Looking into a new dog; spoiler alert, it will be Maisie. Baseball season; Michael would be devastated by the 2022 Cincinnati Reds. You can read The Happy Enough Protestant but ignore the introductory paragraph about responding, particularly via email. Discussion of race, Jeremiah Wright and the single pastor model of leadership.
At the end of Jesus’s earthly ministry, he issued what we most often call the Great Commission for his followers to go into all the world and share the Gospel. Acts 1:8 is often cited as the biblical basis for sending missionaries but it echoes the Great Commission command to go to the whole earth and bear witness. It is a basic tenant of the Christian faith that believers are to spread the good news of Jesus Christ.
In The Great Digital Commission: Embracing Social Media for Church Growth and Transformation, Caleb J. Lines begins by addressing the continued need for evangelism in the world today. Many congregations are in decline, particularly in mainline Protestant denominations, because too many churches have become social clubs or platforms for political agendas. Our main concern as Christian communities needs to be what it always has been, sharing the good news that Jesus welcomes all and is the only path to salvation. Evangelism needs to make a comeback in both personal, face to face contact in the real world and online using every social media platform. Lines points out that 84% of American churches have a website and/or a Facebook page so most recognize the need to reach a digital audience. Some of those websites are dated and many Facebook pages are used sporadically or often not at all. Fewer congregations can be found using Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
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This was documented by a vet clinic in Ohio back in 2013 and featured on local TV news. In a post-edit and filtered world where seeing is no longer believing, this turtle’s shell really does say GOD.
This is Happy Monday #482.
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James Earl Jones is fine. He’s not dead, he’s not even sick, the article is about his role in the Disney+ series Obi Wan Kenobi. For everyone that saw the most recent episode on Wednesday, this information was hardly news on Thursday. He has been the voice of Darth Vader since 1977, most recently on the big screen in Rogue One and in the animated Rebels series. But when the link above appeared in people’s Facebook news feed, people stopped scrolling because they thought it was going to say Jones had died. The vast majority of the comments were from people complaining about a few seconds of panic before reading the headline.
Continue readingRobert Alter’s translation of Psalms; sermon by Fleming Rutledge; getting people in the door but shrinking the Gospel; Michael reflects on pastoring in this post and expounds on the value of mentorship in this episode.
Many of you are on a long weekend if you haven’t left for a week’s vacation. But for the truck drivers, ER nurses, gas station attendants and others that make the world go round even when we are “off” this post is especially for you. Here’s a few Bible verses, quotations, memes and a cute doggo pic that hopefully bring some comfort and maybe a smile or two. This is Happy Monday #481.
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This article is not new and I’m not exactly sure why I came across it this week. It’s a reminder that the world’s idea of success and failure, winning and losing, are often not the same as God’s. Jesus provided us with many examples of how things should look when done correctly. Read more here.
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Scott Cairns and Charles Wright poetry; the passing of Larry Norman; LarryNorman.com is still selling merchandise, check out the blog section for a live performance from Cornerstone in 1985. Sometimes ministry comes full circle. Keep in mind the Ravi Zacharias mention is years before his disgrace. Remembering that the Gospel can reach anyone.
That’s one of my favorite Alistair Begg quotes. I’ve repeated it many times, it may have spent a week or two on our church sign a few years back. Recently I saw a nearly identical quote (Nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian) attributed to A.W. Tozer. So who said it? Very possibly both pastors did. Tozer was an American pastor, magazine editor and spiritual mentor to many. He was given honorary degrees by multiple institutions. He passed away in 1963. Begg was born in 1952 and continues to pastor the same church he has been at since 1983. You can find the quote attributed to either man probably because Alistair Begg was quoting A.W. Tozer when he said it. Lots of people quote Tozer to this day. Imagine I were speaking on the political and social divide in our country right now and said “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” That’s a direct quote from Abraham Lincoln. It is also very similar to Matthew 12:25, not the whole verse but an obvious reference to it. We are a lot more conscious about citing material than in times past. The Apostle Paul would string together three sentence fragments from three different Old Testament books and simply cite “the Prophets” or “the Fathers” as reference.
After citing Begg all this time I may attribute those words to Tozer in the future. The truth is worth repeating. Maybe someday someone will quote something I said. I’m still waiting for “God is near” to catch on.
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