The Real Reason Millennials Don’t Buy Cars and Homes
It’s Pretty Straightforward.
But the millennials may not be as mystifying as an army of sociologists makes them out to be. “Every generation eventually sheds their most extreme characteristics,” says Jason Dorsey of the Center for Generational Kinetics, a consulting firm in Austin, Texas. “What is different about millennials is delayed adulthood. They’re entering into many adult decisions... Continue Reading
Keeping Your Church Growing: Some Thoughts on the Prayer Meeting
Prayer Meeting Basics
The church that does not pray as a community is as surely dying as is the church that is not inviting and welcoming. The power of the church comes through its use of the means of grace: preaching, administering the sacraments, and prayer. Yet many churches seem to think that only the first two are... Continue Reading
Value of Survey Reasearch
Applying the Wisdom of Nehemiah to Local Church Planning
Depending on your church’s form of government, there are risks in allowing the decision making body to just discuss and decide these issues involving major changes. It has been my experience, especially in smaller churches, that if the leadership tries to institute major changes that the majority, or even a strong, vocal minority, are not... Continue Reading
Five Lies Sin Tells Me
Confronting the lies of sin with the truth
LIE: This sin is part of who I am. I’ve always struggled this way and I always will sin this way. TRUTH: Sin does not define my identity! I am a new creation in Christ. Christ has set me free from the enslaving power of sin. I absolutely do not have to obey the sinful... Continue Reading
Clarification on Why We Won’t Continue with Boy Scouts
The BSA decision is not about allowing struggling sinners to remain in the organization; it is about acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle.
A person can be openly homosexual without having sex. A boy who dates girls, or expresses his desire to date girls, is openly heterosexual. A boy who dates boys, or expresses his desire to date boys, is openly homosexual. The result of the change in the BSA policy is that being openly homosexual is now... Continue Reading
Death Panels? Of Course …
The term “death panel” accurately reflects decisions that have to be made about whom to save when resources are scarce.
If government is going to continue to pay for health care entitlements, the question is not whether some people will be denied health care; it is about who makes the decision and how the decision is made. Rather than pretending that it is possible for the government to spend whatever it takes to provide unlimited... Continue Reading
What Do We Really Need: A New Technique or a Living Savior?
God does not give us clever tricks for coping with life; He gives us new life and a living hope through a risen and eternally living Savior
Now some Christians take the living hope resurrection power of Christ as itself being a new kind of technique for overcoming trials in life. In other words, they say that, if we truly believe in Christ and His resurrection power is at work within us, we never need to face any kind of overwhelming trial.... Continue Reading
Gay Marriage Bill Fails to Go to Vote in Illinois House
Advocates for same-sex marriage lacked the votes necessary to pass the bill
For years, gay rights activists in Illinois fought for legalization of civil unions while slowly working toward a marriage bill. The marriage bill got nowhere, but civil unions were legalized in 2011, giving gay couples across Illinois the opportunity to have the same state-level rights as married couples. After passage of the civil unions bill,... Continue Reading
Should I Start a Grassroots Movement to Change My Church?
You are at a church that doesn’t share your theology or seems to be heading in the wrong theological direction. So what should you do?
Please hear what I am saying and not saying. I’m not saying you shouldn’t talk to your pastor or work for change. I’m not saying the local congregation is the personal fiefdom for the pastor. I’m not saying pastors can’t learn much from laypeople in the congregation. What I am saying is that practically you... Continue Reading
Andy Stanley’s Poison Pill for the Doctrine of Scripture
We do not hold to the Dalmatian theory of inspiration—that Scripture is inspired in spots
Stanley says that his belief in Adam and Eve is not “because the Bible says so,” but because Jesus says so. The first and most obvious problem with this formulation is the fact that our only knowledge of what Jesus says comes to us from the Bible. There can be no bifurcation between “what the... Continue Reading