THE BULLETIN OF IBTM
with Douglas Jacoby

 

27 August 2025

Good morning! We hope you and your loved ones are well.

In today’s bulletin: reflections on Richard Carlson’s Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff at Work; an evidences event in London; a new series on Constantine & the Council of Nicaea (AD 325); and how you can help the teaching ministry in East Africa.

Please note that next week there will be no bulletin, as Vicki and I will be away, celebrating forty years of marriage. We will resume 10 September.

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff at Work (Richard Carlson)

I recently came across my 25-year-old notes on Richard Carlson’s Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff at Work (New York, NY: Balance, 1998). His previous work, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, is also great.

These books were—and are—very good for me! Perhaps my notes will pique your interest.

CLICK HERE to view.

CONSTANTINE & THE COUNCIL OF NICAEA

In June I spoke at the Nicaea Conference in Turkey, and I’ll share my thoughts with you in four short talks.

While the conference was immensely enjoyable, I found myself more commemorating the Council of 325 more than celebrating it. Why?

No event changed the nature of Christianity more than the Council of Nicaea—not the rise of the clergy, nor the monastic movement, nor even the Reformation. There were numerous changes enacted or enabled by this council and subsequent “ecumenical” councils—not necessarily immediate—and many of which were unfortunate, to say the least.

Some of my perspectives may seem unnecessarily strong, even unfair, although I’m striving to be evenhanded. The subject matter of these talks also speaks to our present political (and church political) climate.

To hear the opening talk (14 mins), CLICK HERE. After the final installment, I’ll share my PowerPoint with you, too.

LONDON SPECIAL EVIDENCES EVENT

David Hutchings is a physics teacher, author, and Fellow of the Institute of Physics, his books include Of Popes and Unicorns (Oxford 2022), God, Stephen Hawking and the Multiverse (SPCK 2020) and Let There Be Science (Lion Hudson 2017). David is an Honorary Research Fellow at Durham University, and speaks and writes regularly on the relationship between science, Christianity, philosophy, and history. He lives in York with his wife and two young daughters.

I (Douglas) am a member of Christians in Science (UK), BioLogos, and the American Scientific Affiliation. David and I met a CiS conference last year, and again in York this year.

We will teach two classes, then dialogue based on audience questions. Please tell your friends about this free and faith-building event!

Come to London, or scan the QR code to join online. Photos tweaked by AI, but approximately accurate ;-).

COOL QUOTES

  • The opposite of love is not hate. It is indifference. — Elie Wiesel (1928-2016)
  • And the Devil did grin, for his darling sin / Is pride that apes humility. — Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), The Devil’s Thoughts
  • Mysticism begins in mist and ends in schism. — Bart Simpson
  • We live in a society whose whole policy is to excite every nerve in the human body and keep it at the highest pitch of artificial tension, to strain every human desire to the limit and to create as many new desires and synthetic passions as possible, in order to cater to them with the products of our factories and printing presses and movie studios and all the rest. — Thomas Merton, 1948

SUPPORT REQUEST (EAST AFRICA)

We are currently looking for sponsorship for heavily discounted website subscriptions (free access to all 11,000 pages of articles, audio, and video) for Christians in the African nations of Ethiopia and Tanzania.

Full sponsorship: $547 for Ethiopia and $365 for Tanzania.

Click HERE to donate. Scroll down.
Indicate “materials” on the drop-down menu. (If you want to select one country or the other, please let me know by email.)

Thank you!

Thanks for reading this week’s newsletter. Please keep us in your prayers! — DAJ

  • For all bulletins 2004-2025 (100s of pages of biblical material), click here.
  • To access the website, click here. There is new material every week—typically, every day!
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  • To donate to the ministry, click here. Specific targets: Tanzania and Ethiopia.