Depression and the Need for Community
Like the proverbial frog slipped into slowly warming water that eventually comes to a boil, depression creeps up on us, until we can't remember the last time we felt joy.
Almost ten months later, I watched a show on television where a woman described her experience with postpartum depression and with tears streaming down my face, I whispered aloud, “That’s me.” I called my doctor the next day. Depression is insidious like that. It hides itself behind circumstances and experiences. It can mask itself as... Continue Reading
Taking Exception
The question is whether a Presbytery possesses the power to instruct one of its members or licentiates not to teach a difference that the court has determined an exception.
A Presbytery had examined and approved a candidate for ordination. In the course of that examination, the candidate declared a difference with Westminster Larger Catechism 109.[1] Having approved the candidate for ordination, the Presbytery subsequently approved a motion that the candidate “not be allowed to teach his exception to LC 109.”[2] At the 2018... Continue Reading
Pastors, The Graham Rule, And Wisdom
Here is the problem: the line between empathy can become blurry very quickly for a variety of reasons.
Before I make my case let us consider some of the criticisms of the Graham Rule, which says that men should not be alone with women who are not their wives. One argument says that the rule is unfair to women since it segregates them from the same pastoral care that men receive. It... Continue Reading
Court Orders End To Abortion-Pill Mandate For Geneva College
More-than-six-year legal battle ends in victory for Geneva College that desired to operate according to its beliefs.
In its order in Geneva College v. Azar, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania ordered the federal government to cease enforcing the mandate and declared “that defendants—the United States Departments of Health and Human Services, Treasury, and Labor, along with their respective Secretaries—violated Geneva College’s rights under RFRA….” PITTSBURGH – A federal... Continue Reading
When Failure Saves and Success Destroys
While success can be a tremendous blessing to ourselves and others, it can also be the stuff idolatry is made of.
It feels awful to fail to advance in our vocations, to miss our goals, to be surpassed by our friends, to miss out on making our mark. It feels soul-crushing to fail to receive the plaudits of the people we admire. And while this failure can be a tremendous sorrow to ourselves and others, it... Continue Reading
Is There Anyone Praying For You?
Mothers today still experience what Monica, Augustine’s mother, must have felt before the Lord answered her pleas for the one she called “the son of so many tears.”
It is useful to ask non-Christians in our culture if they know of those who are praying for them; there probably are people praying for them. And it is good for them to be reminded of it….Christian parents of unbelieving children love to know that others are praying for their children. The Lord still works... Continue Reading
Q&A With Former Mars Hill Church Executive Pastor Sutton Turner
An interview with Sutton Turner, once one of the executive pastors of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. He presided over the growth and decline of the church that closed its doors in 2015.
Over the last 4 years, I have studied the culture from Mars Hill and talked extensively to people that were negatively affected by the culture and its leaders. I am building a set of material from this research to help other organizations which I have shared with several pastors and leaders. They have identified one... Continue Reading
Setting a Course for Faithfulness
Why is it important to express and defend a biblical Christology?
“Consider this: Can we have the gospel without a biblical Christology? The answer, of course, is no. And without the gospel, we cease to be the church. We are called to proclaim the gospel and live out its ramifications. The heart and soul of the gospel is a biblical Christology. We must confess it, teach... Continue Reading
3 Reasons Why Every Christian Needs the Church
Christians were never meant to live apart from other Christians—we were made to be part of the same community.
It’s common for people to attend a church regularly without officially belonging to that particular church. What this sort of church attendance fails to understand is that all sheep need a shepherd. Jesus is, of course, our ultimate Shepherd, but he leads his sheep through under-shepherds who are specially called to care for his people. ... Continue Reading
When the Church Becomes Worldly
The greatest enemy of the Western church is not the state or any ideology such as atheism, but the world and the spirit of the age.
Jesus said, ‘You will know them by their fruit.’ Just wait long enough for their ideas to ripen, and in case after case it turns out that the much-trumpeted ‘new kind of Christianity for a new world’ turns out to be the old kind of compromise and heresy. Such worldliness is inexcusable because it is... Continue Reading
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 181
- 182
- 183
- 184
- 185
- …
- 569
- Next Page »