All this to point out that American Presbyterianism is rapidly aging and, well, dying. It doesn’t much matter what your theology is if you don’t have a future generation to bequeath it to. The barrenness and sterility that we see in American Presbyterian churches is in sharp contrast to what we see in Malawian Presbyterian... Continue Reading

I lived and worked as an educator in the Mississippi Delta for seven years. The Black community there is bruised by generational poverty, lack of education, poor health care, single parent homes, apathetic men, and nearly every other social ill that exists. Yet the norm for my students and their families was to attend church. As I daily encountered the fruits of these dysfunctions I asked myself, “Where is the Gospel transformation?”

My next writing project is a book on busyness. I meant to work on it this summer but ran out of time. Seriously.

Pastor, do you examine yourself daily by humbly placing yourself before the one mirror you can trust, the mirror of the Word of God? Or have you fallen into the habit of looking into carnival mirrors that will only ever give you a misshapen view of your spiritual journey?

There are many PCUSA churches that call themselves progressive and some of those churches have defined what that means by aligning themselves with others at progressivechristianity.org.

I have never been a fan of Steve Brown, but one day, while driving and scanning for radio stations, I heard an interview with him in which he said something to this effect: "The church ought to be the best place for person who is homosexual and Christian to ‘come out.’ But, of course, it’s not.” I remember thinking that he was exactly right. In my view the PCA has a long way to go before it can provide the kind of pastoral ministry needed by those who struggle with the big sins, which are defined among us almost exclusively as sexual ones

Piper’s use of eternal regrets to get people to relieve suffering reminds me of evangelists I used to hear years ago. They would warn everyone that they were going to be miserable when they got to heaven when they realized that Uncle John and Aunt Mary weren’t there, and it would all be because they didn’t witness to them. Being miserable in heaven was the motivator used to get people to witness to others

My point is not that we should be constantly examining ourselves. The Puritans often said that for every one look you take at yourself, you should take ten looks to Christ. However, it is right that we lay our lives alongside that of our Savior and see, however dimly, the renewing work of the Holy Spirit in us.

I’m not pining for a return to the pillory, mind you. But at least with that instrument of shame, the personhood upon whom the public gaze was cast—flesh and blood, not an image, subject, not object—was manifest. In the age of the virtual, postmodern pillory, we need to consider when the images we circulate freely are images of the image of God, and treat them accordingly.

Listen carefully: Christianity is not first and foremost about our behavior, our obedience, our response, and our daily victory over sin—as important as all these are. It is not first and foremost about us at all–it is first and foremost about Jesus!   One of the chief vehicles for dishonesty in my own life has... Continue Reading