Friday Review (1/18/24)
Each week we compile a list of helpful articles from other sites, in a variety of categories, for youth workers to read, reflect on, and/or discuss with parents and volunteers. If you have any articles you’d like to suggest, we’d love for you to share those in the Youth Pastor Theologian Facebook group. That’s a great way to bring them to our attention and to discuss them with like-minded youth workers! (Inclusion in this list does not imply complete agreement with the publishing source, but we have found these articles to be beneficial.)
Youth Ministry
One Degree of Glory to Another: Reevaluating Youth Ministry Milestones in a Changing Culture, by John Gardner (Rooted)
But at its heart, evaluating people along a model of life stages is a gospel issue... To substitute any other type of life stage a “spiritual progression” is to suggest another way of godliness that simply mirrors the American dream.
Biblical & Theological Studies
Why We Need the Bad News of Israelite History, by Gary Edward Schnittjer (The Gospel Coalition)
Biblical Israel’s story is riddled with bad news. Until they get to my class, many of my evangelical Christian students have never read or heard about these hard stories in Scripture. But we need to own them. Part of what makes the good news of Jesus the Messiah good news is the bad news we find in the narratives of the Old Testament.
Three Reasons the Old Testament is More Important than You Think, by Michael J. Kruger (Canon Fodder)
So, what are we to do with this pesky Old Testament? Some pastors (as hard as it is to believe) have insisted that the best option before us is to kick it to the curb (see my review of one such attempt). The quicker we get rid of the OT the better. Others are less strident in their solution. While we shouldn’t kick the OT out of our Bibles, maybe we can at least ignore it or play it down.
Cultural Reflection & Contextualization
I Changed My Mind About Social Media: Why I Decided to Quit, by Reagan Rose (Redeeming Productivity)
To be clear, I’m not suggesting that every believer must quit social media. My situation may be different than yours. I consider this choice more of a matter of wisdom and conviction rather than sin. But I did come to this decision as a Christian, which is to say though there are many reasons people may choose to quit social media, I was driven to this primarily by biblical principles and a desire to run the race faithfully, “laying aside every weight” (Hebrews 12:1–2).
Digital Detox, Intentional Ignorance, and the Proximity Principle, by Seth Trout (For the Church)
The rapid growth of digital technology has implications for our spiritual formation. The form of connectivity that comes with smartphones and watches is fundamentally new in human history; this isn’t necessarily good or bad, but it is certainly different. Thus, the countercultural spiritual disciplines that serve our growth ought to be different as well.
The Danger of Self-Soothing Through Social Media, by Trevin Wax (The Gospel Coalition)
That’s the biggest problem with therapeutic crowdsourcing online. We take comfort in the idea that all our problems and challenges can be attributed to other people, to injustice, to the sins and selfishness of others—whatever keeps you from being your true self. You find affinity with others who feel the sting of the same critiques, and soon you think you’re entering a community when you’re actually individualizing more and more.
Pastoral Ministry
10 Trends Impacting the Church in 2024, by Aaron Earls (Lifeway Research)
There’s nothing magical about beginning a new calendar year, but it does provide a natural opportunity for reflection and planning. Looking back at recent research can give pastors and church leaders an idea of how to prepare for 2024. Obviously, only God knows exactly what this year holds. We can still remember all of our plans being radically altered only a few months into 2020. However, trends often take shape and give us insight into the direction things are moving.
Discerning in Doctrine But Not Discerning in Character, by Tim Challies
Yet as I have reflected on discernment over the past 20 years, I continue to find myself perplexed by a strange conundrum: Sometimes the people who most value discernment in doctrine are the people most prone to neglect discernment in character. They can display a kind of credulity that makes them especially susceptible to listening to and believing untrustworthy sources. Ironically, their emphasis on discernment leaves them vulnerable to lies.
Reflections on the Evangelical Fracturing, Ten Years In, by Jake Meador (Mere Orthodoxy)
The outcome of all this is that not only has reformed evangelicalism lost the steady leadership provided for so long by Piper, Keller, and Don Carson, but it has lost much else besides. Due to the past ten years, reformed evangelicals have also lost the underlying modes of thought and the specific contexts that helped to shape those men in the first place while at the same time losing the men who were the most obvious successors to the Baby Boomer generation of YRR leaders.
Family & Parents
Is Your Child Struggling with Addiction? How to Know and What to Do, by Burt Dickinson (Rooted)
The Holy Spirit may convict us, but he is not harsh or accusatory in speaking to his children. If she has fallen into addiction, your child has suffered immensely, largely at her own expense. While she may be in denial of much of her affliction, she is probably acting as her biggest critic. Even if you fear being manipulated by your child in her vulnerable condition, she needs love. Your love can still maintain strong boundaries and allow consequences (as it must) for your child’s behavior.
From YPT this week
Don’t Copy and Paste Your Ministry, by Jack Fitzgibbons
While copy and paste is great when it comes to sending texts, it is a terrible ministry strategy. This is something I wish I knew before I entered student ministry.