Wednesday Connect

A spinoff product for Brant Hansen’s Blessed Are the Misfits book, or just a coincidence?

Usually the pictures and graphic images we open and close with have an element of humor to them, but I wanted to share this because I think this pastor — who I happen to know — has touched on something that doesn’t get discussed enough.

I know this is a theme which resonates with so many. Over and over again I hear of sons and daughters who grew up in Sunday School, but are now far from the Church, with many also far from God. I like what Ewen’s church is doing here and I think more churches need to think of ways to mobilize prayer. Also, if that’s you and you know someone in a similar situation, offer to become prayer partners for this particular concern. 

Now we resume regular programming:

.► Canadian Christians are still reeling from the decision in the Trinity Western University Law School case, which we covered here extensively on the weekend. “A portion of Christian freedom of expression loses big time in this ruling, which implies that in Canada, sexual identity trumps religious identity.” 🇨🇦

► An American looks at Canada’s Supreme Court decision in the Trinity Western University law school case: “Here’s why we’ve been raising our voices for so many years and why we’ve said that those who came out the closet want to put us into the closet. It’s why we’ve said that LGBT activism was never simply about ‘tolerance’ – it was about the silencing of competing views.” 🇨🇦

► Just my opinion of course, but I think social justice advocate Danielle Strickland is the hottest news on the rack right now. Just a few weeks after her Sunday at Willow Creek, she was back there for a Wednesday night, speaking on Zephaniah. Watch the entire sermon as I did and enjoy.

► Essay of the Week: Arrested Development is “an illustration of what theologians call generational sin…Is sin passed from generation to generation, or are we each responsible for our own actions? The answer is “both and,” a painful truth illustrated by Arrested Development. We are shaped by our families. Every family, from the Cleavers to the Bluths, is dysfunctional to some degree. We all inherit sinful ways of seeing the world, relating to each other, and understanding God. This is why Jesus insists his Church is a spiritual family, one that even supersedes our biological families.” An essay in making the body of Christ a family for those whose own is stuck in Arrested Development. 

► Churches and Social Media: If your church is pursuing Millennials, having a Facebook account may not be helpful. But having one on YouTube, Snapchat or Instagram means you’re going to have to have the resources to maintain it and post frequently.

► Winning the 2018 Generation Award at the MTV Movie and TV Awards, Chris Pratt had three faith-filled points, but also two or three which I felt took away some of the impact from those. Hear his 4-minute ‘sermon,’ in full. 

► Small Group 2011 Flashback: The writer of the majority of the piece wrote the words 7 years ago. The title earns our ‘provocative’ award: Why Churches Should Euthanize Small Groups. (Not new, but 2nd most popular post at Sermon Central.) 

► If you’re looking up your family tree and mailing your spit to Ancestory.com doesn’t do it for you, it’s a well-known fact that the best authority on who married or begat who in North America is the Mormon church. Now comes word that their genealogical database will begin recording same-sex marriages.

► There have been many recent discussions about the contagion associated with suicide. Roger Olson looks at the question, ‘Is Suicide Sin?’

J. D. Greear

► After being elected the 62nd President of the Southern Baptist Church, J.D. Greear writes at his personal blog that his prayer for the SBC is for greater humility and greater hope… 

► … However, did everyone at The Summit Church, where Greear is the pastor, realize they were attending a Southern Baptist church?* …

► … In less stellar SBC news, an all-white church has been kicked out of the denom for incredibly strong racist attitudes toward a black church with which they were sharing facilities and partnering for the purpose of guaranteeing their long-term survival after having dwindled from 250+ members to only 20. Perhaps now we know why people weren’t attracted to that particular congregation.

► If you can’t get enough of Hobbits and Middle Earth, here’s a website dedicated to all things Tolkien: Check out Kaitlyn Facista’s Tea with Tolkien.

► Church membership covenants, a membership roll, or just showing up each week? Scot McKnight raises the point and even though this article becomes a book teaser, it’s worth considering.  

► “Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future.” That’s the working title of an address I am giving next month, so you can imagine my reaction in seeing this article. Inevitably, when the story is told of how things went south in a person’s life, it often begins with the time they met _____________ .

► Decriminalizing blasphemy: In Ireland, “any utterance or the publication of indecent, blasphemous or indecent matter is regarded as an offense.” The country wants to remove this crime from its constitution. 

► Fixed Prayer Times: On a more serious note at Reddit (than the item we end today’s list with) someone asked if Muslims are the only religious group having fixed prayer times. These short answers are actually quite helpful, especially reading them altogether.

► If it’s true what people are saying, at this time you should probably read this. (Doesn’t sound very forceful, does it?) A look at three phrases which reflect weak leadership. 

► Don’t think we run enough Catholic items here? Last night I rediscovered Big Pulpit. (It’s like Real Clear Religion but with more items and each one having a Catholic connection.)

► The sister of gospel music singer Kirk Franklin has been sentenced to 30 years in a Texas prison.

► Worship Leading: “Have you ever had someone on your music or tech team that you hoped God would call to the mission field? Or Toledo? Or just anywhere but your church?” 5 Preventative measures to keeping what the author calls “the crazies” off your team.

► The number of LGBT employees at the BBC is four times the national average. Also, “Almost one in 50 of the corporation’s staff identifies as transgender, but in the general population, only one in every 14,000 people has legally changed sex. The Christian Institute’s Deputy Director Ciarán Kelly said the news was further evidence of the BBC’s ‘obsession with political correctness’.”  

► “Let my building go!” — It could be the only way to keep the church alive is to jettison the historic real estate that’s holding you back. 

► In the artist spotlight on Jon Rivers’ show is Pat Barrett, with the song, The Way (New Horizon) also available in a 7-minute version from Housefires. ♫

► Releasing June 29th, this new Hillsong Young and Free video from the album simply titled III, shows the musicians in a very digital environment. ♫

► Religion Problems – 2018 Style: When you partially identify as Pastafarian and you want to get your new drivers license picture taken with a colander on your head but (a) you can’t find one that fits, and (b) you have to first prove you’re Pastafarian. Assuming you can find one that fits for next time, how do you prove you’re part of the fringe religion?

---

It would be nice to think that a year from now, when people scroll by this, they will have forgotten what the panel below was all about. Others will say it’s already too late for that, what’s happened is now seared into history. Either way, I love what David Hayward, aka Naked Pastor has done with this news topic. Click here to link.

---

*J.D. Greear video: We take no responsibility for the speaker damage that may occur when auto-play sends you to the video which follows. (If you have a blog, don’t use whatever video embed thingy that is.) Auto-play is destroying families and lives and must be stopped. Join the campaign by sending your money to me, or calling 1-800-STOP-IT with your pledge.