Weekly Sampler Platter: Friday, October 17, 2014

Here's a sampling of some of the things I've been reading and reviewing this week.  The hope is that these bite-sized sections of books, articles, blog posts, etc will stand on their own and be beneficial in-and-of-themselves.  But I also hope that some of you will like these excerpts enough that they pull you into the larger work from which they've been taken.

Let's start sampling: 

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Jonathan Merritt interviewing Scot McKnight , "The Bible Term Most Misused by Christians Today: An Interview with Scot McKnight" at jonathanmerritt.religionnews.com.  Posted October 15, 2014.

"...hordes of American Christians are far less committed to their local church because they are committed to doing “kingdom work.” Kingdom for many means the bigger things God is doing in this world. A proper kingdom theology leads people to the middle of the church, not away from it. So it makes a difference when church is on the decline and people are saying they are committed to the kingdom but not so much to the church. You can’t have kingdom without church."  

Click here to see the full post from which this excerpt was taken.  Please note the usual disclaimer, that my recommendation of this post is not necessarily an endorsement of everything else on the site where this was posted.

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Alex Duke interviewing Michael Horton, "On Being an 'Ordinary' Christian: An Interview with Michael Horton" at 9marks.org.  Posted October 14, 2014.

"The work of the pastor is often faithful and behind-the-scenes. Sure, there are those whom God has blessed to write books and travel the conference circuit. But generally speaking, pastors’ days aren’t filled with book-writing and theological wrestling as much as they’re filled with hospital visits and service planning. To some, the latter tasks may sound boring, unglamorous, and insignificant, but they are important.

"The same is true for committed church members who aren’t pastors or elders. At the end of the day, one’s most important ministry is the ministry of showing up, of not—to quote the writer of Hebrews—'forsaking the gathering, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another.' How boring, unglamorous, and relentlessly ordinary.

"But perhaps that’s okay. Perhaps practically speaking, the Christian life—for most of us, anyways—is more ordinary than we’d like to admit. Perhaps God is not only “okay” with this but finds our faithfulness and fruitfulness in the everyday beautifully and distinctly Christian: 'And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.'"

Click here to see the full post from which this excerpt was taken.  Please note the usual disclaimer, that my recommendation of this post is not necessarily an endorsement of everything else on the site where this was posted.

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Os Guinness, Renaissance: The Power of the Gospel However Dark the Times.  InterVarsity Press, 2014, pp. 27 (bold emphasis added):

"The future...will not finally be a matter of superpower agendas, scientific discoveries, technological advances, environmental disasters, Black Swan crises that are unforeseen and unforeseeable, or even the ongoing march of human folly.  The final factor in the future is unknown but sure: It lies in God's good, strong hands."