I have this ambition to write these every week but sometimes you just hit a stretch where this seems to be the least important thing in the world to do. Yet whether anyone reads this or not I find the discipline of reviewing, filtering, processing the vast amounts of data and information I read each week to be really helpful.

I’m currently at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam on my way to Minneapolis for a week. I’m hoping to connect with some new partners willing to invest into church planting in Stockholm and Sweden. I’ve been told to avoid eating ‘grits’ and ‘biscuits and gravy’.

If you’re the praying sort, prayers appreciated for the family and for me.

You Should Read These

Seven handpicked articles

1. The True Voice of Aslan. What I appreciated about this is that it rejects the idea that any actor (or actress) could capture Aslan’s voice. It slightly drifts into the thinking that Aslan is real. Related: Aslan and the Christians Who Can’t Be Enchanted
2. Losing the Bible. You can do that even while copies sit on the pews. See it all over the place in Sweden.
3. Skipping Secularism: 2 Clues from the End of the World. I enjoyed and appreciated Collin Hansen’s reflection following his trip to the Faroe Islands.
4. The Biblical Censuses Are Correct Demographic Records. This is a ridiculously deep dive by Lyman Stone into the census numbers of Numbers. Frequently, funny, insightful, plausible and thought-provoking.
5. Two Feasts in Galilee. Liam spots something I hadn’t thought about before. It’s an interesting connection.
6. Migration is a hot (possibly the hottest) political topic in Europe. Here’s the numbers. Mapped: Europe’s Surging Migrant Population (2000–2024)
7. The long, sticky rise of salted caramel. I’m an absolute sucker for this flavour.

You Should Look At This

VISTAS! More panorama shots of Northern Lights and Mountains and Stars than you know what to do with.

The Pano Awards 2026 winners

---

You Should Listen To This

Rediscovered this absolute banger of a track.

---

You Should Watch This

Insanity.

---

This Week’s Postings

• Aslan and the Christians Who Can’t Be Enchanted
• Hope in the Gospel
• And this one from a couple of weeks ago: Is a Massive Revival Hitting Sweden?

---

From The Archives

In the 1970s in the UK, Christians seeking and experiencing what they called ‘the gifts of the Spirit’ caused controversy, consternation and in many cases division amongst evangelical Christians and Churches. In the end fresh wine needed fresh wineskins. But in 1977 the British Evangelical Council (renamed Affinity in 2004) held a study conference to examine the issue and produced a series of papers to help pastors work their way through the issues. Unsurprisingly there were as many differences at the end of the conference as there had been at the start but they did seek to articulate what they saw as common ground.

Common ground for Charismatics & Cessationists

I’d love to hear the interesting things you did, saw, read, thought this past week. Let me know in the comments.