How to Incorporate Biblical Archaeology into Your Preaching
Does archaeology have any role in preaching? What is there point of intersection?
Archaeology is not central to preaching, but it can play an informative role primarily in the areas of context and content. It is one of the sources that ought to be used to gather information about a particular text that is being preached. Other disciplines are also to be brought into the study: geography, linguistics,... Continue Reading
Canons Of Dort Day 2018: Their Churchly Context
We subscribe the Reformed confessions, which themselves are merely an ecclesiastical summary of the most important points of theology, piety, and practice out of God’s Word.
Today is the 399th anniversary of the publication of the Canons of Dort. The word canons means “rules” or “rulings” of the Synod. These are what people commonly (but incorrectly) call “the Five Points of Calvinism.” First, Calvinism was a nickname given to us. The Reformed Churches do not call themselves by Calvin’s name. We designate ourselves by our theology,... Continue Reading
Hidden Violence
Spousal abuse is a widespread sin that many churches ignore at their—and their members’—peril.
For seven years, T and her husband had been active church members with marital problems, and many people had devoted hours of marriage counseling with them. The couple even flew to Missouri to participate in an intensive four-day marriage conciliation program. Now T was saying that after all that effort, things had become worse—and she... Continue Reading
Where Is The Church Heading?
In most parts of the world, Biblical, orthodox Christianity is returning to the position it held before the rise of the European church-state complex we call Christendom.
Every indication is that we will continue to see claims from the culture, fed by neo-pagan antipathy to orthodox Christianity, such as those made by Dan Brown and even by some scholars who should know better about competing “gospels” (e.g., the so-called “Gospel of Jude”) or competing “epistles,” which give the impression that the formation... Continue Reading
What If I Can’t Sing?
Your heavenly Father cares whether and what you sing, but he doesn’t mind how well you sing.
If you can speak, you can sing. God designed you to sing and gave you everything you need to sing as well as he wants you to. He’s far less concerned with your tunefulness than your integrity. Christian singing begins with the heart, not the lips (Eph. 5:19). Sometimes we meet people who say,... Continue Reading
5 Things We’ve Learned as We Transition from an Ethnic to a Multicultural Church
We recognize that we need to reflect the diversity of heaven if we are to be a faithful outpost of heaven in multicultural Toronto.
Ministering in multicultural Toronto, it’s easy to assume that any ethnic church would automatically become culturally diverse, given enough time. However, we realized that various practices we took for granted were getting in the way of reaching non-Filipinos. For example, all our services are in English; but our tendency to converse in Filipino dialects unintentionally... Continue Reading
Jesus and Joysticks: Why the Church Should Stop Making Fun of Video Gamers
Video games have grown from a niche industry to one that generated more than $108 billion in revenues in 2017—yet video gamers are a popular target of Christian angst and aggression.
I’ve seen prominent and not-so-prominent pastors portray video gamers as stereotypical, lazy college graduates. These video game players refuse to get a real job. They live at home in their parents’ basement and never take responsibility. We need men to grow up. This may elicit chuckles and high-fives from some, but it may also hurt a faithful... Continue Reading
When a Church Loses Confidence in the Gospel
It seems to me that churches and pastors are often-times pressed to change their biblical positions on issues like homosexuality, ordination of women, and the exclusivity of Christ out of a desire to better reach a rising generation or culture.
What is it within the context of daily ministry life in the local church that leads pastors to begin to question the veracity of what have been long-held tenets of Christian Orthodoxy? We have seen this theological interplay take place with other doctrines besides homosexuality and same sex marriage, such as Rob Bell’s questioning of... Continue Reading
Hudson Taylor’s Founding of the China Inland Mission
Hudson interviewed or corresponded with all of the main English missionary societies about the need to send workers to the unevangelized provinces of inland China.
Through the early months of 1865 Hudson sensed the Lord prompting him to establish a mission that would have as its objective the evangelization of the inland regions of China. Knowing the marked challenges, trials and responsibilities such an undertaking would entail, he hesitated. For weeks he wrestled with God about the decision. Do... Continue Reading
If Gospel Coalitions Can’t Unite, What about Social Gospels?
As much as critics might want to accuse defenders of the spirituality of the church of racism, they should actually consider that a reduced scope for Scripture and the church is much like classical liberalism
The church needs to do more than proclaim the gospel, conduct faithful worship, provide discipline, and care for widows and orphans (with 1 Tim. 5 scrutiny). How could Christianity ever make people go “wow” if the church restricted what it did to word, sacrament, and discipline (and let all the other agencies of a civil... Continue Reading
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