Podcast Pick of the Week: Gospelbound this week features Collin Hansen’s conversation with Tom Holland, author of Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World, which made my top ten list of favorite reads last year.
Kindle Deal: How (Not) To Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor by James K. A. Smith. $1.99.
How to Prepare for the Coronavirus at Your Church: If you’re looking for ways to prepare your church for the coronavirus, here is an excellent free resource for training: 4 videos, 7 ministry-specific checklists, and a sample pandemic policy all for you to contextualize for your church.
Seven of the best articles I came across this week:
1. Ian Harber – ‘Progressive’ Christianity: Even Shallower Than the Evangelical Faith I Left. “I was an exvangelical who left the faith of my youth for ‘progressive Christianity.’ Then I returned. Here’s my revangelical story.”
2. Allegra Frank, Alex Abad-Santos, Emily Todd VanDerWerff, Aja Romano, and Alissa Wilkinson – All 22 Pixar movies definitively ranked. If you’re a Pixar fan, you’ll enjoy this ranking of all the Pixar movies, from #22 to #1. I’m largely in agreement with these, and believe their pick for #1 is Pixar’s greatest work of art (although I enjoy Finding Nemo as a film more).
3. Jennifer Beer – The Inconvenient Truth About your “Authentic” Self. “A number of studies have shown that people’s feelings of authenticity are often shaped by something other than their loyalty to their unique qualities. Paradoxically, feelings of authenticity seem to be related to a kind of social conformity.”
4. Frances Grimké – Some Reflections: Growing Out of the Recent Epidemic of Influenza that Afflicted Our City Grimké’s sermon reflections upon the outbreak of the flu epidemic of 1918.
5. Joy Allmond – 5 Things Your Pastor’s Spouse Can’t Say Out Loud – But Needs You to Know. We spoke with several pastor’s spouses about these sensitive parts of ministry life that they—practically speaking—can’t (or shouldn’t) discuss with the people they serve. Here are the top five recurring themes.
6. Ryan P. Burge – Nondenominational Protestants are Basically Southern Baptists (With a Few Caveats). Really interesting analysis here on recent trends — decline in the mainline and rise in evangelicalism.
7. Joseph Pearce – The Mixed Legacy of Christopher Tolkien. Joseph Pearce has a somewhat different take on the legacy of Christopher Tolkien.
