If you want celebrity, you can’t simply expound the Word each week: you need some unique schtick to distance you from the pack, and create hype around your personality. Some Christians are so embedded in the celebrityism and exhibitionism of the web that they cannot see that these are hostile to the gospel.   Church leaders... Continue Reading

Before a church evaluates a pastoral candidate’s gifting or talent, it must first evaluate his character. To be sure, for a man aspiring to ministry, it may help to be winsome, to be eloquent, or to possess a magnetic personality. Yet, before one looks for these secondary—and tertiary—strengths, one must first meet the qualifications of... Continue Reading

We want to see churches enveloped by a real joy in God because of what He has done for us in Christ. You see this in Colossians 1 as Paul, himself in prison, prays for a church full of people whom he has never met—that they would understand the greatness of God and joyfully respond... Continue Reading

What can we learn from the Methodists of two centuries ago? I am staunchly Presbyterian and am not arguing that we should change our standards, but we can surely learn from history. Omitting a number of critiques we might explore, two positive lessons stand out.   Learning from the Methodists What can we learn from... Continue Reading

Come to be known as the “Oxford Movement,” due to its beginnings at Oxford University, theologians such as John Keble (1792–1866), John Henry Newman (1801–1890), John Mason Neale (1818–1866), and Frederich Faber (1814–1863) sought to forge a middle way between Anglicanism and Roman Catholicism.   Over the past month I have been exploring the various... Continue Reading

When first in Corinth, Paul financially supported himself by making tents with Aquila and Priscilla. Paul later told the Corinthians that though he had the right to receive compensation for his spiritual labors, he did not make “use of this right” in order to keep from putting “an obstacle in the way of the gospel... Continue Reading

Since few ministers are Bible scholars, they do not know their Bibles, therefore, they use them as if they are nothing more than the user’s manual that came with the monitor on their computer. They never dig into it so the Holy Spirit can break through their calloused hearts with the pure truth from God.... Continue Reading

We have a duty, as the people of God, to stir one another up in love and good works, exhorting one another to that end, and the context in which we do that is our assembling together. The primary assembling for this purpose is undoubtedly public worship, but it’s not limited, or exclusive to public... Continue Reading

One of the most pressing needs for a minister of the gospel is that he would be given the necessary wisdom to counsel, to know when to confront, to mediate, and to discern the particular pastoral needs of a congregation. This is an all-encompassing and recurring need. The minister is daily faced with particular challenges... Continue Reading

“Grace Presbytery believes the concept of “Celibate Gay Pastor” to be contrary to the teaching of Scripture and the constitutional standards of the Presbyterian Church in America, and that the churches of Grace Presbytery should not presume to think that candidates for our pulpits who identify themselves in this (or similar ways) will be approved... Continue Reading