The Weekly, November 27, 2023
Hi all,
I'm going to keep this one relatively short: Last week was a short work week due to the holiday and I basically spent all of it trying to knock out as much of this week and early next week's work as I can.
I'm badly overdue with a manuscript to IVP regarding maintaining orthodox belief after a period of spiritual darkness and doubt (in my case provoked by a fairly unhealthy church) and I need to get that to them. So I spent last week cranking out tons of admin tasks and editing for the magazine so that I could clear out this week for book work. But that also means I did relatively little reading and don't have a ton of other updates for this newsletter.
Reading
Books
I just got a copy of this book on early fundamentalists and public engagement in the 1920s in the USA. I haven't been able to start it yet, but it looks promising.
I also have been revisiting Phillip Cary's excellent book on the Nicene Creed. I'm not sure it's a Sunday school book for most churches, but it would be a very good book to go over with church leadership, I expect, and in specific sorts of congregations I could easily see a midweek study going through the book together being very helpful.
Finally, I'm working in some end of year books coverage for Mere O, which is not something we've ever done before, but I'm excited to try it this year.
Articles
David Polansky on Elon Musk's crank playground
Elsewhere
With the extended holiday break last week, we were able to get some new backyard patio lights up strung between our house and the detached garage in the back yard, which looks cool now and will be wonderful when it gets warmer. I also got Christmas lights up on Friday, which I think is the earliest we've ever done them before, but the kids, especially our oldest, love seeing the Christmas lights on our house. Then it snowed on Saturday and as I was pulling into the house after running an errand Saturday evening there was a light snow falling as I came to a brightly lit house. It was lovely.
The other happening from the time off is that on Saturday our three-year-old decided it was a good time to bury me under every blanket he could find in our house and then lay on me like I'm a bed.
See if you can spot me:
(That's my arm just to the left of the flower-print blanket.)
I'd appreciate your prayers this week. The combination of drafting a book manuscript, overseeing an EOY campaign for a non-profit, and having four young kids at home can be fairly taxing. So if you'd pray that I'm able to really dedicate serious time to the book this week and that the time would be fruitful, I'd be grateful.
Under the Mercy,
~Jake