Response to “An Encyclical for the Purpose of Addressing Frequently Asked Questions in the 2024-2025 EPC Church Year”
The peace and unity of the church have been recklessly squandered.
The message seems clear: the national leadership can communicate as it wishes, while the rest of us should practice restraint. For commissioners who care deeply about the EPC’s future, this feels less like a call to unity and more like an attempt to avoid dealing with the real issues. It is an approach that risks... Continue Reading
Finally Transformed: From Transgender to Christian
I’ve seen the power of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit transform me and bring me a joy I never would’ve experienced regardless of how many surgeries I endured.
Christianity bears the brunt of modern criticism. It was oppressive to me—too limiting and too judgmental. I strived to resist it at all costs, believing “Bible thumpers” the most viciously opposed to my identity as Andrea, even more so than the strangers shouting mean comments in the streets. But then I was transformed. “It’s... Continue Reading
Martin Luther: Theologian of the Cross
“The cross alone is our theology” became a rallying cry for Martin Luther’s followers. It still is today.
It’s not always people who appear good, beautiful, and powerful by worldly standards who truly know God. (After all, Jesus didn’t look glorious on the cross.) “One deserves to be called a [true] theologian,” Martin wrote, “who sees God even in suffering.” The Bible says that even broken and weak sinners can know God if... Continue Reading
The Importance of Calling
Please don’t forget that it is Jesus himself who has called you to be a leader in the church.
I discovered that I had some gifting in public ministry. This was confirmed by the people whom I served. Theologians refer to this dynamic as the “external” call, that is, the confirmation by others that this might be what the Lord has in store. Of course, the consummation of the external call is the confirmation... Continue Reading
It Is We Who Must Be Bent
We must stop bending the Bible to suit our situation, but rather bend ourselves to suit the Word.
We must guard ourselves against looking to the Bible for confirmation of our longings rather than looking to the Bible for truth that may contradict our longings. Elisabeth Elliot’s admonition is an appropriate one: “We must quit bending the Word to suit our situation. It is we who must be bent to that Word, our... Continue Reading
The Significance of ‘The First Hymn’
The First Hymn shows the power of faith and music going hand in hand.
The First Hymn might have sounded melodically similar to something a Westerner would hear today. However, finding pieces of ancient music like this is not entirely unusual. What set The First Hymn apart was its theological message: that one true Lord proclaims this hymn — is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This mention of... Continue Reading
Dear Pastor, May My Child Take The Lord’s Supper?
The Lord’s Supper is for those who readily confess their sin and know their need of a Savior.
The Table is indeed for sinners, but for sinners who are willing to repent of their sin and come to Christ where forgiveness is found. John’s warning in his first epistle applies nicely to this matter of self-examination, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us”... Continue Reading
Five Reasons Christians Give Bad Advice
We must thoughtfully examine our advice before delivering it.
We aren’t always clear in our own minds if the advice we’re offering is biblically informed or culturally conditioned. This is perhaps especially true for conservative Christianity or Evangelicalism. The areas of sex and politics are obvious examples. Aspects of our Christian culture are very often mere artefacts of another culture. Like the British museum,... Continue Reading
What Is the Difference Between God’s Mission and Christian Witness?
God’s mission that we participate in as Christians through the witness of Christ.
Christian witness is the church commissioned by Christ, sent out, empowered by the Holy Spirit to speak about what God is doing. Witnessing is to speak of Christ and his gospel truth, salvation in Christ alone, to speak about God—the only true God—and his truth claims in Scripture, and to speak to sinners and to... Continue Reading
Reviving Germany
Signs of life in the land of Luther.
Christ is at work in Germany even now. We see God’s Spirit working, especially among the younger generation. In 2009, John Piper returned to Munich for the first time since his PhD studies in the early 1970s. He met with a group of roughly fifteen German pastors and theologians, most of whom had served in... Continue Reading