Theology Sketchbook
Mapping Out The Faith
Helpful Resources
Online Resources
Best Commentaries is a website which pitches itself as "Rotten Tomatoes of Biblical Studies". It is an incredibly helpful database of up to date biblical scholarship with helpful reviews and rankings. Many are even tagged based on what the author's theological framework is, which is helpful to those (like myself) not familiar with most biblical scholars.
Bible study software can be frustratingly expensive, which is a problem for many lay people and people actually living on ministry wages. Blue Letter Bible is a free website which offers a surprisingly robust platform for doing biblical study free online. One drawback of many bible softwares is that you have to buy each individual translation in order to toggle between them. Blue Letter Bible has them all readily accessible. Obviously, paying for Logos Software will get you the industry standard in bible software, but for those on a budget Blue Letter Bible is a blessing.
Whenever I can, I go out of my way to promote Christian Book Distributors for anybody looking to buy bibles, bible studies, commentaries, or really anything "Christian". I fall short of personally boycotting companies because of political disagreements for the fact that, if I were consistent in the application of this principle it would become virtually impossible to do anything in our society. That said, I used to buy my books from Amazon for the sake of convenience, but in the last year or two I have decided to give my business to Christian Book, and have actually found that they are very reasonable and timely. The thought is, if I'm getting resources anyways, I might as well give my money to a Kindom-minded organisation.
There are many good, solid apologetics ministries out there, but one I regularly trust and return to for thoughtful engagement with real-world issues is Stand To Reason. All of the members of Stand To Reason's team are phenomenal at what they do, and are a great resource of students or parents who are interested in speaking truth in love and representing God's Kingdom well in a world that is increasingly chaotic.
Learning the original biblical languages (Hebrew for the Old Testament, and Greek for the New Testament) is crucial in doing good bible study and growing in your personal walk with Christ. Thankfully, most writers of biblical commentaries have a command of the biblical languages and can elucidate nuances in the text that are lost in the English translations. But for those seeking to get a basic grasp of the original Koine Greek in which thee New Testament is written, Bill Mounce offers very accessible tracks for either learning the basics (as I have done), or to go all-in and actually learn the language.
YouTube Resources
In the digital age, YouTube videos and Podcasts can offer increasingly good resources for theological learning.
Sean McDowell
Sean McDowell is a great apologist who has weekly podcasts with guests who discuss various topics ranging from theology to apologetics. What I appreciate about Sean is that he has guests who agree with him but also has the occasional skeptic on his channel. He is very skilled at having respectful discussion with people whom he disagrees with. Sean operates mainly within the academic world, so many of his guests are authors and thinkers.
Alisa Childers
Alisa Childers posts regular videos that interact with the current cultural questions facing Christians. Her personal story is one of deconstruction of her faith, which led to her rebuilding her faith based on sound theology. She is also very thoughtful in her approach and is a relatable communicator.
THE BEAT by Allen Parr
Allen Parr comes from a more charismatic background and is a very gifted communicator. He offers good, solid biblical content that operates at "street level", which is helpful when interacting with the culture.
Melissa Dougherty
Melissa Dougherty is a solidly biblical communicator who has the experience of having been saved out of the New Age. Much of her content interacts with the false ideas surrounding modern "spirituality".
Red Pen Logic
Red Pen Logic is a channel hosted by Tim Barnett, who interacts brilliantly with social media fallacies. The videos are generally shorter and react to people on social media who post content intended to draw people away from their faith. Tim breaks down the arguments and does a great job refuting them with sound logic and theology.