Welcome to Wednesday Connect #72. This is where all the cool get people get their Christian news and opinion pieces. • You can also stay in touch during the week here at the blog and @PaulW1lk1nson on Twitter. (Just remember the number one substitutes for the letter I if you’re typing it in from scratch.) • Image (above) from this week’s Happy Monday.
■ Apology — The list was pretty much locked in on Monday night, and then on Tuesday, like most here, I read of the untimely death of Jarrid Wilson at age 30. I considered adding it last night but just figured there was no escaping the reports online. This morning I feel bad about seemingly ignoring this story. So for any who missed this, here is a link to the story at CT and you’ll also find it in many other media outlets.
■ Addition — Again, subscribers will not have received this one, either; but I wanted to mention that Willow Creek has posted the call for resumés for the position of Senior Pastor. There are many requirements, but also this, the only entry in the section labeled ‘education:’
Willow Creek values candidates who are life-long learners. Proven leadership experience is important, and this individual should be theologically grounded, but a formal theological classroom education is not a requirement for selection.
The piece notes that the candidate will wear the “dual hats of pastor…and CEO” leading “a complex organization with more than 350 employees.”
■ Ultimately, this may be the most important thing I post today: “Archaeologists believe they might have discovered the location of the town of Emmaus, where Jesus was said to have first appeared before two of his disciples after His resurrection.”
■ Mega baptism service: Thousands are baptized in at least 28 different pools in a gigantic event in Bocaue, Bulacan, in the Philippines and at more than 100 sites worldwide. (We’ll include a link to your service the next time it takes a drone to capture it all in a single image.)
■ Another one returns! Pete Wilson has been teaching at a church in Michigan. In the sermon linked, he’s seen starting a sermon series on vocation. The story at Wartburg Watch is fresh, but the linked video is from May, as is another video from the same church with Willow’s former teaching pastor Steve Carter. The article notes that Wilson joins a long list of ‘comeback’ pastors.
■ Even at Wesleyan University, where the author of this piece is president, discussion of faith are fine if it involves the type of facts and figures you’d see on Wikipedia. But when he tries to make it personal, students basically shut down.
■ Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids is selling a sizeable portion of their building, a former shopping mall, to the local public school, with an agreement to have the use of baby and preschool rooms free for 15 years. The announcement comes at the beginning of the service video.
■ Before you say, “Here I am, send me;” note the 7 types of Christians God can’t use.
■ Rachel Held Evans put a lot of work into the upcoming Evolving Faith conference in Denver, October 4th and 5th. Her husband Dan posted a link to this newsletter.
■ Essay of the Week: Karen Spears Zacharias uses the weekend hurricane as a metaphor for the greater trials we face. “We need people who will ride out the storm with us.”
■ Did he let him off too easy? It’s easy to armchair quarterback this pair of episodes of Ten Minute Bible Hour:
- A Protestant Tours a Catholic Cathedral; and especially this one,
- A Protestant Talks with a Catholic Priest.
■ Blogging at its Best: Getting your readers to help you put together your Sunday sermon. (To be clear, I liked this, and learned much from some of the comments. Bruxy Cavey did this a few weeks earlier on Twitter for a sermon on Abraham’s ‘sacrifice’ of Isaac.)
■Your new Word of the Week: Christoformity. Scot McKnight explains in this 2-minute book teaser.
■ One of his best blog posts, Aaron Wilkinson on The Ten Commandments as Narrative.
■ If it looks like a duck… Gospel for Asia’s “K.P. Yohannan says there isn’t a ring kissing practice” in an interview with Francis Chan that Warren Throckmorton was forced to remove from YouTube (but it’s embedded in this post) discussing the practices of Yohannan’s Believer’s Church. Throckmorton also has more on Gospel for Asia asking past donors to return the settlement money from the $37M lawsuit.
■ ♫ Have you heard of the band half•alive? Listening to the song Creature, I’m reminded of Owl City from a previous generation. Here are some lyrics:
i’m looking forward to the day
when life can grow without decay
humanity is not alone
when Jesus Christ sits on the throne
■ For part of our New Music feature, we offer you the winners in the Christian category of the Unsigned Only Music Competition. More details at this link.
- ♫ First place went to Avery Blank for the song Not Over.
- ♫ Second place went to Francesca Ani for the song Hearts on Fire (still waiting for song link.
■ ♫ More New Music: New from Integrity Music, Stillman, and the song Draw Near.
■ ♫ Also from Integrity Music: Thrive Worship, with the song I Still Believe.
■ Admittedly, Charisma Magazine is biased, since they share the same parent company as the publisher of Oracle, this week’s hottest selling Christian book by Jonathan Cahn. That said, if you’re looking for the 411 on this half-prophecy, half-fiction title, this article well covers the book’s premise.
■ Yes, I know. Benny Hinn has renounced prosperity gospel teaching. But haven’t we seen it all before where he repents of certain doctrines, only to have them pop up again — in Whack-a-Mole style — in subsequent teachings and books? Think back to his 9-part godhead, where each member of the trinity is itself triune. (Sorta like a fractal, I guess.) So for this one we bring you:
- The usual, to-be-expected link; this one to Religion News Service.
- Something a little more off-the-wall, a guest post at Hement Metha’s Friendly atheist with the cynicism shared more widely, “Of course, that’s easier to say after you’ve already accumulated millions of dollars.”
- Needless to say, the remaining prosperity gospel preachers are not pleased.
■ Leadership Lessons: “Leading your church through a time of sexual questioning.” Half hour podcast with Bruce B. Miller the author of a book by Thomas Nelson by the same name. …which brings us to…
■ …Becket Cook’s turnaround from being gay in Tinsel Town, started with seeing a book on a table:
…Six months later Cook was at a coffee shop in Silver Lake with his best friend, also gay. He glanced over at the table next to them and noticed something akin to an extraterrestrial encounter — five young people with Bibles on their table. “It was strange because I had never seen a Bible in L.A., ever. It was a sighting. We just thought it was so odd; we were intrigued. My friend urged me to turn around and talk to them. He liked to stir things up and engage in crazy conversations.”
Cook felt compelled to ask the $64 question. “What does your church think about being gay?”
“We believe it’s a sin,” one said.
But that wasn’t the end of the story. (More on the book at his website.)
■ They sold the church’s two properties for $1M U.S.
On the day of the funds transfer, they bought a lake house for $1M.
Months later they transferred title to the church.
Because of its status, the church is not required to file annual returns.
■ Parenting Place / Puppy Place: “There are times in parenting that are like little deaths both because they slay your heart completely and because you have to die to your basest instinct to Control the Shit Out of a Situation That Is Causing Your Child Pain and instead provide leadership and kindness and gentleness and guidance so they can slay their own dragons.”
■ Trans books for kids:
In a book aimed at seven-year-olds called Can I Tell You About Gender Diversity?, the protagonist Kit says: “the best thing about hormone blockers is that if I change my mind then they won’t hurt my body”. [Researcher Susan] Matthews however points out that this is “misleading”, as the notion that puberty blockers are fully reversible lacks any medical foundation. (emphasis added)
■ Adults making friends: 2 authors, 4 tips for extroverts, 4 tips for introverts.
■ Provocative Headline of the Week: “Before Washington Was, I AM,” Trump Tells Reporters. [Note: Eye of the Tiber is the Catholic equivalent of The Babylon Bee.]
■ At Christian Forums, this one caught my attention: “How to assimilate all of evolutionary theory into a literal 7 day creation without changing anything.” This topic is more widely discussed than you might think.
■ Former U.S. Presidential Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders considers herself a Christian. Now she may be running for Governor of Arkansas.
■ Looking for more? check out Michael and Eric’s link list, especially about six or seven in the first half.
■ The real estate agent never mentioned they were buying a house practically next door to a nudist camp. Once you’re past that, the article is a serious look at the spirituality of nudist culture.
■ You thought Baptists don’t dance? Pictures of Beth Moore dancing leaked to Twitter by… Beth Moore.
■ Time for another Worship Leaders Fantasy Draft. (You’ll need to know who are the major players in the worship ‘industry.’)
■ Finally, months later, his $25,000 fundraising goal at GoFundMe is still stalled out at $215. I wonder why?
When people share their most intimate secrets, as they do at PostSecret.com, matters of faith and belief often get included in the mix.
Calling versus Living: Also from PostSecret.com this one is especially sad.
One last one from PostSecret (we’ll visit again in six months): This either reflects a great satisfaction with life as it currently consists, or a very low view of heaven.
Thinking Out Loud 
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