This week we continued our college month with articles from collegian Aly Lee (This is Not Us? Thoughts from Charlottesville) and college pastor Francis Chow (Back-to-School Exhortations).
Just in time for wedding season, Pastor Ben Shin published Pick Your Battles – his final installment in the AA Guide to Premarital Counseling. After finishing her series on fashion, the fall season finds Judy Lee started a new two-part series on sports by interviewing Pastor Justin Kim.
Our monthly newsletter will be sent out today and it is a great way to stay connected with SOLA. If you missed this month’s edition, subscribe today so you get our next installment in September. And if you have any links or recommendations to share, please tweet me @musicgoon or email me at aaron@musicgoon.com.
Link Roundup
1. Moses Lee: How the Korean Pentecost Can Guide Revival Today
Moses Lee tweets: “My latest piece for TGC distinguishes common notions of revival with what actually occurs in history.
The Pyongyang Revival, in particular, began at the end of a 2 week Bible study. No emotionalism. Justice was also central, emphasizing reparations and the common good.”
2. Donny Cho: Why Church Interns Are More Valuable Than You Think
Writing for The Gospel Coalition, Donny Cho details why church interns are beneficial, specifically for the church planter, the intern, and the church member.
3. George Brahm: Skillet’s John Cooper on Apostasy Among Young Christian Leaders
“My conclusion for the church (all of us Christians): We must STOP making worship leaders and thought leaders or influencers or cool people or “relevant” people the most influential people in Christendom. (And yes that includes people like me!) I’ve been saying for 20 years(and seemed probably quite judgmental to some of my peers) that we are in a dangerous place when the church is looking to 20 year old worship singers as our source of truth. We now have a church culture that learns who God is from singing modern praise songs rather than from the teachings of the Word.”
4. Caroline Anderson: The Posture of Prayer: A Look at How Buddhists Pray
“Defining prayer in Buddhism is challenging because the prayer rituals are varied in practice just as the fundamental doctrines and tenets are varied across the different Buddhist sects. Buddhism in Thailand looks different from Buddhism in Nepal. And, Buddhism in Nepal looks different from Buddhism in the East.
Here’s a quick overview of the various Buddhists sects and how they practice prayer differently.”
5. Chase Replogle: Bonhoeffer Convinced Me to Abandon My Dream
“I’m not sure Bonhoeffer could have written anything about leadership more fundamentally opposed to what I had learned and imagined practicing in ministry. Bonhoeffer’s words collapsed the scaffolding on which I had erected my ideal vision of a church and my role as its pastor. His words exposed something shameful. I had traded a real congregation for a dream one, blind to the work God was doing right in front of me.”
Weekend Recommendations
1. Themelios: Volume 44, Issue 2, August 2019
Read Fulfill Your Ministry by Brian J. Tabb, Strange Times: Never Say ‘the Phones Are Quiet’ by Daniel Strange, The Doctrine of Scripture and Biblical Contextualization: Inspiration, Authority, Inerrancy, and the Canon by Jackson Wu, and more.
2. Shane & Shane: Power of the Cross
One of my favorite Christian artists covering one of my favorite hymns.
3. Jared C. Wilson — Faithfulness in Writing
Host Chase Repogle interviews Jared C. Wilson – Assistant Professor of Pastoral Ministry at Spurgeon College, Author in Residence at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and General Editor of For The Church – on the latest episode of the Pastor Writer podcast.
From SOLA
1. Francis Chow: Back-to-School Exhortations
“Some of you will experience test scores that fall on the wrong side of the curve, rejection letters, unexpected changes in your career path, a regretful stewardship of your time, relational fallout, breakups, unmet expectations, and disappointment. More significantly, many of you will come face to face with your own sin.
There are a number of ways you can respond to this. Some people see the sinfulness of their own hearts and they don’t care. Others see it and despair, or they believe that they just need to get their act together. Don’t neglect your failures and even your sin because it is a reminder to you of your desperate need for grace.”
2. Judy Lee: God Over Sports, Jesus Over Hockey – An Interview with Pastor Justin Kim
Justin Kim: “I think a lot of people can relate who are passionate about their favorite teams. It’s okay to be passionate. But our love for Jesus must always be preeminent and supersede any other love for anything else, including sports.
I remember seeing guys get so angry on the basketball court. But winning can be an unhealthy obsession because winning isn’t the most important thing. You can win a game but lose your witness for Christ. Playing with passion and playing with the right attitude helps us to play sports in a God-honoring way. One can play sports for God’s glory. One can be thankful to the Lord for the ability to exercise and to celebrate their physical health. Sports are a gift from the Lord but not when it replaces Jesus as the center of one’s life.”
3. Ben Shin: Pick Your Battles: The AA Guide to Premarital Counseling (Part 4)
“The big question then to ask is “which issues or hills should a couple ‘die on’?” So first, do not die on every hill. It simply is not worth it. When a couple cannot agree with older parents who may represent either a different cultural or even generational custom, they will find tremendous hardship and stress. The better attitude would be to have the following simple slogan: give and take.”
4. Aly Lee: This is Not Us? Thoughts from Charlottesville
“This reflection on the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia was written two years ago, before my second year at the University of Virginia. I am now entering my last year in college.”
“The events of August 11-12, 2017 radically shaped my perception of my school and America. They left a lot of fear in my heart and a lot of questions for the Lord as I packed my bag semester after semester to return to this place with a deep history of hate. That being said, the Lord has been incredibly gracious to this community. He has opened places for healing and communication and has spoken so much truth to my fears.”
5. Thank God It’s Friday: Weekend Roundup
In case you missed it, here are some headlines from last week: White Nationalist Terrorism and the Gospel, 15 Pieces of Writing Advice from C. S. Lewis, Consuming Culture: Food and the Shaping of Asian American Identity, and How Should Missionaries Help Create Indigenous Worship Music?