Seven up…

1) Affinity’s latest Social Issues Bulletin – Affinity is a fellowship of Churches, evangelical Agencies and Christians and their latest Social Issues Bulletin has a range of articles on everything from the current constitutional crisis in the UK, through dealing with allegations of abuse in churches, to engaging constructively as a parent with your child’s school – as well as what look like some fascinating book and movie reviews.

2) Customisable Christmas Promo Videos for your church – Go Chatter have done this for Easter and Harvest, and there’s an even greater selection to try for Christmas. Perfect for sharing online.

3) Free Christmas eBooks – You can download free electronic copies of two new evangelistic Christmas books: The Gift, by Glen Scrivener and published by the Good Book Company, as well as The Weirdest Nativity by Andrew Sach and Jonathan Gemmell and published by 10ofthose (for the latter you’ll need to add it to your basket and then enter ‘WEIRD’ as a discount code at checkout). Unrelated to Christmas, but a brilliant free read, you can currently download Rachael Denhollander’s childrens’ book, How Much is a Little Girl Worth from Amazon Kindle for free too. Rachel was the the first of US sex offender Larry Nassar’s abuse victims to speak out and has also recently released a book aimed at adults, What Is a Girl Worth?: My Story of Breaking the Silence and Exposing the Truth about Larry Nassar and USA Gymnastics.

4) Paul’s Missionary Journeys Tube Map – No explanation needed – this is brilliant!

5) A Rocha Co-Founder, CEO Killed in Crash in South Africa – Many will have already heard this sad news, but Kate Shellnut’s article at Christianity Today begins to unpack something of the on-going legacy of A Rocha.

6) Remembrance Day – This may be too late for including in Sunday’s sermon, but as we come to Remembrance Day, this is a fascinating account of a soldier being saved by his Bible, although certainly not the only example! You may have also seen BBC presenter Naga Munchetty’s eleven-minute interview with D-Day Veteran Harry Billinge about his work collecting for a new memorial to fallen soldiers. But in the last two minutes Harry testifies to the return of Jesus Christ and a new heavens and a new earth.

7) Evie’s First Sip of Coke – For something a bit different, I have to add that this isn’t our Evie – and I’m certainly not approving of toddlers getting hooked on Coke, but this reaction… priceless!

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Seven up…

1) The Early Church Thrived Amid Secularism and We Can Too – Nothing ground-breaking here if you’re familiar with Keller’s work on culture or Tim Chester’s Everyday Church, but an encouraging article nonetheless.

2) How Tim Keller Seeks to Pray Without Ceasing – I loved these prayers for different points of the day from Tim Keller. Hey, it’s almost as if Tom Cranmer was onto something when he wrote his Book of Common Prayer…

3) Two Habits of Successful Parents – Simple, but very culturally perceptive as to why these two habits are becoming rarer.

4) Faith, hope and love at the coming General Election – A helpful Christian perspective from Danny Webster of the Evangelical Alliance as those of us in the UK prepare for 12th December.

5) The Noonday Demon – Acedia isn’t a word we use much these days, and it’s often translated as ‘sloth’ or ‘laziness’, but this is a helpful and timely reminder that it speaks of something more, closer to ‘restlessness’, which in turn lights up so many of our cultural struggles.

6) Kanye West and the Prodigal God – I felt like I was the only one not to blog about Kanye West this week. I loved this one from Ollie Lansdowne, including this line: “Comparisons to the prodigal son write themselves – but it’s worth remembering that the punchline of that parable is not the surprising turn-around of the prodigal. It’s the reception he receives when he heads home.” Pastor and former rapper Duncan Forbes offers his track-by-track review of West’s new album, Jesus is King, here. You might like this piece on how the record embodies Martin Luther’s theology of grace.

7) What Conductors Are Really Doing – For something a bit different, we’ve all pretended to be one – but what are they actually doing?!

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Seven up…

1) Reflections from a Lifetime in Ministry – I always find these kind of posts encouraging. Kevin DeYoung shares 24 reflections from one of the long-standing pastors at his church.

2) Lessons from New Zealand’s response to theological revisionism – with Bishop Jay Behan – This is a really warm and winsome interview with Jay Behan who recently became the first bishop of the new Anglican Diocese in New Zealand. Anglicans in New Zealand have had to consider how to express visible differentiation against false teaching in their Diocese. I was struck by Jay’s humility and his recognition that Bible-believing Anglicans in NZ will show that differentiation in different ways.

3) 10 thoughts on Kanye’s ‘Jesus is King’ – Pastor and rapper Shai Linne offers his thoughts on hearing the new album from American musician Kanye West, Jesus is King. West has been hosting often invite-only ‘Sunday Services’ since January and recently began asking a local pastor, Adam Tyson, to preach at them, as covered in this Christianity Today story: Master’s Seminary Grad Takes Kanye’s Crowds to Church.

4) What state is the Church of England in? – Ian Paul reflects on the C of E’s latest Statistics for Mission report, released last week.

5) Ministry and the ‘Slough of Despond’ – Pastor Al Gooderham has written a helpful series of short and practical posts on the sense of being ‘stuck’ in discouragement in ministry, using John Bunyan’s phrase, the ‘slough of despond’: a) Surviving the Slough of Despond; b) Helping your pastor out of the Slough of Despond; c) How to ensure your pastor stays in the Slough of Despond.

6) The One Who is Love — God the Father – How do you tend to think of God the Father? This is a really heart-warming encouragement from Emma Scrivener.

7) Mouse whisperers: meet the Disney influencers making a living at the Magic Kingdom – For something a bit different, having had a taste of Disney this summer (albeit the Paris variety), this was a really quirky read. I guess if full-time ministry doesn’t work out…

Halloween ‘special’:

I found this a really helpful perspective when it comes to engaging with Halloween as a Christian parent. You might also be interested in Krish Kandiah’s article, ‘Why I changed my mind about Halloween’. Faith in Kids have also got this podcast episode for Christian parents and this one for families to listen to together. A while ago I also wrote this, ‘Why Christians of all people should be celebrating on Halloween’.