May the Lord be with you and bless you today.

Westminster Books has a special on a new book you may want to consider for the kids or grandkids.
The steady stream of Kindle deals continues today.
24 Lessons from 24 Years of Marriage
Jen reflects on 24 years of marriage by offering 24 lessons she has learned along the way.
Pastoring in a Pandemic: Of Grey Hair and Glory
This is an interesting take from Mark Jones. “Moving forward, even today, where the wounds have not fully healed, will only be possible if we can all try to admit we may have made mistakes, acted with self-righteousness at times, and failed to adequately appreciate that certain contexts were fraught with problems we cannot fully understand or appreciate. Love believes all things, and I’d like to believe that while my brothers who defied were acting in love, the same was also true of us who did not defy but did so out of love as well.”
Tuma Kitu Home
Writing from a Kenyan context, Kuza writes about the cultural obligation for children to provide for their parents and family. “Does scripture advise on how to approach this matter of family support? Is it in line with the principles set forth for the saint as an expression of practical love? Yes.”
The Trauma of Criticism
I appreciate this pastoral letter. “The truth is that all of us find criticism difficult. If you are anything like me your initial response to criticism is often pretty ungodly and I find it tempting to climb up on my defensive high horse. Tragically, criticism can be devastating and send us into a spiral of self pity.”
God Cares for the Odd Sparrow
“Sometimes I can read the Bible and miss something totally obvious. For example, have you ever noticed that Jesus tells of God’s care of the sparrows two different ways?”
Never Underestimate the Power of a Handwritten Note
“We live in a day and time where life is lived digitally more than ever before. We communicate primarily through apps, texts, and emails. Businesses increasingly send advertisements, bills, and communications via email than snail mail. Even birthday cards are now sent virtually. This means, a handwritten note is a rare gift.” Yes, rare and a gift.
Flashback: The Uninvited Lodger
God’s righteous anger toward his people is real, but lasts only as long as necessary; his favor toward his people is equally real, and never ends.

…if we fasten ourselves to Christ when life is a sinking ship, then we learn to treasure him as our anchor. We discover that our faithfulness is tethered to his, especially during the troubling seasons of life. —Glenna Marshall

There are a lot of people in the world who are in positions of leadership, but there are not a lot of true leaders. There are many people who achieve positions of prominence, but few who can back up that position with the ability to lead. And though the shelves of bookstores are groaning under the weight of all the books dedicated to the topic, and though they seem to sell in such vast quantities, still few of us can say we are being led well.

New to those shelves—the shelves, at least, of stores that sell Christian books—is Jason Allen’s Turnaround. For the past 10 years, since he was 35 years old, Allen has been the president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He took on the position at a time when the seminary was in grave peril—it was mired in controversy, burdened with debt, and financially upside-down. Its campus facilities were in a state of disrepair and its faculty undistinguished. Little wonder, then, that there was talk of closing it down.
Today, though, MBTS is a thriving and world-class institution that is financially solvent, that has strong campus morale, that features some lovely new buildings, and that is the envy of many other seminaries. Under Allen’s leadership and through God’s kind providence it has experienced a significant turnaround.
That turnaround forms the narrative thread that is the basis of Allen’s book. “This book,” he says, “turns conventional leadership wisdom on its head. I am not a leadership expert hocking new insights or new approaches, nor do I plan to sell you a never-ending stream of leadership resources. In fact, I’ll make another confession: if you’re looking for a leadership guru, you’ve come to the wrong place.”
Faithful leadership is actually simple, he insists. That’s not to say it’s easy. But it is foundationally simple. Leadership, he argues, “is largely intuitive, commonsensical, and yes, spiritual in nature.” That intuitive, common-sense, spiritual kind of leadership is described in the book’s ten chapters. In the first he describes the importance of knowing your specific context and in the second the significance of strong convictions. From there he moves to defining mission and pursuing vision. He shows how leaders must cultivate trustworthiness, cherish the teams they put in place, and insist on accountability for themselves and others. He writes about stewarding money well, communicating clearly, and fostering just the right kind of culture. He continually uses the turnaround at Midwestern as an illustration of these principles in action.
I have long observed that some of the most effective books are those that describe principles through the lens of narrative, and in this book Allen does that with great effectiveness. He illustrates 10 essential principles and practices in the remarkable story of an institutions’s transformation. It is interesting, it is helpful, and it is challenging—challenging to anyone who is in a position of leadership, whether in home, in church, in business, or anywhere else. I am glad to recommend it.

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This week’s Free Stuff Friday is sponsored by Ligonier Ministries, who also sponsored the blog this week.

 Sometimes one word is all that stands between the truth and a lie, between life and death. In the Reformation, that word was sola, “alone.” Ligonier Ministries is giving away free copies of the ebook The Heart of the Reformation, a new 90-day devotional on the five solas of the Protestant Reformation. This ebook is available for all Challies readers to download for free, and ten Free Friday winners will receive the paperback edition.
Learn more about the book here.

TO ENTER
Fill out the form below for your chance to win one of 10 free editions of The Heart of the Reformation. This will add you to Ligonier Ministries’ mailing list.

One entry per household. Open to residents of U.S. and Canada only. Giveaway ends November 11th, 2022. Winners will be notified by email.