If we understand communion rightly, it is a communal meal. It is not something we do on our own but corporately as a body. It means that I am not merely there to examine myself alone but am to examine myself in relation to the wider body. Likewise, the body is affirming together that those... Continue Reading

My heart in this has been that of  a concerned pastor. Throughout my ministry, I have sought to love those struggling with same-sex attraction and extend a gospel message that offers them a hope of real transformation. My aim has been to expose, but not be a sensational exposé.   Living Out and a Call... Continue Reading

Before the exile, one of the weeds growing in Israel’s field of sins was their refusal to accept the prophets’ warnings of the coming judgment. They reasoned, “Isaiah, Hosea, Amos, and Jeremiah have been preaching fire and brimstone for centuries. If it hasn’t happened yet, it’s never going to happen.” The delay in the judgment... Continue Reading

The cup offered by the Father, the cup he would drink upon the cross is full of fiery indignation and is the exact payment for sin owed to an infinite God.  Jesus drank from that cup for his people.  But the cup offered by Christ in communion is the cup of his blood, shed for... Continue Reading

When people suggest that social justice is “the greatest threat to the church in the last one hundred years”—many Christians who know their history begin to see images of large crowds at the annual SBC meetings over inerrancy and they think of the church growth movement of pragmatism, and the Emerging Church movement and the racism of... Continue Reading

What the prosperity gospel — sometimes called “name and claim it” or the “health-and-wealth gospel” — relies on is a pragmatic spirituality that correlates circumstantial blessings or curses with human strength, achievement, or even faith. Here are 4 ways ordinary evangelicals like you and me sometimes fall prey to a kind of prosperity gospel in... Continue Reading

All too often we focus on eradicating outward behaviors as proof of “solving the problem”, i.e. righting the wrongs. This is understandable given that the symptoms of sin (bigotry, adultery…) are horrible and painful. Yet a diagnosistic goal primarily focused on stopping outward symptoms often leads to an ends justifies the means prescription. Broad brushes in Law... Continue Reading

It is not uncommon for terrorists to release a rambling, barely coherent manifesto. And it is usually wise to ignore them, since they only feed the murderer’s desire for attention. But the document left by the New Zealand shooter (whom I will not name) is worth examining, because it gives us insight into a new... Continue Reading

But Matthew 18 is not the instructive context, nor the motive, for a public response to a publicly proclaimed message. Rather, a book review or similar public response is for the purpose of protecting, warning, and equipping the wider body of Christ. It’s an effort to carry out Paul’s instruction to the Colossians, “See to it... Continue Reading

The Apostle Paul uses an agricultural metaphor for the church in 1 Corinthians 3, calling it “God’s field” (v. 9). In that same chapter, he also refers to the church as “God’s building” (v. 9) and “God’s temple” (v. 16). All of these images teach us something about the church, and each metaphor brings out a... Continue Reading