What Men Should Be, and What They Often Are Not

Last updated on: April 20, 2009 at 10:27 pm By Owen Strachan

Voddie Baucham’s new What He Must Be (Crossway, 2009) is a sound, pastoral, fatherly look at what boys must become to be leaders, husbands, and fathers. I would like to commend it to you. Baucham, pastor of Grace Family Baptist Church of Spring, TX, and author of Family-Driven Faith, a book I liked very much, offers personal testimony to the importance of a father. He speaks honestly and directly to the epidemic of fatherlessness in the African-American community. For example,... Read more

Unfashionable: Making a Difference By Being Different

Last updated on: April 18, 2009 at 3:47 pm By Owen Strachan

Tullian Tchividjian’s brand new Unfashionable by Multnomah publishers is a bold text with a clear point to Christians: stop trying to win people to Christ by your coolness. Do so by your godliness, your unfashionable Christlikeness, that stands out in this fallen world like a Yankees cap at a Red Sox game. I flat-out recommend the book (available Tuesday, April 21, 2009). I read most of it in one sitting because I so enjoyed Tullian’s mix of clear, punchy writing,... Read more

The Link 4.17.09: God’s Will, Ware’s Teaching, and CEO Salaries

Last updated on: April 17, 2009 at 8:30 pm By Owen Strachan

1. Kevin DeYoung has just written a really fun and helpful book called Just Do Something about God’s will. I highly recommend it. Very quick read, and dispels a lot of confusion about this most agonizing of subjects. I liked it so much, I picked up my copy of DeYoung’s Why We’re Not Emergent and am loving that, too. Pick them both up–Moody Publishers hit a home run with each. 2. Bruce Ware, theologian and churchman, has just written a... Read more

De-Baptism? Another Crunching Blow to State Religion in England

Last updated on: April 15, 2009 at 6:50 pm By Owen Strachan

A story just posted at Time.com, “De-Baptism Gains a Following in Britain”, details a new practice in Great Britain: buying a “de-baptism” certificate. The story author, William Lee Adams, reports on the story: “More than 100,000 former Christians have downloaded “certificates of de-baptism” in a bid to publicly renounce the faith, according to the London-based National Secular Society (NSS). The campaign has become so popular — with nearly 1,000 certificates downloaded each week — that the NSS has started taking... Read more

A Funny Fake David Brainerd-Like Journal

Last updated on: April 14, 2009 at 10:01 pm By Owen Strachan

This is a pretty funny fake journal entry from Sacred Sandwich, a satirist blogger, that sheds light on how we can trust in our modern methods over the simple power of the gospel: “January 12. Disgusted with my declining health and inability to connect with the heathen, I spent the morning in a campus lounge reading my Bible with no desire to interact with anyone. Despite my lack of postmodern accoutrements, a young woman who had seen me on campus... Read more

What Makes a Man? Not “Low-Slung Pants”

Last updated on: April 13, 2009 at 10:06 pm By Owen Strachan

From a NYT article on “low-slung pants”: “Mayor Thomas Masters, a Baptist minister, said in an interview that Riviera Beach voters “just got tired of having to look at people’s behinds or their undergarments,” but the public defenders argued that sagging pants were a constitutionally protected expression of identity. Their star witness was Chelsea Rousso, a former New York fashion designer who is now a fashion instructor at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. Ms. Rousso, 48, looking uptown chic... Read more

The Link 4.10.09: Islam, A-Rod, and Universal Health Care

Last updated on: April 10, 2009 at 3:05 pm By Owen Strachan

1. If you have not read Al Mohler’s recent piece on Islam, I cannot recommend you do so more strongly. Islam is a topic of huge importance for Christians, and I’ve rarely seen a Christian thinker address it more helpfully and clearly than Mohler does. 2. ESPN columnist Bill Simmons on the A-Rod phenomenon. 3. We need to do more to spread health care to needy citizens, but as Ramesh Ponnoru shows in the New York Times, universal health care... Read more

Upcoming: John Piper and Don Carson on Pastors and Scholars

Last updated on: April 9, 2009 at 9:50 pm By Owen Strachan

In just two weeks, on Thursday, April 23, 2009, at Park Community Church in Chicago, IL, the Carl F. H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School will host an evening of free lectures and discussion with Dr. John Piper of Bethlehem Baptist Church and Dr. D. A. Carson of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. The event will begin at 7:00pm and conclude around 10:00pm. Titled “The Pastor as Scholar, and the Scholar as Pastor: Reflections on Life... Read more

A Kick in the Shins: Where Empathy (Without Authority) Gets You

Last updated on: April 7, 2009 at 9:36 pm By Owen Strachan

I found this section amusing from a New York Times story on how one school is going out of its way to teach “empathy” to its students: “On the bar mitzvah circuit, students have started handing out alternatives like water bottles and pajama pants. Jason Thurm, 13, collected more than 200 of the personalized sweatshirts from his friends and donated them to a church; for his own party in November, Jason did not have favors, and planned to donate the... Read more

The Link 4.3.09: Driscoll on Men and Marriage, and More

Last updated on: April 3, 2009 at 8:54 pm By Owen Strachan

1. SportsCenter offers the “Not Top Ten” of the day. Stay with it, and you will see 1) a caddy take a dive and 2) a women’s basketball coach get rather nutty. 2. The economy’s tough, but some employers see the current sitch as an opportunity. 3. A controversial post over at the NYT on breast-feeding. The author suggests that there’s no evidence supporting breast-feeding (dubious at best) and goes on to lament “pumping” in the workplace and how supplement... Read more