A Harvard Degree Won’t Buy More than a Sandwich

Last updated on: September 2, 2011 at 4:16 pm By Owen Strachan

The New York Times just published a short piece entitled “Generation Limbo: Waiting it Out” by Jennifer S. Lee. The subject material will be familiar to many cultural observers, but the article underscores the difficulties many twentysomethings are having today in advancing into adulthood. Lee introduces the group: Meet the members of what might be called Generation Limbo: highly educated 20-somethings, whose careers are stuck in neutral, coping with dead-end jobs and listless prospects. And so they wait: for the... Read more

NY Times: Readers Register Discomfort Over “Pregnancy Reduction”

Last updated on: August 30, 2011 at 6:00 am By Owen Strachan

Those who read about the New York Times magazine story on “pregnancy reductions” (a euphemism for the abortion of one or more gestating babies) on this and other blogs might find this graphic from the NYT interesting. It’s a bit hard to make out (click here for the link to the graphic), but it shows that a majority of commenters on the Times‘s website found the story hard to bear. The commenters are undoubtedly from a wide range of backgrounds,... Read more

Paige Patterson on the Need for Personal Ministry Training

Last updated on: August 25, 2011 at 6:00 am By Owen Strachan

I saw this link a while back on Al Mohler’s Twitter feed and found it helpful. It’s from the Southern Baptist Texan and written by Tammi Ledbetter. The article, entitled “Patterson: Preparation for Ministry Requires Sacrifice,” includes the following helpful commentary from Southwestern Seminary president Paige Patterson: “Pastoral ministry, evangelism, missions, counseling and music are all, by the nature of the disciplines, incarnational, not mechanical,” Patterson added. To think otherwise is as ludicrous as believing the Navy SEALS who took... Read more

Notable Books: Help! I Can’t Get Motivated

Last updated on: August 24, 2011 at 6:47 pm By Owen Strachan

My friend Adam Embry, an assistant pastor at Auburndale Baptist Church in Louisville, has just published a helpful booklet with DayOne Publications. It’s called Help! I Can’t Get Motivated (DayOne, 2011) and it tackles the widespread problem of sloth (to use a medieval term). This pamphlet is one of many in the Help! series from the publisher. Here’s a selection that shows the strength of this text: The gospel of salvation in Jesus reverses the curse of sin. The sorrow... Read more

Lonely Love: Seeking Marriage Through the Internet

Last updated on: August 16, 2011 at 9:00 am By Owen Strachan

Is it right for Christians to find a spouse through the Internet? A recent story in the New Yorker leads to questions like this for committed evangelicals. “Looking for Someone” by Nick Paumgarten paces through the recent explosion of online dating, a phenomenon that has led to real-life marriage for many couples. One selection from the piece shows the complexity of the new romantic landscape: [T]he fastest-growing online-dating demographic is people over fifty—a function perhaps of expanding computer literacy and... Read more

Shame on Us if We Ever Neglect the Unborn

Last updated on: August 11, 2011 at 2:43 pm By Owen Strachan

The NYT has just released a heart-rending story about “pregnancy reduction,” a euphemism for selective abortion. Read the whole story here. This is a snatch from the article, which made me sick to my stomach: As Jenny lay on the obstetrician’s examination table, she was grateful that the ultrasound tech had turned off the overhead screen. She didn’t want to see the two shadows floating inside her. Since making her decision, she had tried hard not to think about them,... Read more

One of the Most Helpful Books You’ll Find: Gregg Allison’s Historical Theology

Last updated on: August 10, 2011 at 7:42 pm By Owen Strachan

Having recently begun reading and using Southern Seminary theology professor Gregg Allison’s Historical Theology: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine (Zondervan, 2011), I can say that it is easily one of the most helpful books on my shelf. If you are a pastor, a theologian, a Bible teacher, Sunday School teacher, care group leader, or interested layperson, this book will directly benefit you. I don’t know of any resource quite like Allison’s text, now published after a decade of continual research... Read more

Mohler v. Wallis October 2011: Is Social Justice the Church’s Mission?

Last updated on: August 2, 2011 at 5:42 pm By Owen Strachan

I don’t know if you’ve seen word of this, but this debate, sponsored by the Carl F. H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, looks great. It’s between Al Mohler and Jim Wallis and will cover the role of social justice in the mission of the church. The debate will be held on October 27, 2011 at TEDS. Here’s the description of an event that will surely attract a good deal of attention, and should. North... Read more

Elegant Reflections on an Elegant Ministry: John Stott, 1921-2011

Last updated on: July 29, 2011 at 3:39 pm By Owen Strachan

Several members of the BibleMesh project have posted meaningful reflections on the life and career of Anglican expositor John Stott, who just went home to glory. I commend them all to you. Below are two that speak to a personal connection with the man, who influenced generations of Christians. —————————- One of Dr. Stott’s many initiatives was to establish the London Lectures focusing on Christian engagement with the wider world. I delivered the London Lectures in 2003, on the topic... Read more

Why Grades Matter to Christians: A BibleMesh Post

Last updated on: July 19, 2011 at 2:23 pm By Owen Strachan

Why should you care about grade inflation? First, because it’s happening en masse. In a post entitled “A History of College Grade Inflation” on the New York Times Economix blog, Catherine Rampell recently drew attention to the work of Stuart Rojstaczer, formerly a Duke professor of geophysics, and Christopher Healy, a computer science professor at Furman University. According to Rampell, “The researchers collected historical data on letter grades awarded by more than 200 four-year colleges and universities. Their analysis (published in... Read more