A La Carte (October 28)

Sales & Deals

Today’s Kindle deals include lots of good books from New Growth Press and other publishers. Among them you’ll find several good options from Jared Wilson.

Recommended Reading

Goodbye, ‘Sam’s Club’ Megachurch. Hello, Stained Glass. Christianity Today reports on what I consider a welcome trend: church buildings that look like churches instead of warehouses. It begins this way: “Trinity Presbyterian finally has a church building of its own. That building has arches. And carved hammerbeams that tell the story of the Bible.”

3 Reasons Why Christians Should Lay “R.I.P.” to Rest. Nick Batzig thinks it would be best for Christians to lay R.I.P. to rest. “I’ve noticed something of a concerning trend over the past several years. It is the way in which believers speak about culture-impacting individuals at their deaths. Instead of simply expressing appreciation for their life and achievements, it has become commonplace for Christians to use the shorthand ‘R.I.P.’ (rest in peace) on social media when speaking of individuals in whose lives there was no evidence of saving grace at their death. At the risk of sounding ill-tempered, I wish to set out several reasons why I am troubled by this occurrence.”

Go Deeper with Ligonier’s Grow App. Looking to put down roots in God’s Word? The Grow app from Ligonier Ministries gives you clear Bible teaching and guides your daily study for a deeper walk with Christ. Ministry Partners can also access the verse-by-verse notes from the Reformation Study Bible directly in the app and get reliable answers to their theological questions with the Ask Ligonier intelligent assistant. Not a Ligonier Ministry Partner yet? Try these features for 30 days when you download Grow and sign in. (Sponsored)

Beauty Demands to Be Noticed. Michael Jensen is right: beauty demands to be noticed. He tells about people who understand the connection between beauty and transcendence and says, “Clearly, the reductive and polemical explanation of the atheists isn’t proving to be compelling. People can’t square their deeply felt experience of the world with that. To the people I’ve been speaking with, at least, the world simply cannot be reduced to its material components, nor can its coherence be explained by resorting to chance.”

Aslan Sane: The Bowiefication of Narnia. I’ve got a pair of articles to share that comment on the forthcoming Narnia movies, each taking a different perspective. In the first, the writer remembers the old Narnia series from her childhood and bridges from there to what we know of the new one. She’s not impressed with it.

Aslan and the Christians Who Can’t Be Enchanted. In the second, the author rebukes people like me (and the previous author) who have expressed concerns. He reminds us that it’s a movie for kids and that we don’t really know much about it yet. (I’d say he writes with some degree of exaggeration when he accuses me of losing my mind, but I’m glad to consider what he says nonetheless.)

The Day of Pioneer Missions Is Not Over. Writing for Desiring God, my friend Tim Keesee wants us to know that the day of pioneer missions is not over. “Pioneer missionaries are still needed today because there are vast territories and high-rise megacities where the gospel message has yet to reach.”

Videos Worth Watching

Here are several brief videos that are worth your time.

5 Signs Your Church Might Be Too Seeker Sensitive. Adriel Sanchez explains seeker sensitivity and offers signs your church might lean too much in that direction and become seeker driven.

How to Leave a Church Well. Hershael York speaks specifically to pastors to explain how and when to leave a church well.

The Enduring Word. This short film from Crossway celebrates God’s providence through the history of Bible translation.

Flashback

What’s The Point Of Family Devotions? There are many activities families can and will do together. But by establishing family devotions as a shared habit and by calling us to gather for it every weekday morning, we meant to show that time together with the Lord is a priority.