How to Choose a Counselor, Hollywood’s Sex Problem, & Talking Race with Your Kids

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 occasional 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.”

Video of the Week

Must Every Christian Be a Member of a Local Church? Brian Davis. The local church is a community designed by God, highlighted by God, brought in by God, served by God, carried by God, and instructed by God’s Word. Why would you want to avoid this?

Articles of the Week

Eight Questions Pastors Should Ask Potential Counselors, Brad Hambrick. Not every church has the luxury of having its own counseling ministry. But every church should have trusted counselors they can refer to their people. How do you know if you’re making a wise partnership? Let our Pastor of Counseling, Brad Hambrick, give you the right questions to ask.

How to Talk About Race with Your Kids, Michelle Reyes. If you’ve got kids, you know that they are inquisitive creatures, constantly noticing what you wish they wouldn’t and asking questions that make polite company blush. When it comes to race, the way we respond to our children’s curiosity goes a long way in shaping their understanding of others. Seize the opportunity and use the best tool at your disposal—the Bible—to shape these young minds.

How “LGBT-Affirming” is Like KJV-Onlyism, Joe Carter. In a society like ours, increasingly dominated by loud noise with little civil discourse, it’s not surprising to see new “fundamentalisms” popping up all over the place. One of the more striking is the “liberal fundamentalism” that wants to hear every church proudly proclaim that they are “LGBT-affirming”—not meaning that the church loves LGBT people (a good and needed thing), but that the church agrees with the LGBT sexual ethics. As Carter points out, this left-leaning group has quite a bit in common with an unlikely group. Our guess is neither would get along well with the other!

The Age of Consent in the Age of Exposure, Stephen McAlpine. Kevin Spacey’s career is most likely over now, as he confessed this week that he sexually assaulted a 14-year-old boy some years ago. The spotlight on Hollywood’s men has increased of late, and you can expect more and more big names to fall as stories of their heinous sexual misdeeds come to light. As McAlpine points out, Hollywood is reaping the sordid fruits of the Sexual Revolution, surprising many of the revolutionaries in the process. Toss out biblical rules about sex and you inherit a much more complicated, much more toxic set of rules in its place.

On the Lighter Side

Woke Jeans, Saturday Night Live. Introducing “Levi’s Wokes” – sizeless, style-neutral, gender non-conforming denim for a generation that defies labels.