Aaron Armstrong

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Weekend reading (4/21)

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Weekend Reading

Don’t Celebrate Brokenness 

Erik Reed:

One value at the church I pastor, The Journey Church, is “pompous-free realness.” This refers to our unwillingness to celebrate facades or masks. We discourage pretending in church because there is a full quota on churches hosting weekly masquerade balls. Churches must be places of refuge for hurting people. People crave realness. So, I am for broken people and welcoming the broken. I do not discourage brokenness. I certainly do not encourage pretending to be good when you, in fact, are not.

My concern is how we use the word. Brokenness is not an excuse to remain in our sins. It is not a justification for habitual wrongdoing. You cannot disregard repentance by pleading “I’m broken.”

Disneyflix is coming. Netflix should be scared.

This is interesting:

Disney, in other words, is constructing what looks to be a worthy rival to Netflix. Will this be enough to inaugurate another century of dominance? Based on its public statements and on private conversations I’ve had with Disney executives, the company’s most likely path forward is to nurture Disneyflix gradually, in an effort to ease the decline of pay-TV and film—the equivalent of saving its flooding fortress by plugging each new leak as it springs. That may be a prudent way to maintain the status quo for a few more years. To save the kingdom, however, Disney may have to blow up the castle.

Rob Bell, Fundamentalist: 5 Ironies from the New Bell Film

Owen Strachan:

I just watched the new Rob Bell documentary. It’s entitled The Heretic. Here’s a better title for it: The Fundamentalist: Rob Bell Walks Through Airports. I’ll explain what I mean below, and encourage you to listen to the podcast I recently recorded with Isaac Dagneau of indoubt ministries.

After viewing The Heretic, I was struck by five ironies that relate not merely to Bell, but “progressive” post-evangelical gurus more broadly. Here they are.

He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands—Including Your Kids

Jared Kennedy:

A stewardship vision of parenting—one that says my kids belong to God—is scary, since God doesn’t always meet our expectations. He doesn’t see as we see, nor should he. His vision for our lives is better. Embracing this truth is ultimately freeing, and it will lead us to gratitude.

How to complete a session of The Gospel Project in 20 minutes

This was a fun post to write.

Be Heavenly Minded So That You’re of Earthly Good

T.D. Alexander:

While Christians aren’t immune to feelings of despair and hopelessness, faith in Jesus Christ lessens the pain of pessimism and despair. Faith in the resurrected Son of God gives us confidence to trust that this life is but the prelude to something more wonderful.

Earth Day, religious devotion and creation care

A favorite from the archives:

The first time I heard about Earth Day was when it interrupted my Saturday morning cartoons. I was probably seven or eight at the time, and this particular weekend NBC decided to air one of their NBC All Star type shows. This one featured the Huxtable family talking about how we shouldn’t be taking long showers as it wastes water. This was a way we could take care of Planet Earth. Next, came the announcement at school: because we had to do our part to care for the planet, we’d be spending a couple hours on Earth Day cleaning up trash in the school yard and the surrounding neighborhood.

Three books in the queue

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I’m always trying to read something, but admittedly it can be challenging with a hectic work schedule and the stuff of life. Even so, I do what I can to make sure I’m making the time for my good ole-fashioned physical books, in addition to whatever I’m listening to when I’m on the go. Here’s a quick look at three books that are in the queue right now:

Action Comics: 80 Years of Superman

Today sees the release of the landmark Action Comics #1000, which I’m excited about as it kicks off a whole new era of Superman stories with Brian Michael Bendis taking over as the writer of both Superman and Action Comics. (As a fan, I’m also a bit nervous about what he’s going to do as he’s following up Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason’s excellent run, which is one of the best in over a decade.) This book, though, isn’t issue 1000. This is a collection of some of the best single-issue Action Comics stories from the last 80 years, including the very first story from 1938 (first published on this very day, in fact). This will be a great book to share with my kids as well.

Outlaws of Time book 3: The Last of the Lost Boys by N.D. Wilson

Wilson’s stories make my heart happy, and I’ve been eagerly awaiting this book since the last once came out. Can’t wait to read and share with my kids.

Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon

Chabon is an excellent storyteller, but there’s more to his writing that this. I just love the way it reads—there’s a craftsmanship to it that I can’t quite fully explain, but it is a delight. Wonder Boys is the first book of Chabon’s I ever read (though definitely not the last), and one I’ve been meaning to revisit for quite some time. Now seems as good a time as any.

Links I like (4/10)

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Links I like (2018 edition)

Podcast: on the latest episode of The Hero of the Story, Brian and I discuss finding Christ in the hard to read books of the Bible (like Leviticus).

Humanity’s Fall and God’s Redemption

Samantha Sykora:

Do you feel it – that gnawing desire for more that often diverts you onto a quest for contentment in all the wrong places? Maybe you feel that insatiable lust for attention or approval that enslaves you to vanity and fear of man? Maybe you feel that sideways glance mixed of envy and greed as you deem someone’s life as better than your own?

Solo: the full trailer

Starting to actually look forward to this one.

The Importance of Being “a Finisher”

Eric Geiger:

For Christians, there is a holy perspective to finishing. Our King finishes what He starts. As Christians, we desire to display the characteristics of our Father. Because He is holy, we desire to walk in holiness. Because He is love, we seek to love. Because He is gracious, generous, and compassionate, we desire to be people who are the same. He also finishes what He starts. He finished the work for us on the cross when He paid in full, not in part, for our sin. And He is going to keep working on us and in us until we are with Him in eternity. The apostle Paul reminded believers, “He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6). When the apostle Paul knew he was about to die, he declared, “I have finished the race” (2 Timothy 4:7). He had walked faithfully, though not perfectly, with the Lord. Finishing the race as a Christian is much more important than finishing a project, but we can look to our Christian faith to motivate us to be a finisher in all that we do.

7 Ways to Work Hard at Rest

Gavin Ortlund:

Over the last several years I’ve been through busier seasons, and now God has kindly provided more of a sabbatical kind of season. I’ve noticed several things about the idea of Sabbath rest:

  • Busy seasons are often when I’ve learned how to do Sabbath well.
  • Not being busy is never a guarantee that I’m actually resting my soul.
  • Paradoxically, drawing from both of these points, rest is hard work.

Here are some specific lessons I’ve learned along the way. Maybe they’ll help you to endure amid busyness and fatigue.

When the Real You Suddenly Shows Up

Jared Wilson:

It seems every week now brings with it a new revelation of a pastor’s or other evangelical leader’s moral implosion. Whether it’s the next step in the seismic shifts of our culture’s #MeToo moment or simply evangelicalism’s chickens coming home to roost, the fallout is getting gut-wrenchingly more routine — personal shame, relational devastation, and a tarnishing of the church’s witness.

We Need Counter-Cultural Common Sense

Trevin Wax:

In 1955, in a used bookstore in San Francisco, Chesterton’s personal copy of Platitudes was discovered, with all of his markings intact. I recently came across one of the hard-to-find facsimile editions of Chesterton’s copy of Platitudes. It is simply marvelous to watch how Chesterton tested every platitude, no matter how wise it may have sounded, and responded with humor and verve.

I am a grumbler, too

A favorite from the archives:

I’ll admit, it gets tempting to look down on the Israelites when I read passages like this. After all, one would think that after seeing everything God had done for them—parting the Red Sea, giving them victory over armies, making it rain food, making water come from a rock and so much more—they’d have started to realize that they could trust him.

But that’s not how things work in a world filled with people who have a sin problem, is it? This is the problem of every single person, ever since Adam and Eve first sinned against God. People like you and me. We grumble and complain about anything and everything. We grumble because we’re not content with what God has provided. We grumble because we don’t trust God.

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