If you want the bottom line, from a polity standpoint, here you go: When a congregation seeks dismissal under G-11.0103i (now G-3.0301a), it is the responsibility of the presbytery to fulfill its fiduciary duty under the Trust Clause.

Amid the latest drama surrounding the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), should mainstream ministries seek reform or pull their programming?

All interpretations of the Bible are products of their time. All ethical reasoning is a product of its time. This is such a truism as to be hardly worth stating. All ethical standards arise out of a particular time and place, and cannot be fully understood without understanding those circumstances

In 2012, nothing appears to embarrass us. Snooki. Honey Boo Boo. Reality TV wives. Look at what is paraded before us as normal. Oppose the new normal and it's you who are the anomaly.

So how can we prevent our theological convictions from turning into some sort of Sartrean "bad faith" in the face of tragedy, suffering, and existential despair? Although a great many responses come to mind, this one is perhaps the most apt: Learn from those who have suffered greatly and kept the faith.

What do you measure as ministry/discipleship success? Look in your weekly church bulletin or brochure. It reports what the leaders regularly measure. What does you bulletin report? What is featured most prominently?

I remember reading that Lloyd-Jones never used a concordance because it inhibited learning scripture properly and I have tried to follow that line much of the time; but I confess that when pushed for time to prepare, concordances are useful and electronic search engines are fantastic.

One of the graces PKs need is a single moral standard. Too many PKs feel the pressure of their fathers' priestly profession in our moral lives. The pastor and elder qualifications in 1 Timothy and Titus feel like a threat: "If you screw up, your father not only looks bad, he will be out of a job." But those standards are the same ones that every Christian should be held to (other than the ability to teach). Nobody else's dad is at risk of being unemployed if his kid is rebellious, but mine is.

Envy is an insidious sin. And yet we don’t preach about it. We don’t warn of it’s dangers. Instead, we let it have its reign in our culture, because it drives our economy. Watch the commercials on prime-time TV. What is at the heart of every single one? Is it not envy? Is it not the lie that “You deserve this new thing. You’ve worked hard. Why shouldn’t you have what others have?”

Those interested in prosecuting these cases now know what does not work so clearly the roadmap is to construct charges and prosecution strategy that includes Scripture, the Confessions and interpretation of the Directory for Worship that balances both the covenant community and the individual within it. Charges should have a theological depth like the Davis charges or the charges against Charles A. Briggs..