Pastors, if you are not following Brian Croft’s “Practical Shepherding” blog, you need to. He consistently has great, relevant content that I think you would find helpful. His latest post is titled, “How Long Should My Sermons Be When I Preach?” And it’s about just what you think it’s about—the length of your sermons. Brian doesn’t mandate a certain length, but rather gives a set of principles to consider. He says that pastor should determine the length of his sermon… 1) Based on where your people are, not where you think they should be. 2) Based on how good and seasoned a preacher you are. 3) To leave your people…
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Fascinating Interview with Tim Challies
Is there a code among Christian bloggers that determines who writes what and when? Is there any competition among Christian bloggers? Are there any topics that are off-limits? These are but three questions from a fascinating interview with Christian uber-blogger Tim Challies. Challies.com is one of the most widely read Christian blogs on the planet, and I found his answers to the questions to be refreshingly candid. There are sixteen questions in all (see below), and you can read Challie’s answers here.
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J. I. Packer Delivers the Sermon at John Stott’s Memorial
(HT: John Starke)
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Michele Bachman’s Leap of Faith
Ryan Lizza has written a thoroughly unflattering article about Michele Bachmann for The New Yorker titled “Leap of Faith: The Making of a Republican Front-runner.” The article takes a close look at her Christianity as a key to understanding her candidacy. He writes: Bachmann belongs to a generation of Christian conservatives whose views have been shaped by institutions, tracts, and leaders not commonly known to secular Americans, or even to most Christians. Her campaign is going to be a conversation about a set of beliefs more extreme than those of any American politician of her stature, including Sarah Palin, to whom she is inevitably compared. Christian readers will be interested…
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Governor Rick Perry’s Speech at “The Response”
Perhaps you heard the news about a giant prayer gathering in Houston, Texas yesterday called “The Response.” About 25,000 people gathered to pray and to hear messages from a variety of different speakers. One of the speakers was Texas Governor Rick Perry, who is expected to announce his candidacy for U.S. President by the end of the month.
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Bart Ehrman Strikes Again
Bart Ehrman is out promoting his most recent book Forged: Writing in the Name of God–Why the Bible’s Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are. As with his previous popular books, Ehrman is on a mission. He is doing everything he can to undermine the reader’s confidence in the truthfulness and the authority of scripture. In Forged, he attacks the apostolic authorship of the New Testament. Responses to Ehrman are already appearing. Dan Wallace has written a three-part review that is very helpful, and I encourage you to read it here: part 1, part 2, part 3. Wallace concludes with this:
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Alan Wisdom on Immigration Reform
I think Alan Wisdom’s analysis of the contentious immigration debate is well worth the read. Writing for The Institute on Religion & Democracy, he advocates for no specific policy. He merely lists items that citizens (in particular Christian citizens) ought to take into account when considering competing proposals for immigration reform. He writes:
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God in America
If you missed PBS’s “God in America” series last Fall, you can now watch it online for free. You can stream it from PBS’s website, or you can watch all six episodes below. Here’s a description of the program: For the first time on television, God in America explores the tumultuous 400-year history of the intersection of religion and public life in America, from the first European settlements to the 2008 presidential election.
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Why We Need a Debate about the Mission of the Church
Perhaps you’ve read the announcement about the upcoming debate between Albert Mohler and Jim Wallis. The debate will be hosted by The Henry Center, and they will be addressing the question “Is social justice an essential part of the mission of the church?” Jim Wallis will be arguing “Yes,” Mohler “No.” For more information about this event, go here. Why is this question important? When evangelicals disagree with one another over this issue, that is one thing. But differences over this issue between evangelicals and progressives is quite another. Oftentimes the differences between progressives and evangelicals on this question are not only about the mission of the church, but also…
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“The Today Show” Looks at Best Colleges
On “The Today Show” this morning, Robert Franek, author of Princeton Review’s The Best 376 Colleges, talks about the schools that were top-ranked in such categories as great financial aid, best professors and top party school. I learned today that there is also a category that they rank called “the best stone-cold sober school”—the opposite of the best party school. Brigham Young has a long streak at the top of this list, but Wheaton College ranked number two. Here are others who made the list: