“The Weekend Wanderer” is a weekly curated selection of news, stories, resources, and media on the intersection of faith and culture for you to explore through your weekend. Wander through these links however you like and in any order you like. Disclaimer: I do not necessarily agree with all the views expressed within the articles linked from this page, but I have read them myself in order to make me think more deeply.

“7 Books for Your Pastoral Care Library” – Kelli B. Trujillo compiles this helpful list of recent pastoral care resources at Christianity Today. I have read two of these books (A Burning in My Bones: The Authorized Biography of Eugene H. Peterson by Winn Collier and The Beautiful Community:Unity, Diversity, and the Church at Its Best by Irwyn L. Ince), have two of them on my to-read list (Soul Care in African American Practice by Barbara L. Peacock and The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor’s Heart by Harold L. Senkbeil), and have not heard of the other three. It’s always a joy to find new recommendations to learn and grow as a pastor. “Pastoral care has many expressions, from joyful visits with an elderly parishioner to painful conversations with an adolescent having suicidal thoughts. From the tough work of addressing division and disunity to the tender work of shepherding over the long haul. Here are seven new and recent books that engage and equip pastors for the deep and multifaceted ministry of pastoral care.”

“Character in Crisis: The Challenges of Moral Formation in Higher Education” – Michael Lamb and David Henreckson in conversation at Comment: “This past year was devastating for many institutions of higher education. Jobs were furloughed or lost. Departments shuttered. Many educators were forced to re-evaluate what is really central to our chosen vocation. With all this impermanence, it seems a luxury to talk about ‘moral character,’ or the old trifecta of truth, beauty, and goodness. So, in these austere days, is there still a central place for moral formation in the university? Or is that a peripheral concern when you are living in survival mode?”

“The Abyss of Beauty: The Art of Seeing the Natural World” – Ian Marcus Corbin in Plough Quarterly: “One afternoon last summer, I was sitting on a bench in a small urban park, my youngest son Leonard asleep in his stroller. I’d consciously chosen to leave my iPhone at home, determined to look around me as I went. It’s an ongoing ethical project, a way of life I aspire to and too rarely achieve. I have a running suspicion that I could really, deeply love life, or a day or afternoon at the very least, if I could just be quiet and look, stop the incessant scheming and worrying and mental grappling. When Gerard Manley Hopkins sits still, he finds that the natural world is ‘charged with the grandeur of God,’ and exults in the knowledge that its ‘blue-bleak embers’ ‘fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.’ That’s what I want. I want to see embers, blue-bleak and dying, to see that when they fall and gall themselves, gold-vermillion gashes out into the visible world. How different would that be from my current life of cars and sidewalks and text exchanges, of long nights in my restless, thought-infested bed? Perhaps we can see ourselves to life.“

“For Cosmopolitan Christians, Secular Approval Is a Common Temptation” – Justin Giboney at Christianity Today: “A few years ago, I was asked to speak about the gospel’s justice imperative at a local Christian high school. Upon arrival, I was escorted through campus by a young administrator, who thanked me for coming to engage a topic the school’s elders had ignored for too long. With Dietrich Bonhoeffer–like resolve, he and another young teacher confided that they were subversively trying to change the culture at the school. I immediately, and perhaps hastily, commended their efforts….Without a doubt, the young educators’ concerns were legitimate. Deep, disruptive change was necessary, but the more we talked, the more I grew concerned that their approach was misguided. They were espousing a plainly secular progressive framework, unrefined by the truth and moral order of the gospel. They had an infatuation with trending secular theories, without guardrails to keep them from taking concepts like intersectionality and inclusion into unbiblical territory. Those ideas can be helpful. But they should never be followed uncritically, because they can lead to identity idolatry, which would have us embrace broken aspects of ourselves. There’s a difference between celebrating parts of our identity and centering or exalting identity to the point where it naturally justifies some and condemns others. These brothers correctly identified an old problem, but their solutions were generically pop culture oriented and flat.”

“How 24 Hours of Racist Violence Caused Decades of Harm” – A good friend of mine first made me aware of something I never remember learning in history class: the 1921 Tulsa, Oklahoma, race massacre. In the span of twenty-four hours, a thriving African-American community in Greenwood (sometimes called “Black Wall Street“) was decimated following the arrest of a young black man on suspicion of assaulting a white woman. While the charges were never proven, the impact on the African-American community was not just in lives and economics for a brief time, but sent ripples that effected generations. Jeremy Cook, a labor economist, and Jason Long, an economic historian, both at Wheaton College (IL) explore the wide-ranging impact in this powerful article in The Atlantic.

“Russell Moore to Join Christianity Today to Lead New Public Theology Project” – “Christianity Today is announcing the hiring of Russell Moore to serve as a full-time public theologian for the publication and to lead a new Public Theology Project. ‘We could not be more pleased with the addition of Russell Moore in this role,’ said Christianity Today’s president and CEO, Timothy Dalrymple. ‘Russell has established himself as one of the most significant evangelical voices of our time. He illuminates the relevance of the gospel to the whole of life, from everyday matters of faith to the great debates in our society and culture. Importantly, he does all of this in a voice that demonstrates what we at Christianity Today call beautiful orthodoxy, weaving together a deep commitment to the historic integrity of the church with a generous, charitable, and humble spirit.'”

Music: Max Richter, “1. Spring,” Recomposed by Max Richter – Vivaldi – The Four Seasons