Your weekly installment of what we’ve been reading (and watching) around the web.
Articles of the Week
Love Your Neighbor Enough to Tell the Truth, Rosaria Butterfield. About a week ago, well-known Christian author Jen Hatmaker told interviewer Jonathan Merritt that she approved of the LGBT lifestyle. (While the interview left some room for interpretation, Jen clarified on her Facebook wall later, saying, “We [Jen and her husband Brandon] both believe a same-sex marriage, as a life-long monogamous commitment, can be holy before God.”) Hatmaker’s announcement has triggered many responses, but none seems as wise as Rosaria Butterfield’s. It is tempting, as she points out, to want to downplay Scripture’s words about sexuality. But we aren’t loving our gay and lesbian neighbors if we lie to them.
Don’t Let It Get Inside You, Sharon Hodde Miller. Our current cultural climate is, as Sharon puts it, “think with anger.” Just a scant few days away from the election that everyone is dreading, and we Americans are a sour bunch. And lest you think that November 9th will bring sunshine and roses, let us rain on your parade a bit: the bitterness, anger, and fear that are characterizing public life now won’t just disappear because a nasty election has passed. So how can we keep our hearts from buying into cynicism, anger, and hatred? Sharon gives us three insightful steps.
20 Quick Tips to Improve Your Productivity, Tim Challies. Challies has written an entire book helping us “do more better.” But in case you’d prefer the Cliff’s Notes version, he’s boiled it down to a blog post. These 20 tips won’t help you find your purpose (an enormous prerequisite!), but they can help you achieve it with much fewer frustrations. My (Chris) favorites are #9, #10, #13, and #15.
Grace-Based Living in a Burnout Culture, David Murray. “Leaders who lead on empty don’t lead well.” So said Pete Wilson, a megachurch pastor in Nashville who suddenly resigned. Why? Burnout. And it’s not just a problem for pastors, either. Our entire culture pushes us to work to the point of exhaustion, either for more money, more approval, or more satisfaction. Ironically, we get none of those things in the process. So just how does grace keep us from the crash-and-burnout we all want to avoid?
Four Reasons Every Pastor Should Ask for Feedback and Welcome Critique, Todd Wright. Pastor J.D. insists on hearing from others—as he prepares his weekend messages, as he leads our staff, as he counsels others. He knows what Todd Wright is after in this article: welcoming feedback (even negative feedback) is healthier for everyone. You probably don’t like critique. That’s precisely why you need this article.
On The Lighter Side
Sponsor a Millennial Today, John Crist. “Help us live the lives we portray on Instagram.” The only thing I don’t like about this video is that I wasn’t the one to come up with the idea.
Wisdom For Your Weekend is presented to you by Chris Pappalardo, with occasional guidance from J.D. Greear. 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.”
