On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers. I asked Drew Dyck—acquisitions editor at Moody Publishers and the author of several books including Just Show Up: How Small Acts of Faithfulness Change Everything—about what’s on his bedside table, favorite fiction, go-to writing advice, the book he bluffs about having actually read, and much more. What’s on your nightstand right now? I have a few on my nightstand. I’m reading Remaking the World by Andrew Wilson. I love books with a big bold thesis, so I’m finding it fascinating ..read more

The 2011 film Moneyball follows the mostly true story of Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane piecing together a budget baseball team based on computer-generated analytics. Frustrated with not being able to afford a competitive roster of highly valued all-stars, Beane scrapped the standard approach altogether in favor of affordable, overlooked athletes. It was unconventional but ultimately successful. Question: Can your church “moneyball” its short-term missions strategy? The analogy will break down at some point. We’re not competing with other churches, and I’m not suggesting computer anal ..read more

When I was a college student, I had a weird relationship with the concept of “home.” As I approached the end of a semester, I longed to go back home to my parents’ house for break. I looked forward to the familiarity, the family, and the rest. After some time at my parents’ house, though, that longing for home would return. My sense of home had shifted from my parents’ house to my college dorm or apartment. I now longed for the freedom, the friends, and the sense of purpose my classes and clubs brought. So I’d go back. And the cycle would repeat. What an odd experience. A continual process of ..read more

In this microevent from TGC23, Megan Hill, Gavin Ortlund, and Winfree Brisley reflect on the challenges and blessings of growing up in ministry. They emphasize the importance of parents living by grace, finding their identity in Christ, and supporting their kids, as well as modeling fr their children wise decision-making and differentiating between reasonable and unreasonable expectations for pastors’ kids. They share the value of parents nurturing faith in children through family devotions and involving them in ministry while prioritizing their emotional and spiritual well-being. The panel al ..read more

Christians live in metaphor. Every good and beautiful thing we inhabit in this life is but one way of grasping at God’s truth: marriage points to our ultimate union with Christ; childrearing to an experience of fatherly love; a delicious meal to a physical taste of goodness that points to the feast of our souls, Christ himself. Our temporal experience is both indicative of and antithetical to an eternal one that awaits us. To live in metaphor doesn’t mean we know how to read it. Perhaps we gloss over metaphors like Jesus being the “bread of life” (John 6:35) or the righteous man being a “tree ..read more

When Hamas terrorists brutally attacked, raped, murdered, and kidnapped scores of Jewish people in Israel on October 7, one would think the brazen atrocity would galvanize the world in defense of Jews, a religious group that’s been persistently persecuted globally for thousands of years. But the opposite has occurred. Recent scenes from around the world have shown just how deeply entrenched antisemitic hate still is, even in “cosmopolitan” Western cities like London, Paris, and New York. Anti-Jewish fervor has especially exploded on elite college campuses, with a 700 percent year-over-year inc ..read more

On October 11, 1531, Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) died on the battlefield after his Zurich battery was routed by Catholic forces at Kappel. He went into battle believing that God would sustain them—a devastating miscalculation. The accounts of his death vary dramatically. According to one report, the Catholics who found his lifeless body staged a posthumous mock trial, hurling insults at him and condemning him for various offenses. He was then beheaded, quartered, and burned, an unsanctimonious ending to one of the magisterial reformers. Other reports give different accounts of the events—some ..read more

You know the scenario. The alarm goes off. You trudge down the stairs in the early morning, resolved to start your day in Scripture. You go to pour a cup of coffee and think, Did I add coffee beans to the grocery list? So you locate your phone and pull up the list . . . And the rest is history. Many of us have good intentions when it comes to reading our Bibles. But before we know it, the screens have sabotaged our focus, the needs of family or work take over, and we’ve hit the ground sprinting. How can busy people with full lives make these good intentions our reality? Remember the ‘Why’ We s ..read more

Did you know that the number of people living in democratic states has fallen by more than half since 2003? I didn’t. But I learned that statistic in Allen Guelzo’s new book, Our Ancient Faith: Lincoln, Democracy, and the American Experiment. Guelzo writes to renew democracy in what he calls “a time of shadows” by exploring the life and thinking of America’s greatest president, Abraham Lincoln. Allen Guelzo is the Thomas W. Smith distinguished research scholar in the James Madison Program’s Initiative on Politics and Statesmanship at Princeton University, where he teaches courses on Lincoln, t ..read more

Our minds are factories of thoughts—some intentional, some not. We strategize, reflect, and ruminate. And sometimes uninvited thoughts pop into our minds. Sometimes these thoughts are born of morbid curiosity. While driving along a winding mountain highway, suddenly we imagine what would happen if we jerked the wheel to the right. Other times, such thoughts arise from our sinful hearts. Stewing on mistreatment from a colleague, we imagine how we could put him in his place by humiliating him. Whatever its source, the intrusive thought—whether morbid, violent, or sexual—enters our mind unsummone ..read more