As the redeemed people of God, our future has been secured through Christ, and yet, our battle against sin is a daily struggle. This affects all parts of our life, and music is no exception. There is no comparison between the new song that we will sing in glory and our current reality. The music... Continue Reading

Miller reflects both on the manner and the message of preaching that ensures utility. In the first place, Miller suggests that the manner is of secondary importance. God has used very different men with very different methods to do tremendous good throughout the history of the church. Nevertheless, the sermon most designed for utility should... Continue Reading

Owen addresses tricky questions that were prominent in his own context. For example, he uses his definition of schism to settle a dilemma: if a church member wants to leave a congregation, what should the congregation do?   Schism is a scary, serious word. We often think of a schismatic as someone who has caused... Continue Reading

You know what I mean by a fallow year, don’t you?  Just as a farmer leaves a field fallow – unsown – for one season, in order to give the ground time to rest and render it more productive for the coming seasons, perhaps our churches could do with a fallow year.   Does your... Continue Reading

Gradually, I hope, denominational structures can downsize and assets and resources shift down to presbyteries and local churches. It represents, to me, a long, slow process but one that moves us a bit to closer to what Thornwell saw as a genuine plumb line for missions. We chose the other approach. We exercised great flexibility... Continue Reading

This past month we had the blessing of worshipping in a couple of churches in Montevideo. As our all-night flight reminded us, Uruguay is far from the U.S. In fact, this Uruguayan city is the southern most capital city in the Americas, being roughly the same latitude as Kansas, but in the southern hemisphere. And... Continue Reading

In our day, when ministers water down God’s word they almost always do so from behind a missiological smokescreen. Insisting that a robustly theological ministry is a detriment to reaching the unchurched, they introduce a number of serious problems.   “We keep our preaching basic because we have so many new believers. If we give... Continue Reading

We remain committed to discipleship as our sole ministry objective. When someone comes to us for help with a sexual or gender-related struggle, we don’t focus on behavior change. Just as I was challenged two decades ago that idolatry (the Bible’s term to explain out of control desires of the heart) was my most significant... Continue Reading

As another Pastor put it long ago, ‘I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.’ (3Jn 4). To see the members of the church responding in a godly way to the preaching of the word, to their afflictions, witnessing to their non-Christian friends, loving the brethren, delighting... Continue Reading

We are all people of trajectories who wittingly or unwittingly, deliberately or carelessly, point ourselves along the narrow way that leads to salvation or the broad way that leads to destruction. This demonstrates the importance of having people in our lives who will confront and redirect us not just when we’ve gone past the point... Continue Reading