The worst of all possible worlds: Samuel James considers the grip of malaise on the modern world and the hope of the gospel. “There is a place you can reach where there is neither pleasure nor pain, just a prolonged limp between compulsion and guilt. Malaise won’t do what it should do, and it can’t do what it really wants to do. Malaise is the worst of all possible worlds.”
The rise of Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses: Derek Cooper provides background and context on two American religions. He summarizes, “New religious movements such as Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses serve as poignant examples of how deviations from orthodox Christian teaching eventually produce entirely new religions that add or remove foundational truths. These groups, while professing allegiance to Christ, diverge significantly in their doctrines of God and theologies of salvation, revelation, and eschatology.”
Presidents age poorly. Photos of U.S. presidents before and after their terms reveals what we all know: the weight of leading a country impacts you. Take a look at George HW Bush after just four years. Barack Obama had nary a grey hair when he entered office. When he left, he had a lot more salt than pepper.
Leadership isn’t easy. We pastors are called to keep watch over the sheep, prepared to give an account to God for their care. That is a heavy responsibility. Many (myself included) aspire to leadership, not recognizing the burden that comes with caring for people. Some are hard to lead. They disengage, they wander, they chafe at correction, and they demand that their preferences are met.
We’ve all heard how poor the state of mental health in America. But the numbers are truly staggering. “Rates of depression and anxiety in the United States—fairly stable in the 2000s—rose by more than 50 percent in many studies from 2010 to 2019. The suicide rate rose 48 percent for adolescents ages 10 to 19. For girls ages 10 to 14, it rose 131 percent.” We have a serious problem.
Tortured, imperfect, and held by Jesus: Garrett Kell’s touching tribute to his mother, “My two earliest memories of my mother couldn’t be more different. The pleasant one is our evening routine: She’d pull me onto her lap to recite the Lord’s Prayer and sing “The Old Rugged Cross” until I fell asleep. The other is her sobbing in her bathroom, telling me how badly she wanted to die.”
How Jesus helps my unbelief: Erin Mount shares her struggle, “My mind knows that God has not left me, for there is nowhere I can go that he will not also be, but my heart has not felt him. All of the pain and sorrow and sickness would be much easier to bear had I felt God’s comfort, but for whatever reason, God has not felt near. It has felt like he was hiding, and as much as I have tried to find him, I couldn’t.”
I respect my sister and brother-in-law for many reasons. One of those reasons is their wise financial stewardship. With eight kids (you can read the story of why they have eight kids here), they are able to live on a single income, and they managed to pay off the mortgage on their previous house several years ago. That financial flexibility allowed them to purchase a home with my parents two years ago so they could help my dad whose mobility suffered after a series of strokes.
A few years ago our staff created a staff culture document (you can read more about that journey here). It was a vital part of our journey for our staff. It helped change the course of who we are.
Last year we began to take that same journey with our church. We created a church culture document. The purpose of this document is to express who we are at our best and who we aspire to be in the future, by the grace of God.
Gospel Hope for Self-Haters: David Powlison with a layered analysis of something many struggle with. “He is actually saying something that competes with the false voices, and it is not just something you rehearse in your own head. He’s actually inviting you to come out of yourself, out of the death spiral, the vortex of self-hatred, as we are talking about it right now.”
Men and Emotions: I’ve spent a lot of time working with men on this issue (and myself!) and love Joseph Hussung’s approach. He explains, “The purpose of using these tools is simple. We need to be able to express our emotions. We need to be able to express them to our Lord, and we need to be able to express them to others.”
What’s Beneath it all? Sylvia Schroeder considers her cries to God for her daughter’s life, “Were my begging pleas like the Israelites in the Old Testament in their whining complaints? Did my request resemble theirs when they craved meat and disdained manna in the wilderness? Did He grow tired of my pleas?”
Banksy and Beauty from Ashes: Tim Challies with a reflection on a graffiti artist’s statement, “Not too long ago, I read that the mysterious artist Banksy had created several new murals in Ukraine. Going to locations that had experienced the fury of war, he found broken and damaged buildings and used them as his canvas.”
Four Reasons to Be Early to the Sunday Gathering: I appreciate Jacob Crouch’s simple admonitions to church-goers here, “Try showing up just 10 minutes early next week. This isn’t a law from on high, but I really think this could be a prudent way to make the most of a Sunday morning.”
It was a long week. I felt sniped at by a handful of complaints from congregants. I was fighting for a spirit of gratitude as frustration grew in my heart. I stepped into a meeting and did my best to be present, but the inner critic’s voice was loud. I asked a simple question to kick things off: “Where is God growing you?” Tears welled in the eyes of the woman across from me. “New Life is my safe place, my growing place. New Life is my healing place. Every time I come to church, it feels like a hug.”
The world doesn’t trust me. It doesn’t trust you either. But don’t lose heart. Christ has overcome the world. And he calls us into the world with the assurance of his presence and his power. May we live in a manner that reflects his light to this dark world. Daniel promises that, “And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” May we shine for his glory, entrusting our reputation to God and God alone.
Stripped for Parts: Chris Davis considers the destructive power of lust. “Lust instead reduces a person to shapes, angles, and proportions, to their nearness to the body type du jour. Porn literally strips human beings for parts. With a click or swipe, online users can view other human beings, stripped of clothes, in order to view their most intimate parts.”
What to Do When Your Friend is Considering Suicide: Jonathan Noyes offers, “If you are worried about someone, express your concern. Don’t be afraid to ask directly, “Have you thought about suicide?” Using that word will not push them towards taking their own life, but it will remove any ambiguity or grey area in the conversation.”
Giving to Large Churches Drops even as Charitable Giving Rises: Bob Smietana reports, “Churches with budgets under $2 million saw giving go down by 8%, while those with budgets of more than $20 million saw giving go down by 2.5%.”
Kept: Kristin begins, “This is for the one who is feeling wobbly today. Perhaps you have been flattened: cast aside by another, gossiped about, slandered while doing good.”
3 Elements of Biblical Spirituality: J.A. Medders with a helpful visual that clarifies this truth, “What we believe from the Bible, how we love and respond in the heart, and how we live and practice in life—that's true spirituality.”
Don’t Let the Culture War Steal Your Joy: Trevin Wax reflects, “The worrisome quality I find in much of today’s cultural commentary is the absence of joy. It’s as if our souls have shriveled until all that remains is a sense of hopelessness, a quiet resignation that assumes the church cannot thrive in this strange new world.”
Holiness is Transgressive: Brett McCracken’s post sizzles. I love this, “’Transgression’ in contemporary pop culture has become ubiquitous to the point of banality…it’s all so pervasive by now that it’s tiresome, as “transgressive” as the khaki section of Old Navy.”
Church Attendance Drops Among Young, Liberals, and Singles: Christianity Today reports, “Before the pandemic, 75 percent of Americans reported attending religious services at least monthly. By spring 2022, that figure dropped to 68 percent attending at least monthly.”
I Want Him Back (But Not the Old Me Back): Tim Challies on sanctification and the death of his son, “I want Nick back. But I don’t want my old self back. I so badly wish that my son could be part of my life again. But I would so badly hate to lose all the precious ways in which God has been real to me and true to me and present with me in my sorrows.”
Travel Photographer of the Year: If you enjoy photography, make sure you scroll through all of these. The elephant and the lion looking through the buffalo pics are particularly stunning.
Popstar Taylor Swift is coming to Arizona in March. She’ll be playing at the home of the Arizona Cardinals, with over 60,000 in attendance. As I write this, the cheapest tickets (before fees) I can find are just under $400. You’ll need to bring binoculars to make out the tiny form of Swift on stage and your Kleenex to dab the blood from your nose. To sit near the front row, it will set you back $5,775 a ticket. I couldn’t find meet and greet or backstage tour tickets, although I know they are offered. I can’t imagine what these tickets cost. $8,000? $10,000?
During a crisis, we feel a sense of urgency to step in and take charge. But we must wisely sit in the backseat if we want our assistance to have long term effectiveness. If the affected population is not bought-in in terms of leadership and on-the-ground help, aid fails. In fact, there have been many instances where outside help has shown to be unnecessary and unhelpful. In short, “Avoid paternalism. Do not do things for people that they can do for themselves.”
Not long ago, Pew Research released a survey[i] on why Americans do and do not go to church. While 73% of Americans identify as being Christian[ii], surveys say Americans who report going to church weekly is only around 35%.[iii] Our best estimates for our own city (Tucson) are that less than 3% of the population gathers in a local body of believers on any given Sunday.[iv]
I write this as an appeal to the 65% nationally and 90%+[v] in Tucson who don’t attend church regularly.
First, I want to understand you and your reasons for not attending. In a recent survey, those reasons were expressed this way[vi]:
Does that list express your reasons for why you don’t attend church? I would love to hear from you what your reason is.
I am going to walk through the reasons given for not attending and ask if you would reconsider:
“I practice my faith in other ways.”
The largest group of those who don’t attend (37%) say that they practice their faith in other ways. That is wonderful! I’m so glad that you practice your faith beyond Sunday morning. Our faith is to be expressed daily and through various means (prayer, reading the Bible, service, stewardship, etc.).
Help! My Employer Celebrates Gay Pride and Pays for Abortion Travel: Miranda Carls steps into a conversation that impacts many. She wisely treads lightly, “Christian decision-making doesn’t rest squarely on the shoulders of human understanding. It doesn’t fit into a neatly organized decision tree of binary questions.”
Harvesting Idols: Chris Thomas warns us, “Though I reason with myself that money is not the problem, but instead the love of it, the very presence of wealth is a danger to my soul.”
Why the Church? HB Charles shoots straight, “’Unchurched Christian’ is not a biblical category. Ask Paul, John, or Peter what they think about unchurched Christians and they would have responded, ‘Why are you calling them Christians, if they are not a part of the church?’”
Remember: Glenna Marshall reflects on a hard year, “I want to always remember. Pain teaches us to be thankful. Grief keeps us near the cross. Remembering recounts God’s faithfulness. While there are events people experience that cause levels of trauma that must be counseled and handled delicately, what I’m talking about are those significant sequences of suffering that the Lord draws us through that change us, sanctify us.”
Comedy Wildlife Awards: I always enjoy these. How about that squirrel or the big cat’s face plant into the tree?
It’s a Wonderful Telescope: A fun and beautiful connection between the classic Christmas movie and the James Webb telescope you probably didn’t know (I didn’t!).
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