What is Success?

"People are successful in my book to the extent that they do something they care about.  If you can pull that off, I think you've won."

- Malcolm Gladwell, on Socrates in the City

The Power of Presuppositions

"Education is a series of religious acts partly because the power of assumption is so great. Assumptions are even more powerful than assertions because they bypass a persons critical faculty and thereby create prejudice. Government education assumes God to be irrelevant to the educational process when, in fact, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge" (Proverbs 1:7). Such false assumptions by the government schools can then be combined with arguments that prove the truth of what is false. These false assumptions are particularly beguiling because they appeal to one of our worst instincts - the desire to be fashionable or at least to avoid being associated with the unfashionable or unpopular." 

- Herbert Schlossberg,  (Idols for Destruction, 1983, p. 210)

The above quotation was found in Randy Booth's chapter "Family and Education" in The Church-Friendly Family, edited by Uri Brito.  In about a dozen pages, Pastor Booth articulates the best content summary of Christian Education that I have ever heard or read in my life.  I cannot recommend it to you highly enough.

So many kindly old ladies ask in exasperation, "How could anyone look at the hummingbird in flight or the sun setting over the ocean, or the elegant double helix of a DNA strand and not recognize God's glory on display?"

10 More from RC Jr - Non-Fiction for Teens

What are ten books your teenagers read as part of their homeschool education?

• April 15, 2014

• By: Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.
• Fiction & Literature, Homeschooling

One of the weaknesses of the school model of education is that it squeezes out great books that don’t fit neatly into one or another of those artificial divisions of learning we call “subjects.” We don’t start with, “What books have had a deep impact in shaping what I am?” But with “What subjects am I supposed to be teaching, and which books will help me teach them?” I don’t teach my children subjects—I seek to instill in them wisdom. Which means I have them read the books that gave me wisdom.

All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes: The Christian and Pop Culture by Ken Myers. This book was a genuine wake up call to me, alerting me to the more subtle ways the broader culture has influenced not just what I think, but how I think. It was for me the beginning of seeking to live a more deliberate life.

The Abolition of Man by CS Lewis.  A thoughtful yet accessible prophetic exposition of the then coming post-modernism.

The Holiness of God. We often, as parents, struggle with fear that our children are more eager to please us than their heavenly Father, that they see their faith as a familial thing, but that they don’t quite own it personally. This classic exploration of the character of God is deeply helpful. It reminds my children that God is for real, and that they must deal with Him, one at a time.

Monsters from the Id by E. Michael Jones. Jones, editor of Culture Warsmagazine, traces the history of horror fiction from Mary Shelley’sFrankenstein to Aliens. Why would I want my teens to read that? Because Jones, as is his habit, masterfully weaves the private lives of the creators of these stories with their ideologies and the stories themselves. Reading Jones is like reading Romans 1 unfold before your very eyes as you watch minds given over to depravity bear bitter fruit.

10 from RC Jr - the Fiction List for Teens

What are ten fiction books you recommend for homeschool teenagers?

• May 29, 2014

• By: Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.
• Fiction & Literature, Homeschooling

A while back you published a list of the ten books your teenagers read as part of the homeschool education. They were all non-fiction. What fiction do you have your children read?

I was honestly surprised when this was pointed out to me. I would guess over the course of my life I’ve read two works of fiction for every work of non-fiction. I hadn’t planned at all to make the list all non-fiction, and so am happy to add here fiction. As with before I am not here arguing that these are the ten best fiction works ever, only that they are the ten that I genuinely want my children to read. Here they are, in no particular order:

The Scarlet Letter — Hawthorne is no friend of the Bible or the Christian faith, but like so many great authors he is haunted by it. He has no grasp of the Puritans, but, ironically, a decent grasp of our sinfulness. While the townspeople are merely clownishly wicked, his exploration especially of Dimmesdale and Chillingworth are both chilling and worthy.

A Clockwork Orange — Anthony Burgess is among my favorite writers of the 20^th century. While Kubrick’s adaptation of the novel is not at all for the faint at heart, the book shows us Burgess’ genius without showing things best left unseen. A fascinating exploration of the folly of behaviorism, a philological romp, and a genuinely intriguing exploration of the rise and fall of civilizations, well, that’s quite a lot for a slim volume.

A Tale of Two Cities — Dickens starts slow, reminding us what happens when we are paid by the word. But the final third of this close-up in the midst of cultural devastation reminds us of the One Great Hero.

The Great Santini — Not one you expected, right? Pat Conroy is likely not in anyone’s canon, save perhaps the Sproul family canon. Conroy, like his thinly veiled father, manages to stir together charm and pathos, evil, and family unity. The result is somehow both disturbing and moving.

Relating to the Church Calendar, Liturgy, and Preaching ...

"People need to be reminded more than they need to be instructed."

 - Samuel Johnson

Losing Church Kids - The Numbers

The results are in from a recent survey headed up by the Fixed Point Foundation about young adults who have left the faith and were willing to open up about why and how it happened.   Here is a summary of their findings compiled by my friend, Steven Wedgeworth:

1- They had attended church
2- The mission and message of their churches was vague
3-They felt their churches offered superficial answers to life's difficult questions
4- They expressed their respect for those ministers who took the Bible seriously
5- Ages 14-17 were decisive
6- The decision to embrace unbelief was often an emotional one
7- The internet factored heavily into their conversion to atheism

The Process of Creativity

 by Dr David Goetsch

[abridged; used with permission]

CREATIVITY

People debate endlessly about whether creativity is the result of nature versus nurture. Imagination, originality, and innovation can be applied in any field. Architects are creative in their designs of buildings. Engineers are creative in their solutions to human problems. Business people are creative in how they structure deals. Coaches are creative in developing their game plans. I can say with certainty that the kind of creativity needed in problem solving and decision making in organizations can be learned. Creativity is a process that can be approached systematically and in the 6 phases below.

1. PREPARATION

 Many people think that creativity reveals itself in a momentary flash of insight that simply arises out of the blue. But when it comes to problem solving and decision making in organizations creativity begins with preparation. Preparation in this context means learning, gaining, experience, and collecting information in the field or discipline associated with the problem. Creativity requires preparation. It involves gaining education, training, and experience in that field. It also involves staying up to date and familiarizing oneself with all of the pertinent information about the problem in question. The key is learning to use the intuition that can come from blending knowledge and experience rather than letting knowledge and experience limit the imagination.

Managing Oneself

Managing Oneself

by Peter R Drucker ,  HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW, JAN 2005 [abridged]

Most of us will have to learn to manage ourselves and develop ourselves. We will have to place ourselves where we can make the greatest contribution staying mentally alert and engaged during a 50-year working life, which means knowing how and when to change the work we do.

What Are My Strengths?

Most people think they know what they are good at. They are usually wrong. More often, people know what they are not good at – though more are wrong than right. Yet, a person can perform only from strength. One cannot build performance on weaknesses, let alone on something one cannot do at all.

Whenever you make a key decision or take a key action, write down what you expect will happen. 9 or 12 months later, compare the actual results with your expectations. I have been practicing this method for 15 - 20 years now, and every time I’m surprised.

Practiced consistently, this will show you within 2 - 3 years, where your strengths lie - and this is the most important thing to know. It will show you what you are doing or failing to do that deprives you of the full benefits of your strengths, where you are not particularly competent, and where you have no strengths or ability to perform.

#1:  Most importantly, concentrate on your strengths. Put yourself where your strengths can produce results.

#2: Improve your strengths. Analysis will rapidly show where you need to improve skills or acquire new ones. It will also show gaps in your knowledge.

#3: Discover where your intellectual arrogance is causing disabling ignorance and overcome it. Far too many people - especially people with great expertise in one area - are contemptuous of knowledge in other areas or believe that being bright is a substitute for knowledge.  Go to work on acquiring the skills and knowledge you need to fully realize your strengths.

Your bad habits - what you do or fail to do that inhibits your effectiveness and performance - will quickly show up in the feedback - problems like a lack of manners. Manners are the lubricating oil of an organization – simply saying "please" and "thank you", knowing people’s names, or keeping up with family news - enables two people to work together whether they like each other or not. Bright people, especially bright young people, often do not understand this.

Comparing your expectations with your results also indicates what not to do. We all have a vast number of areas in which we have no talent or skill and little chance of becoming even mediocre.

One should waste as little effort as possible on improving areas of low competence.

It takes far more energy and work to improve from incompetence to mediocrity than it takes to improve from 1st-rate performance to excellence.

Yet most people, teachers, and organizations concentrate on making incompetent performers into mediocre ones. Energy, resources, and time should go instead to making a competent person into a star performer.

What makes a Southern Gentleman?

I recently found a neat little company that I commend to you.  It's called The Forgetful Gentleman.  Below is an example of what you might find on their blog:

Forgetful Gentleman interviewed the ultimate Southern Gentleman himself, Jeremy Blume, Principal at Bearings, a Southern lifestyle guide for men:

Why is the idea of a gentleman so prominent in the South?

Manliness and manners have always been important attributes in the South. We celebrate the man that hunts, works with his hands and has a backbone. Yet we are also a culture that prides itself on proper conduct and hospitality. The combination of those two characteristics is part of the fabric of a Southern gentleman.

What ideals, virtues and morals are integral to a southern gentleman?

A Southern gentleman should embody integrity, character, chivalry, hospitality and humility. His confidence in who he is as a man garners respect, but it’s also his humility that sets him apart. He has a healthy appreciation of the past, while at the same time a forward thinker.

What distinguishes a Southern gentleman in the following areas?

It's Diversity Weekend in Westminster, but Don't Worry!

(*this article has certain explicit terms abbreviated to keep from tripping content filters that any reader may wisely have in place. You may notice the misspellings, they are intentional.)


As Christ’s disciples, in every circumstance, we are called to be of good cheer.

Recently DW posted a great article about this and I am with him 100% here, but am having a good chance to put some shoe leather on it this week because I was greeted w/ this headline in my local paper: Westminster to hold first Diversity Weekend. (http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/news/local/westminster-to-hold-first-diversity-awareness-weekend/article_2715ac56-9d41-11e0-8f28-001cc4c03286.html) then later: (http://www.pflagwcc.org/)

Of course, by "diversity", we’re not talking about a joyful recognition of how God has made us all “different”, in that some people are big and some small, some people are male and some female, some people are dark-skinned and others lighter. We’re talking strictly about how some people in our town are “different” in that they engage in certain sxl acts that our society has historically viewed as immoral and repugnant.

Teaching with her Fists

Yesterday, my wife showed me the news story of the Florida teacher who "punched" her student.  Okay, ... I can't help but rant for a minute.  Please ... just indulge me - a former teacher - in my uninformed rant.  It was deeply disturbing.  Not because she punched him - but because she had to - because it escalated to that level - and most of all, because the rest of the class just stood there and watched it happen.  In true "millenial" fashion, someone found enough time to video the whole thing via cellphone, but not step in to restrain this kid who was bullying his teacher ... his FEMALE teacher ... his almost a foot shorter FEMALE teacher. 

What I've been Reading Lately [Book List] ...

You are what your mind eats ...

10-year-old AA Hodge's "Letter to the Heathen"

Dear Heathen:

The Lord Jesus Christ hath promised that the time shall come when all the ends of the earth shall be His kingdom. And God is not a man that He should lie nor the son of man that He should repent. And if this was promised by a Being who cannot lie, why do you not help it to come sooner by reading the Bible, and attending to the words of your teachers, and loving God, and, renouncing your idols, take Christianity into your temples? And soon there will not be a Nation, no, not a space of ground as large as a footstep, that will want a missionary. My sister and myself have, by small self-denials, procured two dollars which are enclosed in this letter to buy tracts and Bibles to teach you.

Archibald Alexander Hodge, and [sister] Mary Eliz. Hodge, June 23, 1833
Friends of the Heathen.

[painting: St Boniface Felling Thor's Tree unknown artist]

Permit Him to Speak Plainly ...

Let it be remembered, that I do not speak to the wild, giddy, thoughtless world, but to those that fear God. I ask, then, for what end do you send you children to school?

“Why, that they may be fit to live in the world.”

In which world do you mean~ this or the next?
Perhaps you thought of this world only; and had forgot that there is a world to come; yea, and one that will last for ever!
Pray take this into your account, and send them to such masters as will keep it always before their eyes. Otherwise, to send them to school (permit me to speak plainly) is little better than sending them to the devil.

- John Wesley

esley sermon entitled “On Family Religion”

My motto for 2011

"The blessings of ministry often come to us first disguised as inconveniences."

- a BR original
[photo:juliefeilen.com]

A Great Quote from a Great Man on His Birthday

[Adam and Eve] wanted, as we say, to ‘call their souls their own’. But that means to live a lie, for our souls are not, in fact, our own. They wanted some corner in the universe of which they could say to God, ‘This is our business, not yours.’ But there is no such corner. They wanted to be nouns, but they were, and eternally must be, mere adjectives.

-a wonderfully Kuyperian, C S Lewis, in The Problem of Pain

Snakes in the Garden

“Umberto Eco in his anthology on ugliness made the observation that Rococo and Baroque architecture and Thomas Kinkade paintings fail for the same reason in that they attempt to tell a story without the necessity of redemption.

No Armchair Fathers

It’s the height of hypocrisy to scream from all the rooftops ‘Where are all the men?!’ and not be doing anything at all to rectify the problem.


-Voddie Baucham

Something to Consider with your Sons

The 20 Worst-Paying College Degrees in 2010 [shown w/ starting then median salary]

1. Child and Family Studies $29,500 $38,400

2. Elementary Education  $31,600 $44,400

3. Social Work  $31,800 $44,900

4. Athletic Training $32,800 $45,700

5. Culinary Arts $35,900 $50,600

6. Horticulture $35,000 $50,800

7. Paralegal Studies/Law $35,100 $51,300

8. Theology $34,700 $51,300

9. Recreation & Leisure $33,300 $53,200

10. Special Education $36,000 $53,800

The “Gary North” Curriculum

[an abridged article]

Technical skills are learned best on the job. The apprenticeship system is the way to go. If a student finishes high school at (say) 16 or 17, then it's time to find a mentor who will apprentice the high school graduate locally. The student gets a technical skill that has a market.

Meanwhile, the student takes AP, CLEP, and DSST exams to quiz out of college. By age 20, the student is a collage graduate, which the student has paid for with wages from the apprenticeship job. He is ready for a career.