Preaching Resource, Why Chromebooks Ruin Middle School, the Theology of David Watson, Scottie Scheffler, Etc.(Friday Roundup 7-18-25)
Happy Friday! Here’s what’s been on my mind this week:
Very helpful article from pastor Glenn Packiam on practical advice for sermon preparation. I miss being on a sermon writing team—but I thought this could be helpful to some of you all:
Watch this press conference from golfer Scottie Scheffler. It’s a very unique showing in public life of questioning heart motivation, loving things rightly, and having priorities. Amazing stuff:
Joel Green, a great biblical scholar, has a list of summer reading for Wesleyan folks:
“OK Google, Make Middle School Suck Even More!” One father’s descent into seventh grade Chromebook Hell (by John Allen Wooden). This is one more article about just how bad technology is in the classroom, and why we should all be pushing to get this stuff away from schools. I had some teacher friends push back a bit on the lack of nuance in this piece. I like it—I don’t see a very strong educational reason to use computers as much as we do right now. The incentive, as often is the case, is something other than what is actually best for our children:
Well guess what? Chromebooks are the new Baby Einstein – an untested educational panacea with laughably dubious evidence of any positive outcomes. In fact, US students continue to rank mortifyingly low relative to other nations – quantifiable proof that the shining techno utopia we’d yearned for is actually a blighted intellectual slum, making future generations demonstrably dumber. Gulp.
Yeah, yeah – this is just one mouthy schmuck’s anecdotal screed about one middle school – in kooky-pants, too-permissive California, no less. Maybe Chromebook Hell doesn’t burn quite as hot where you live. But rest assured it’s pervasive, and its impact is devastatingly real. In America’s classrooms, the smartphones may now finally be in retreat, but the Chromebooks are still dug in deep. For now anyway. We’re coming for them next.
I like this article from the great Kate Bowler (“Feeling tired? Try giving up your purpose”). As a pastor, this sentiment rings very true:
As fewer people engage in service outside their jobs, the pressure for work itself to supply all of life’s meaning has only intensified, reflecting a deep cultural transformation in how purpose is pursued and understood.
Yet, the myth of the singular, all-consuming purpose can be as paralyzing as it is inspiring. For many, the search for “the one thing” leads not to clarity, but to anxiety and self-doubt—as if failing to uncover a grand calling means living a lesser life.
Ironically, in our quest for purpose, we may have lost sight of the quieter, cumulative forms of meaning found in ordinary routines, relationships, and small acts of service.
Perhaps it’s time to question whether life must always be driven by a singular purpose—or whether embracing a patchwork of smaller, shifting purposes might offer a more humane and sustainable path to fulfillment.
After all, history shows that meaning is often discovered in hindsight—not through a predetermined plan, but by responding to the needs and opportunities that arise along the way.
Read this article on David Watson’s work, written by my friend Justus Hunter. I’m really grateful for Watson’s voice in Methodism:
“One feature of early Christianity central to all of Watson’s thought is the lordship of the incarnate Son of God. One of his earliest Firebrand pieces is entitled “The Incarnation is Everything.” The commitment constitutes the core of his vision for Firebrand magazine. Speaking of Firebrand’s genesis, and its role within the ministry of Spirit and Truth, he argues:
“Truth,” so the argument goes, is simply a means of coercion, a way to force people into certain norms of belief and behavior. Christians, however, cannot properly think this way about truth. We claim that we have not developed truth, but perceived it. Truth is not a matter of invention but revelation. Truth precedes us. It is built into the very fabric of creation. God brought all things into being through the divine logos—reason, word, thought, order—and that very logos became one of us in the person of Jesus Christ. Truth is not just an idea. Truth is a person. Pilate stands in for the human condition when, in the very presence of Christ, he asks, “What is truth?” As Christians, our role is to point people to Christ, who is himself truth. And from this one source of truth come all other truths. The logos of God is the organizing principle according to which everything else makes sense.”
In case you need some hope and joy today, watch and listen to this instrumental cover of Blackbird. People are still out there, creating beautiful things, reflecting God their Creator in his good creation:
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