How does celebrity-ism start? It always—always—begins when we forget who we are. For pastors, maybe the congregation’s grown to a size when people are starting to take notice. More people show up. Podcasts downloads increase. Someone suggests writing a book. That book sells more than three copies.   Monday, after sharing a few thoughts on... Continue Reading

Why do we do this? So often the answer I have been given and have read from pastors is a pragmatic answer. We hear some combination of the following: Doctrine is difficult for people to understand. Unbelievers don’t have the ability to understand deep theology. And we want to win them to Jesus. I have... Continue Reading

Second, it is possible that we will see a re-run of the Elephant Room debacle.  The whistleblowers will be maligned, marginalised and then safely ignored. Maybe, if we are lucky, there will be a public statement talking about ‘errors of judgment’ and ‘mistakes that have been made’ along with a humble commitment to ‘do better... Continue Reading

Jesus knew he was going to be betrayed in the worst kind of way. But he also knew it was part of the Father’s plan. He recognizes this in the Word of God (John 17:12) regarding his suffering. But in his suffering, he did not take measures to protect himself from the pain of betrayal.... Continue Reading

Somehow the reporting on this story is upside down. Contrary to what you may have read, the employees of Hobby Lobby are not being denied or coerced in any way. Hobby Lobby, however, is. The federal government is trying to coerce the owners of Hobby Lobby into violating their most deeply held religious beliefs. To... Continue Reading

If the apostolic kerygma is any indication, gospel proclamation should involve, not plaintive pleading, but a powerful command to repent, believe, and be united with Christ and his church.  The fact that so much evangelism today is lackluster, if not impotent, may have something to do with the fact that it is so different from... Continue Reading

The testimonies of God’s faithfulness over time showed me that an eternal view fosters thankfulness. God’s love is enduring even when I am frightened by change or discouraged by the crisis of the moment.   This year, our church’s 40th anniversary celebration aptly coincided with the Thanksgiving season. We listened to the testimonial of Peggy,... Continue Reading

The responsibility of moral consumption becomes all the more salient when we realize that markets are good at delivering what people want. As the economist Paul Heyne observed, this efficiency of the market “is no reason to cripple it. It is reason, however, to think more carefully about what we want.” The market will make... Continue Reading

Their simulations of more than 20 million virtual “neighborhoods” demonstrate a troubling paradox: that community and diversity may be fundamentally incompatible goals. As the authors explain, integration “provides opportunities for intergroup contact that are necessary to promote respect for diversity, but may prevent the formation of dense interpersonal networks that are necessary to promote sense... Continue Reading

They are frightened of certain mental attitudes and stances with which they feel the word inerrancy is now inseparably linked and which in their view tend to obscure the Bible’s main message and bar the way to the best in biblical scholarship. In Truth and Power: The Place of Scripture in the Christian Life, J. I.... Continue Reading