Good morning. I hope you enjoy this A La Carte collection. I hope you’ll also enjoy Saturday’s Weekend edition which will have some long-form content and reader recommendations, and Sunday’s Works & Wonders, which is coming together well.
Sales & Deals
Today’s Kindle deals include several good books from Christian Focus. They cover the evangelism, the doctrine of God, the Lord’s Supper, and more.
Westminster Books has a deal on a book they describe as a practical guide on a neglected topic.
Recommended Reading
Are You Losing Heart? Kimberly Wagner says “It’s possible for a believer to enter a hard season and feel forgotten, even question God’s care. Losing heart can happen, especially in the darkness of despair.” Yet she wants you to know that there is always hope in that darkness.
Walking Alongside Parents of LGBTQ+ Identifying Children: A Call to the Church. Writing for Harvest USA, Joy Worrell offers ways Christians can support parents whose children identify as LGBTQ+. “Many parents of LGBTQ+ identifying children tell us they hear little more than passing references to sexuality and gender confusion from the pulpit or in Sunday School classes. As a result, they often suffer in silence, assuming they’re alone or that only ‘dysfunctional families’ face such struggles. To be sure, there are many churches faithfully walking with hurting families. But when a ministry like ours hears the same story repeatedly, it becomes clear that this is an area where the church must grow.”
Why America Doesn’t Have Insane Asylums Anymore. As I make my way through old books and study history, I often read of insane asylums. Yet such institutions don’t exist anymore. In this article, Marvin Olasky considers why that is and what has or has not replaced them. “The 19th-century asylum movement had begun with … compassion. But it turned rancid. Underfunded and overcrowded, without enough food, heat, or competent nursing care, these facilities became places of horror, as Bly would witness. A Psychiatric Quarterly story, ‘From Beauty to Despair,’ tells the story succinctly.”
Learning From the Jason Arday Tragedy. David Robertson took some time after the Jason Arday story came to a tragic end, and now passes along several lessons. “I had no desire to add to the endless articles that have appeared in both the secular and Christian media about this subject. However, Andy Burnham who rightly described the death as ‘a tragedy on so many levels’, called for a ‘moment of reflection’. I have heeded the call and have spent the last week reading an unhealthy amount of articles and other people’s reflections, so I thought I would write something on what the Church can learn from this.”
The England I Knew Is Gone. Arday’s name also comes up in Carl Trueman’s lament for the England he once knew. “England exemplifies the political shape a country takes when expressive individualism grips the imagination of its ruling class. It is impossible for any culture to allow everyone to be who they want to be, from transgender activists to traditional Christians. Somebody therefore has to bring order to the potential chaos, and as expressive individualism tends strongly toward the transgressive, with its core notion that personal authenticity lies in breaking with the herd (that is, the social expectations of the past), the culture-makers will typically favor those who want to demolish received ideas and traditions deemed stumbling blocks to self-realization. This turns morality on its head.”
What Is a Liturgy, and Should We Have One? It’s important to know that your church has a liturgy. However, there are good liturgies and bad ones. In this article, Jonathan Threlfall urges churches to embrace a good and meaningful liturgy for their worship services.
A La Quiz
Did you pay attention to A La Carte this week? Find out by testing yourself against the three most-clicked articles of the week.
A well-known personality recently attacked Calvinism, and Anthony Faggiano replied. Who was that well-known personality? (Find out)
Ken Davis put out a call for pastors to speak to their parishioners in particular ways. What was he calling them to? (Find out)
Last weekend, Grace Community Church announced their new senior pastor. Who is it? (Find out)
Flashback
No Fear of Old Age. Why should we despise the fact that a story begun must also end? Should we not anticipate it as the beautiful final act? Should we not determine to close the story in a way that is beautiful and admirable and honoring to God?
If I say nothing in praise of a man while he lives, I will keep silent when he is dead.
—De Witt Talmage
