Happy 2026 from your friends at SOLA Network!
Find our first pieces from our Young Writer’s Cohort in the section below. We’re happy to introduce you to some new writers! And I’m proud to present the winners of our Asian American Book Awards 2025!
Keep in touch on X and Instagram. For more, check out my Asian American Worship Leaders Facebook group and TGIF Playlist on Spotify. This weekly newsletter is one of the many ways you can get connected with SOLA Network. Find us on Facebook, X, and Instagram.
Aaron Lee, Editorial Curator
Enter our giveaway! This giveaway is continuing from last week – feel free to enter again!
This Christmas season we’re giving away one of my favorite books from the year! Thanks to Crossway for providing, in partnership with @diveindigdeep, SOLA Network, and FCBC Walnut. 1 winner will receive this wonderful book!
The Sing! Hymnal by Getty Music is a legacy hymnal that will define our generation and will bless generations to come. As a worship leader, I’ve been singing Getty songs ever since they wrote In Christ Alone with Stuart Townend — so I had been waiting for this hymnal for a long time. Now that it’s finally here, it has exceeded my expectations on every level. Read my full review.
ARTICLES FROM AROUND THE WEB
1. Clinton Manley: Today’s Thoughts Become Tomorrow’s Habits
“Tomorrow, you will have more thoughts like the ones you chose and approved of today.”
2. Rush Witt: Hope, Joy, and a Forever King
Christmas is just the beginning, for in a great and final Day, he will wipe away every tear, and death, grief, crying, and pain will be no more. New things will come, old things will pass away, and he will do it all by the beaming light of his salvation.
3. Michael P. Jensen: What I Learned from Bach, the Worship Director
“In Bach’s Christian music, we don’t find a denial of the crushing reality of life’s hardships and bewilderments. We don’t find an avoidance of doubt. Nor is everything neatly resolved. But we do find lines of hope and joy, and we’re drawn again and again to the cross of Jesus Christ.”
Our Books and Reviews page is your one-stop resource for all of your reading needs. It features Asian American authors and issues, recommendations, and interviews.
BOOKS, PODCASTS, MUSIC, MOVIES, AND MORE
1. Ryanne J. Molinari: We Must Reframe Our Concept of Joy in Worship
“Throughout Scripture, joy is inextricable from the grace of God. The grace of God doesn’t waver, change, or fluctuate with our feelings. So when we approach worship and we hope to experience joy, we have to reframe our concept of joy and not think of it as a feeling but as this heart posture of constantly tuning ourselves to the grace of God in Christ, constantly reminding us of the gospel story, constantly dwelling on God’s goodness to us and giving thanks.”
2. Tim Challies: My Top Ten Books from 2025 (+ a Bonus)
I enjoyed many of Tim’s picks, and found this to be a solid list overall!
3. Aaron Lee: Related Works
Book Reviews: In the Shadow of the Cross by Glenn M. Penner, Come, You Weary by Michael Reeves, Guard the Gospel by Michael Reeves, Authentic Ministry by Michael Reeves. Find me on Substack. Listen to our TGIF playlist on Spotify. Join my Asian American Worship Leaders Facebook group.
Edited by Tom Sugimura, Here We Stand: Reformation Truths for the Church Today celebrates the legacy of the Reformation and its impact in shaping our faith even to this day. In addition to Tom, the book features chapters written by Nam Park, Tranwei Yu, Geoff Chang, and Johnson Pang. Read more about the book from Tom, and be on the lookout for an author interview coming soon.
FEATURED THIS WEEK ON SOLA NETWORK
1. Aaron Lee: Asian American Book Awards 2025
“Congrats to our winners and to all the wonderful books written and published for the glory of God! While I read many books throughout the year, I’m excited to highlight some standouts by Asian American authors!”
2. Esther Xiang: Joy from the Wilderness
“As a pastor of an underground church, he had endured arrests, interrogations, and the constant threat of being watched. I expected heaviness in his voice, maybe even fear. Instead, what I saw disarmed me: he laughed.”
3. Karis Lai: The Woman, the Wheelchair, and Wondrous Love
“If God is love, then any concept of love is unfathomable without him. Love is a uniquely active phenomenon. Study alone does no good to aid understanding. Mental assent and lived reality are worlds apart when it comes to love. We do not know love until we are loved.”
4. TGIF: Roundup for December 26, 2025
Jesus Showed Up: The In-Person Visit of the Incarnation / Encouragement for Moms Who Don’t Always Feel Gentle / Jesus Is Unashamed to Take Awkward Family Christmas Photos
5. SOLA Network: TGIF Subscription
Get our TGIF installments delivered straight to your inbox for free every Friday. Join today so you never miss out.
General disclaimer: Our link roundups are not endorsements of the positions or lives of the authors. Header image by Gaétan Meyer on Unsplash.
Aaron Lee is our Editorial Curator. Aaron also serves as the Social Media Officer of First Chinese Baptist Church of Walnut in California’s San Gabriel Valley, home to the largest concentration of Asian American communities in the United States. Visit him online at DiveInDigDeep.com.