"I give and give all week. I just want to come to church to be ministered to and fed." Perhaps you've heard a friend who works in a parachurch ministry say something like this. Perhaps you've said it yourself. Those who work for a parachurch ministry, like me, are often inclined to believe that their (Christian) vocation exempts them from meaningful involvement in a church. We must resist this temptation.

But, long before the society at large will care about our perspective on the family crisis, the church must humbly and faithfully show the world what God intended from the beginning, for his glory and for our good.

Saturday morning it was back to presbytery for a paper on 'Is it ever legitimate to rebaptise?'. Simon Arscott from Trinity York did an excellent job and is going to write up his paper. I was amazed to find out that the PCA is ok with the rebaptism of Roman Catholics.

Deep down I want to be a stand-alone store that is never threatened by extinction – It must be part of living in rebellion of my unfinished nature. Even deeper, it is a refusal to acknowledge and let go of my idols. But in this resolve, subtly and unwittingly I become incrementally distanced from Jesus, and my fresh faith is transformed into spiritual inertia.

I realize that tuning in Fox's popular Bill O'Reilly for instruction about religion is like watching the "Star Wars" movies to learn about science. But last week, O'Reilly took a position unusually unmoored from what anybody else understands as reality. O'Reilly asserted, with an apparently straight face and for two consecutive days, that Christianity is not a religion.

A Cru spokesman told WORLD that this incident amounted to a disagreement over policy not over theology. That is nonsense. Cru’s policy represents an egalitarian view of ministry roles, and that stance is irreducibly theological. Daniel was demoted because of theological conviction, not because of an arcane dispute about Cru’s bureaucracy.

While we wait, God has put most of us in the ordinary. When I think of the many vocations I have as a wife, a mother, daughter, sister, friend, citizen, church member, Bible study teacher, and writer, my neighborhood looks pretty big, actually. My ordinary can be quite overwhelming. But as I work in my vocations, I am also reminded by the advent season that more than anything I am a receiver

In September 2011, the Pentagon issued guidance stating that "determinations regarding the use of DOD real property and facilities for private functions, including religious and other ceremonies, should be made on a sexual-orientation neutral basis, provided such use is not prohibited by applicable state and local laws."

Rev. Muttart said some in the Presbyterian Church (USA) use "the feeling of Christ, untethered, un-double-checked by scripture ... to get across their political agenda, to get across what they think life should be like, or what culture tells us life should be like." "They are gaining in influence," he said. "What they would have us do is not tether ourselves to the written and revealed word of God."

"We have to be reminded that our calling is to serve the kingdom of God and the church through Christian higher education, first and foremost. When the focus is only in the cultural sphere, we run the risk of missing our calling." --D.