The Bank Holiday Monday Refill – 7 Links for Your Weekend (29/5/17)

Ok, it’s been a while folks – May’s been a slightly abnormal beast – so here’s an overdue Refill to round off the Bank Holiday weekend.

1) Manchester – After the shock and horror of last Monday’s events there’s all sorts of posts we could share. But here’s one that’s practical: Five things to pray after the Manchester attack. Also, after the Paris attacks in November 2015 I noted some thoughts down for a local paper: Was God AWOL in Paris?

2) Isaiah in 5 minutes – Some chums from my alma mater, Oak Hill, were tasked with capturing the Old Testament book of Isaiah in 5 minutes. Using video. Impressive stuff.

3) The mental health crisis could be tackled by reintroducing spirituality instead of focusing on material gain – Fascinating piece from Hasnet Lais in The Independent this week: “A spirituality which reinforces that we are more than what we accumulate offers a way out of this dehumanising routine and allows us to breach the impenetrable walls we’ve artificially created to finally grow out of this playground mentality.”

4) Hollow promises of productivity – Having had Ecclesiastes swimming round my brain for the last few months, I think there’s something important in this.

5) The Whole Christian Life Every Sunday – What should a church meeting include anyway?

6) The Tech-Wise Family With Andy Crouch – This interview with Andy Crouch has definitely persuaded me to stick his new book in my summer reads pile.

7) It’s not Tim Farron who is illiberal: it’s society – This perceptive article from Isabel Hardman in The Spectator is a good one to share, or to have to hand. Fantastic to have the challenge to be self-aware of our own worldviews in the public realm: “We live in a society of liberal intolerance, where only certain worldviews are deemed acceptable by people who often refuse to accept that they themselves have a worldview that also deserves interrogating.”