Be Not Deceived by Your City
If you’re alive, there are people in your midst that need to hear the truth of the gospel and be changed!
Our town (and county) is just as crooked, twisted, depraved, and in need of the gospel as any other community in the world. Don’t get me wrong, Bellville is an incredible community on the far outskirts of the greater Houston area. But the people in Bellville are in need of the liberating gospel like never... Continue Reading
The Preachers of the Great Awokening
Sinners are threatened not by an angry god, but by a righteous mob.
We will explore this quasi-religion, Wokeness, as a status system that functions predominantly to distinguish white elites from the white masses (whom we will call hoi polloi). It does this by offering a rich signalling vocabulary for traits and possessions such as education, intelligence, openness, leisure, wealth, and cosmopolitanism, all of which educated elites value. “Yea, on... Continue Reading
5 Reasons Churches Should Teach Theology to Children
Kids in our churches, from the earliest of ages, need to begin thinking in theological categories about God, themselves, and the world around them.
A focus on reading and teaching Scripture to children does not—and must not—mean that we fail to do our best to educate them theologically as well. And, yes, by theologically, I do mean through the use of the discipline of systematic theology—beginning in its simplest forms (historic catechisms and creeds) and growing more and more substantial and complex. ... Continue Reading
Discerning the Signs of Pastoral Burnout
When all our motivations erode at once, and when their absence persists, I think it’s then that we’ve entered a season of pastoral burnout.
Pastoral burnout could be defined as the moment or season when a pastor loses the motivation, hope, energy, joy, and focus required to fulfill his work, and these losses center upon the work itself. These aspects of burnout don’t operate in isolation. They connect and overlap. From time to time, we might lose motivation or hope in ministry.... Continue Reading
Azusa Pacific Lifts Ban on LGBT Relationships
After extensive dialogue between students and administrators, Azusa Pacific University (APU) has ended a ban on public same-sex relationships on campus.
Critics say APU is caving to pressure from the LGBTQ community. “They can tell themselves whatever they like about their ‘spirit,’ but it’s self-deception,” writes Rod Dreher. “This is how conservative institutions surrender: by giving up, then telling themselves (and their donors) that they haven’t surrendered. Saving face is not the same thing as saving... Continue Reading
Be Tender-Hearted and Thick-Skinned: How Humility Protects Pastors from Pastoral Burnout
A thick-skinned pastor cares more about approval from the God he worships than approval from the church he serves.
It is right to be exhorted to change when change is necessary. It is good to be told you’re doing something wrong when you are, in fact, doing something wrong. Criticism may sting in the short-term but, if it’s true, we can embrace it as a gift from the Lord. “Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may... Continue Reading
Covenant Renewal
The language of ‘covenant’ has a much wider history in the church than merely those churches and congregations that self-identify as ‘covenantal’
“Those churches that have included a covenant renewal service in their church calendar often include, not only appropriate prayers of devotion in response to God’s covenant commitment to his people; but also renewal of vows on the part of the congregation.” The language of ‘covenant’ has a much wider history in the church than... Continue Reading
Building with Conviction
Since the very beginning, from Cain and Abel to the New Testament model, God has required that true worship be done in Spirit and in truth.
Since the essence of the foreshadowing of the tabernacle was fulfilled in Christ, many have come to the conclusion that we have nothing further to learn from its construction. They say we are not to look at it as a model for New Testament churches, as it has no further significance since Jesus altogether fulfilled... Continue Reading
Why Leaders Fall…and Where It All Begins
“A little neglect may breed great mischief.”
Pastor Lord went on to explain that these fallen leaders were not so foolish as to wake up one day and intentionally throw away their integrity, honor, family, and ministry in some abrupt violation of all they knew to be true. Rather, he noted, they simply began to neglect their relationship with the Lord, and over... Continue Reading
The Number One Reason Youth Leave The Church
The reality is that the number one reason young people drift off from the church is because they are not believers.
We similarly cannot be surprised when young people do not become believers when their parents don’t teach them the gospel at home and our Sunday school programmes focus more on morals, or nice lessons, than they do on the Christ and his gospel. If our children never hear about sin and the means of salvation,... Continue Reading
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