Wednesday Link List

I’m giving the benefit of the doubt and assuming this is a metaphor for something…

Welcome to WLL # 309. Today marks seven months to Christmas. Started your shopping yet?

Please note we try to avoid articles which are pay-walled. If you find blocked content, let us know and in most cases we’ll remove the link.

• Dialing for Doctrine: On Calvinism and the Southern Baptist Convention, “We may not be able to settle each of the ‘five points’ to our satisfaction, but we do know that the Bible is clear in condemning a divisive and uncharitable spirit.” Where do SBC pastors stand?
• A local church which hands out free pizza to students at a nearby high school has run afoul of the trade union representing school cafeteria workers. The youth pastor in question had permission from the school, but has been forced to switch to an after-school program. A decade ago, the same union drove away food trucks.
• Oddity of the Week: A 2016 US presidential candidate for the Transhumanist Party writes in Salon on cultural relativism in Christianity.
  
• Third Culture Kids: Ten questions the kids of missionaries would love to have you ask them directly.
• Essay of the Week: This starts with a job description which, unless you live in NW Chicago, most of you won’t be applying for. But then it goes deeper: “I believe the record-setting run of the production church will come to an end, but not soon enough… When it comes down to it, we don’t need a Weekend Stage Manager, skilled in theatrical rigging and focused on customer service. An inventory of props only consisting of table, font, and pulpit doesn’t really demand that much organization, anyway.”
• Supporting women in leadership: Everything you need to know in 30 seconds.
• 5 things we hoped to gain by going seeker-sensitive, and 3 things we ended up with.
  
• Greg Boyd on parallels and differences between the U.S. Constitution and the Bible.
• Greg Boyd on so-called errors in the Bible which have nothing to do with faith and practice.
• And then, the NIrV begat The Minecrafter’s Bible. Your kids can “build their own Wall of Jericho.” That’s a good thing, right?
• Francis Chan on “How to Get to Heaven from Silicon Valley.” A talk given at go/Love, a private group at Google for people who want to integrate their beliefs with making a difference.
• Gospel for Asia: A major staff exodus signals that there is something wrong with the second largest mission group in the country.
• What’s in a name? Furthermore, what’s in a name about a name? In this case, the awkward word is ‘denomination.’
• A day in the life of a medical missionary dentist, and the country’s leading cause of facial disfiguration. (No pictures for this one.)
• I cannot tell a lie. John Ortberg’s sermon on lying is one of his best. Seriously, it really is.
• Don’t look for this book at LifeWay any time soon: Mary Wept Over the Feet of Jesus by Chester Brown.
• Media: The GloryReelz Christian film festival and writer’s lab happens Saturday, June 11 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
• Andrew Peterson responds to the Eugene Peterson / Bono interview…
• …Meanwhile the filmmaker who did the production talks to the Phil Vischer pod people.
• Probably not full immersion: The Church of Scotland is considering online baptisms. And communion.
• Evangelist Charles Finney blamed small children and dogs for destroying the effectiveness of his sermons… Wait! Dogs in church services?
• In an all-men’s gathering, it’s a sudden intrusion to hear a female voice as Siri asks for clarification on the sinner’s prayer.
• Rotten fruit in Christian publishing. We’ll get Jimmy to try it, he hates everything. (He does make some good points, but there’s nothing redemptive to see here.)
• Music Video of the Week: Ah yes, but what week? This was posted a year ago, but thanks to @newreleasetoday I got to hear Smoke by Plumb.
• The Target [department store] protests in the U.S. are working, and affecting the stock value and sales bottom line.
• Switchfoot’s new album is titled Where the Light Shines Through
  Jason Gray’s new album is titled Where the Light Gets In
  That outta keep the music department staff confused.
  More at NRT’s summer preview of Christian music. ♫
• The movie version of The Shack has been bumped from November, to Ash Wednesday, 2017.
• Finally — because it was going on midnight — Kevin Max on the DCTalk reunion cruise: “I could understand where there’s a lot of people who feel that they’re left out or that they’ve missed the boat.”

Unlike our other book cover above, this one actually relates to something in the link list.