Welcome to the weekend (and hopefully you’re reading this at the weekend unlike last week).

This week has been a bit iffy for running with icy paths but we find a way right? I’ve been searching for Christmas presents, learning about productivity poison and working on our programme for 2025 at church. As always there’s a lot of good stuff being written and some of the best you can find collected right here. Enjoy.

You Should Read These

1. Why did Jesus come?
2. What Is the Earliest Complete List of the Canon of the New Testament?
3. The Discipleship Crisis Part 2
4. The Tao of Cal. I feel seen especially by the first part. I’m terrible at making ‘cognitive context shifts’ (basically getting distracted) and that’s why I’m getting dumber.
5. This is an interesting development in feminist Sweden. Sweden’s ‘soft girl’ trend that celebrates women quitting work
6. The best review of Gladiator II I have read so far. And if you really like Gladiator then this one is for you instead.
7. Why the Short-Lived Calvin and Hobbes Is Still One of the Most Beloved & Influential Comic Strips. I read these every Christmas holidays and they bring me joy every time.

---

You Should Look At This

Best Photos of 2024: Top 45 Photographs From Around the World. Every single one of these is stunning so here’s 3 (4 if you include the featured photo at the top) instead of the usual 2 to persuade you to go look at them all.

---

You Should Listen To This

I think I’m probably going to post this every December until I die unless someone can convince me there’s a better Advent banger than this

---

You Should Watch This

Hauntingly beautiful.

---

This Week’s Postings

Nothing again!

---

From The Archives

One of the challenges of preaching missionally, of speaking to the idols, concerns and beliefs of a culture is knowing how to discern it. When we’re preaching a text we have one text and then a slew of commentaries that connect to it – when we try and work out how that text speaks to our culture – where exactly do you turn?

Missional Preaching

I hope you enjoy your weekend. Do let me know if there’s something here you appreciated or if you see something you think would be worth sharing, let me know!