As well as reading a lot of books, I also read a ton of articles every week. Here are some of the articles that I’ve read recently and have found interesting, helpful, challenging and encouraging. I hope that they will be the same for you, my dear readers…
Why You Still Need the Church Even If You Have Been Hurt by It
“One would hope that words like coercive, corrupt, and manipulative would never be used to describe church leadership, but sadly that’s not the case. If you’re one of the wounded and you have turned your back on Christianity due to the experience, I want to plead with you to reconsider your response for three reasons.”
You’re a Pastor, Not a Therapist
“A pastor is not a therapist. But that doesn’t mean he opts out of helping folks with their personal troubles. In fact, a pastor is tasked with helping in ways a therapist isn’t.”
Reevaluating Your Church’s Values
“While we’ve been emphasizing initial decisions, numeric growth, and “worship experiences,” we’ve likely been missing out on communicating what God ultimately values—which isn’t success so much as faithfulness. So how would we communicate the values of faithfulness to our congregations and to a watching world?”
Should Our Sexual Desires Determine Who We Really Are?
“Once you make the move that says the person you really are is determined by your sexual desire, then sex ceases to be an idea or an activity and it becomes an identity such that if I were to say to you, “I’m gay,” I’m not even claiming to have had a sexual experience. I’m defining myself purely in terms of a psychological erotic desire which I experience or have.”
Theology without Affection
“At the end of the day, God isn’t in the business of merely filling your mind with knowledge. He doesn’t want a mere mind change, but a heart change. Not simply brain work, but heart work.”
Does ‘Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin’ Still Work?
“The old chestnut of “love the sinner, hate the sin” simply does not work in a world where the sin is the identity of the sinner and the two cannot be separated even at a conceptual level. In a time when the normative notion of selfhood is psychological, then to hate the sin is to hate the sinner. Christians who fail to note this shift are going to find themselves very confused by the incomprehension of, and indeed the easy offence taken by, the world around them.”
Body Image and a Better Understanding of Beauty
“You have two options: either listen to the lies of satan woven through your culture or listen to the truth found in the Scriptures. In order to help you embrace a more healthy perspective on your body, here are a few more thoughts to cling to when you find yourself struggling.”
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