Merry Christmas from The Aquila Report Staff
Merry Christmas from the staff of The Aquila Report
May King Jesus rule in your heart and grant you God’s peace. Romans 5:1 Merry Christmas from The Aquila Report Staff
A Survey of Presbyterian Mission History in Africa, Whytock, 2023
This book will be an important resource for studies of not only missions, but also Christianity in Africa. The West is in some ways as ignorant of Africa as the nineteenth century missionaries that entered its unknown regions.
A Presbyterian missionary to Africa told me several years ago that Africa is large with peoples of many cultures and languages distributed over its varied topography that provides a spectrum of climates from Cape Town to Casablanca to Cairo. Africa is a mission field that is complex with unique challenges. The nearly 800 pages of... Continue Reading
What Is So Difficult About Being a Pastor?
In no other job are you required to go from studying an ancient document to counseling someone who just got cancer, to leading a board room meeting, to writing a public speech, to burying a dead person, all in the same day.
The Spirit must descend and produce new birth. Pastors are primed to long for the Holy Spirit. Every day, they are being backed further and further into the corner of God’s sovereignty, where they realize that they are weak, fearful, trembling, unpersuasive, and unwise (1 Cor 2:3-4). Many will dig a hole in the ground,... Continue Reading
Prison Bars & Rental Cars
I had the honor of teaching a class of sophomores in an accredited college program in a prison near Houston.
It’s a journey that can begin from anywhere, but, no matter where it is entered, it always leads to the same place, to the same person. He’s the way, the truth, and the life. I had to go to prison to be reminded of the joy of knowing Jesus. That’s really what I learned from... Continue Reading
Keeping Kids Safe
We are not to be passive in our engagement with injustice, danger, mistreatment, and evil.
Knowing good from evil and right from wrong is primary. Safety skills flow from that foundation. Safety skills are a fruit of the way we parent our children. This is important to emphasize, because if we raise children who have been shielded from the worst perils of this world but do not walk with the... Continue Reading
The Amazing Plan of God
We can glean much instruction from Paul's response to his imprisonment.
Paul was given a captive audience who otherwise would never have listened. It could be that God has placed someone specifically in your life for the sole purpose of hearing the gospel from you. Paul’s imprisonment impacted his followers as they became emboldened by his example. An arrest that was meant to silence and intimidate actually... Continue Reading
REVOLT: 85% of Anglican Leaders Reject Head Bishop of the 3rd-Largest Christian Denomination
Leaders at the Global Anglican Future Conference signed the Kigali Commitment, condemning Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby’s defense of blessings for same-sex couples as blasphemy.
The Kigali Commitment upholds biblical sexual morality while affirming that “every person is loved by God” and opposing “the vilification or demeaning of any person, including those who do not follow God’s ways.” As the commitment states, it is “unloving” to “mislead people by pretending that God blesses sexually active relationships between two people of... Continue Reading
Answering Objections to Saddleback’s Removal from the SBC
The SBC is both constitutionally and morally right to deem a church like Saddleback as no longer in “friendly cooperation.”
To be in friendly cooperation, a church must have a faith and practice that is in step with the BF&M [The Baptist Faith & Message]. Contradicting what the BF&M says about female pastors is by definition not “closely identifying” with the BF&M. Indeed, it’s a direct contradiction of the BF&M. I have seen a variety... Continue Reading
Texas Megachurch Announces Decision to Leave United Methodist Denomination
At least 500 UMC churches in Texas, including four of the top six by membership, have left or are leaving.
Many conservative congregations nationwide have left the UMC in recent months or are in the process of leaving because they disagree with the denomination’s stance on issues including same-sex marriage and the ordination of openly gay pastors. A Dallas-area church with more than 6,500 members said it will disaffiliate with the United Methodist Church... Continue Reading
What Do We Actually Need?
What we need is people with an eye to doing whatever is needed for the cause of the gospel.
We need people who are self-starters, able to create new ministry opportunities and manage them well so that the work can grow. We need people who like the idea of being given freedom and flexibility to make the most of the opportunities on our doorstep. Maybe that sounds like something you would like to do. Maybe... Continue Reading