Never simply give in to contentious or complaining congregants for the sake of peace. One of the biggest mistakes that pastors make is to give in to the demands of discontent or contentious congregants simply to keep them happy. By doing so, they inadvertently empower sinful congregants. If pastors give in on one thing for which... Continue Reading

“Some millennials do stay with the church, however, and they will inevitably change the church because they don’t behave like the rest of us do. For example, older adults in congregations all over the country have been waiting for years for the younger generation to “step up” and take their turn running the committees that... Continue Reading

The truth is that prospective visitors want to know what you believe. Now there’s a balance to be preserved here. If a church website details their beliefs with a host of positional papers, I get a slightly uneasy feeling. Sometimes the militant do that. But not always. My preference is to see a tight mission... Continue Reading

In fact, it is a return to normal. Of course, I don’t mean normal in the history of America.  In the American experience, the pundits are right: this is an unprecedented cultural shift.  But, in the history of God’s people, this present situation is not at all unusual.  Indeed it has often been the norm;... Continue Reading

The Bible Says that Christ Died Once and For all (1 Peter 3:18). He does not need to continue dying like the animals in the Old Testament sacrificial system. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The only reason he would need to continue dying would be if we... Continue Reading

“The world has watched and witnessed the targeted persecution of Christians, suffering violence, displacement, rape, enslavement, and even death,” said Kirsten Evans, executive director of IDC. “Do these crimes constitute genocide under international law, and if so, what the so what are the options the international community has in order to respond?”   The woman’s... Continue Reading

Use your concordance and you will see over 45 instances in which cleansing is done by sprinkling. This fact is clearly in view in Hebrews 9-10 where the author mentions sprinkling four times (9:13, 9:19, 9:21, and 10:22). So the “various baptisms” under consideration by the author of Hebrews evidently include ceremonial cleansings done by... Continue Reading

By definition Protestants do not make very good Catholics. (Or to be more precise, we are not goodRoman Catholics, though I’d like to think a robust Protestant is a small-c catholic in the best sense of the word.) However much Protestants and Catholics can work together on social issues, and however much we may share... Continue Reading

“Some churches, in an attempt to establish continuity with the past, root everything about their worship and action in the community’s memories. This emphasis on tradition is vital, but as Jaroslav Pelikan warned, there is always the danger that instead of embracing tradition as the living faith of the dead, the Church traps itself in traditionalism... Continue Reading

In response to the question, “Why are you giving up the property that you have been defending up until now?” Ko said, “Unlike the misunderstandings of many people, we weren’t trying to keep the property. We wanted to converse as fellow Christians, and wanted to find a way that the minority group that wants to... Continue Reading