On Monday (March 24), the World Vision announced that it would allow employees to be in same-sex marriages. Within 48 hours, the $1 billion Christian organization reversed course, saying that it had made a mistake. The backlash illustrated how evangelicals will continue to wrestle with a growing cultural acceptance of same-sex marriage. In an interview... Continue Reading

You may remember that WV recommends that ministries work with secular United Nations-approved social justice NGOs, like InterAction. I said that in such groups another worldview is being incubated—not secularism, but a new strong-arm version of ancient paganism, blending “enlightened spirituality” with “social action.” The goal is “world transformation” to create a pagan “non-dual” (no Creator)... Continue Reading

In our board’s effort to unite around the church’s shared mission to serve the poor in the name of Christ, we failed to be consistent with World Vision U.S.’s commitment to the traditional understanding of Biblical marriage and our own Statement of Faith, which says, “We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only... Continue Reading

This is no surprise, on one level. The constellation of parachurch evangelical ministries founded after World War II have been running headlong, with some notable exceptions, toward the very mainline liberalism to which they were founded as alternatives. Some think if we can just barter away Christian orthodoxy fast enough we can catch the wave... Continue Reading

We must talk of predestination in such a way that it is also for our comfort. What comfort does Romans 9 have for you, for the world, and for me? After starting with recorded redemptive history in the Old Testament, then tracing backward into eternity, Paul ends up placing the gospel right in our laps, in... Continue Reading

Many of the urban pastors that I know are experts at ministering to the people in their neighborhoods. But they serve low-income populations and are desperately under-resourced. Just because they don’t have a huge church or haven’t single-handedly transformed a broken neighborhood, doesn’t mean that they’re not effectively ministering within their limited means. If suburban... Continue Reading

Survivors need to know that their denomination or mission organization is taking steps to prevent abuse. They also need the organization to acknowledge and accept responsibility, said Beverly Shellrude Thompson, president of MK Safety Net and a Mamou survivor. They need their perpetrator brought to justice in a criminal court and kept away from children.... Continue Reading

What should one expect from one’s hired minister? One should expect them to speak only that which the Lord has revealed. One should also expect some of the minister’s sermons to be most pleasant and encouraging, while others are irritating and convicting. And what should the hired minister expect? He should expect that some will greatly... Continue Reading

Being a parent has given me just a tiny glimpse of God’s fatherly love. The love I have for my own children and the sacrifices I have made for them are only a shadow of what God has done for me. The lengths that He went to in rescuing me, the sacrifice He made by... Continue Reading

But the board did acknowledge turmoil and turnover involving the Mars Hill staff in the past two years: “A number of these staff transitions were acrimonious. Pastor Mark and the other executive Elders own their part in any discord that could have been avoided with a better process or a more patient interaction.”   (WNS)–The... Continue Reading