Christian. Married @EmilyKTyler. Dad to Samuel Calvin & Owen. @SBTS grad. Pastor an English-speaking Church in Bangkok. Pilgrim aspiring to the True Fatherland.
One of the last classes I took in seminary required a few missiology books. All my former studies felt anchored in the word, but I felt like suddenly every author I was reading was flying by the seat of their pants. I think the whole field is due for a rehaul.
We are right now in the middle of our post-Easter secular holiday calendar during which all supposed Easter momentum seems lost and the Lordās Day gets crowded by
Motherās Day
Schoolās Out
Memorial Day
Fatherās Day
Juneteenth
Independence Day
PastorāDonāt compromise your preaching calendar but preach the next text next.
And donāt be discouraged by wavering weekly headcounts during this transient season, but keep doing your best to shepherd your flock.
Just received a phone call from nearby faithful pastor who Iāve known for a long time and with whom I share secondary disagreements on ecclesiology.
He said, āJeff, Iāve got a family here who is conscientiously convinced contrary to our polity, and after many discussions, Iām sending him your way. A great family and a blessing to any church theyāre a part of.ā
Then we shared stories of Godās faithfulness in our lives and ministries, and committed to seeing each other again soon.
This is how local, cheerful, āfor-Christās-kingdom-above-allācatholicity is done, folks.
I'll probably get clobbered for this, but here goes: Please, can everyone, right or left, MAGA or anti-MAGA, Republican or Democrat, stop catastrophizing and trying to get everyone on your side worked up into a rage? It's not Flight 93. We're not on the verge of fascism. We do not need to take desperate measures. Our fellow citizens with whom we disagree are not devils incarnate or personifications of evil. We need to argue with our political adversaries--passionately perhaps--but with respect for their humanity and dignity. We don't need to destroy them. That mustn't be our aim. We all say we believe in democracy. Good! But democracy is all about persuading, giving reasons, engaging one another as fellow citizens, despite our disagreements. Let's rebuild civic friendship. We can do this. (Thank you for your attention to this matter.)
I'm reading "Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor" about Tom Carson (DA Carson's Father).
He was done wrong by TT Shields, the most famous pastor of his era and area. (He ministered as a missionary pastor in Quebec). Shields' actions were so egregious that it caused a huge rift in the Union Baptists and ended up starting a new seminary where most of the students went.
But DA Carson never heard of it. In fact, despite the personal slight, his parents praised Shields to their children , shared his books with them and recounted the good things he had done.
Carson had to learn of the truth of his own father for the first time studying Canadian Baptist history in college.
Oh to have that grace for the people who have wronged us.
Principal Kirk Moore, who tackled the school shooter, walked into prom a few days later to a huge celebration from the students and was named prom king.
Of course, work towards a culture in your church where itās normal for people to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn.
And in your preaching, when the Scriptures speak to mothers/fathers/barren/singles/whoever else, address them from the pulpit then.
One solution to this debate- and I realize it will be hard for people to understand this position- is for churches to not even create special services around āMotherās Dayā or āFatherās Day.ā Just stick to your normal Lordās Day services.
Motherās Day seems emotionally complex because churches havenāt pastored modern women well. This is worldly thinking in disguise and the byproduct of toxic empathy culture (which ladies are especially prone to). There are 51 other weeks of the year to talk about all the people dealing with pain and heartbreak related to motherhood. Having one day to just celebrate moms full throttle is great.
Likewise, a day to celebrate dads is great. You can talk about absent dads and abusive dads and dads who have died 51 other weeks of the year. Imagine if everyone at a birthday party expected the birthday boy to take time before blowing out his candles to acknowledge everyone who had lost a loved one at some point. Thatād be crazy! Itās a time for celebrating life.
The Church should not be reinforcing worldly victim mindset or coaching people into toxic empathy.
It seems harmless to take 60 seconds to acknowledge those who are hurting from the stage, but it subconsciously reinforces wrong & selfish thinking. The woman who once had a miscarriage can mourn that (and weāll mourn with her 51 other Sundays of the year), but she can also celebrate her own mom and be happy for other moms on Motherās Day. We are to rejoice with those who rejoice.
Not every celebration needs to come with a disclaimer and caveat for the people who are hurting. We can weep with them 364 other days per year. Every adult always has a reason to hurt about something. You donāt need to stir mourning into every time of celebration. Itās actually not good for people, which is why the Bible says thereās a time to weep and a time to rejoice.
My 7 year old is reading Sorcererās Stone and my 8 year old is reading Chamber of Secrets. Meanwhile, Iām about to finish reading Half Blood Prince out loud to them.
Thank you @jk_rowling!
(Theyāre sharing a bed because weāre on vacation).
Rather than move forward with spinoffs that cling to the original The Lord of the Rings movies, maybe the time has come to give the franchise a full, Harry Potter-style reboot. https://t.co/iC0DO4qzl6
This will be an extremely controversial article. Prof. @jean_twenge shows that young adults are walking from LGBTQ+ identity and it was more of a social contagion than an orientation. Thereās been a 21% decline in young adults identifying as LGB+ in just 3 years.
The social contagion hypothesis was never just a guess. It was backed by years of clinical data, much of which was never allowed to see the light of day until people like @AbigailShrier forced it out.
Preston Sprinkleās new take on 1 Timothy 2:11ā15 reminds me of this quotation by Doug Moo on mirror-reading (the screenshot is from my book *How to Understand and Apply the New Testament*: https://t.co/JvVACS5ZGW). For my take on 1 Timothy 2, see https://t.co/TnZlbkWI48.
āThough Sprinkle hasnāt provided any new data on the question of the relationship between men and women, his arguments may carry weight with some readers because they echo contemporary cultural norms.ā
https://t.co/fkhUgfs7bO
If your child becomes a reader, about 80% of the education job is already done. That's my honest assessment after working in education for over thirty years. Everything else is secondary. Most parents think science education is important. Yes it is. But if you can't read the biology textbook, you're not going to learn biology.
Reading is the meta-skill that enables all other skills. History requires reading. Science requires reading. Even math increasingly requires reading as it becomes more sophisticated. The child who reads voraciously will figure out everything else. The child who doesn't will struggle with everything.
"The science doesnāt seem so settled after all, and itās important to understand what happened here. The approach of left-of-center Americans and our institutions ā to assume that when a scientific organization releases a 'policy statement' on a hot-button issue, that the policy statement must be accurate ā is a deeply naĆÆve understanding of science, human nature and politics, and how they intersect," writes @JesseSingal for @NYTOpinion.
GIFT LINK: https://t.co/EM3f4S7ZY5
Thereās been a good bit of discussion this week about whether secular courts are able to adjudicate defamation and other types of tort claims between Christians when the claims arise in the ministry context. A š§µ with a few thoughts:
I know itās been a few days, but the entire legacy media ran with the claim that Don Lemon was arrested for doing journalism, when he was actually indicted because a grand jury found he violated worshippersā freedom of expression.
Quick liveš§µthreadš§µ, starting with @nytimes. ⤵ļø