Overplayed: A Parent’s Guide to Sanity in the World of Youth Sports

David King & Margot Starbuck

Coach King, a university athletics director, says it’s a “myth” that youth sports are harmless. They won’t necessarily instill your family’s values: Sunday tournaments prioritize sports over church, and many “elite” leagues act as if winning is everything. Oh, and 98 percent of high-school athletes won’t get a sports scholarship in college. So why play? For intrinsic rewards—love of the game and the joy of belonging to a team. Extrinsic rewards (scholarships, trophies, fun trips) tend to stifle that love and joy. Sports are an opportunity to grow in Christlikeness, not a time for parents to scream and obsess over a child’s performance.

Ministry in the New Marriage Culture

Edited by Jeff Iorg

Fifteen essays, mostly by the faculty of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary (just across the bridge from San Francisco), wrestle with the realities of ministering to victims of same-sex attraction/marriage. Advice: Treat them like human beings without being an accessory to immorality. Above all, offer them the opportunity to meet Jesus Christ and grow into His image. Only one essay focuses on self-protection. The rest deal with reaching out and include the inspiring story of how First Baptist in San Francisco befriended the LGBT community center across the street. The bottom line: Always respond to sin with the gospel.

The Language of Salvation: Discovering the Riches of What it Means to Be Saved

Victor Kuligin

Justification is an important aspect of salvation, but it should never overshadow other biblical descriptions. Think of the illumination that takes us from darkness to light, or the fruitfulness that takes us from barrenness to productivity. Christians are adopted, redeemed citizens in the kingdom of God, victors over Satan, transformed into the likeness of Christ’s glory, united to Jesus and His people, purified from sin—in two words, born again. Kuligin discusses 13 different biblical terms for what we call conversion, and he’s full of insights that this professional theology student had overlooked. This is devotionally rich word study at its best.

A New Apostolic Reformation? A Biblical Response to a Worldwide Movement

R. Douglas Geivett & Holly Pivec

Is God actually sending hundreds of authoritative apostles and prophets to transform the church more deeply than He did in the Protestant Reformation? Is He building an end-time army that will bring whole nations to Christ through televised miracles greater than any in the Bible? The New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), a global movement, says yes. Scripture says no. So do mainstream charismatic and Pentecostal churches, as well as every other historic branch of Christianity. NAR apostles are from men and through man, and their prophets make false predictions, as Geivett and Pivec systematically demonstrate. Beware the leaven of the NAR.

Afterword

Back in the 1970s a turkey farmer in Texas had a plan to hire mentally handicapped workers from Texas state schools to work on his farm. It seemed like a win-win solution for the state, which was closing down state schools; the farmer, who would pay lower hourly wages; and the men, who would have the satisfaction of working. Over the next three decades, though, the arrangement transformed into something more like slavery. Journalist Dan Barry’s investigation includes far-ranging interviews with “the boys,” the owners of the company they worked for, and residents of the nearby town. The Boys in the Bunkhouse: Servitude and Salvation in the Heartland (Harper, 2016) shows how attitudes toward mentally disabled people have changed, how good intentions can easily go awry, and how lack of accountability leads to neglect and abuse. It also raises questions about what neighbors could or should have done differently. Note: some R-rated language. —Susan Olasky