My Pastor Knows My Name
As a child of God, you have a right to belong to a church whose the pastor will care for your soul.
Mega-churches are not conducive to shepherding people. The pastors must juggle innumerable projects while caring for thousands of people, many of whom live far from the church. The congregations of these churches are always transient, with a huge percentage of turnover each year. Many people who attend these churches eventually leave the congregation and fall... Continue Reading
7 Ways to Hurt Your Pastor
If you are like most good church members, you want the best for your pastor. So just do the opposite of these seven.
Be a constant naysayer. Pastors can usually handle the occasional critic. But the truly painful relationships are with church members who are constantly negative. How do you know you’ve succeeded in this regard? The pastor runs the other way when he sees you. If you really want to hurt your pastor, then this blogpost is... Continue Reading
8 Ways To Say “No!”
How do we develop the skill and strength to just say “No” when that’s what we want to say and should say?
Author Greg Mckeown says that like all abilities, saying “No” is difficult at first but we can grow more skillful at it with practice. He helpfully lists a “Repertoire of No’s” we can pick from and eventually master so that “we can handle almost any request from almost anybody with grace and dignity.” How... Continue Reading
Unequally Yoked
Can Christian publishers owned by secular companies maintain their Christian distinctives?
Was the issue further complicated by the fact that Multnomah, Waterbrook, and Convergent are all a part of Crown Publishing Group, which is a part of the publishing giant Penguin Random House? And that Penguin Random House, which had revenue of more than $3 billion last year, is owned by the privately held German company... Continue Reading
The Anathemas of Rome
Proof that the Reformation still matters today.
This isn’t semantics or politics. Rome understood the Reformation and she anathematized many of its major emphases: bondage of the will, justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, the sacraments, and so forth. Though I am a Protestant who strongly disagrees with Trent and many of the doctrines of Rome (and therefore... Continue Reading
The Houston PCA General Assembly: A Pastor’s Reflections
Reflections on the 42nd PCA General Assembly
This could have been a snapshot of the PCA 10 years ago, or 40 years ago. The PCA’s doctrine, confession, and the grassroots are about the same. There have always been reformers on the peripheries who sought to mold the PCA into a more conservative or a more liberal direction. Over the decades, the middle... Continue Reading
PCA General Assembly Adopts Expression of Support for Sanctity of Life and Marriage
Overture 43 from Savannah River Presbytery expressing gratitude and prayer for biblical sanctity of life and marriage adopted
Be it resolved that the Presbyterian Church in America expresses its gratitude to the Lord for sustaining by His grace ministers of the gospel, chaplains, and Christians serving in the public sphere who are experiencing ostracism, penalties, and persecution for taking a Biblically faithful sand for the sanctity of human life and declining to participate... Continue Reading
Ripple Effect: Race and the PCA General Assembly 2014
The annual gathering of the highest court of the Presbyterian Church in America featured four significant sessions concerning racial harmony and cultural diversity in the denomination.
The sessions on race, history, and diversity may have been pebbles dropping in the pond of the PCA. Pebbles, by definition are small, but they also cause ripples. And those ripples may begin to rock the cultural stagnation from segments of the denomination. But ripples take time to spread. Who knows how long it will be... Continue Reading
Calling Their Bluff – With the Hope of Keeping the PCUSA General Assembly from Erring
Nowhere does the constitution of the PCUSA say that an express contradiction is allowed. And nowhere does the Constitution of the PCUSA permit contradictory interpretations to be “interpretations.”
This is a moment of constitutional and confessional crisis for the PCUSA. If the Assembly proceeds down the path of allowing consideration and ultimately passing an Authoritative Interpretation of the Constitution that creates an express contradiction, the Assembly will be willfully disregarding its own constitution. How are we functionally a constitutionally formed people if we no... Continue Reading
How to Listen to a Sermon
Seven practical directions for listening to the preaching of the gospel
Take heed that you hear the Word of God preparedly. As the preacher must take care to find acceptable words, so the people should labor to bring acceptable affections to the work – when we come to the service of God we should hear with all attention and pray with affection. Christopher Love (d. 1651),... Continue Reading