PCA’s Evangel Presbytery Votes to Deny Peter Leithart’s Request to Labor Out of Bounds
Peter Leithart is presently serving in a CREC ministry in Birmingham, Ala., outside the bounds of Evangel Presbytery
At its stated meeting on November 12, 2013, Evangel Presbytery voted unanimously to deny TE Peter Leithart’s request to labor out of bounds with Trinity House and Trinity Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Ala. Trinity Presbyterian Church is a member church within the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC). Evangel Presbytery is a member of the... Continue Reading
How Churches Can Help Without Hurting After Super Typhoon Haiyan
Rule #1: Don't jump into action before you know the needs on the ground
Churches can be more effective in offering aid to communities in the Philippines affected by the recent disaster. The church is called to help in times of need. But sometimes our good intentions can cause unintentional harm. By following these guidelines, you and your church will be better prepared to help in a way that... Continue Reading
Is Transformation and Renewal Possible?
Our purpose is not that we be permanently triumphant in everything but that we be consistently faithful and obedient in this present time
I believe in heaven, and I believe Jesus will return. I believe in the necessity of people to see beyond the temporal and live for the eternal and to place their hope in things above because death is real and life is fleeting. Yet I also believe God made human life the arena of importance,... Continue Reading
Garbage Pick-Up Day
Can we get toss out our deep and longstanding issues like we do our smelly garbage?
The huge green garbage truck was coming down the street right on schedule. As the truck slowed to a stop, the worker jumped off and easily threw my garbage into the truck’s giant open bin. My garbage is gone! It can’t be retrieved. “Can I really rid myself of my mental garbage as easily as... Continue Reading
Lessons In Leadership: It’s Not About You. (It’s About Them)
People are the problem and they are the solution; leadership is about mobilizing and engaging them with the problem
“When a patient comes to a surgeon, the surgeon’s default setting is to say, ‘You’ve got a problem? I’ll take the problem off your shoulders and I’ll deliver back to you a solution.’ In psychiatry, when a person comes to you with a problem, it’s not your job actually to solve their problem. It’s your... Continue Reading
Real Life in the Local Church
Church life can be a lot of frenetic activity, always busy but with no real agenda and direction
Take a roller-coaster ride through basic church life: buildings, budgets, crises, staff conflict, growing pains, disgruntled members, besetting sins and providing care, sermons, meetings…meetings…..meetings….and more meetings….fatigue, excitement about lives changed, another sermon to preach….more meetings…personal struggles, various ministries and programs to staff and events to plan, desperate need of volunteers, difficult people! Life in a... Continue Reading
Five Ways to Refresh the Saints in Your Life
The letter to Philemon gives instructions on how to refresh the saints
The precious, priceless ministry of refreshment. And how desperately needed it is. All around us are weary brothers and sisters who are slogging it out in a spiritual war (Ephesians 6:12) on a battlefield of a futile world (Romans 8:20). Yes, there are times for reproofs and corrections (2 Timothy 3:16). But most of the... Continue Reading
New Jersey Parents Sue Over Gay Conversion Therapy Ban
A NJ couple is challenging the law that prevents counselors from providing gay conversion therapy; they want their 15-year-old gay son to receive this treatment
While Gov. Chris Christie expressed concern about “government limiting parental choice on the care and treatment of their own children,” he ultimately decided that the risk of kids growing up with suicidal thoughts, depression, and substance abuse problems was paramount to the right of parents to seek the treatment. But the denial of that right... Continue Reading
McClay, Marcuse, and My Grandfather
The problem with the therapeutic revolution.
As psychological sexual identity comes to define who individuals are in the most basic sense, then everything else—from society’s moral norms to our physical bodies—has the potential of becoming simply so much external tyranny to be overthrown or turned into plastic, something to be escaped, ignored, or remade in accordance with individual whims. In... Continue Reading
The Scandal and Sweetness of John 3:16
God's love for His people is not sentimental, but sacrificial and based upon His love for His Son.
Christ uses the word world to show the mystery and fullness of God’s love, which is not limited to any race, region, or time. Jesus is not suggesting a universal atonement. He died for those whom God chose to believe in Him (John 6:37) and in whom He works saving faith as a gift of grace (Eph.... Continue Reading