When People Leave a Church
Addressing how we response as pastors and church leaders when members depart.
Don’t be afraid to admit you could be wrong. If people feel the church wasn’t meeting their needs try to discern if it’s them or the church. If it was a matter of style they didn’t appreciate that’s one issue, but if it’s something lacking from the church’s offerings…that you should have…you may need to... Continue Reading
RUM: The Next Generation
A few words with Tom Canon
ON The Challenges: “There’s been a shift in the cultural environment, particularly related to gender issues and sexuality. In response to this, we have an opportunity to maintain an open-door policy and share the Gospel graciously, but also to be clear that the Gospel takes a different stance on these issues than the rest of... Continue Reading
Churches Gain, Islamists Lose in Latest Draft of Egypt’s Constitution
For the first time, right to build churches guaranteed in charter cautiously endorsed by Amnesty International.
“Christians have freedom of belief and practice,” said Safwat al-Baiady, president of the Protestant Churches of Egypt and a member of the constitutional committee. “And for the first time in the history of Egypt’s constitutions, building churches becomes a right.” Egyptian Christians will soon have a law to regulate church building. But this is... Continue Reading
Things Christians Struggle With, Part 4: Health
One couple's journey in dealing with chronic illness.
No disrespect to doctors, but sometimes people heave health issues that will not be solved by prescription pills. Sometimes, people have to seek alternative methods to determine and then cure what ails them (and yes, great care and discernment are needed here), which is what we eventually did. And sometimes, the Lord in His mysterious... Continue Reading
The Bible as Bludgeon
Politician clings to Scripture for the salvation of his political career.
Pryor is taking a heavenly tack. His new commercialfocuses not on health care, the sequester, immigration or anything like that. It extols the Bible. “This is my compass, my North Star,” he says in the 30-second spot. “It gives me comfort and guidance to do what’s best for Arkansas.” YOU can make a successful run... Continue Reading
Presbytery Gives Nod to 3 Departing Churches, Welcomes New One
Presbytery allows churches to depart for cash.
The Pittsburgh Presbytery on Saturday acquiesced to the departure of three area Allegheny County congregations to a more conservative denomination after reaching settlements in which the churches will keep their properties and make parting financial payments to the presbytery. But the presbytery also added a member Saturday, formally recognizing a start-up congregation that has been... Continue Reading
PCA Minister Terry Traylor Called Home to Glory
Traylor, 64, died of an apparent heart attack
Rev. Terry O. Traylor, 64, a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America, died on Thursday, December 12, 2013 of an apparent heart attack. Terry had served as the Senior Pastor of New Life PCA in Glenside, Penn., a suburb of Philadelphia, until September. He left that position to become a Church Planting Coordinator with... Continue Reading
What Do You Think of When You Think of the New Calvinism?
What I think of when I think of the New Calvinism: gratitude
Those of us who are young should learn from our fathers and mothers in the faith. I do not hear from them triumphalism, but neither do I hear cynicism or defeatism. I hear from them tremendous gratitude–gratitude for church plants and a growing burden for missions and a hunger for good theology and a rejection... Continue Reading
Taking Credit, Deflecting Blame
Controversy surrounding megachurch pastor Mark Driscoll shines light on practices in Christian publishing industry
“It is a shame that a Christian publisher would cite ‘market standards’ when there are biblical standards to go by,” Throckmorton said. “Christian publishers should aspire to more than mere industry standards.” At least one Christian publisher said Driscoll’s books do not even rise to that low bar. Accusations of plagiarism surrounding Seattle megachurch... Continue Reading
For Those Who Don’t — or Won’t — Quite Get It
Any dissent can be dismissed as the mean-minded and malicious ranting of the envious and excluded
And that is why, as long as there are unaccountable but powerful leaders out there who take advantage of the decent, honest evangelical people who fund the operation (and lots of whom attend the churches where many of us minister week by week), we have to hope that there will be those who can neither... Continue Reading