Wednesday Link List

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It’s summertime and you don’t need an Angler’s License to fish for Christian news and opinion pieces on the net. 

• That woman who walked up the aisle with a baby strapped to the train of her wedding dress prompted various responses, but some criticized her for her grammar.
• Video of the Week (1): Tullian Tchividjian was on a roll in this ten minute from clip the Liberate conference.
• Essay of the Week (1): A Charismatic group heads off to Gay Pride Day to do spiritual warfare, but ends up marching in the parade.
• Chapters of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) are being targeted for “derecognition” on various college campuses.  John Turner blogs that the message here is clear, Evangelicals are no longer welcome.
• Essay of the Week (2) Eugene Cho responds to the spate of gun violence in elementary and high schools and colleges and universities.
• There are ten kids in the Harding family. Seven went to college by age 12. Sample: “Heath, 18, calls himself ‘the slacker’ of the Harding family. He earned an undergraduate degree in English at 15 and a master’s degree in computer science two years later.”
• A 24-year-old Salvation Army employee with only two days training finds herself in the middle of a “rape dungeon” at the Manus Island detention facility in Papua, New Guinea (PNG).
• Pope Francis makes a point that Evangelicals should remember: Leadership involves following the Holy Spirit, not following majority opinion or consensus.
• Essay of the Week (3): There are many parallels — and some striking differences — between your local church and World Cup soccer.
• A Pew Survey shows that while they may not mind atheists, many don’t want their daughter to marry one.
• Here are four predictions on where conservative Protestant fundamentalism is heading by someone who knows the subject well. (Be sure to read the comments this blog attracts on every post.)
• Not every country has the USA’s First Amendment, so when an Irish Assistant Pastor quit over his Senior Pastor’s anti-Islam message, it attracted public attention and the sermon is being investigated as hate speech.
• As many couples plan for summer weddings it’s easy to overlook that a lot of wedding planning isn’t really marriage planning. (You never know the advice you’re not getting.)
• Quotation of the Week: Brian Zahnd’s Farewell to Mars.
• For reasons you might not guess, atheists have their favorite Bible verses. (That Bible Gateway post is based on this article.)
• Salvation Semantics: You can know that you’re saved, but can you be certain that you’re saved?
• Video of the Week (2): When Christian Retailing magazine ranked this album #1 in the May/June print issue, we decided to check out Deitrick Haddon and LXW (League of Extraordinary Worshipers.)
• An American tourist in North Korea is being detained, allegedly for the crime of leaving a Bible in a hotel room.
• Apologist J. Warner Wallace, in the middle of a series on angels and demons, takes a thorough look at the concept of guardian angels. So, do you have one?
• Ouch! A Canadian North Point affiliate pastor offers seven reasons you should suggest some people should leave your church.
• Behind the scenes: Nate Phelps’ upcoming documentary offers a one-of-a-kind perspective into his father’s Westboro Baptist Church. (The movie is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter.)
• Chart of the Week: Neo-Puritanism contrasted with Neo-Calvinism (opens in your computer as a .pdf)
• Church Growth: “Is your church struggling to break through the 200 barrier?” Link to a New Small Church Podcast.
• After six years in the shadows, Mosaic Church founder and author Erwin McManus has returned to public life. (If you have 38 minutes, in the video, McManus teaches about Christ as artisan.)
• “Today we’re gonna teach you a new song!” Do you internally groan when the worship leader says this? Here are nine things about new songs.
• Work in Progress: Author David Croteau discusses his forthcoming title, Urban Legends of The New Testament. (What, they didn’t have snopes.com back then?)
• Christians have been going to the movies a lot lately, but while wanting to be entertained, 79% say Biblical accuracy is important.
• Ed Stetzer (a CT blogger) offers seven reasons why it’s established, existing churches that should be planting churches.
• After reducing the number of categories from seven to five in 2012, new categories were announced for the 2015 Grammy Awards for Gospel and Contemporary Christian genres.
• In a piece written before Father’s Day, Pete Wilson learns a valuable parenting lesson from his middle son.
• Veteran CCM artist Bob Bennett requests prayer this week, as does Andraé Crouch.
• African pastor on the Charismatic movement: “…there is something intrinsic in the Charismatic milk, which, once sucked for a number of years, tends to lend itself towards these heretical views” John MacArthur’s long lost cousin?
• The opposite of the megachurch: The micro-church.
• Jamie Arpin-Ricci does an all-too-short interview with the author of Inventing Hell.
• After going digital-only, an Anabaptist quarterly magazine returns to print.
• Before sending the kids off to a place you don’t know, make sure the camp is a member of the Christian Camp & Conference Association, or Christian Camping International. (Or is otherwise accredited by a church denomination you know.)

 

Typically, my youngest son includes his youth pastor as a reference on job applications; but for this summer job there is the terse admonition, “You may omit names of ministers of religion.”