The Mystery of Children’s Church
Keeping our covenant youth in worship is not impossible if we think about the promises God has made to us
Your children will grow up not segregated from public worship and the means of grace. They’ll grow up a part of the community of the redeemed and watching baptisms. They’ll see the supper administered and they’ll ask, “When can I have it?” They’ll hear the Law and the Gospel and they’ll grow up knowing that... Continue Reading
Don’t Forsake the Old Hymns
The decline of hymnody is harmful to the theology and music quality in many of today’s churches
Someone told me recently that in his church, “If we can’t line-dance to it, we don’t sing it!” People do not like to stand and sing for 15 minutes or more at a stretch — period! If you don’t believe that statement, ask your people. They will tell you quickly that it’s too long to... Continue Reading
Why No Denomination Will Survive the Homosexuality Crisis
Sometimes the best way to preserve unity is to admit that we don’t have it.
Third ways don’t work either. It may sound like a brilliant compromise to deploy another study committee, but this merely kicks the can down the road. It says “pass” on the crisis, only to push the crisis into someone else’s lap a few years later. The denomination must fish or cut bait. It must decide what it really believes.
It’s a Topsy-Turvy World in PCUSAville
Most well-meaning liberals believe with all their hearts that they are indeed pursuing the gospel. It’s just that they have redefined the gospel.
The Book of Confessions, though the primary part of our Constitution (as recognized by our Book of Order, which is the secondary part of our Constitution) no longer stands over the Book of Order, but rather holds the position of a quaint museum piece of what our forebearers once believed.
Pope: Church must preach what God says not what people want to hear
…the Ontario Bishops regularly consulted a diverse advisory group of lay people for advice on how to confront the issue.
Are Christians lacking a well-worded way to present Christ’s teachings on homosexuality to our modern culture? We’ve been in this battle for four decades. It’s time to get our talking points in order and face this issue, that clearly cannot be avoided, head on. Perhaps just speaking the truth in charity and leaving the outcome to the Holy Spirit is all that is necessary.
No Country for Old Men?
When does one cross the line in a mixed denomination from being a faithful fighter to an enabler of apostasy?
To put the matter in blunt, judicial terms: you can tell a church's real confessional standards, theological and moral, by looking at the minutes of disciplinary proceedings and seeing what the church disciplines people for teaching or doing. When a church's procedures are uncoupled from orthodoxy, the game is more or less over
South Carolina Episcopal bishop blasts national church
Letter to congregations outlines leader’s opposition to national church’s stance on gender issues
He said he plans to meet Monday with his Council of Advice and on Tuesday with the Diocesan Standing Committee. Beginning July 1, Lawrence said he would open meetings with deans and clergy. “Given these changes in the doctrine, discipline and worship of the Episcopal Church, the question that is before us is: “What does being faithful to Jesus Christ look like for this diocese at this time?”
Can Liberal Christianity Be Saved?
Leaders often don’t seem to be offering anything you can’t already get from a purely secular liberalism.
T]he Christianity that animated causes such as the Social Gospel and the civil rights movement was much more dogmatic than present-day liberal faith. Its leaders had a “deep grounding in Bible study, family devotions, personal prayer and worship.” They argued for progressive reform in the context of “a personal transcendent God ... the divinity of Christ, the need of personal redemption and the importance of Christian missions.”
Thoughts on the 2012 PCA GA (5): Intinction and Paedocommunion
Defining practices and beliefs on the Lord’s Supper divide the PCA
Intinction and paedocommunion are not going away, and while they may not be as deleterious to the health of the church as the teaching of theistic evolution, they are nonetheless deleterious to the unity of the church. It would be good for all PCA members to make these things a matter of serious prayer in... Continue Reading
A Salve, Not a Lever – An Analysis of the recent PCUSA General Assembly
Will the PCUSA’s narrow rejection of same-sex marriage persuade conservative congregations to stay?
“I must affirm definition of marriage as between one man and one woman,” said Jodi Craiglow, of the Miami Valley Presbytery in Ohio. She directly addressed gay PCUSA members, saying, “As much as my heart breaks for your pain and frustration, I must simply hold to the standard of the God I love.”
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