Brad East, with an intriguing comment in the midst of his review of Ryan Burge’s new book:

As for how Christians should respond to this fresh mission field, that is the question of the hour. If any tradition could make serious inroads with working-class young men and two-shift single moms, that mythical American phenomenon—revival—would surely be afoot.

This post (via @Jonah) is spot on: Another Bible Study Night Will Fix It… Really???? It’s ludicrous to think that more church programming and structured gatherings will lead to the kind of organic outcomes that many of us are striving for. In discipleship (as in so much of life), the means and the ends are so closely related that it’s nearly impossible—and certainly inadvisable—to try to pull them apart.

Finished reading: The Big Relief by David Zahl 📚

I don’t know if there’s a person writing at the moment who’s better at “popularizing”—meant in the best possible sense—rich theological concepts and making them intellectually and emotionally digestible than David Zahl. Some part of The Big Relief would catch any person up in its net eventually, if they let themselves be caught.

What our 4th of July celebration looked like (yes, that’s me jumping the firework)