Household Expectations: Be All In
Left behind crumbs and crayons are a welcome sign of vibrancy in the household of God.
Church life stabilizes our families because it is built on a sure foundation. It is a place where we learn to live with integrity the faith we profess. Being a part of a larger covenant community teaches our children what it looks like to grow in holiness. It teaches us what love, self-sacrifice, and belonging... Continue Reading
Authority in Worship: A Reply to Matthew Adams
More inside PCA baseball about who may read Scripture in public worship
Along with Adams, I agree we should have a high view of worship. I am certain that I would enjoy worshiping at his church under his leadership. But within our PCA framework, I simply define high differently than he does at points. When different royal priests with various voices read the Word in worship, it... Continue Reading
What it Means to be Confessional
To be a confessional church is to believe that the confessions bind us to one faith, uniting us to what we collectively confess with our mouth and believe in our heart about the Bible.
What does it mean to be a confessional church? It is not an attempt to go back to some golden age of past orthodoxy. The sixty-six books of the Bible span thousands of pages, and for centuries Christians have disagreed about what they believe the Bible says and means. Yet the confessions unify us in... Continue Reading
A Season’s Seasoned Confession
The richest blessings come from other people and relationships.
The Church, both universal and local, is the family of God. In Psalm 68: 6, God reveals this: “God sets the lonely in families. . .” As the family of God, remember those who are or may be lonely that “God sets in” your local family of God. Reach out to them as spiritual siblings... Continue Reading
Beware the Latitude of the Pharisees
The unity in the PCA regarding worship flows not from the imposition of a liturgy or lectionary, but a shared theology regarding worship and ministry, following the same principles in our BCO.
In the days of Jesus, it was not the Lord who disturbed the peace and purity of the Old Covenant Church, but it was pharisaical practices and deceptive use of language that disturbed her. Likewise in our day, it is not those who insist on the plain meaning of language who disturb the peace and... Continue Reading
Race, Homosexuality and Historical Confusion
The current revisionist approach to the Bible and homosexuality is just as odious as the older attempts to support race-based slavery with Scripture.
What actually happened in the 19th-century American South was a bowing to social pressure to re-interpret the Bible in ways that supported race-based slavery. As a society, the South viewed itself as suffering injustice at the hands of a self-righteous North. This cultural ethos put enormous pressure on all southern Christians to conform to the... Continue Reading
The Big Tent Has Collapsed
The so-called big tent in the United Methodist Church has collapsed, and it’s only going to get worse.
Bishop Berlin is infamous for his speech on the floor of the 2019 General Conference where he referred to the Traditional Plan (the legislation adopted upholding accountability for a traditionalist understanding of marriage and ordination) as a “virus” that would infect the denomination. The logical extrapolation was that people who supported the traditional plan (i.e.,... Continue Reading
Worship and the Body of Christ: A Response to Christopher A. Hutchinson
A serious view of the PCA Standards and its "Directory of Worship" show that there is a limit as to who may read Scripture in Public Worship.
A higher view of Public Worship will make us far less concerned with who can do what in a worship service. Instead, it will drive our congregation to see that their greatest joy is to join their voices in song, hear God speak through the reading and preaching of the Scriptures, and be in their... Continue Reading
Memorial Church Pastoral Staff Released From Missouri Presbytery At Their Request
The Presbytery voted to release Dr. Greg Johnson, Lead Pastor, Associate Pastor Keith Robinson, and Youth and Family Pastor Sam Dolby from the Presbyterian Church in America.
At a called meeting on Tuesday, December 6, 2022, the PCA Missouri Presbytery voted to release the three ministerial staff members of Memorial Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, Missouri. The Presbytery voted to release Dr. Greg Johnson, Lead Pastor, Associate Pastor Keith Robinson, and Youth and Family Pastor Sam Dolby from the Presbyterian Church in... Continue Reading
There Go the Churches
The floodgates are opening, and congregations are leaving the United Methodist Church.
By the end of next year (the deadline for exiting with church property) at least 3,000 and possibly 5,000 churches are expected to exit. United Methodism has 30,000 U.S. churches. Denominational agencies are preparing for a 38 percent drop in funding for 2025-2028, which implies an approximate expected membership loss of 2.3 million members from... Continue Reading
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