Seven up…

1) How Should Christians Think About Brexit? – This is a helpful and fullsome piece from Richard Coekin. Worth passing on.

2) The Scriptures Won’t Give Its Riches to Lazy Minds – Yes! How do we best prepare for hearing God’s word preached? Here’s some simple, practical advice.

3) Will Bibles designed for the Instagram generation get millennials into religion? – Fascinating. Need to think about this more.

4) On Funerals – On the latest edition of the 9 Marks podcast, Jonathan Leeman interviews Mark Dever about funerals. Lots of useful wisdom born out of experience.

5) Write Poetry with Your Kids – This caught my eye this week. Bring on Spring…

6) Oak Hill School of Theology 2019 – This week my alma mater Oak Hill College, a seminary in north London, released details of their annual ‘School of Theology’. It’s a one-day feast of rich and practical theology on July 9th, this year focused on the doctrine of humanity in the 21st century. Watch the teaser promo here. You can also watch back or listen to 2018’s input on the concept of the image of God in theology and culture.

7) James Corden pranks David Beckham – For something a bit different, this is quality. I thought “Dave” comes over pretty well.

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Seven up…

1) Lent Playlist– Lent “begins with the dust of mortality and ends with the broken bread of the Last Supper”. Andrew Peterson’s Rabbit Room have produced a collection of songs that capture this season, along with an accompanying commentary here. If you’re just looking for something that’s a bit more ‘Yay, Spring is on its way!’, then check out this playlist.

2) Shake On It: Gender – Maybe it’s just an impression, but I wonder if the wider media is becoming slightly more comfortable discussing some of the key tensions and questions about transgenderism. Take for example the questions raised by various retired professional sportswomen this past week. Another example: in the BBC’s five-minute ‘Shake On It’ episodes, two people with opposing beliefs discuss them together. In this episode Christian minister and blogger David Robertson meets with Victor, who identifies as transgender. I was encouraged by how well the film captured Robertson’s points and posture.

3) Five Rules to Help You Fail Less Often with Social Media – More and more stuff like this is doing the rounds. In other words, we’re realising we need to get a grip.

4) Totali-shame-ism and the End of Mercy – Not a million miles away from something I linked to a few weeks back, but this lack of mercy in a shaming culture, often driven by social media and virtue signalling, is worth noting.

5) Sermon Notes Sheet for Young Kids – Dan Green linked to this: some suggestions for putting together a ‘sermon notes’ sheet for kids who may not be in children’s groups during the sermon. The actual downloadable template is here.

6) How to Be More Public with Your Faith – Some good stuff here from Tim Keller.

7) Living with Students – For something a bit different, if you want an insight into living with students, then check out this online survey that one student sent her housemates…

There’s been a couple of Refill-less Sundays recently, due to a treasured mid-term break, but we’re back, so without further ado…

Seven up:

1) I’m really not busy… – How do you tend to answer the question, “Are you busy?” After all, for friends and family, we don’t want to give the impression we’re too busy for them, but instinctively we don’t want to give the impression we’re twiddling our thumbs either! Ian Paul has some good pointers here.

2) Will we worship artificial intelligence in the future? – Elizabeth Oldfield from Christian think tank Theos winsomely shares on the BBC website ‘why robots would make terrible gods’.

3) Act as Though There are Visitors in the Room – I was talking this week with someone about how we try to put this principle into practice for our church meetings/services.

4) Discipling Kids is a Long Game of Small Interactions – Ed Drew is always really helpful, and this is no exception. Check out his new podcast, Faith in Kids, too.

5) Don’t Get Married Before You Live Together – Loved this. Yes, that’s the right title. Give it a read…

6) Seven Things Jordan Peterson Taught Me Last Night – Sydney pastor Mark Leach gives his reflections on Peterson’s impact as he completes the Australian leg of his global tour. Some astute observations and suggestions.

7`) A Surprisingly Interesting and Twitter Thread on Urination in the Bible – For something a bit different, New Testament scholar and Principal of Tyndale House in Cambridge, Dr Peter J. Williams, is quickly building a reputation for being the king of Twitter threads. This collection is fascinating!

And if you’re looking for some material for a Lent small group, then why not consider Good News People? Six sessions to guide through exploring how the gospel shapes our everday. Download for free here.

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