Seven up…

1) Born to Fly: Mary Poppins, Bruce Springsteen, and the Spell of Immortality – If you enjoyed the new Mary Poppins Returns (I’m yet to see it!), then I think you’ll enjoy this thoughtful and delightfully written longform piece.

2) How Millennials Became the Burn-out Generation – This article made a lot of headlines this week.  If you were born between 1982 and 2004, then you’ll probably find it ringing true. And if you’re not in that category, then read it to understand those in your life who are in that bracket. And then all of you go read Rachel Jones’ Is This It?

3) Leading bishop apologises for role in gender transition liturgy guidance – and now opposes it – The seemingly both unexpected timing and theologically shambolic nature of the Pastoral Guidance from the House of Bishops re: Gender Transition Baptismal Affirmation released just before Christmas continues to be a cause of concern for many in the Church of England. This week saw the release of what many feel was a disappointing ‘clarification’ about this Guidance from the Secretary to the Archbishops’ Council, as this response to it makes clear. Not only that but an apology was also issued from the original Bishop who had initially announced the Pastoral Guidance (see link above) expressing that he now supported calls for the Guidance “to be clarified and modified, or for its status to be changed”. To be continued…

4) The Present and Future of Christian Blogging – There’s been a bit of stuff bouncing around about online how personal/individual blogs are dying off because more and more written content is being published on large ministry blogs. Tim Challies – not quite the original Christian blogger, but almost – has written about what he sees are some of the dangers of this shift, and this response piece is a helpful engagement with Challies’ argument, albeit with qualification.

5) Three Precious Words for This Troubled Soul – Feeling overwhelmed? Exhausted – mentally and physically? Crushed? Maybe this week you particularly need to hear this short reflection from Sam Allberry.

6) Five Ways to Last 20 Years in the Same Church – This was a huge encouragement to read and very refreshing.

7) Christian Uses KonMari Method While Studying Bible To Remove All Verses That Don’t Spark Joy – For something a bit different, if you’ve become aware of Marie Kondo and her ‘innovative’ tidying methods – the subject of a new Netflix series and two best-selling books – then you’ll probably enjoy this. (And if you hadn’t realised, the Babylon Bee, who wrote the above article are a Christian satire site – and a very dry one at that!)