After a few weeks of blowing past my proposed word counts, we’re going to try and make this a brief post.

What I’m preaching – Still Hebrews. However, during the week of our congregational meeting, I’ll try to preach more of a topical/State of the Church sermon. I have a passage in mind that I’ve never preached before; prayers appreciated.

What I’m reading – Not as much as I want. But in honor of last weekend’s men’s retreat, I’ll start with a few articles or blogs focused on that theme.

Reforming Men – A blog and podcast from mostly PCA pastors, including several that I’m pleased to know personally. They’ve had a blog for over a year, and they recently started a podcast. Here’s a few notable contributors to this site. Matt Adams is a friend who also has a podcast on the Larger Catechism, “Larger for Life.” Ben Ratliff is a pastor in Mississippi, and his niece is my daughter’s “covenant twin.” (Yep, story behind that one; here’s the short version. Ben’s sister-in-law Kendra is a good friend of ours. She was in our small group and pregnant at the same time as my wife. My wife went into labor six weeks early, and Kendra had her baby five minutes before my daughter was born, down the hall in the same hospital. Someone coined the term “covenant twins” for our daughters with the same birthday, and it stuck.) One more name drop – Stephen Spinnenweber has a great last name, great ‘stache, and is old friends from seminary with former Forestgate Assistant Pastor Curt Straeter.
Masculinity Redeemed – This is more of a one-off article as part of The Public Theology Project[1] blog by Robert Hasler, also known as RTI, Robert the Intern.[2] In it, he reviews a recent book on masculinity by Senator Josh Hawley and compares it with some historic Christian writings of the past. I enjoyed it, and I think it’s worth your time.
Friends You Need Are Buried in the Past: Q&A on Reading Christian Biographies | Desiring God – Sent to me by a church member. It took me a few days, and I mostly skimmed. This is an interview with John Piper talking about the importance of Christian biography and why he decided to start doing mini-biographical speeches during his pastors’ conference.

I’m running low on words, so let me give two teasers for future posts:

The Whole Christ by Sinclair Ferguson – Maybe I’ve already mentioned it. It’s worth mentioning again. I’m slowing re-reading this and loving it. More to say soon, lord willing.
The Gift of Failure by Jessica Laney – A book that our kids’ school gave away. By a secular author, I think, but some good thoughts in here about challenging our kids and letting them learn from failures and mistakes.

That’s all for now. Happy reading this weekend, whether it’s a book, a blog, or a Memorial Day remembrance.

Pastor Matt, 5-23-25

[1] From the About page: “The Public Theology Project seeks to explore the implications of the Reformed faith for life in a dynamic, complex, and beautiful world.” Also, “The Public Theology Project began as a sponsored project of Ministry to State, a discipleship ministry of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) to those working in government.”

[2] I might have coined RTI as a nickname. Robert is the intern at a church pastored by my friend Porter. Robert gets ordained any day now, but many of us have agreed that RTI is a more fun nickname than RTAP [Robert the Assistant Pastor]. Also, I knew a guy named Dan in seminary who was affectionately known as DTI (Dan the Intern) by the entire Belhaven RUF group and most of his friends outside that ministry, too.