June 22, 2026

Today the church is asking a deceptively simple question: what does it actually take to pass the faith to the next generation? The Gospel Coalition argues children need heroes — not sanitized ones, but real figures who point past themselves to Christ. Jonathan Edwards fits that bill precisely because he was flawed and great and deeply tethered to God. Desiring God is after something similar: what kids need most is contagious delight in a big God, not just correct information about him. Ligonier comes in harder. When a child walks away from faith, they say, Proverbs doesn't offer guarantees — it offers wisdom, and the difference matters enormously to a grieving parent looking for somewhere to put the blame.

Tim Challies cuts across all of this with a point that stings: AI can optimize a lot of things, but it cannot hurry holiness. Formation is slow by design. That tension — speed versus depth — has been running through this space since late March, and it doesn't get easier. Meanwhile, The Aquila Report insists that assurance of salvation isn't a feeling you cultivate — it's a conclusion you reach through actual theological work. Vague spirituality produces anxious Christians. Doctrine stabilizes. And a separate piece in the same outlet lands like a pastoral letter: yes, churches have always had rot in them, and discouraged pastors are not uniquely failing. That last word is harder to hear than it sounds. Lebanon's displaced Christians are still singing hymns while war rages — Christianity Today ran that story this week. The faith that forms children, steadies pastors, and holds under bombardment is the same faith. That's what today keeps circling back to.