{"id":848,"date":"2017-11-17T19:02:04","date_gmt":"2017-11-18T03:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/messofpottage.com\/blog\/?p=848"},"modified":"2017-11-17T19:02:48","modified_gmt":"2017-11-18T03:02:48","slug":"weekend-roundup-november-17-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/messofpottage.com\/blog\/2017\/11\/17\/weekend-roundup-november-17-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekend Roundup – November 17, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

He\u2019s not worried that you\u2019re following along on YouVersion:\u00a0Pope Says No Phones in Church. Parishioners Keep Scrolling.<\/a>\u00a0(Note: you can get\u00a0YouVersion<\/a>here.)<\/p>\n

Not sure Francis would agree:\u00a0The Reformation is over. Protestants won. So why are we still here?<\/a>\u00a0\u201cWinning is dangerous \u2014 what do you do next? Do you return to Mother Church? \u2026 a number of my Protestant graduate students \u2026 convert because Catholicism is an intellectually rich theological tradition better able to negotiate the acids of our culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

For better, and for worse:\u00a0Churches merge, close: \u2018We no longer live in Christendom. We really have to accept that it\u2019s a thing of the past\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Declining almost as fast as their congregations: UMC\u2019s\u00a0Young elder numbers slip in 2017<\/a><\/p>\n

But some UMC congregations are fighting the trend, like Adam Weber\u2019s Embrace Church:\u00a0S.D. church makes \u2018fastest-growing\u2019 list<\/a>. What\u2019s their secret? \u201cWhat we wanted to do was lower the bar for people to come in the front door,\u201d Weber said. \u201cWe tried to open the door as wide as we possibly could.\u201d<\/p>\n

This played a role in my conversion:\u00a0Are Free Minds and Free Markets Compatible With Christianity?<\/a><\/p>\n

So much for the divide between science and religion:\u00a0At Vatican, \u2018Tenets of Faith\u2019 Seen as Crucial in Climate Change Effort<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking of which, apparently there\u2019s a debate between supporters of the Meteorite and Deep-Ocean Vent theories:\u00a0We\u2019re More Confident Than Ever That Life on Earth Really Did Come From Meteorites<\/a><\/p>\n

Did the sun stop\u00a0moving<\/em>, or stop\u00a0shining<\/em>?\u00a0How Scientists Identified the Oldest Known Solar Eclipse \u2026 Using the Bible<\/a><\/p>\n

Like \u201cFriendly\u201d ones.\u00a0Welcoming Churches are Dying Churches.<\/a>\u00a0\u201cYes, we need to be welcoming\u2026 but more importantly, we need to be invitational. That means taking a risk and putting ourselves out there for possible rejection when we invite people to our church. It means going out into the world, making contact with people and building relationships with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Everything Is Missions<\/a>: Kevin DeYoung reviews\u00a0When Everything is Missions<\/cite>, by Denny Spitters and Matthew Ellison, who argue that a missionary is \u201c(a) sent (b) across a boundary to where the gospel is not known, (c) to see a church planted that (d) can reach that region with the gospel once the missionary leaves.\u201d I get what they\u2019re saying, but I don\u2019t think that (c) is always required and (d) defines the problem so nobody is a missionary unless they are planning to leave. But suppose you (a) go to work and (b) nobody there knows the gospel and (c) you invite them to be part of a home Bible study and (d) someday you move to a different town and the study moves to someone else\u2019s home. Doesn\u2019t that make you a missionary, even by their own definition?<\/p>\n

(Cross-posted at jlppastor<\/a><\/em>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He\u2019s not worried that you\u2019re following along on YouVersion:\u00a0Pope Says No Phones in Church. Parishioners Keep Scrolling.\u00a0(Note: you can get\u00a0YouVersionhere.) Not sure Francis would agree:\u00a0The Reformation is over. Protestants won. So why are we still here?\u00a0\u201cWinning is dangerous \u2014 what do you do next? Do you return to Mother Church? \u2026 a number of my … Continue reading »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[718,54,719],"class_list":["post-848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-links","tag-society","tag-weekend-roundup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/messofpottage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/messofpottage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/messofpottage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/messofpottage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/messofpottage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=848"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/messofpottage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":850,"href":"https:\/\/messofpottage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848\/revisions\/850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/messofpottage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/messofpottage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/messofpottage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}