The following articles have been selected because they are informative, instructive, entertaining, or simply interesting. Articles appearing in Your Friday Five do not represent an endorsement.
We all can learn from disparate friendships.
Politics, Partisanship, and Unifying Friendship, by Dave Harvey
Many people unconsciously see friendships as echo chambers—a place to hear our own opinions repeated. But scripture says, “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another” (Prov. 27:17). Here it seems like the point of close relationship is not comfort but sharpening; God’s classroom for personal growth. For growth to come, there must be sparks. For sparks to be present, there must be areas where we see reality differently.
In an age of social media, tolerance shrinks. We draw close to those with whom we most agree and cancel those who counter. But when we take a large view of friendship, disagreement means opportunity, not danger. I’m not implying that we need no doctrinal discernment, denominational creeds, or church requirements that help distinguish members from non-members; not even close. But loving another who doesn’t believe the same way as we do doesn’t immediately default us to being sinful or weak; it can actually make us more like Christ.
Where is God when our prayers aren’t answered?
When God Says No to Your Earnest Prayers, by Garrett Kell
Satan will assure you that God isn’t listening. He’ll point to your perpetually barren womb or freshly dug tomb to prove it. This is why Peter warned the suffering churches of Asia Minor, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). Flee to the Good Shepherd. The Lord may have said no to one request, but he’ll never refuse your pleas for grace (Heb. 4:14–16).
Seeing through the fog.
Clarity in an Age of Confusion, by Gretchen Saffles
As I’ve wrestled inwardly each time a news headline declares the downfall of a Christian pastor, the deconstructed faith of another believer, or the renounced faith of an evangelical leader, I’ve struggled to formulate thoughts about what is happening. Social media often amplifies voices that don’t edify or encourage the Body of Christ, and celebrates those who turn from the faith in pursuit of subjective “truth.”
So, where do we go from here? How do we live with spiritual discernment in a digital age? What do we do when Christian leaders change their theological stances or renounce their faith in Jesus altogether?
The spiritual confusion around us is only getting worse.
The New Godless Religions, an Interview with Tara Isabella Burton
In talking about remixing, what I wanted to capture was this phenomenon I see as much more salient than so-called secularization, which is the way in which spirituality, meaning, purpose, community, and ritual are all divorced both from traditional religious observance and from one another. You might get your sense of meaning from one place and purpose from one place and community from a different place and so on and so forth. This kind of mix-and-match mentality, this anti-institutionalism, and desire to remake one’s own religious life in a more individualized way—all of these things I call together the phenomenon of remixing.
And the gates of hell will not prevail.
Kentucky church experiences ‘move of God’ during pandemic, Baptist Press
They made the adjustments and let God do the rest, according to new pastor Jonathan Bonar.
“I feel like it’s just a move of God really,” he said.
The Owensboro church has finished building a new $2.5 million sanctuary, hired a pastor, nearly doubled weekly giving and added dozens of new members – all during the past six months when “COVID” became the most frightening word in the world.
Sunday morning attendance has grown from 320 in June to 477 Sept. 13. Two months ago, Bonar became the church’s first pastor in nearly two years, and his leadership came at a critical time as COVID-19 made decisions for churches more difficult by the day.