but we’re often less equipped to address unemployment. In a culture where ‘What do you do?’ is typically the first question we ask on meeting someone new, the loss of employment can feel like the loss of self. We need to do a better job of acknowledging that unemployment isn’t merely an economic hardship but a spiritual problem that often triggers a profound identity crisis.”

“I don’t know what God’s doing, but I feel like He’s calling me to do something. What does Jesus want me to do?” Most people ask these questions at one time or another. Here’s some guidance on answering them.

Jacob celebrates his messy house and what it means.

Casey McCall laments what he sees as a rise of a Nietzschean form of Christianity. “Professing Christians—mainly online—are presenting a twisted version of Christianity that champions Nietzschean values in the name of Christ. Every week, I encounter online personalities using the name of Jesus in pursuit of Nietzschean ideals and goals.”

Rachel calls us to stop and marvel at the wonder of the local church.

“MrBeast not only seems to have missed the social critiques of Squid Game but has taken them one step further and inverted them. Beast Games doesn’t challenge greed, materialism, or predatory entertainment. It revels in them. Despite being billed as clean fun for the whole family, it teaches a twisted message: The love of money is the root of great entertainment.”

The way your church allocates its financial resources tells so much about what you value most and about what you mean to accomplish in the name of Jesus Christ. A healthy church will demonstrate health in its finances.

You cannot be a perfect mom, but you can be a prayerful mom.
—Melissa Kruger

One of the privileges we have as Christians is the privilege of caring for one another—of blessing one another in our difficulties and comforting one another in our sorrows. In such “one another” ministry we represent God and extend love and mercy on his behalf. This is a precious and sacred ministry that falls to every believer.

But it is a ministry that can be done well or poorly. Those who are called to heal can sometimes harm and those who are called to soothe sorrows can sometimes aggravate them. From what I have observed, the difference is often in whether people are led by compassion or curiosity.

Imagine a man who has received a terrible wound on his arm. He visits the hospital and the doctor carefully cleans and bandages it. “Keep that dressing on it,” he says, “and make sure your arm remains in a sling.” The man returns home and his friends gladly begin to care for him, doing those tasks his injury otherwise makes impossible. Sure enough, his arm begins the slow process of healing.

But before long another group of friends grows curious and they say, “We want to see it.” They begin to tug the bandage off to observe how swollen the wound is, how inflamed, how irritated, how messy. And when that patient visits the doctor for a follow-up appointment, the doctor exclaims, “What have you done? That wound will never heal as long as you expose it!”

Christians who have suffered soon learn the difference between those who dress their wounds and those who aggravate them—those who help heal their sorrows and those who make them worse. So often what people want in their suffering is to be treated gently and to allow their hearts to heal at a slow but manageable pace. Though time does not heal all wounds, wounds cannot heal without time. What can often hinder healing is exposure—exposure that is unnecessary and caused by curiosity rather than compassion.

Though time does not heal all wounds, wounds cannot heal without time.Share

“What caused his death? What were his last words? What did it feel like to know you are now fatherless, now childless, now a widow?”

“What kind of abuse did you suffer? How bad was it?”

“Tell me about the tragedy you witnessed. Recount the whole scene, describe all the events, and tell me what you felt as it unfolded.”

Such questions may sometimes be appropriate, perhaps especially when asked by a counselor or another person who has training, who has expertise, and who has been granted permission. But such questions are often motivated by curiosity more than compassion and asked by those who may be clumsy rather than skilled. Such people can inadvertently expose the wound and in that way, risk hindering the healing that God’s work has already begun.

So when you have the opportunity to reach out to someone who is hurt and hurting, consider whether you are being led by compassion or curiosity. Consider whether you are binding the wound or aggravating it. Consider whether you are helping God’s gracious work of healing or whether you may in fact be hindering it.

Inspired in part by De Witt Talmage

Westminster Books is offering a great deal on a new book that looks like it may become the definitive Christian response to transgender theory.

Today’s Kindle deals include the usual variety of good books.

Stephen McAlpine has a thought-provoking article about his group of Jesus Geezers and the sad death of Gene Hackman.

“While we probably know that prayer should be at the top of the list of what needs our time and attention each week, it is often bumped to the bottom of the priority list. As a result, we begin to do ministry on the fuel of our own strength and abilities rather than the strength and ability of God. Of course, it’s just a matter of time before that fuel runs out.”

Easter is a highlight in the Christian calendar—how can we best celebrate the joy of the season? Make Easter special this year with resources from 21Five, Canada’s source for gospel-centered books and products. Save 10% on their entire Easter collection! (Sponsored)

Alan Noble has some helpful and encouraging thoughts on failure. “Yes, we are going to keep failing at life, again and again. Failing people we love. Failing at things we love. Failing the God we love. But we have a path for dealing with failure. It takes faith, courage, and hope.”

“Armchair therapists sit behind a microphone and fill their podcasts with stories about how happiness comes from looking out for yourself above all, from grasping for all that you can get in this life, from cutting people out who don’t appreciate you like they should. It seems like everywhere we look, we’re encouraged to draw a line, set a boundary, confront someone, rubs someone’s nose in their own wrongdoing. But as Christians, we have to recognize that this messaging, even if it’s branded as Christian, is almost always overblown and self-centered.”

Writing for 9Marks, Daniel Schreiner offers nine thoughts on John Mark Comer’s bestselling Practicing the Way.

It is crucial that we all understand the relationship between fear and wisdom.

I…want to ensure I’m not labeling my pet doctrine a gospel issue simply as a means to prevail in arguments. After all, if everything’s a gospel issue, I guess nothing’s a gospel issue.

Small faculties actively used are of more value than great faculties unemployed.
—De Witt Talmage

Amazon is beginning a “Big Spring Sale” today. As of the time I am scheduling this post, I don’t know whether it will include books (though it will definitely include much else). Check back in the morning or give it a look yourself and we shall see what they’ve got for us.

There is an especially strong batch of Kindle deals today, so be sure to take a peek.

(Yesterday on the blog: When Christians Crash and Burn)

Cyril Chavis Jr. explains how Gen Z’s spirituality may mimic the religion of ancient Ephesus. “Christianity will only become compelling to a post-Christian culture when people realize that Jesus’s demand for exclusive worship comes coupled with Jesus’s demand to trust him for security amid life’s threats. This powerful Jesus melts away the spiritual anxiety that animates our religious pluralism.”

Murray Campbell tells about someone in his home country of Australia who has done essentially that. “Instead of bringing the good news of Jesus to the cyber world, Escalante is now making billions from the credit of the greedy and the foolish and the vulnerable. Stensholt can spot the contradiction, as can many a reader, but what about Escalante?”

Todd Stryd answers a question about building a good relationship between parents and their teenage children.

I very much agree with this article which makes interesting observations like this one. “I’ve spent my entire life in American evangelical churches and institutions, and I can probably count on one hand the times I’ve heard or read a women’s group described with the word ‘accountability.’ Instead, when a women’s small group Bible study or gathering is announced, the words orbiting it are almost always things like encouragement and fellowship.”

Andrea shares a beautiful tribute to her son—a tribute many others will find meaningful.

Bethany Belue tells some of what she has learned from her perspective in the second row—the place where the pastor’s wife sits.

Not surprisingly, commentators are a bit divided on God’s intent in this injunction. There are broadly two different schools of thought. While some scholars choose one of the two options, a good number suggest both are relevant.

While others are congratulating themselves, I have to sit humbly at the foot of the cross and marvel that I’m saved at all.
—C.H. Spurgeon

The pictures quickly made their way around the world—pictures of an aircraft lying upside down in the snow just beyond runway 23 at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. On February 17, Delta flight 4819 landed hard, shearing off the right wing and flipping over before finally sliding to a stop. Remarkably, despite the crash and subsequent fire, all of the passengers and crew escaped. Equally remarkably, few received significant injuries.

Canada’s Transportation Safety Board recently released their preliminary report on the accident and there was one detail that struck me as especially significant and thought-provoking—a detail that teaches an important spiritual lesson.

As far as I can tell, everything that went wrong with flight 4819 went wrong in the last 14 seconds. The details are technical and I needed a pilot friend to explain them to me, but essentially the first officer reduced the engine’s thrust too much and too early—at 153 feet above the runway instead of just a few and at 14 seconds before landing instead of just one or two. The plane responded by slowing to such a degree that it began to descend too quickly and could no longer respond to the pilot’s controls. Thus, what should have been a gentle touchdown was instead slamming a 73,000-pound machine into the ground.

Here is what stood out to me: The flight lasted some 8000 seconds and all was well until 7986 of them had passed. The pilots delivered on well over 99% of their job and to that point they had done everything well. But then they monumentally messed up and a poor decision led to terrible consequences and very nearly to a deadly catastrophe. So even though you could make the argument that the pilots were 99% successful, I say they failed completely. Why? Because their job was not to get their passengers to within 150 feet of the runway and within 14 seconds of a safe touchdown. Their job was to get them gently to the ground and safely to the gate. To fail so catastrophically at 99% of the way through the flight was to fail to such a degree that it would have been better if they had not set out at all.

Even though you could make the argument that the pilots were 99% successful, I say they failed completely.Share

I am allowing this situation to be a reminder to me that when it comes to my life and ministry, I am capable of making a shipwreck of it (or a plane crash, if you prefer) before the end. Even though I may have set out well and be doing okay today, this does not necessarily mean I will finish strong. In fact, I could even blow it after 99% or 99.9% of my time is complete. It is as possible to crash and burn with 14 seconds left as with hundreds, thousands, or millions.

Hence, I know I need to pray all the more that God will keep me to the very end, not to almost the end. I need to continue to examine myself until I see his face, not until I am content with my own progress. I need to continue to love, meditate upon, and apply the gospel until I’ve touched down safely in that land where I will finally be far beyond all peril.

Good morning. Grace and peace to you.

Today’s Kindle deals include some books that will definitely prove helpful in your Christian walk.

This is such a sweet reflection on love and marriage and the things that drive you crazy.

Samuel provides an interesting way to understand wokeness: As a kind of tax on human nature. “Wokeness, in its most visible expressions, asks people to apologize for their humanity. It asks women to be ashamed of loving Snow White’s love story, or of daydreaming about being the princess in the castle. It asks women to live in defiance of the realities of aging or the loneliness of middle-aged life without a spouse or children. It asks men to repent of their competitiveness and physicality.”

Lent is a season of repentance and renewal, turning away from our sins and toward God’s mercy. Although, knowing how to practically engage with the riches of the church year isn’t always easy. Simplify Lent with 21Five, Canada’s source for gospel-centered books and products. Shop their Lent collection at 10% off, which includes books, prayer journals, devotionals and more! (Sponsored)

Jonathan Threlfall considers the rise of wellness as an alternate religion.

Brett McCracken lists his 50 most edifying films of the 21st century so far. He set two rules: No r-rated movies and he needed to include at least one movie from each year of the century.

Heidi writes about “freckles, thigh gaps, Asian vs Western beauty, and ageing.”

Christopher Yuan: “More than fifteen hundred years have passed since the fall of the Roman Empire, yet the moral decay and indulgence that contributed to its collapse continue to echo through Western civilization today. The Roman statesman and orator Cicero once proclaimed, ‘History is the teacher of life’ (Historia magistra vitae est). While proponents of so-called ‘progressive’ lifestyles celebrate their cause, history reminds us that what is labeled as progressive is often regressive.”

Our steps grow lighter when we repent of every sin, when we cast off every transgression, when we remove every hindrance. Holiness in our lives brings lightness to our steps.

Christ embraced me with all my sin and guilt that I may embrace him in all his righteousness.
—Frederick Leahy

Every now and again I like to share an example of a pastoral prayer from Grace Fellowship Church. I do this because there are few examples of pastoral prayers online and I thought these may serve to inspire themes, passages, or ideas as other pastors and elders prepare to lead their churches in prayer. Please feel free to use or to adapt these prayers however you see fit. Here is one pastor Paul Martin prayed before our church not too long ago. (See here for other examples)

Lord God,

Thank you for the gift of prayer and allowing us to approach you now with our words and our hearts. We are all here looking to you, O God. Open your ears to our praises and petitions. Hear us as we pray.

We are so grateful that you have made yourself known to us. We praise you for your perfect Word, our Bibles. Thank you for truth and clarity and knowledge. We don’t live in the dark, and that is only because you have turned on the lights for us. What a privilege to live in this uncertain world with certainty and conviction and hope. We love knowing who you are and what you have done.

We praise you for sending your beloved and only Son, that we might have a Saviour. How we needed a Saviour, not just an example or life coach or wise sage. We needed saving and you sent your own Son to die for our sins. We will never get over how much you love us. So we praise you for being our Creator. We are not accidents, we are yours! We praise you for being our lawgiver, that we might learn how to live. We praise you for your profound patience, so that many may to come to repentance.

At the same time, Lord, we are thinking of the many in this world, even the many in this room, who have not repented from their sins and trusted in that Saviour. People who have heard lots about Jesus but never trusted in Jesus. O Lord have mercy on their souls. Even today, send your Spirit to save the lost. Bring them all the way to Jesus. Just as Joshua stood before the people and told them to choose this day whom they would serve—their idols or the real God—Lord, bring the doubting, or skeptical or denying to the crossroads today and graciously enable them to say, “I choose Jesus!”

Bring reviving in our friendships and relationships here at Grace Fellowship Church, Lord. Help the sister who feels lonely to find a sister to share life with. Give that brother that has been going solo a brother to confess his sins to and pray with.

And as our members go to the local nursing home to love the residents there, bless them in their service. We pray, O God, that you would snatch many from the fire, just as you saved that thief on the cross, save many of the residents, even those who perhaps cannot express that faith with their words anymore, but most definitely with their hearts.

As we pray for them, we ask that you would stop the euthanasia in our country. Revoke Medical Assistance in Dying. We assume this would take an action of our government, so we pray for our new Prime Minister and ask that you might use him to overturn the legislation that allows for this killing. Take the heart of Mr. Carney as you took the heart of Nebudchenezzar of old, and surprise us all by using him to advance your good in this land. Have mercy on him, Lord. Save him, his wife and his children. Let him lead this country in a way that we can live peaceful and quiet lives, being godly and dignified in every way.

And now help us to shake off all the silly distractions and discouragements that lead us to only see what is right in front of us, and show us Christ, Christ our Lord and King, sitting on your throne, waiting for us, who will look us in our eyes and say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Lift up our eyes to that Great Day when all the saints from all of time will stand about that throne and exalt the one who gave his life for us. Lift up our eyes to get just a glimpse of glory today, a glimpse of what awaits those who love the Lord. Show us more of you by opening your word to us. Make us hearers who do what you say. Lord God, you are everything to us. There is none like you. So come now and help your people.

This we ask in the Name of the One who gave his life for us, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

My gratitude goes to Focus on the Family for sponsoring the blog this week to tell you about their marriage getaways for pastors. “Whether you seek renewal, guidance, or healing, Focus on the Family’s Weekend Getaways cater to your needs, offering a safe, distraction-free environment.”

Today’s Kindle deals include at least a couple of solid picks.

(Yesterday on the blog: The Future of New Calvinism)

This is a really enjoyable article on Iain Murray. He talks about life, loss, ministry, biography, and much else.

Be sure to read Rachel Welcher’s free verse.

Joseph Holmes explains how the horrific film Anora shows that #MeToo is coming to its end. “But on the other hand, it was kind of unbelievable and surreal. It seemed like only yesterday that the #MeToo movement was in full swing, with the entire culture shaming Hollywood for pressuring women to sexualize themselves for the male gaze.”

Justin offers some thoughts on the daily midlife crisis. “Your twenties are a particularly challenging decade but personally, I experience a mid-whatever crisis at least once a week. What am I doing? Should I have been somebody different? Did I miss some crucial decision years back – a turn in the road I should have taken? Have I wasted my life?”

I really enjoyed Esther Shin Chuang’s article at CT about building the habit of family worship. (You should be able to read the article, though you may need a free account to do so.)

“If the Númenóreans were offered Christ, they wouldn’t have wanted him. That’s because they wanted something else more. They wanted to find a way around death, despite the impossibility. They wanted an imperishable life without first having to put off the perishable. For people bent on dodging death, the message of Jesus seems irrelevant. But it only seems irrelevant because we’ve convinced ourselves that something fading is more trustworthy, more enjoyable, and less intimidating.”

There is something satisfying about complaining, isn’t there? Even though we know it’s sinful, we still find a sick satisfaction in it. For some reason, airing our grievances seems to be a form of therapy.

Christianity is the key that fits the lock of the universe.
—Nancy Pearcey

I was intrigued by Aaron Renn’s recent article The Maturation of New Calvinism. His thesis is that “New Calvinism has shifted from an ‘All-Star team’ model designed to exert influence over the broader evangelical world to a post-superstar model that primarily serves its own community. This represents the maturity of the movement, perhaps putting it on a sustainable footing for the future.” And what is that future? He believes it’s a future of being a subculture within broader evangelicalism rather than being what it may have once aspired to—a gatekeeper or shaper of evangelicalism. Its particular subculture is made up of “educated strivers in urban centers, college towns, and professional class suburbs.” Renn believes that New Calvinism would do well to simply embrace and serve this narrow but significant demographic rather than attempting to reach far beyond it.

All Stars

Renn points out rightly that many of the “all-stars” who were first associated with the movement, who took a leading role in it, and whose ministries drew many people to it have now died (e.g. R.C. Sproul, Tim Keller), retired (e.g. John Piper—from local church ministry, at least), or moved on (e.g. Mark Driscoll). It is certainly true that the movement does not have the same kind of “statesmen” it did in the heady days of the first Together for the Gospel. By and large, these leaders have not been replaced by younger alternatives whose voices reach far into broader evangelicalism. While this new reality means the movement is not drawing as many people as it once did, Renn believes this is actually a positive development as it ultimately offers greater stability and viability.

Taking my cue from Renn, I want to share a few of my thoughts and recollections about the early days of the movement and consider what its future may be.

Beginnings

I have no knowledge of anyone who was deliberately trying to manufacture a new wave of Calvinists around the turn of the century. Thus, I have understood the New Calvinism to have begun in a kind of spontaneous and decentralized way—a way that was unique to the early days of the internet but repeated across a host of interests, hobbies, subcultures, and even religions.

While there may have been many background factors, an especially important one was this: A lot of people in Western contexts found themselves restless in their traditional churches or church growth churches. They were looking for an alternative that promised something more—more than the triteness of church growth philosophies and more than the deadness of certain traditional churches. Some took the route of the Emerging Church and gravitated toward theological liberalism. Some took the route of the New Calvinism and gravitated toward theological conservatism.

In my understanding, then, this movement began on a peer level with people passing along sermons, books, and articles and forming online communities through the early forms of social media—forums and blogs. (Remember: at this time there was no YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or podcasts.) As people engaged with this content, they went in search of churches that were pastored by men who believed the same things as the people they were reading or listening to—Piper, Sproul, MacArthur, and so on. This movement had all the passion and brashness of youth and grew quickly.

A Weak Core

In these early days, there was a lot of excitement about TULIP and the Five Points. There was excitement about the Five Solas, perhaps especially around 2017 and the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. Calvinistic soteriology was the heart of it all and to so many it was eye-opening and heart-stirring.

But over time, people stopped writing books and preaching sermons about Calvinism. The doctrine became assumed instead of explicit and optional instead of necessary. It became acceptable to be a four-point Calvinist or perhaps something more like a three-and-a-half-point Calvinist. The nomenclature changed from “New Calvinism” or “Young, Restless, Reformed” to “Gospel-Centered” at least in part because this framing deprioritized Calvinism and allowed broader inclusion. Now people could be part of the movement even if they did not want to accept or be associated with Calvinism or Reformed theology.

It quickly became apparent that the New Calvinism was not made up of a pure traditional Calvinism much less a pure and traditional expression of Reformed theology and practice. Not many were reading or following the Westminster Confession, The Belgic Confession, The London Baptist Confession, or other historical guides to Protestant faith and practice. Not many were following the regulative principle of worship or teaching their children the various catechisms. To use an analogy, the New Calvinism was never Amish furniture made of real hardwood but Ikea furniture made up of a veneer that covered a softer core. If this was true at the start, it became truer still as time went on. Many of the people who latched on to the movement and even began to lead it were interested in some level of Calvinistic soteriology, but not in a full and historically grounded expression of Reformed Christianity. Many latched onto it because for a time it was on-trend and exciting.

A major shift took place when what had once been a classic early-internet movement—decentralized and uncontrolled—began to become institutionalized. Institutions began to decide the issues that would define the movement and gatekeep the people who were permitted to influence it. Eventually, different institutions began to compete among themselves which caused both contraction and division. The core shifted from shared doctrine to shared institutions and allegiances. Commonality was no longer one of theology but of affiliation or loyalty. Now the New Calvinism was several New Calvinisms that no longer got along very well.

I Miss the Early Days

I often miss the early days of the movement—the days when people were drawing wide boundaries and expressing wonder at common theology. It was a time of excitement over shared doctrine and it was a joy to experience it. There was excitement in these days, though also arrogance and naiveté. It did not take long to learn that there was far less commonality than anyone had thought and that the movement was far less sanctified and unified than we believed. It took less to upend it than any of us would have imagined.

I will need to leave it to historians to explain exactly what happened, but certainly the sense of togetherness could not sustain all the theological differences or the differing perspectives on race and racism, pandemic responses, changing politics and presidencies, and so on. It seems to me that the movement sputtered on the basis of cultural factors as much as theological ones. Either way, it is now but a shadow of its former self and never reached the heights it had aspired to. As Renn says, “New Calvinism’s ability to project influence over the evangelical field has radically diminished.”

The Future

I wish I could speak confidently about the future of New Calvinism. Part of the difficulty in doing so is that the movement as a whole has pretty much ceased to exist. A label like “New Calvinism” doesn’t mean much anymore. “Young, Restless, Reformed” may have been accurate 20 years ago, but many who first fit the label are no longer very young, very restless, or very Reformed. “Gospel-centered” was tried and found wanting or inadequate. Whatever the movement is or was, it has now splintered into many parts, some of them antagonistic toward the others. There are few leaders who are respected across each of the splintered groups which means there is nobody who is likely to be able to bridge divides and bring reconciliation. I foresee no return to the unity of the early days.

But what I do see is lots of ministries continuing to create and distribute excellent resources. We have been spoiled with an endless flow of books, Bibles, and study resources and I have every reason to believe that will continue. Seminaries will continue to train future pastors who value these doctrines and love to exposit God’s Word. Even better, I see lots of churches continuing to press on with the doctrines of grace at their core and an emphasis on preaching the Word at the center of their worship. This may be the most enduring and important legacy of the movement.

Circling back to Renn, he says “New Calvinism has shifted from an ‘All-Star team’ model designed to exert influence over the broader evangelical world to a post-superstar model that primarily serves its own community.” That much seems demonstrably true. He also says that what remains best serves “educated strivers in urban centers, college towns, and professional class suburbs” and the movement should be content with this. I both agree and disagree.

I have spent time with Christians in something like 40 different countries that span a host of languages and cultures. I have been amazed to see the reach and the impact of resources we associate with the New Calvinism. Way out in the bush in southern Africa, far from electrical grids or running water, I spotted an ESV Study Bible on a pastor’s desk beside a stack of MacArthur commentaries. Deep in the south of Chile, I had several people bring copies of my books in Spanish so I could sign them. In India, Brazil, Mexico, and Mozambique I’ve been to bookstores filled with the books this movement has created, all translated into local languages. I have seen trucks loaded with 9Marks books bumping along rutted roads to deliver them to far-off places where these may be the only books local pastors will own.

So even as we necessarily analyze the movement from a North American and Western-world perspective, I think it’s important to appreciate the inroads it has made elsewhere, often delivering resources where they can be used and appreciated by people who have little interest in the petty quarrels that have torn so much apart. And so perhaps the future of New Calvinism is beyond the Western world and even the developed world and is even now putting down deep roots in the unlikeliest of places. We can but hope and pray.

A note for my fellow Canadians: It appears that beginning in early April, books from American sources—which includes many of our favorite Christian publishers—will be subject to a 25% tariff. If you are planning to purchase books anyway, you may want to do so before that date. My understanding is that e-books will not be subject to the tariff.

Today’s Kindle deals include a book from Christopher Ash on teaching the Psalms and Katie McCoy’s excellent To Be a Woman.

I appreciated reading Daniel Strange’s reflections on ARC 2025. “How do you judge something where you heard things that made you gasp ‘Wow!’ (in a good way) and ‘Wow!’ (in a less good way)? As a conservative evangelical theologian and someone interested in cultural apologetics and evangelism, I wonder how many (if any) cheers we should give ARC and the cultural trend it represents.”

This is an interesting tale of God using a person in unexpected ways.

We want to bless you and your spouse with FREE Marriage Getaway for pastors—a 3-day, all-inclusive getaway for pastoral couples at one of Focus on the Family’s beautiful retreat centers. This is your chance to step away, refresh your relationship, and return to ministry strengthened and renewed for God’s Kingdom work! (Sponsored)

“Leadership is about more than influence—although it certainly isn’t about less. It is also about taking responsibility for the influence that we have. The leader takes responsibility to influence others in the right ways and unto the right ends or goals. Leaders don’t just influence; they take responsibility to ensure that they are influencing rightly.”

Bethel McGrew: “This is the abyss that yawns before the mother or the father who has ushered a child through irreversible, body-wrecking procedures. It’s no wonder so many of them angrily turn away, just like so many mothers and fathers who have aborted their unborn children.”

Barnabas Piper shares 7 standards for good writing. “Each standard is open for debate, but combine them all and a sieve of sorts is formed to sift the poor works and let through the quality ones.”

I have only ever heard the term “surrender to ministry” in the American South, though perhaps it’s used elsewhere. Jason Dees explains what he appreciates about it.

“All things for good” is a promise God’s people must take by faith and cling to with tenacity in times of great difficulty. We need to believe that God has the ability to work all things for good and to trust that he actually is working all things for good. 

Christians aren’t distant spectators with a cold propositional knowledge of God; they are children who know their Father personally and are loved by him extravagantly.
—Sam Luce & Hunter Williams