Pastors of small churches have every reason to be encouraged. We’re not the junior varsity team. The idea that our work is insignificant reflects the world’s values, not God’s values. Because it’s so counterintuitive, we need to take regular steps to recalibrate what we think, and reading books like Schaeffer’s is helpful.   Most pastors... Continue Reading

“Clearly, the Apostle’s Creed was an expression of truth meant to combat a particular heresy. But like all good creeds it unites the church in any generation around Biblical truth. So, in this series we are going to look at a valuable and enriching statement of the Christian Faith and we will do it line... Continue Reading

Yet so many believers today haven’t been taught this, much less do they believe it!  Yet, believers have the tools they need.   The Westminster Confession of Faith … What is it? Is it a document that presents cold intellectual faith?  Dead Orthodoxy as it seems to some… Is it a historical artifact that has... Continue Reading

“For all their defining importance in Christian history, confessions of faith have met with mixed reactions from Christians. While many believers have used confessions enthusiastically, others have claimed that confessions replace a vital relationship with God with a desiccated list of doctrine, replacing the Spirit with the letter, leaving only a husk of dead, dull... Continue Reading

“They preach man-made doctrines who say that so soon as the coin jingles into the money-box, the soul flies out of purgatory. It is certain that when the coin jingles into the money-box, greed and avarice can be increased, but the result of the intercession of the church is in the power of God alone.”  ... Continue Reading

The ordination ceremony for Abigail Eltzroth happened in Asheville at Jubilee! – a nondenominational faith community – with Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan presiding. Eltzroth, 64, said she is the second woman in North Carolina ordained by the rebel group, called the Association of the Roman Catholic Women Priests   An international group defiantly opposed to... Continue Reading

“The catechisms are excellent tools to focus like a scope of a rifle. They give us clearer insight into who we are, who God is, how we respond, and how to live life with others. Because of the many faithful pastors who have gone before us, we have at our disposal a collection of confessional,... Continue Reading

“When we look upon the church, we can only see the outward appearance (those who profess faith and their children); however, when God looks at that same church, He can see not only the outward appearance, but also the true nature of His church – not only those who outwardly profess the true religion and... Continue Reading

“The Institutes as we now have it is the product of a lifetime’s thought and reflection by one of the greatest theologians the church has known. In part, as it grew from six to eighty chapters, it reflects Calvin’s own growth in his understanding of the Christian life.”   The Institutes as we now have... Continue Reading

Unlike modern Advent ceremonies, most celebrations of Advent in history had a twin focus. The Latin word adventus was the translation of the Greek parousia—a word used for both the coming of Christ in human flesh and his Second Coming. Advent, then, always tended to focus on both.   Many churches lit the first of their Advent candles... Continue Reading