Friday Review (3/31/23)
Each week we compile a list of helpful articles from other sites, in a variety of categories, for youth workers to read, reflect on, and/or discuss with parents and volunteers. If you have any articles you’d like to suggest, we’d love for you to share those in the Youth Pastor Theologian Facebook group. That’s a great way to bring them to our attention and to discuss them with like-minded youth workers! (Inclusion in this list does not imply complete agreement with the publishing source, but we have found these articles to be beneficial.)
Youth Ministry
How to Respond to Deconstructionist Social Media, by Zach Hollifield (For the Church)
This latest Christian-adverse social media trend is tricky to deal with, but I am convinced that the primary response must be life-on-life discipleship. What this moment demands of pastors of younger generations is that we keep doing what pastors have done since the dawn of the church.
Protect Teens from Sextortion, by John Perritt (The Gospel Coalition)
As we get wise to their schemes, extortionists will become more cunning and employ new tactics to come after our children. We can’t warn our children against every scam and trap in the world. So how can we teach them to be wise enough to spot trouble on their own?
Biblical & Theological Studies
Three Reasons to Read Ecclesiastes, by Stephen Roberts (Core Christianity)
Only the living God can make straight what is broken. Only he can offer hope to those under the sun by sending his Son to bear our wilderness and gain our garden. Only the Holy Spirit can lift our eyes beyond the sun to the Son. Use this book of wisdom to convict your own heart, relate to your fellow sinner-sufferers, and point to the hope of all hopes—the Savior-King who will wipe our every tear away.
Wrath Is Not an Attribute of God, by Jeremy Treat (The Gospel Coalition)
We must understand that wrath is not an attribute of God. God is love. God is holy. God is just. God is not wrath. His wrath is the rightful expression of his holy love in the face of sin and evil.
17 Dates Along the Old Testament Storyline, by Mitch Chase (Biblical Theology)
Rather than trying to date anything specifically in Genesis 1-11, I’m going to start listing dates that begin with Genesis 12 and the story of Abraham. The following 17 dates will take Bible readers from the days of Abraham to the days of Malachi.
Cultural Reflection & Contextualization
2 Ways Leaders Can Teach People to Be More Discerning, by Chris Martin (Terms of Service)
Unfortunately, these platforms are designed to massage our minds and keep us scrolling, often at the cost of being able to discern between what is real and what is fiction. If we have any hope of fostering discernment among the people God has entrusted us to lead and disciple, we must rely on Jesus Christ and point to Him as our agreed-upon standard of truth. Without a shared belief in Christ as the arbiter of all that is good and true, we have no hope of fostering discernment in this age or any other.
After Nashville, Moral Numbness Is Our Enemy by Russell Moore (Christianity Today)
Some of the boys and girls fleeing for their lives were children of dear friends, and almost everyone I know is connected—closely or loosely—with the victims. We all know the church, the school, our neighbors in the Green Hills neighborhood. Things will not be the same here for a very long time. And yet Americans—especially Christians—should ask just how much we have adjusted ourselves to this kind of horror. How numb to it all have we become?
Pastoral Ministry
Pastors and Social Media, by Samuel D. James (Digital Liturgies)
This post isn’t an attempt to pick on pastors or to single them out as uniquely bad offenders. It is an attempt to say that when pastors log on to social media and berate others relentlessly, post incessantly, or communicate inappropriately, it is very likely that red flags were visible before the point of crisis.
Family & Parents
A Prayer for Taking Your Kids to School After Tragedy, by Winfree Brisley (The Gospel Coalition)
Tragic situations make us confront hard realities—evil in the world, the brevity of life, and our limited ability to protect our children. We grieve for parents walking through unfathomable loss, not wanting to imagine ourselves in their place but fearing one day we will be. What does it look like for us to entrust our children to the Lord while rightly acknowledging how evil and suffering affect us?Hungry for More: Facing Our Idols in the Allure of Ozempic , by Kristen Hatton (Rooted)
I don’t know about you, but there is nothing I want more than for my children to find their life in Christ. As a parent, I am well aware that if Christ is not life for me, something else is. Wherever I seek treasure, whatever I value most, will shape my children too. More than my words, they see where I fix my eyes.
From YPT this week
It Shouldn’t Be This Way - A Reflection on the Covenant School Shooting, by Nick Hartman
A Nashville area youth pastor reflects on ministry to students and families in the aftermath of the Covenant School Shooting.
YPT Podcast Episode 31: Talking About Race with Youth with Michelle Ami Reyes
It’s tempting to avoid direct conversations about racism because it immediately raises people’s alarm systems. How can youth pastor theologians model faithful ways to have sensitive conversations?