My own conversion was intellectual. I didn't need a quick spiritual fix. Instead, I encountered a compelling and luminous vision of reality so powerful and attractive that it demanded a response.

There will be a visitation Sunday afternoon at 2:00PM with the service following at 3:00 in the Sanctuary at Christ Presbyterian Church, 2323 Old Hickory Blvd. Nashville (halfway between Hillsboro Road and Highway 100)

'Did his medical training impact the way he read the Bible?', 'Did personal rivalries within the British evangelical movement of the 50s shape the way things fell out in the 60s?' and 'Was his understanding of the Puritans something they themselves would have recognized or did it involve infusing a certain amount of whacky eighteenth century Welsh Methodist mysticism back into them?'

Another ability that many pastors have not acquired is casting a vision. Although “the vision thing” is often the subject of satire among ministers, a church suffers if the pastor is not able to align the staff and people and move them toward a goal that they all can embrace or at least accept! In... Continue Reading

I did not know Dale, but I know several men who knew him well. They say the church has lost a great pastor and great friend. As in so much else of life, it is the celebrities that get all the attention, even at death. This story is evidence that we should not succumb to that cultural standard.

Shortly after the Declaration of Independence, Haynes wrote “Liberty Further Extended,” possibly the most powerful argument against slavery from the Revolutionary era. In the 1780s, Haynes began a thirty year pastoral career in Vermont, and was likely the first African American to pastor a largely white congregation.

And I think that is the one thing that is most amazing. How Christianity has found its way in every part of the world. And nothing to me is more touching than to see someone that is lost in the world, come to Christ and have a transformed moment. You see that so often in... Continue Reading

There was a spoiled brat in the New Testament, too. He had lots of money and an outsized sense of his own merit. (Did his parents tell him he was special from his youth?) This young man came to Jesus with a question about salvation. The Scripture says that Jesus took him seriously and “looking at him, loved him.” (Mark 10:21)

Could it be that one of the reasons why so many people in our churches are not praying with zeal or giving their resources away or going with the gospel into their neighborhoods or the nations, could it be because they've not been born again? Born-again believers don't have to be cajoled to obey the Great Commission. Born-again believers are compelled to accomplish the Great Commission. And born again pastors are charged with leading them on that mission.

Perhaps Platt’s having raised this issue from within his denominational ranks will lead many to read and study the issue more and not only substitute a more biblical and sound practice in their own pulpits and ministries, but that in doing so that the Sinner's prayer may in time be set aside just as the likes of things like the “Four Spiritual Laws”, etc.