Wisdom for Your Weekend is your regular installment of what we’ve been reading (and watching) around the web. Presented to you by Chris Pappalardo, with guidance from Pastor J.D., this is our attempt to reflect Proverbs 9:9: “Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.” While we do not always agree with everything these authors post, we share these resources because we find them challenging and enriching. As we often say around the Summit, when it comes to reading, “Eat the fish and spit out the bones.”
Articles of the Week
“I Love You, Too”: George Bush’s Final Days, Peter Baker.
“George Bush had been fading in the last few days. He had not gotten out of bed, he had stopped eating and he was mostly sleeping. For a man who had defied death multiple times over the years, it seemed that the moment might finally be arriving.
His longtime friend and former secretary of state, James A. Baker III, arrived at his Houston home on Friday morning to check on him. Mr. Bush suddenly grew alert, his eyes wide open.
‘Where are we going, Bake?’ he asked.
‘We’re going to heaven,’ Mr. Baker answered.
‘That’s where I want to go,’ Mr. Bush said.”
The Political Magic of C.S. Lewis, Peter Wehner (NYT). “For those of us who believe in the truth of Christianity and still believe in the good of politics, the last several decades — and the last 15 months in particular — have often been painful. Like water that refracts light and changes the shape of things, politics can distort and invert Christianity, turning a faith that at its core is about grace, reconciliation and redemption into one that is characterized by bitterness, recriminations and lack of charity. There is a good deal of hating and dehumanization going on in the name of Christ.”
Seven Steps to Getting (and Keeping) Loyal Volunteers, Ryan Sanders. “Research reveals 80 percent of all volunteers who follow through with a long-term commitment were personally invited to serve with someone. The key to those conversations is to have what pastor Dave Ferguson calls an I-C-N-U conversation: ‘I see a lot of potential in you. I’d like to serve with you and help grow that.’”
Report on Slavery and Racism in the History of the SBTS, Al Mohler. “It is past time that The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary—the first and oldest institution of the Southern Baptist Convention, must face a reckoning of our own. Since our founding in 1859, at no moment has the history of this school been separated, by even the slightest degree, from the history of the denomination. … We share the same history, serve the same churches, cherish the same gospel, confess the same doctrine, and bear the same burdens. We cannot escape the fact that the honest lament of the SBC should have been accompanied by the honest lament of her first school, first seminary, and first institution.”
The Dramatic Implosion of I Kissed Dating Goodbye Is a Lesson—And a Warning, Christine Emba. “In essence, I Kissed Dating Goodbye and its (inevitable, if you think about it) fall represent a mind-set prominent in evangelical culture, but also in American society more broadly. … To maintain the story that success is accessible to all, we’ve developed a tendency to seek out and elevate simplistic formulas that we hope come with guarantees. Stay pure until marriage, and your marriage will flourish. Follow the ‘success sequence,’ and you’ll never be poor. Go to the right school, and all career doors will open. … But the dark side of all this is that when the formulas fail — as they so often do — it’s you who must have done something wrong. And then it’s up to you to fix it on your own.”
On the Lighter Side
Virtual Reality Church, John B. Crist. “Finally, an answer to the question, ‘How can I make Sunday morning even more about me?’”
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