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A La Carte (July 1)

friday

Happy Canada Day to all my fellow Canadians. 🇨🇦

At Westminster Books you’ll find a deal on a resource meant to help younger people engage with the great hymns of the Christian faith.

Today’s Kindle deals include a couple of books.

(Yesterday on the blog: Seasons of Sorrow: The Release Event (You’re Invited!))

The Triviality of Pro-Choice Memes

After SCOTUS handed down its decision, “there was much justified jubilation, as well as frustrated weeping, regret, sorrow, fear, and the full panoply of human emotion that such a movement towards costly justice could be expected to engender from advocates and foes. And, of course, in our culture that has displaced reasoned discourse with the image, the ad, and the infographic, there were many annoying memes.”

Is Church Growth Desirable or Dangerous? Yes.

There are lots of good thoughts in this one. “A lack of prayer is a mark of self-sufficiency, and it is simultaneously a cause of self-sufficiency. There could be few things more dangerous for the souls of church leaders than to lead prayerlessly and then to see growth. Woe to him who does not pray for what he needs, but a double-woe to him to whom God grants success apart from prayer.”

Valor Without Renown

Kristin reflects on valor without renown (and life without social media).

If You Find Listening to Sermons Boring, Try This

“During my lifetime I reckon I’ve heard about 4,000 sermons. Often I have been challenged, uplifted, provoked, transformed. Sadly, other times, I have been bored.” Here are some ways to gain more from the sermon.

Gospel Light in the Red Light District

Lauren Ray shares some of her efforts to represent Christ in Amsterdam’s infamous Red Light District.

Gen Z Mental Health Crisis: How Pastors Can Make a Difference

I’ve heard so much about the Gen Z mental health crisis—as have you, I expect. This article shares ways that pastors (and others) can make a difference.

Flashback: You Don’t Really Know Who Your Friends Are Until…

Jesus is unchanged and unchanging. He will not bow to the changing culture, he will not cede to the rising tide. Jesus will only ever be who he is and who he has always been. And each of us has a choice to make.

Don’t ever degenerate into giving advice unconnected to the good news of Jesus crucified, alive, present, at work and returning.

—David Powlison

  • Temptation

    When It Feels Like the Temptation Is Coming From Outside

    No Christian tradition is perfect, which means that every Christian tradition has its own strengths and weaknesses. Every tradition has areas in which it presses hard to understand and live according to biblical truth, but then also areas in which it inevitably fails to completely match Scripture’s teaching and emphases. Since every tradition is the…

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    A La Carte (November 10)

    A La Carte: Wanderlust / Afraid to have children / When you’re struggling with joy / Autism care for families / Noisy world, quiet heart / Top 5 seminaries / Great Kindle deals / and more.

  • Prayer hands

    Nothing but a Passionate, Heartfelt Sin

    When we think of worship, our thoughts almost always gravitate to singing—the two have become inseparable and almost synonymous in our minds and in our church services. Yet singing is actually just one component of worship. We worship when we sing, but we also worship when we read Scripture, when we listen to a sermon,…

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    Weekend A La Carte (November 8)

    A La Carte: Sending isn’t a consolation prize / Suffering and resilience / The loneliness of being rejected / Word hard, rest hard, trust God / Expand your family at church / Kindle deals / and more.

  • Embodied Holiness

    The Biblical Call To Bodily Care

    Christians can often have a strange relationship with the body. Certain Christian traditions have treated the body as if it is no more than a shell for the soul, a material self that is of little importance when compared to the immaterial self. Other Christian traditions have treated the body as if it is of…