To Sustain Inner-City Church Plants, Adopt a Missionary Model

This is an excellent article and explains one of the reasons why ministries like Medhurst Ministries, 20 Schemes, The Ragged School of Theology and others exist.

Would You Forgive Me of My Narcissism?

‘The American Psychiatric Association defines narcissistic personality disorder as, “a pattern of need for admiration and lack of empathy for others. A person with narcissistic personality disorder may have a grandiose sense of self-importance, a sense of entitlement, take advantage of others or lack empathy.” Do you have some narcissism in you? I do.’

What Do We Do with Books Not Written by Apostles?

‘As I have argued at length in various places, the role of the apostles is central to the establishment of the New Testament canon. They were the authorized spokesmen for Jesus, so when they spoke, he spoke. Consequently, when they wrote their teachings down, they would have been recognized as an authoritative source for the life of the church. But this raises an obvious question: What about the authors of the New Testament that were not apostles? Does this negate the authority of those books?’

Can’t You Just Be Like Me?

‘Tribalistic churches and Christians demand conformity to their broad range of preferences, believing they are inviolable God-ordained principles. So they strive to silence or coerce other Christians to assimilate, or they quietly despise these brothers and sisters. This inevitably leads to dark consequences. Instead of loving other Christians who have the same primary biblical convictions but differ over tertiary issues, tribalistic Christians feel justified in waging war against them. As a preacher from times past used to say, “To be forewarned is to be forearmed.” Let’s consider three biblical prescriptions for this spiritual ailment that often remains undiagnosed but endangers the life of too many congregations.’

Husbands, Pray for Your Wives

‘I’ll never forget the first time I sat in a men’s Bible study on a Saturday morning listening to a man unpack the importance of praying for your wife. I was honestly blown away by the simplicity of it all and how I had never thought to pray for her — and I mean, like really pray for her.’

Scrolling the soul shallow

‘One of the reasons I love this question is because I have said many times that the worst problem with television (or now let’s just say Instagram or any online media in general) is probably not the pervasive sexualization of all of life — that’s big enough — but rather the pervasive trivialization of all of life. You can scarcely watch TV ads or be online for more than ten seconds without being dump-trucked with banality and silliness. Grown men and women, even famous grown men and women, act like eleven-year-olds whose high point at summer camp was to bob for apples in a toilet filled with Mello Yello — the apex of satisfaction. That’s the quality that we’re being dumped on every day.’

From the archive: Make this your general rule of thumb when binding the conscience of others

‘The problem isn’t that there are ethical and moral commands in the Bible. Nor is the problem that believers expect other professing believers to at least want to be doing them. Jesus instituted church discipline for a reason, after all. The problem is when we confuse the things we find helpful, or beneficial to us, and suggest that Jesus demands them of all people when he doesn’t.’