Wednesday Link List

Bruxy Cavey, pastor of Canada’s fastest growing church movement, The Meeting House family of churches, got a tattoo over the summer. Click the image to see the verse reference.

…And now, I hereby declare these links officially open. 

UPDATE: 8 AM, Wednesday: Of all the various things I could link to this morning concerning the execution earlier today of Kelly Gissendaner, the one I bring you is simply the brief Twitter thoughts of one of the three media people called to witness the lethal injection, Jeff Hullinger of WXIA-TV.

• The “How’s Your Faith?” question is being played out in many arenas, including Joe Biden’s guest spot with Stephen Colbert. 
• Intrigue Department: Are the Sovereign Grace people and the Southern Baptists getting really cozy? As usual, Spiritual Sounding Board does the research.
  
• Rethinking Pascal’s Wager: “I propose to reformulate Pascal’s wager as urging those who doubt God’s existence to embrace a doubt of desire rather than a doubt of indifference.” Read more at the New York Times Philosophy Department.
• Dredging up the past is never easy, but necessary when you’re promoting a book which dredges up the past.
• The Christian Century looks at the background of To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman. “Before Go Set a Watchman was published, one of Miss Nelle’s longtime friends, a Baptist preacher and scholar named Wayne Flynt, offered a prediction based on its title, which comes from Isaiah 21: ‘For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.’ Flynt was sure that it would honor her father. “It’s clear she thinks her father was a watchman for the town.”
• The religious press loves Nadia, but so do I. She makes this non-sacramental Evangelical think. Like, “…we need to hear the gospel and receive the Eucharist at least once a week. At least. Because we have so many competing messages entering our eyes…”
• Apparently a popular religious figure visited the United States last week. CNN debriefs the week religion topped the news. 
• After a four-week run in four test markets, the television show T. D. Jakes Today is being prepared for national launch in Fall 2016.
  
• Enjoy the link list each week? For just a buck you can encourage us by buying a download of my wife’s latest song.
• Essay-of-the-Week: How that fantasy romantic relationship in your head can be hurting your heart.  Leadership Lessons:
• Ten reasons for pastors and churches to make a congregational connection with a weekly email.
  
• With Christian bookstores closing everywhere, it’s always good to hear about stores expanding, even if it means crossing over to the dark side. 
• During the Sunday morning announcements a Florida woman learned that her husband of 21 years had married someone else in the church.
  
• Don’t you hate it when someone is like, “As it says in Isaiah…” and the quotation is actually from Malachi? Well some unbelievers like to jump all over this apparent Bible contradiction.
• According to Robert Morris, blogs like ours are gossip and pastors and leaders held to accountability by bloggers are on Satan’s hit list.
• The September Young Influencers list is out.
• Porn has reached the 80% saturation point. “Some have said that Internet porn may well be replacing sex-ed for children in this digital age.” More at Focus on the Family’s media blog, Plugged In. 
• I Know What You Did Last Sunday: This website lets you tune in to worship sets from contributing churches. 
• Learning from our friends in the UK: Do church planters and missional workers target high-rise or townhouse complexes on this side of the pond? Check out the National Estate Churches Network (NECN).
• Thinking Out Loud is never monetized, but if you like what we do here, for just $7 you can buy a download of Ruth’s homemade Christmas album. Listen carefully and you might even hear yours truly.
• The Apple Stores: Are they sacred spaces? “Apple Release Day—the Feast of St. Jobs.”
• Ann Spangler names names in a teaser summary of her new book, Wicked Women of the Bible.
• Testimony-of-the-Week: A former Muslim talks to CBN News about the contrasts between the Koran and the Bible.
• Switcheroo: I love stories where, instead of a church meeting in a community center, the church is building the community center. In this case, in Anchorage, Alaska.
• All the cool adults are doing it: The latest publishing trend is adult coloring books and for many there’s a spiritual dimension to the current fad.
• At 59, Gospel music icon Sandy Patti is retiring.
• In the UK, a Christian bookstore chain and an online Christian store merge their warehouse operations. 
• Listening to as I prepare this week’s links: Someone kindly posted the full album of Home by Josh Garrels.
  
• Writers can be protective of their stuff, but cartoonists even more so. I’m thinking of that in context that in the early days we often would begin or end these link lists with the Baptist Press artists, and wish there was still a way to share their material.

Got a link suggestion? Try to get it to us by 7:00 PM EST Tuesday.