Want your children to go further in their education—high school, college, maybe more? Want them to earn more as adults? Here’s one key predictor of educational attainment and earning power. Is it IQ? Is it economic status? No, it’s the number of books in the home. That’s the finding of a 20-year study conducted in... Continue Reading

It is essential to be concerned about both the head, sound doctrine, as well as the heart, the life of faith. Strong on doctrine and scholarship, but weak on life, evangelism and passion.” Too frequently this is the popular image of Calvinism. Contemporary Calvinists may sometimes be responsible for perpetuating this image. In their eagerness... Continue Reading

“It excludes the right to raise your children in your faith; to have religious literature; to meet with co-religionists; to raise funds; …to carry out charitable activities……” “Freedom of worship” has recently replaced the phrase “freedom of religion” in public pronouncements from the Obama administration. Experts are concerned that the new rhetoric may signal a... Continue Reading

The collapse of the marriage culture within the working class…is due to the fact that women are in control and have set expectations “too high for the men around them to meet.” Is our postmodern, postindustrial society simply better suited to women than to men? Hanna Rosin makes the case for this claim in the... Continue Reading

Have you ever wondered why the Bible seems to be guilty of double-talk when speaking of “the world”? John 3:16 tells us that God the Father loves the world so much that he sent God the Son to fix it. But we’re told in 1 John 2:15‑17 not to love the world, and James tells... Continue Reading

A funny thing happened on the way to getting my hair cut: I ran into a former Georgian (as in Russian), now full fledged American “with an attitude!” That is dangerous in anyone’s book, but when you put scissors and a straight razor in his hands it is outright suicidal to be in his chair!... Continue Reading

They are all ignoring the facts that (1) Christianity is somewhat irrelevant to the world (I Corinthians says that the faith is “foolishness” to the world); and (2) they are all grasping at the wrong straws to appease the wrong people . I don’t have a bone to pick with the framers of the the... Continue Reading

What I don’t see is an S-curve of any kind, modified or not. What I do see is a pattern of early rapid growth followed by a longer period of steady growth. A foundational aspect of the PCA’s proposed Strategic Plan, to be voted on at this year’s General Assembly in about a week, is... Continue Reading

“We’re really quite happy that our church doesn’t attract any young people.” It’s a good guess that no one says things like that at your church. We all want young people because to exclude them represent an ecclesial suicide pact. Without young people congregations literally die out. Having said that, however, you may have noticed... Continue Reading

The Emergent Church is cool, isn’t it? No hell, no death, and no resurrection. Just really good coffee and really good dialogue with guys who really aren’t sure they know anything or ever can. Author’s Note: The author highly recommends reading Why We Are Not Emergent by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck. Today, I was... Continue Reading