A Summer for Sabbath

Since we began working on it, our team has poured countless hours of work into Thinking & Theology. It’s a labor of love for us, as we do this in addition to the regular demands of family, church life, and work responsibilities. We delight to serve in this way. Yet, we occasionally need to cease from our labor that we might worship the Lord and care for one another well. Over the next three months, Thinking & Theology will be taking a Summer Sabbatical. We’ll post a few articles we have written already, and we’ll occasionally connect over social media. However, from now until August 31, you won’t hear from us every week. We’ll come back at the beginning of September with a full slate of articles, but for the summer, we’re resting. We’re ceasing from our labor; we’re enjoying a Sabbath.

The Local Church and Its Role in Missions

As we continue the conversation on missions this month, we mustn’t forget the main focus of missions: reaching the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ for the glory of God. Many of us can recall sermons on Matthew 28 — the Great Commission passage—but how can we put that into action? Do some need…

A Great Commission and a Modern Mission

The Lord has preserved the integrity of the Gospel over many years. He has not only protected His church to stand firm over time, but He has also caused it to expand and grow exponentially. One means of growth has been global missions carried out by faithful Christians. It is important that we take the time to understand the history of modern missions, because it shows us God’s character and encourages us in our efforts for the spread of the Gospel.

Susanna Wesley and the Mission of Motherhood

Mother’s Day is a time to consider our moms and the ways they’ve shaped us. As mothers, potential mothers, and spiritual mothers, this is a season when we consider how to parent. We look at past successes and failures in our efforts to raise up another generation of disciples of Jesus Christ, and we pray for those the Lord might give us to steward as physical or spiritual offspring.

A Reflection on the 2018 Liberty Women’s Clinic Banquet

Two weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending Radical, the 2018 Liberty Women’s Clinic Fundraiser Banquet. This banquet occurs every April in Kansas City, Missouri, and this year 600 people attended. It was a night full of fellowship, stories, inspiration, and praise—praise to God for the 306 confirmed lives He saved through the means…

Alfie Evans and the Topic of Dependence

Pro-choice rhetoric says that because the unborn is completely dependent on the mother, and would die if the two were separated, the unborn is not, in fact, a full-fledged human being, and therefore abortion is not murder. The same rhetoric is increasingly applied to the elderly or critically ill person who requires the assistance of machines to live.

Environment Has Zero Effect on Human Value

This brings us to the E in S.L.E.D—environment. Pro-choicers argue that since the unborn is located in a different environment than a born human, it being inside of its mother’s womb instead of outside of it, it is less like a person and therefore has less right to life. It is true that environment affects many things, but a person’s environment or location does not determine their value as a human being.

The Barbaric Science of Usefulness

This second portion of the SLED test argues otherwise: a human being’s level of development does not reflect on whether or not it is a human life. The logic here is simple. A person who possesses a greater level of development – say, a higher level of intelligence, more skills, a larger spread of talents and gifts – is not more human than someone who is simply average. Nor is the average person less than human because he or she is merely mediocre.

Does My Size Make Me Less Valuable?

This month we are covering the S.L.E.D. Test on the sanctity of human life. As we look at the “S”, which stands for size and appearance, we’ll see that this argument hits at the issue of abortion in particular. Not only do we care about the unborn, but we also care about the life of the unborn after she is born. Whether she’s 14 and playing basketball, or 90 and living in a nursing home, we care about her life.