Tuesday, 29 December 2020

12 Leaders Evangelicals Lost in 2020

Remembering missionary pilot Joyce Lin, theologian J.I. Packer, author Luci Swindoll, and others.

Luci Swindoll said God’s grace was so powerful that it allowed her to be who she truly was, transforming not only her life, but also her death. “When I’m with the Lord face to face,” she said, “it is my own life that I lay down and not the prefabrication of one who always tried to be somebody else.”

For many reasons, 2020 was a hard year. But we drew strength from the individual lives and powerful testimonies of many who went to meet their savior. Here are a dozen men and women whom evangelicals lost, in alphabetical order.

Check out the rest of our 2020 year-end lists here.

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The Loss of Civility and the Hard Work of Reconciliation

Civility is living in tension, and requires much more of us than simple politeness.

Harsh winds and frozen grounds have set in for what is expected to be the Dark Winter of 2020. All that was lush, and flourishing is now fallow-limp on the ground and rotting. As we go into this uncertain Winter, the worst part it all for me is not the pandemic, the political theater and ranker, or the awful tyranny of distance from loved ones but rather the lost hope that civility and acceptance will someday re-emerge from the frozen ground of America. We live in dichotomous times of harsh winds, times where nuance and contextualization lay rotting on the ground like annuals after the first real frost of Fall.

My hydrangeas and lilacs will return as sure as anything-as the ground thaws and warmth returns, so will the beauty of nature. I have lost hope, however, that such will be the case for civility. Civility requires a listening ear, the ability to empathize with the ‘other,’ and a basic value for those we couldn’t disagree with more. These are not merely values in short supply, they are values to be mocked and slain in places of public discourse. What use to be safe places of debate and dialogue are now execution stations where the other is slain with sharp tongues, quick Tweets, and a cancel culture that is bent on eradicating the ‘other’ wherever she may be found.

I find myself in the hard place of the middle, I am a perpetual other in an increasingly polarized America. I am an African American Republican. I am socially progressive in many regards, yet a literalist Christian. I have spent two decades fighting modern-day slavery, engaging in civil rights for African Americans, and learning to be the best environmental steward I can possibly be. So why does it feel like I am not also allowed ...

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CT’s 2020 Cover Stories, Ranked

Here are the cover stories that online readers read most.

From the state of marriage in the church to the global response to COVID-19 to a biblical theology of law enforcement, our print cover stories tackled this year’s headlines with deeper Christian analysis. Here are CT’s eight top cover stories or story packages from 2020, ranked in reverse order of online popularity.

8. October
7. March
6. May/June
5. April
4. November
3. January/February
2. September
1. July/August

To read more, check out our most popular cover stories from 2019.

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Monday, 28 December 2020

Spiritual Formation That Fits You

Spiritual formation will look different for different people—and that's okay.

When I think about my own spiritual formation, one of the things that's been helpful for me to remember is that people of different personalities approach spiritual growth differently. It is not a one-size-fits-all approach.

For instance, I am wired very differently than my wife, Donna. I'm a "get stuff done, change the world now," type of personality. I have much more of an “activist” personality. Donna, on the other hand, has a much more contemplative personality. She is more likely to consider her actions for a while before she makes them, and this has made her naturally more prayerful than myself.

For example, when the weather is warm, Donna will bike over to the nearby park with her Bible and just sit there. In that environment, it is natural for her to engage in prayer and reflection. That's not as natural for me. Some people are more like me and some are going to be more like Donna. In fact, there's a whole continuum of personality; from the more contemplative to the more activist.

Jet fuel drinkers and candle lighters and everyone in between

Mindy Caliguire leads a ministry called SoulCare, which provides coaching and spiritual direction for weary ministryn leaders. She is a key partner with the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center’s Resilient Church Leadership initiative. Mindy has worked in a lot of places with get-it-done people, people like myself. She calls people like that jet fuel drinkers. They are constantly on the go, often burning the candle at both ends.

That's one side of the spectrum.

The other side, using Mindy’s terms, is the candle lighter. The candle lighter moves a bit slower. Things might not happen as fast, but they also might happen more deliberately. ...

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CT’s Top 20 Stories of 2020

Christian responses to racial injustice, prayers during a pandemic, and more.

In a year that none of us will ever forget, Christianity Today’s readers visited its website most often for three things: encouragement and advice as a pandemic raged across the globe, explanations for the political tensions and differences Christians face, and insight on matters of race and faith as injustices held the nation’s attention. We also wrestled with how to report on leaders mired in controversy and looked at some churches left to rebuild in their wake.

The most-viewed CT article of 2020 was our exclusive news report “George Floyd Left a Gospel Legacy in Houston.” You can find it and other top CT News stories of the year here.

Second was “20 Oraciones para esta pandemia,” the Spanish version of “20 Prayers to Pray During This Pandemic” [see below] and 1 of 350 new CT Global translations.

Excluding those categories, our 20 most-read stories of the year are listed below in descending order, starting with No. 20 and ending with No. 1.

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Priesthood of All Professors? Court to Consider ‘Ministerial Exception’ for Gordon College

Decision could impact freedom of faculty, ability of evangelical institutions to hire and fire.

One of professor Margaret DeWeese-Boyd’s students thought she did a “great job of connecting class materials with Christian faith” in her Gordon College social work course. Another said that after nearly 30 years teaching at the Christian liberal arts school, DeWeese-Boyd excelled at “incorporating our faith into our materials, calling us to be relevant and apply our materials to our Christian life.”

Does that mean she was a minister?

A Massachusetts court will weigh that question in a hearing on January 4. The decision in the lawsuit between the former professor and Gordon College could have far-reaching implications for other evangelical institutions of higher education and the many people who work for them.

DeWeese-Boyd was denied promotion to full professor in 2017, against the recommendation of her department and the faculty senate. She alleges the administration was retaliating against her for her opposition to the school’s policies on sexuality and the way those policies hurt LGBT students and faculty. DeWeese-Boyd also says the administration punished her more harshly than male professors who had taken similar stands. She sued, alleging discrimination.

Gordon, however, is arguing that faculty are not covered by anti-discrimination protections in federal employment law, because professors are ministers and the Supreme Court has held there is a “ministerial exception” to those protections.

According to Gordon president D. Michael Lindsay, the school’s professors are Christian educators, required to “profess the Christian faith; to assist students in their spiritual journey as part of their intellectual formation; to be available to minister to students with questions, ...

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Sunday, 27 December 2020

Christianity Today in 2020: Our Top News, Reviews, Podcasts, and More

CT published 1,600 articles this year. Here’s what readers and editors liked most.

Browse our lists of 2020’s top articles, book reviews, podcasts, obituaries, and testimonies—as well as CT’s top stories about the global church, good news, pastors, COVID-19, and more—via the collections at right [on desktops] or below [on mobile].

Also for our bilingual readers, from CT Global’s 350 translations this year, see our most-read articles in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Indonesian, Korean, and Catalan.

Finally, a report on this year’s Top 10 discoveries in biblical archaeology.

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