Two handbooks for pastors released in 2015:
Helopoulos, Jason. The New Pastor’s Handbook: Help and Encouragement for the First Years of Ministry. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2015. Fantastic: short, to the point, wise, convicting, encouraging.
Hughes, R. Kent. The Pastor’s Book: A Comprehensive and Practical Guide to Pastoral Ministry. Edited by Douglas Sean O’Donnell. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015. A massive practical reference work.
This book just released:
Andrew David Naselli and J. D. Crowley. Conscience: What It Is, How to Train It, and Loving Those Who Differ. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016. 
I am grateful to J. D. Crowley for coauthoring this book with me. His rich wisdom and life experience will serve readers in a way that I can’t. He has spent most of his life in Asian cultures, and he is a veteran missionary. [Read more…] about Conscience: What It Is, How to Train It, and Loving Those Who Differ
The latest episode of the edifying and motivating Dispatches from the Front DVD Series just released: Every Tribe 
.
The latest episode is set in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, and it features my dear friends Tim Keesee and J. D. Crowley. (J. D. and I recently coauthored the book Conscience.)
[Read more…] about Every Tribe: Episode 9 (Cambodia, Laos, & Vietnam) of Dispatches from the Front
If Donald Trump is the Republican nominee for President of the United States, can you vote for him with a clear conscience? This election cycle may force conservatives—especially religious, social conservatives—to answer that question.
Here’s how I am currently thinking through that question as an evangelical theology professor who just coauthored a book on the conscience and the Christian. To answer the question, you first need to consider three other questions. [Read more…] about Can You Vote for Donald Trump with a Clear Conscience?
I think Doug Wilson wins this three-way debate: “Should Churches Display the American Flag in Their Sanctuaries?” Christianity Today 56, no. 7 (2012): 82.
(Direct links to CT often don’t work unless you subscribe to CT. If that’s the case for you for the above link, just Google the title to view the whole article.)
The last line of Doug Wilson’s little essay still makes me grin:
This is why, in my ideal scenario, the elders who vote in session to remove the American flag from the sanctuary should all have that same flag on their pickup trucks, right next to the gun rack.
My wife, Jenni, has encountered well-meaning Christian women evangelizing for all-natural births in a way that can make other women feel inferior and less of a real woman if they have an un-natural birth (e.g., an epidural in a hospital or a C-section). She’s had to counsel some women who had C-sections and consequently felt depressed and dejected that they didn’t have natural births instead.
After seeing Jenni counsel ladies like that several times, I encouraged her to write a short article on the issue. DG just published her wise perspective: “Better Than a Birth Plan.”
Update on 3/10/2016: The feedback that Jenni has received on her article has been overwhelmingly positive, but I have seen a few negative comments that misunderstand Jenni’s intent. Her target audience is primarily two people:
As she says in her article, Jenni is not against all-natural births. There is nothing inherently wrong with planning to have a natural birth. If that’s what you think is best in your situation, then go for it. Have an all-natural birth to the glory of God!
This book releases on February 1:
Rob Green. Tying the Knot: A Premarital Guide to a Strong and Lasting Marriage. Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2016.
My endorsement:
I would have loved to read this book with my wife while we were engaged. So practical, so wise. Engaged couples, listen carefully to Rob Green.
This book releases today:
Alex Chediak. Beating the College Debt Trap: Getting a Degree without Going Broke. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015.
My endorsement:
Alex Chediak does it again. He gives wise, user-friendly advice for students in high school and college (and their parents) for how to graduate from college without crippling debt. This book makes me even more grateful for colleges that do everything they can to serve students by keeping tuition low.
As I read the book I kept thanking God for my school: Bethlehem College & Seminary. We strategically give every resident student a Serious Joy Scholarship:
God works in the hearts of individual men and women to provide two-thirds of Bethlehem College & Seminary students’ full tuition cost such that they can:
1. Receive a high-value education at an unusually affordable cost.
2. Launch immediately into ministry without student loan debt.
3. Be affordable as staff to churches and ministries that need them.
