Pastoralized.com has a fascinating article on how much time famous pastors spend each week in sermon preparation. Perhaps what’s most interesting is how much the numbers vary. Mark Driscoll is at the bottom end, saying that he spends 1-2 hours per week on his sermon. Mark Dever is at the top end, saying that he spends 30-35 hours. John Piper, Tim Keller, and a host of others fall somewhere in between. Read it here.
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Scalia believes in the Devil and is offended if you don’t
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is always quotable, but he is in rare form in a recent interview with New York Magazine. The conversation is wide-ranging, but by far the most interesting part to me involves a conversation about heaven, hell, and the existence of the Devil. In short, Scalia declares boldly his belief in the existence of a personal Devil. The interviewer is somewhat scandalized by the admission, but Scalia doubles-down. Scalia makes the observation that a majority of Americans believe in the Devil and that you have to be pretty out of touch with the American mainstream to be surprised to meet someone who really believes in the…
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Is feminism a source of good in the church?
Laura Ortberg Turner writes at Christianity Today that feminism is the Christian f-word. Turner argues that evangelicals have wrongly dismissed feminism as “anathema” to the body of Christ. She contends that feminism has not been a curse but a blessing both to the world in general and to the church in particular. She writes, The church needs feminism because at its core, feminism affirms to us what our faith teaches us about male and female in God’s Kingdom and what Jesus himself preached throughout the New Testament.
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Pope John Paul II to be recognized as a saint next year
Pope Francis announced today that John Paul II and Pope John XXIII will be recognized as saints on April 27, 2014. How does someone achieve sainthood in the Catholic Church? In short, they need to have lived a holy life and to have performed two miracles. It turns out that both of John Paul II’s miracles occurred after he died. It is reported that on two occasions people prayed to Pope John Paul II and were healed. Apparently, Pope Francis is going to recognize John XIII as a saint without evidence of a miracle to his account. Read the rest here, or watch above.
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NANC gets new website and proposes name change
The National Association of Nouthetic Counselors (NANC) has a brand new website. The new site includes a number of updates and helpful information as well as a new blog, authored by executive director Heath Lambert. The most momentous change on the site is the announcement that NANC is seeking to change its name to the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC). The board of trustees has overwhelmingly approved the measure, and now it falls to the registered members at the upcoming annual meeting to approve it.
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The heavens [and octopuses] are telling of God’s glory
When I see things like this, it provokes me to wonder: Can something like this really be explained by time and chance and a random collocation of molecules? Not in a million years…or even a few billion.
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Should Christians spank their children?
Andy Naselli has a really good article about spanking in the most recent Journal of Discipleship & Family Ministry. It’s titled “Training children for their good,” and Naselli argues that the Bible supports the use of spanking as a legitimate form of discipline. There is careful discussion of the relevant biblical texts, especially the Proverbs. If you’re looking for a solid, biblically formed position paper on spanking, you need to read this. Andy Naselli, “Traing children for their good” JDFM 3.2 (2013): 48-64.
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Transgender Theology Professor Leaves Azuza Pacific
Albert Mohler comments on this story in this morning’s “Briefing” podcast. Listen below: [audio:http://4ff414ae5107de3a9e18-43dbab4d73aa8c295e652f2d85e793bd.r77.cf1.rackcdn.com/media/audio/totl/Podcast/20130924_TheBriefing.mp3]
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Transgender Teen Named Homecoming Queen
It’s amazing that stories like the one above are becoming more and more commonplace. The report is about a young man in California who was recently chosen by his classmates to be the homecoming queen. The boy identifies as transgender—which means that he is biologically male but wishes to identify as a female.
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Kirk Cameron talks about the problem of evil on “The Today Show”
I just read that Kirk Cameron and Doug Wilson will be making a joint appearance on TBN later this evening. I don’t know what it is about, but I suspect it may have something to do with Cameron’s new documentary on the problem of evil, which he discussed on “The Today Show” earlier this week. See video above.