Passivity, Submission, Bullying and Christian Womanhood – "As I grew up, I watched my Christian mother take a lot of emotional and verbal abuse … from my father and my older siblings, from people at church, her own siblings, and neighbors. My mother rarely stood up for herself when she was treated poorly … I was also being taught to bottle up all my anger and never speak up on my own behalf, if mistreated. I was taught that the bully’s feelings were more important than my own … After many decades of living like this, when I got to adulthood I had no clue how to deal with conflict … Sometimes it took weeks, months, or years before I even recognized that I was being used or treated poorly by someone because my mother (and Christian literature, sermons, Christian books, magazine articles, etc) had taught me to never think about myself, my feelings, or my needs, but to be intently “outward-focused,” always striving to meet other people’s needs because to do anything less was supposedly “selfish.” I also had no skills or practice at how to handle conflict. I was taught that conflict was to be avoided, Christian women ought not to debate or argue with anyone nor to be assertive for any reason. Many well-meaning Christians and churches unfortunately encourage girls and women to be this way, to think it is pleasing to God, or that God commands all women to be this way …"
Crafting the Best Sermons – Two links here; first an experienced pastor explains his decision to go back to writing full manuscripts: "I’ve found that if I don’t manuscript, I’m not capable of producing the kind of sermon that will live up to the kind of church that we want to see planted." Then, the practical: "In the old days, before church planting, I’d devote four mornings a week to sermon preparation. On Monday and Tuesday I’d work on exegesis; on Wednesday and Thursday I’d begin to craft a sermon from the exegesis. I now do the same thing, except on one day: Thursday."
Engaging the Culture: An Open Letter to Hozier, composer of Take Me To Church – "I had to find out more about you to understand why someone would write such lyrics. According to interviews you seem to have animus toward the Catholic Church and definitely an issue with Russia's laws against homosexuals. Still to indict all of Christianity seems quite harsh. It is worth noting you wrote this song when you were only 22-years-old. Your fellow Irish rocker Bono has arrived at a very different view of the Church and Christianity with a few more years of life experience. Maybe given some time and a few more interactions with Christ followers you might have a change of heart."
The Weather Impacts Church Revenues – "'You have this perfect storm of people not being able to go to worship and so not bringing in offerings, combined with much higher than usual costs,' Cindy Kohlmann who works with Presbyterian churches in Greater Boston and northern New England, told the Associated Press. She told the news service that the financial toll might force some of the 60 Presbyterian churches in the region to close. Other denominations and religions told the AP of similar predicaments."
Dawkins: Your Devotional Time with the Kids is Child Abuse – "Richard Dawkins has said that children need to be protected from ‘religious indoctrination’ by their parents. The prominent atheist claimed that being brought up in a religious household prevents young people from being ‘properly educated’. Professor Dawkins, a well-known evolutionary biologist, has previously caused outrage by remarking that teaching a child orthodox Christian beliefs about life after death is tantamount to 'child abuse'."
And Now for Something Completely Different – You don't have to know exactly what Biblical Philology is to appreciate the self-congratulatory nature of this academic's knowledge of the original sacred texts.
Don't Fund-Raise Your Missions Trip on Social Media Alone – "It won’t be enough to just promote your mission trip through social media platforms. Fundraising will cost you time, work, money, and personal comfort. Be careful not to go the path of least resistance. Social media is the easiest way to get the word out to lots of people at once, but easy doesn’t always mean effective. Don’t shy away from the hard work of communicating with individuals, organizing events, doing extra jobs, and all kinds of other creative ways people have come up with missionary support."
Museum of the Bible – "When it opens in late 2017, just about every aspect of the planned Museum of the Bible—the building materials, doorways and common areas—is intended to bring to mind the Holy Land or stories from the Bible itself. Hobby Lobby president Steven Green, in search of a home for his museum, purchased the building for $50 million … in Washington, D.C., located a few blocks from the Capitol and the National Mall."
A Crisis in Cosmology – A new film, The Principle is now showing in selected markets and available for presentation in your city. "Dark Energy as we call it is the greatest mystery in all of creation." "Science has said you must stay over in this category here, you're not to go over into the God category, because that's going to destroy our science." "You can go on websites … NASA has started to take down stuff that might hint to a geocentric universe." "We find ourselves in a part of the universe that is perfectly tuned to life."
Quest Church Purchases the former Mars Hill Ballard – Eugene Cho writes, "No one could have imagined the situation at Mars Hill turning out the way that it turned out. When we first heard that the building would be available on the market, we met with their team and they expressed their desire to sell to a church if possible. They received a total of 10 offers—9 from developers with tenants in tow and one from Quest. We weren’t the highest offer but we offered flexible conditions. They were true to their word for which we are grateful."
The Worst Book Ever Written About Jesus – Sadly, books like this are far too common, and often appear shelved at Barnes & Noble next to works more worthy of respect. Customers lacking discernment don't know the difference. "For example, the authors argue that a celibate man in first-century Galilee would have been shocking, so Jesus must have been married. While overstated, we can follow their intended logic. But they also maintain throughout the book that Jesus’ marriage was so scandalous that it had to be covered up. So which was it? Was Jesus’ sexuality scandalous to his first followers or not?"
Frank Viola, The Songwriter – Who knew? And the song is good, though the tune is borrowed.
Paul Wilkinson edits the daily devotional C201, and writes topically at Thinking Out Loud.
