Best of the Week for January 30

In Best of the Week we link to a handful of the best articles, videos, books, etc. that we have come across in the last week. We hope this will point you to some of the right places and give you gospel-rich tools and thoughts for life and mission.

The FAQs: President Trump’s Executive Order on Immigrants and Refugees

“For the next 90 days, both immigrant and nonimmigrant visa holders will be denied entry if they are from the following seven countries designed as being of “particular concern”: Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.”

This is a hard facts summary of what President Trump actually signed as an executive order last Friday. A LOT of what is being said, from both sides, is not actually true. If you must talk about it publicly, please do so using factual information, not opinion or caricatures.

Writing Sending Into Your Church’s DNA

“Early in my pastorate, a well-meaning pastor told me that we shouldn’t think that much about sending people out during our first ten years of our ministry; we should instead focus on building up our church locally. I know he meant well, but I have come to see this as very bad­ advice.”

Sending people out, whether short-term or for good, 8,000 miles away or into their neighborhood, is a fundamental part of our DNA as followers of Jesus because it’s who he was and what he did.

The Life-Changing Magic of Showing Up

“God is calling us to show up at those church meetings not just because we’ve had a hard day and need encouragement, but because there will be people that need our specific encouragement for their own hard days. We need each other.”

This is a good read about the incredible value of consistently being together, both in gathered worship and in smaller groups, things many people in today’s church casually neglect. He gives a short (but insightful) list of questions for evaluation of practices and motives at the end. Very helpful.

Sing Like Men

“If emotional expression is falsely viewed as opposed to masculinity, many men choose to opt out and play the lone ranger, instead of joining the song of God’s people.”

Manly man: whether you choose to sing or not, or how involved you are in it, is not really the issue. But “where your heart is in all of that” is. More of us should probably be singing (whole-heartedly), and we should be doing it together.

Over-Complicating Accountability

“That’s the recipe for accountability. Have friends and be honest. None of this is easy. But neither is it complicated.”

I love this. It’s really short and cuts right to the heart of accountability. We all need it, and we can all do it.

Have a good week.

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