Why pastors must demonstrate integrity between their public and home lives
John Stevens takes a look at Boris Johnson and draws an important lesson for pastoral ministry.
Announcements at church
I’ve seen a few people dunking on the idea of announcements at church of late. Chris Green makes the case for why we shouldn’t necessarily hurry to ditch them just yet.
They aren’t heretics because you disagree with them
A few of us need to hear this one. Heresy isn’t anything you don’t like and it isn’t everything with which you disagree.
The case for sermon-centric Sundays
‘I trust that those calling for the abolition of preaching mean well, but to say preaching needs replacing strikes me as more audience-driven than Word-driven. To say preaching is outmoded seems to deny the deepest need of the human heart—rescue from sin and self—and to affirm the primacy of felt needs and preferences. To argue that mediocre preachers should be replaced by slicker, savvier communicators, or something better and perhaps stronger, is to forget that God’s strength flows through the unlikely conduit of human weakness (2 Cor. 12:10).’
“Is this a sin?” Ethical triage and church discipline
Whether you agree with the author on the specific examples or not, particularly in the “should” and “may” categories, the principle here is an important one.
What if God doesn’t care a whole lot how you educate your children?
I appreciated (and agree) with this one from Tim Challies. ‘Over the past couple of decades, we Christians have elevated education into one of the the most important elements in the successful raising of our children and, perhaps even more so, in their future salvation. We made it seem as if the decision about whether to put our children in public, Christian, or home school was going to be the determining factor in their future. Over these years I’ve read many articles and discussions about education. I’ve participated in many more. One thing I’ve never heard anyone suggest is that maybe it’s just not that big of a deal. And, honestly, I am beginning to lean that way.’
From the archive: John Piper & the prohibition on female seminary professors
‘One of the issues facing complementarians with which egalitarians do not have to wrestle is the range of positions held under the banner. Egalitarians, by and large, argue that whatever men can do at home or in the church, so can women and vice versa. Complementarians want to argue that God makes a distinction between the sexes and thus gives them different roles/functions. The questions that complementarians then face are: a) what is the distinction and b) what is the scope of its effect on male-female relations.’