Nine traits of happy churches – Thom S. Rainer blog
After consulting with hundreds of US and Canada-based churches, Thom Rainer identifies trends in what makes for a happy church. Read his nine traits here.

Reflections on a Refugee response: Dolo Ado – Wanderlust
In a moving and beautifully descriptive post, a Melbourne based aid worker and Christian visits Ethiopia and gets a first-hand experience of the refugee camps set up there:

“We visit the reception centre, a refugee’s first port of call. Knots of women and children, mostly, gather in restless groups, finding shade from the sun beneath wood-frame lean-tos with galvanized zinc sheet roofing. In different sections of the centre, their names are recorded and checked against databases, then fingerprinted on a digital scanner and issued a wristband that identifies them as refugees. I see a small boy- no more than four- with one of these near-indestructable tags wrapped around his tiny arm and I wonder how that must feel. I find the things irritating after a single evening at a club or concert, but now his very identity- his rights to shelter, food, water, healthcare and education- are tied inextricably to a plastic strap on his wrist. For some reason, the indignity strikes a deep chord with me. Later they will receive the ration cards which indicate which days they’re supposed to attend food distributions, how many Core Relief Item distributions they’ve received, and so forth. A help-desk sits in one corner to support children who come across on their own, without an adult family member to support them.” Read full blog here.

Do Christians have a moral obligation to boycott companies that support unbiblical causes? – Ligonier Ministries, R.C. Sproul Jr.
The title of this blog speaks for itself. Are boycotts and ‘must’ or ‘may’ for Christians in these matters? Read full blog here.

From prison to pulpit: A stunning story of God’s Grace – Gospel Coalition, Matt Smethurst
“While all testimonies are miraculous, some are unusually gripping and encouraging. Mez McConnell has one of those stories.

Once an abused, addicted, homeless, Christian-despising criminal, Mez now serves as senior pastor of Niddrie Community Church in Edinburgh, Scotland, and founder of 20 Schemes, a ministry dedicated to building gospel-centered churches for Scotland’s poorest communities (“schemes”).” Watch his stories here.