Newsletter #149
On Taking Stock and What You Liked in 2024
Looking Back, Looking Ahead
As much as I try to deny it, I'm one of those people who gets very excited about a new year. Regardless of how well things have been going, or whatever setbacks I’ve faced in a particular year, I look forward to turning the calendar to January.
We should be honest: the difference between December 31 and January 1 is arbitrary. I know—your tax preparer and insurance company say differently. There are many things that are attached to the changing of the year. But in another sense, it is literally the difference of 24 hours.
However, we have come to associate new years with goals, aspirations, plans, and resolutions.
I find myself in tension over this. I know as well as anyone that the mercies of the Lord are new every morning. What wonderful news! On the other hand, somehow the transition from one year to the next feels big. I cannot shake it. I plan. I resolve. I dream. Inevitably, I fail again.
Nevertheless, we owe it to the people around us to grow and seek to serve better as time goes on. As a disciple, I want to please Jesus better. Provided I’m relying on His grace and strength, I don’t think He’s displeased that I connect some of my goals to the new year (though I shouldn’t confine them to that time).
Churchatopia has been an interesting venture. It has given me the opportunity to explore many of the topics on my mind. In some cases, I’ve been thinking of these topics for years. In others, circumstances, needs, opportunity, and calling have foisted upon me new avenues for reflections. Either way, I am deeply humbled by those who have gone on the journey with me.
I didn’t know what to expect when my first post went live on January 15, 2022. As I now approach the three-year anniversary of this site/newsletter/Substack page, it’s hard to know “where things stand.” Then again, this has always been a tad experimental, ad hoc, an amateur effort, if you will.
However, I will continue to be writing here in 2025, though the next few weeks will allow me the chance to take a bit of a break, regroup, and consider some possible changes for the new year. I do expect some changes.
Rest assured, I’ll do my best to pursue the approach that I think is most helpful to you, and achievable for me.
As always, your input/feedback/suggestions are welcome. You can email those to jacksonwatts@hotmail.com. I try to be a good listener, so give me your best shot.
Now then, what did you like most in 2024? According to site stats, here are the five most-viewed newsletters:
#1: On Alistair Begg and Knowing Where to Draw Lines (Newsletter #105)
Looking back on this “controversy,” I think my thoughts hold up fairly well. Judge for yourself.
#2: On the Outcome of Tuesday’s Election (Newsletter #143)
Are you honestly surprised that a lot of people were curious about this newsletter?
#3 – On the Ingredients to Trust (Newsletter #141)
I was quite gratified (and a tad disturbed) to see how many people realize what a massive issue this is becoming. I pray that I can be a trusted voice for people on the few subjects about which the Lord has given me some kind of clue.
#4: On Creatureliness (Newsletter #118)
Despite the brevity of this newsletter, it obviously struck a nerve with some. I think the interplay between creation and culture is one of the most fascinating and practical discussions in Christian theology and ministry.
#5: On Why We Don’t Take Ethics Seriously (Newsletter #136)
Again, I was gratified and surprised to see the interest in this crucial topic. It can often appear as a highly academic or esoteric topic, but it is far from it.
As far as “non-newsletter content,” people also seemed to like my interview with Dr. Joel Biermann about his book on the Sabbath, my pre-election remarks on teaching on politics, and one of my “hard questions” posts.
Again, thank you for taking the time to think with me about these matters.
A final word on my subscription model. Currently, people can enjoy access to any of my posts from the last year, as well as future posts. However, commenting privileges are reserved for paid subscribers. (Of course, the easy way around that is to simply email me what’s on your mind.)
A paid subscription (which I am happy to discount if you will ask for it) gives you three things: (1) it grants you access to the entire backlog of newsletters dating back to my first post; (2) it allows you commenting privileges; and (3) it simply says to me as a writer, “I like what you’re doing, I want you to keep doing it, and I want to see you grow in this.”
That’s it!
Follow Up:
On two different occasions I’ve given attention to the legacy of Francis Schaeffer. One was a newsletter in which I wrote about how often people cite Schaeffer and C.S. Lewis in the same breath as significant influences on their spiritual and intellectual formation. In a second, guest essay, Chris Talbot wrote Seven Things You (Maybe) Didn’t Know about Francis Schaeffer.
This attention to Schaeffer dovetails with other themes I’ve occasionally reflected on: friendship and scholarship.
So let me tie all these together by congratulating and highlighting Ryan Laughlin. Ryan is the pastor of McLean Presbyterian Church outside Washington, D.C. For many years he pastored Covenant Presbyterian Church in the St. Louis area, the same church Schaeffer pastored in the 1940s. Ryan has also been closely affiliated with Covenant Theological Seminary in several capacities, where he has served in a few capacities. He's a PCA-guy through and through!
Ryan is also an old friend and former classmate from the doctoral program at Concordia Seminary, where we both studied theology and culture.
It was my distinct joy to attend Ryan’s Dissertation Forum on December 13. He presented the research found in his dissertation, “Truth and a Song: The Role of Preaching in the Life and Legacy of Francis A. Schaeffer.” It is, to my knowledge, the only sustained (and scholarly) treatment of Schaeffer’s preaching ministry and sermons.
Aside from the intellectual satisfaction I derived from his work, it was such a blessing to reconnect with him and celebrate this academic achievement. I have written elsewhere about the difficulty level of completing (not entering!) a legitimate PhD program. So whenever I see friends cross the finish line, it is worth celebrating.
Additionally, one of my long-time friends, Matthew Bracey, professor and administrator at Welch College, recently graduated from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary with his Ph.D. Bracey studied ethics and public policy and wrote his dissertation on Edmund Burke. The title of that project was, “Edmund Burke’s Moral Imagination Interpretation and Cultivation.” I suspect that once he publishes this, it will become a pivotal work in the secondary literature on Burke. I can't wait to read it over the holidays.
Congratulations to these friends on their scholarly achievement!
Quotes of the Week:
Yes, Jesus was the most unlikely of heroes–and the only sort of hero who could rescue a human race that was hell-bent on its own destruction. There is an upside-downness to our story that requires upside-down solutions.
When the gospel began to spread, it didn’t spread rightside-up but upside-down—not through the powerful and the influential, but through twelve poorly educated sons of toil, some of whom, like Peter, were of questionable reliability. The gospel that began by paradox conquered the world by paradox.
Jonathan Rogers, “Unlikely Heroes.”
So why is innovation less impressive today? Maybe Thiel is right, and it’s the fault of hippies and other degenerates. Or maybe it’s crappy education. Or a lack of corporate investment in research. Or short-sighted venture capitalists. Or monopolistic business practices. Or overaggressive lawyers. Or imagination-challenged entrepreneurs. Or maybe it’s a catastrophic loss of mojo. None of these explanations makes much sense. The aperture of science grows ever wider, after all, even as the commercial and reputational rewards for innovation grow ever larger and the ability to share ideas grows ever stronger. Any barrier to innovation should be swept away by such forces.
Let me float an alternative explanation: There has been no decline in innovation; there has just been a shift in its focus. We’re as creative as ever, but we’ve funneled our creativity into areas that produce smaller-scale, less far-reaching, less visible breakthroughs. And we’ve done that for entirely rational reasons. We’re getting precisely the kind of innovation we desire — and deserve.
My idea is that there’s a hierarchy of innovation that runs in parallel with Abraham Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs. Maslow argued that human needs progress through five stages, with each new stage requiring the fulfillment of lower-level, or more basic, needs. So first we have to meet our most primitive Physiological needs, and that frees us to focus on our needs for Safety, and once our needs for Safety are met, we can attend to our needs for Belongingness, and then on to our needs for personal Esteem, and finally, at the peak of Maslow’s pyramid, to our needs for Self-Actualization.
Nicholas Carr, “The Arc of Innovation Bends Toward Decadence.”
My hypothesis is this: because we, as late modern human beings, aim to make the world controllable at every level—individual, cultural, institutional, and structural—we invariably encounter the world as a ‘point of aggressions’ or as a series of points of aggression, in other words as a series of objects that we have to know, attain, conquer, master, or exploit. And precisely because of this, ‘life,’ the experience of feeling alive and of truly encountering the world—that which makes resonance possible—always seems to elude us. This in turn leads to anxiety, frustration, anger, and even despair, which then manifest themselves, among other things, in acts of impotent political aggression.
Harmut Rosa, The Uncontrollability of the World.
Books I’m Reading/Rereading:
Whatever I decide to throw in my suitcase or backpack before I get on a plane for the Carolinas today!
A Tender Matter
D.A. Carson has been one of my favorite teachers, scholars, and authors throughout my adult life. Indeed, he has influenced my intellectual and theological development almost as much as anyone else.
It is with sadness but also hopefulness that I call attention to this recent notice/prayer request from the Gospel Coalition website.
Parting Shot:
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone.