Happy Birthday to us! While this is list number two-hundred-and-something at Thinking Out Loud, it's list #52 at PARSE. One year! Time flies when you're having links.
- Some churches make guests feel welcome all too easily, while other people are actually running metrics on the welcoming factor. (Second link opens as a .pdf)
- Baptists may lament a drop in baptisms and new members, but across the road at the Assemblies of God Church, things are hopping. (Pun intended.)
- Essay of the Week: Theology meets parenting in Daddy, Does God Want to Save Me?
- Of the more than two hundred kidnapped school girls in Nigeria, some are members of families involved in Bible translation in the region.
- Authorities in Scotland have dropped charges against Christian apologist and street preacher Tony Miano.
- Contrasts: Christianity versus Christians.
- Shrunken Sermon: We didn't invent the doctrine of the Trinity. Like the early explorers to North America, we discovered something that was there all along.
- Praying for Pop Stars: Lessons from Justin Bieber's mom. (Be sure to read all 3 pages.)
- … Meanwhile, earlier this month The Biebster was baptized.
- Does the Charismatic/Pentecostal teaching on prophetic words override sola scriptura?
- … And some Charismatic types you really don't want on your altar/ministry team.
- I link rather frequently to Karl Vaters' blog because the reality is that many churches are small(er). In a recent piece, he suggests such churches may be that way by design, or they may be failing to move forward. (His words: "Strategic or stuck.")
- Meriam Ibrahim has been released by the government in Sudan; now the ACLJ is petitioning for her and her family's safe passage to the U.S.
- Analogy Avenue: How churches went from being ocean liners to cruise ships. (There's a big difference.)
- Second-guessing the Teacher: Why did Jesus make Judas the treasurer when there were better choices?
- It's possible your church website is already powered by WordPress. Why not go the next step and use WP to take donations.
- Andy Stanley armchair quarterbacks the Southern Baptist Convention on the issue of revival.
- Tim Challies joins the many writers who have looked closely into the publishing phenomenon, Jesus Calling.
- 2013 stats are out, and while philanthropy for environmental causes, education, and the arts was up; religious giving was down …
- … But if your missions committee wants to get more bang for its buck; "… as a native African missionary, my team and I can do more effective work in evangelism with $10,000 than a visiting missionary can do with $100,000."
- … Or perhaps people need to "give 'til it hurts."
- Most talked about this week: Why I Miss Being a Born-Again Christian. (For more from both sides, Google the title along with the word "response.")
- What can your church learn from World Cup fever?
- Church Profile: Capitol Hill Baptist Church is drawing Millennials.
- Not new, but new to me: The Passion Bible Translation.
- Point/Counterpoint: Is the gay issue worth splitting a church over?
- I don't think I'll ever sort out all the various Baptist groups; especially when Presbyterians are this complicated.
- On kids sitting still in church; wiggling or wriggling during worship. (Sit still while you read it.)
- Quotation of the Week: Looking for a leader or a babysitter?
- For your faith to be viable, is it necessary for there to have been two actual people named Adam and Eve? Albert Mohler and N.T. Wright would disagree on this one.
- Five paragraphs. Six theological conundrums. And they're not all gender issues.
- The Newsboys' declaration of faith, "We Believe" is number one this week at Praise Charts.
- Would a Christian hire a hit-man to kill his wife? It's not a riddle, but if it were the answer might be "No, he would have to stop being a Christian first." An update on the lead singer of the band As I Lay Dying.
- Link to more links: If you like your links on a single theme, check out Blogging the Apocalypse.
- Some of those other Christian link writers pad their lists with cute cat videos, but after one year at PARSE, I can honestly say we would never do that here. (Especially if the feline is shilling for a cat food conglomerate.)
Thursday through Tuesday, Paul blogs at Thinking Out Loud, both writes and steals devotional material at Christianity 201, and provides hints of the following week's link list on Twitter.
