Church, Evangelism, Religion
John Beeson
How to Get a VIP Pass (for Church)

In 2023-24, popstar Taylor Swift played 149 concerts in 21 countries in her “The Eras Tour.” She sold over ten million tickets and grossed over $2 billion! To get a VIP package some paid upwards of $20,000 a ticket.  K-pop sensation BTS begins their 79 stadium tour in a month and might challenge the secondary market cost for a VIP ticket.

Why do we pay such exorbitant prices? Because our favorite musician’s art and persona move us. Because we want to wring everything we can out of the experience. Because we want to get as close as we can to our heroes. Because we don’t want to miss out on any of the excitement. Because we want to take in every detail.

How to Get a VIP Pass (for Church)
Death, Politics, Suffering
John Beeson
Staring Death in the Eye

We do not do death well.

We avoid it. We deny it. We even pretend we can control it.

Last week, the French National Assembly advanced what many observers have called  “the most extreme euthanasia law in Europe since Nazi regulations in the 1930s.” French President Emmanuel Macron supported legislation framed as “medical aid in dying” but the proposal goes much further than many existing “death with dignity” laws.

The bill would legalize both assisted suicide—where a person receives a prescribed poison to end their own life—and euthanasia, where a doctor administers the deadly dose.

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Staring Death in the Eye
Recommendations, Christian Living, Counseling, Culture, Suffering, Wisdom
John Beeson
This Week's Recommendations

  1. Bearing the sorrows of the world: A timely piece by Brianna Lambert, “In-between funny reels and crock-pot recipes my feeds shake me with tragedy. Another bomb dropped, another missile fired. Another leader declares war, another group of Christians brutally murdered. My weather app might tell me about a mudslide that kills hundreds while the local news reports on a newly discovered grave of dozens of victims. Sorrow never ends.”

  2. Ozempic Christianity: Christopher Cook says, “In a culture increasingly shaped by immediacy and optimization, even our spiritual hunger has been co-opted by the language of quick returns. 

This Week's Recommendations
Christian Living, Family, Parenting
John Beeson
My Son Can’t Ride a Bike: Failures in Parenting

Our son Soren is twenty years old. And he doesn’t know how to ride his bike.

I share this as a confession. Soren, on the other hand, is totally comfortable with this reality.

As parents, we feel responsible for equipping our kids for the world. But what does it mean to prepare our children for life? What does it mean to be a successful parent?

The demands of parenting can feel overwhelming. We want to teach our children to be thoughtful stewards by caring for their things and cleaning the house. We want them to learn how to make meals and do their own laundry.

My Son Can’t Ride a Bike: Failures in Parenting
Christian Living, Counseling, Identity, Spiritual Growth, Suffering, Wisdom
John Beeson
The Thing Under the Thing

I have the opportunity of sharing this space with my friend and mentor, Glen Elliott (you find out more about Glen here). I’m sure you will be blessed by his wealth of wisdom. –John

Last winter I learned something from a dying tree.

There’s a tree outside our bedroom window that provides beautiful shade in the summer. A while back I noticed the leaves were dying—brown, brittle, hanging lifelessly from the branches. So I did what most of us do when something looks unhealthy: I trimmed the visible problems.

I cut off dead branches. Then more branches. I fertilized. I watered. Nothing worked.

The Thing Under the Thing

Consumerism

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Why Esther Is a Troubling Hero

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Why Esther Is a Troubling Hero

Any evangelical who has a passing knowledge of the book of Esther immediately thinks of Esther and her Uncle Mordecai’s courage and exemplary moral character. Children shows like Veggie Tales and film adaptations such as One Night with the King reinforce this interpretation.

About a year ago, I listened to a podcast where Mike Cosper suggested that the book of Esther provided unique insight to our cultural situation not because of her courage and moral fiber, but because of her lack of both. I was intrigued.

Cosper delivers in spades on this promise in Faith Among the Faithless. Among the parallels Cosper notes between our situation and Esther’s is the secular-exilic environment of both. In our secular world we have shrunk the place for the transcendent. Cosper notes, “Secularism is today’s incontestable god.” He continues, “We’re creatures looking for meaning and purpose, and these pursuits can quickly become pseudo-religions that offer some sense of meaning or a hint of longed-for transcendence.”

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The Best of the Bee Hive: Top Posts of 2020

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The Best of the Bee Hive: Top Posts of 2020

My heart with my blogging ministry at The Bee Hive is to pastor through words. When I launched The Bee Hive, I wasn’t sure how many I would be able to shepherd through my writing.

In my first year of blogging, 2017, I was so encouraged to have 1,767 unique visitors to my website with 3,939 page views. I was so glad that my writing was being read and hopeful that it was helpful. I was concerned, though, that maybe after an acquaintance read the blog a couple times, the interest would diminish and the impact would wane.

That fear was answered in 2018, when I saw the first year’s numbers nearly double, with 3,463 unique visitors and 6,398 page views. In 2019, I was shocked to have those numbers double again with 8,500 unique visitors and over 13,600 page views.

This year those numbers grew to 12,000 unique visitors and 17,000 page views.

On top of that are my faithful subscribers (thank you!) who read my posts via email. Mailchimp tells me 76% of you regularly read my posts, which means that in this past year, around 25,000 posts were read via email.

My five most-read posts of 2020 follow. Several of these posts surprised me they made the list. If any of these posts blessed you, one way you can encourage me is by sharing one of your favorite posts with a friend and inviting them to sign up. There is no greater encouragement than knowing that I have helped a reader in some way. Thank you in advance! I’m so grateful for you!

5. On Critiquing Your Pastor: I’m glad this post was helpful to others. I share my embarrassment of an interaction with a pastor during college, and how I would handle it now.

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We are Contributors, Not Consumers

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We are Contributors, Not Consumers

What do you look for when you look for a church that is a good fit for you? Maybe it’s the music? Maybe it’s the preaching? Maybe it’s the children’s ministry?

5 STARS!

A quick scan through Google reviews of churches will give you a sense of how most people judge churches.

Here is a sampling of real reviews from churches around Tucson:

· I have two small boys ages 3 and 6 who can't get ready fast enough to go to church on Sundays because of the attention they place on kids. From the pastor to the coffee shop, everything rates 5 stars!!!

· The breakfast servers only greeted people they knew. It made me feel awkward at first. 1 star.

· The full ultimate experience: great for the family, great for the kids. 5 stars.

· Can never get to talk to the pastor. Think it has gotten too big for the 1 on 1 time we used to get at the end or beginning of the service with the pastor. It is almost like trying to visit an actor. 2 stars.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

1. Visualize the Entire World's Wealth Inequality: Howmuch.net reports, "The Swiss are the richest with median wealth per adult at $227.9K. Haiti is the poorest country in the world with an estimated median wealth of only $214 per adult."

2. Nearly Half of Men Say They Do Most of the Home Schooling. 3 Percent of Women Agree: Ruh, roh. I smell marital trouble brewing. A recent Morning Consult survey revealed that 45 percent of men say they were carrying the bulk of the load for homeschooling—but only 3 percent of women actually said their partners were taking care of most of it.

3. Fandom Proves We Need Community: Eric Geiger shares, "Eric Simons quotes scientists, researchers, and psychologists who have studied what motivates a sports fan. The conclusion is a longing for community."

4. Why Our Modern World Can’t Stop Guilt: My friend John Starke considers why it is that a modern world that has seemed to throw everything it has to get rid of the outdated concept of guilt can’t seem to shake it. Starke concludes, “As Rich Plass has said, the soul will always find its way out. It’s true. Modern people try to bury their guilt before it’s dead, and like a zombie, it comes back to the surface in a more dangerous and wild version than before.”

5. A Husband's Perspective on His Wife's Postpartum Body: Tim Challies with a loving reflection on what a postpartum body means. He concludes that the husband considers his wife's body, "With gratitude, acknowledging that she has sacrificed her body so they could enjoy the thrill of pregnancy, the joy of children, and the blessings of family. And with desire, still longing to experience and increase the intimacy that has bound them together for all these years. He treasures each mark and each line as if they are his own. For in the sacred oneness of marriage, they are his own."

6. I Miss Baseball: Me too, Kevin James, me too.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

1. Entitlement is Poisoning the Church: Noe Garcia with a timely observation, "There is an attitude that slowly creeps in and begins to create an underlying culture of everyone wanting it their way or wanting special treatment because of who they are and what they have done for the church. It’s the attitude of privilege and prestige that goes against the very essence of James 2."

2. State of Health Report Shows Growing Despair Among American Men: This is concerning. Alexandre Tanzi from Bloomberg reports that not only is male life expectancy decreasing, but that the reasons for that decrease are concerning, "The decline in life expectancy is occurring in part due to deaths from despair. From 2007 to 2017, the mortality rate from drug overdoses increased 82%, to 21.7 deaths from 11.9 per 100,000. Over the same 10-year period, suicide rates increased 24%, to 14.0 deaths from 11.3 per 100,000 resident population."

3. How Do I Know If I Have Been Predestined to be Saved? I hear this question often. Jesse Johnson answers it well. He begins with this simple statement, and then expands, "How does a person know if they have been predestined by God for heaven? The shortest answer to the question is also the best: Do you love Jesus? If so, then you have been predestined."

4. 10 Things You Should Know About Demons and Satan: Graham Cole with a concise theology of demons. His tenth is that "We may have a blind spot: ...many western Christians may have an espoused theology affirming angels and demons, but in practice have an operational theology that lives as though God and ourselves were the only intelligences."

5. Who is Under Your Roof: New research shows dramatic changes in the living situation of the average 26 year old. More and more cross-generational homes are becoming the norm.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

1.       Modern Research About Happiness Repeatedly Reflects Biblical Principles: Randy Alcorn walks through eight findings about happiness from psychological research and their eight biblical parallels.

2.       The Top 50 Countries Where It’s Hardest to be a Christian: Of particular interest to me is India not only remaining #10 on this list, but unfortunately taking the top place in a new designation. Jayson Casper explains, “India ranks first in the new category of physical or mental abuse, which includes beatings and death threats. The continuing rise in the subcontinent of a militant Hindu nationalism contributed to 1,445 of the reported 14,645 cases worldwide.”

3.       Patrick Lencioni's Personal Leadership Crash: This Carey Niewhof podcast is gold. It's loaded with helpful leadership insights about a leader's health.

4.       National Giving Trends: Lifeway recently published a report on national giving trends. A few takeaways: the national giving percentage has remained at 2% for decades. Diving deeper, "giving to religious causes receives the largest amount of gifts when compared to other sectors. It is at 31%. However, in the 1980’s, religious giving received 58% and has been on a steady decline every year. This is not good."

5.       Can The Cosmic Crisp Live Up to Huge Expectations? You might have heard of the new breed of apples that just hit store shelves. But can the apple pay back the huge investment that has been made in it?

6.       What Does the Bible Say About Divorce and Remarriage? Tom Schreiner answers this difficult question.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

1.       The Worst Sales Promotion in History: You could say that this idea in the early 90's from the desperate leaders at Hoover totally sucked.

2.       Life After the Death of My Son: Simonetta Carr on the importance of ordinary faithfulness following tragedy. She says, "’[God's] not too busy to be with me in seemingly insignificant moments while he turns the wheels of history. This might not always be evident to my limited perception, but the same Christ who rose from the dead tells me it’s a reality on which I can count."

3.       Why I Wish We Hadn't Lived Together Before Marriage: Helpful article from Lisa Lakey. She concludes, " Doing things His way will always end better than me seeking my own will. No matter how right my way seems to me."

4.       4 Ways Conflict Can Help Your Church (and People) Grow: Dillon Smith packs in a lot of great wisdom here, " I’ve had to learn that minor moments of healthy conflict help you avoid massive moments of division that lead to disaster."

5.       Alive Again: I’ve just been introduced to Ahi and am loving getting to know his raspy, soulful voice.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

1.      How the Dad Joke Was Born and will Never Go Out of Style: Devika Desai with news that pops: "...dad jokes never go out of style — mostly because they’re so resistant to even trying to stay in style."

2.      7 Surprising Trends in Global Christianity in 2019: This report by Gordon-Conwell Seminary has some nuggets in it that will likely surprise most Americans. For instance, " In 1900, only 5.5% of non-Christians knew a Christian. Today, that has grown to 18.3%."

3.      Why Our Culture Still Accepts Abortion: Anthony Esolen boils his answer down to one word: money. He concludes, " Then let the pro-life movement be advised. We are really asking for a moral revolution. If the child lives, the mother’s life will not be the same, because if we accept the principles that allow the child to live, none of our lives can be the same."

4.      Who Owns Your Body? Andree Seu Peterson, a master with words, takes aim at the notion of our bodily autonomy. She begins, " In the mid-’70s my brother was being cute after I became a Christian: “You realize, don’t you, that now you have to submit to a husband?” He was saying I wouldn’t own my own body anymore. I didn’t take the bait: “You know, bro, I just stepped down from being lord of the whole universe; it is a very small thing to go one baby step further to submitting to a husband.”"

5.      A Tree Between Two Mountains: Chris Thomas reflects on the spiritual gifts of the spiritual deserts of life: " So savour Him on the mountain tops when He shows up with burning fire, and hear Him in the cleft of the rock when He gently whispers your name, but learn to see Him in the shadow of the Broom tree, as He lays out a feast of His sustaining goodness and bids you eat."

6.      Fantastic Fall Foliage... and where to Find it: Few things beat the beauty of beautiful fall foliage. I love this graphic-rich presentation of fall foliage.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

1.        Millennials Tried to Kill the Mall, But Gen Z Might Save it: Jordyn Holman with the surprising report that Gen Zers don't just go to the mall more, but they like going to the mall! She says, " Today’s teens interact differently with stores than their older siblings and Gen X parents before them..."

2.       John and Jesus Didn't Think You Could Be a Christian Without the Church: Fleming Rutledge says that, "the overwhelming emphasis in John is not on individuals but on the organic connection that Jesus creates among those who put their trust in him."

3.       Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on Abortion and Eugenics: This is a long, but well written article on the history of Margaret Sanger, abortion, eugenics, and racism. And it's by an unusl author: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. 

4.       God's Inner Work: Susan Lafferty with a wonderful reflection on the hidden and beautiful work of God. 

5.       9 Types of Effective Evangelism: Aaron Earls offers 9 ways to reach out that studies prove are effective. One of the nine is inviting a neighbor to a service project: " Half of all unchurched (51%) say they would likely come to a community service project organized by a local Christian church."

6.       Faithful Evangelical Men Are Resisting Porn: Buried in new data about porn usage is this encourage fact: men who attend church regularly are resisting porn at much higher rates than those who don't attend church.

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