Why the government’s knee-jerk ban on ‘gay conversion therapy’ fails to understand the real issues

Peter Ould is extremely helpful and clear on the pertinent issues in this article.

How to affair-proof your pastor

‘It’s very rare for pastors to jump straight into physical adultery from an otherwise healthy place. Lots of ground is given an inch at a time leading up to the fall. So if you’re like me, you’re weary of seeing man after man fall, seemingly week by week, and you’re wondering: Is there anything we can do? The answer is yes, I think.’

A plea to parents

This is so vital. I am staggered and saddened by the sheer number of professing believers for whom this just doesn’t seem a priority and who allow almost anything else to take precedent. ‘If you do not feel a sense of urgency in the training and spiritual development of your children, if you do not provide them with a church family and teach them God’s word, if you do not feel utter devastation at the thought of them living without Christ and dying without hope, then you have no reason to feel assured of your own salvation.’

The Prejudice Gospel

I’m not exactly sure where this series is going, but the opening salvo bears hearing.

Low visibility

‘As clarity is the vehicle of truth, so ambiguity is the vehicle of heresy. When someone plays fast and loose with theological terminology, the Gospel is lost or perverted. When individuals level charges against others on the basis of social constructs and accepted terminology–rather than on the basis of fact and clear-cut definition of terms–polarization and power structures abound.’

Passing down the truth

‘It sounds paradoxical, but each Christian has a personal responsibility to keep the faith and to pass it on to others. That’s what is required of those who would win the prize (1 Cor. 9:24; 2 Tim. 4:7).’

From the archive: On being from nowhere and the problem of belonging

‘The gospel is not a call to those who are from somewhere in particular. It is a call to all people, even those like me who are from nowhere. The emphasis in the Bible is not on where you are from, but who you are in. Our belonging is not based upon our birth or our family but upon our union by faith with Jesus Christ. This ought to work itself out in the church in a clear sense of unity. The church is not built around cultural identities and social structures – it cuts across all lines of ethnicity, nationality, culture and class and makes us one, a united body, in Jesus Christ’