Out of several hundred potential links, these were some things that got my attention this week. Clicking anything below will take you to PARSE, the list’s owner, a blog of Leadership Journal in the Christianity Today family. From there, click the stories you want to see.
- Essay of the Week: A moment-by-moment close-up look at church persecution in China.
- Those polls about church attendance? It seems not everybody is being entirely honest.
- More than just topical vs. exegetical, this author contrasts the larger nuances of Reformed vs. non-Reformed preaching.
- Infographic of the Week: A look at developments in missions and faith in Africa.
- The California wildfires just missed the home of Christian singer and actor Rebecca St. James.
- A report just released shows America’s largest Protestant denomination experienced a 13% decline in baptisms in 2012, the largest decline in 62 years.
- Here are six highlights from the Patheos live event last week concerning Michael Vines’ God and the Gay Christian.
- CNN offers a list of the eight worst places to be a Christian. (And no, Massachusetts isn’t one of them.)
- A Church-planter who knows reviews BiVo, a new book on bi-vocational ministry.
- You’ve seen top 100 blog lists, right? This list — and I don’t know how you’d compile this — presents the top 100 children’s ministry Tweeters.
- Russell D. Moore would say that if there are not people in your church with tattoos, you’re not doing it right.
- At one point, the militants who kidnapped 200+ school girls claimed they had converted. According to different religions, what exactly does converted mean?
- From a front-row seat, Jamie Wright reminds us that not every pastor’s kid has embraced the faith of his or her parents.
- After discovering he’s an “accidental ghostwriter” for some megachurch pastors, the author asks for attribution. One celeb pastor immediately got the source noted in a subsequent edition, while another initially suggested he get over it.
- If the local theater is now the destination of choice for Christian families on the weekend, you might want to see if your kids can handle Alone Yet Not Alone. (Officially, it’s PG-13.)
- Peter Enns describes how an academic honor takes place. (But not any mention if his compensation package changed.)
- According to the latest Pew Research survey, Hispanics are shifting affiliation from Roman Catholic to Protestant or none. Nearly one-in-four are now former Catholics.
- Technically, this link is a bit of an Easter leftover, but you really need to watch the video this local church produced, and what they did after.
- For the second time in their lives, tragedy strikes the family of an Alpha USA leader.
- An essay on the costs and benefits of Christian higher education: What outcomes do we want for our kids?
- Not-Music-Video-of-the-Week: It’s actually an audio demo of six tunes from a Christian-owned recording studio.
- My link list editor interviews my favorite Australian missional/emergent guru. (That’s guru in a good sense.)
- Are youth groups really driving kids away from faith? A look at headlines, polls and research studies.
- Didn’t realize until this week that Jesus has his own website. Actually, Jesus.org is packed with apologetics resources from people you know.
- For H.G. Wells, denying Christianity also meant putting some spin on one of his earlier writings.
- Sometimes the book you think you’ve never heard of is already on your shelf under a different title…
- …and here’s another one of those Top 50 Christian Books lists, and Top 25 Classics.
- The original Christian in Hollywood, Pat Boone is turning 80.
- Book Review: The Third Third of Your Life. (Maybe you’re there already!)
- In a riverside baptism in Puerto Rico, one man drowned and two were rescued.
- Is it possible the Tower of Babel was built in a different location that we thought?
- Similar but different: RBC, the people who produce Our Daily Bread have another devotional website called Our Daily Journey.
- Undated article online: Does your church have a Watchcare ministry? It allows more transient people to be involved in a church without full membership, even as a survey showed that 71% of churches asked prohibit members from joining other churches. (This was a recent Christian radio topic.)
- Billboard awards Chris Tomlin “Top Christian Artist of the Year” for 2014. For readers here, that’s not exactly news.
- In the UK, The Christian Institute is intervening in the case of a 13-year-old who wants an abortion.
- I’m deliberately burying this one near the bottom because the whole thing is so sketchy, but if you missed it: The article about the Richmond, VA home-school prom and the dads who kicked out the girl who was too cute.
- Yes, it’s okay to wear white pants to church after Memorial Day. Wiki Answers says so.
- Comment #20: Yours to do with as you wish. (If it’s on the net, it’s true, right?)
- On my own blog this week, a suggestion that the last decade necessitates a change in how we sort denominations.
- Finally, if dining out, should you pray when the bread or salad arrives, or wait for the main course?
When not hunting down links for you, Paul Wilkinson blogs at Thinking Out Loud, Christianity 201, and Christian Book Shop Talk.
Thinking Out Loud 