The Lord’s Shepherd
The enemies of God’s kingdom know that to bring about the downfall of a pastor is to inflict great harm on the cause of Christ.
This strategic relationship between the pastor (shepherd) and the sheep is explicitly stated in Zechariah 13:7: “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.” The Gospel writers refer to this very passage in the narrative of Christ’s betrayal and arrest on the Mount of Olives: “Then Jesus said to them: ‘You will all fall away... Continue Reading
Under a Festal Glow
When Christmas trees and mistletoe find themselves unmasked as nothing more than the green groves and high places of our modern idolatries, what is a simple Christian to do with such remonstrations?
My initial recommendation would be a stiff serving of eggnog, taken in the nearest easy chair, carefully imbibed through the whiskers of the most resplendent Santa beard you can find. That being accomplished, begin planning your Christmas menu, taking care to include a nice prime rib. It’s that time of year again! When articles... Continue Reading
Root Your Faith In The Old Testament
Too often Old Testament preaching is used as a jumping off point rather than forming the backbone of a sermon series.
The Old Testament gets short shrift. And it is not just from those who say outrageous things like the Christian faith ought to be unhitched from the Old Testament or “when people struggle to believe, the Old Testament is usually the culprit.”[1] It is also manifest in how infrequently the Old Testament is preached in a... Continue Reading
The Pastor and Difficult Bioethical Decision Making
My goal in this article is to help pastors who must shepherd and live alongside those who face bioethical dilemmas.
What is “bioethics”? It’s best understood if we break down the word. Ethics is the practical discipline of decision-making, informed by philosophy and theology. Bio- is a prefix we attach to words that are associated with life. So bioethics is the study of the ways in which we should make decisions about what do in regard to issues of... Continue Reading
Routine Bible Reading can Change Your Life
The way the Bible does its work on our hearts is often not through the lightning bolt, but through the gentle and quiet rhythms of daily submission.
It’s not surprising Christians feel they should read the Bible more. We believe it is the Word of God. It reveals the story of redemption. It contains wisdom from God that, pressed deep into our hearts, helps us to live in ways that bring glory to Him. We see Jesus in this book, and through... Continue Reading
Should We Make a Priority of Diversity in Church Leadership?
Living and ministering as I do in the most diverse city in the world, this is something I have had to think about on a personal level and something my church has had to consider on a congregational level.
The Bible makes it clear that God is building a diverse church. It is God’s plan that a church begun in one place with one people would soon spread across the earth to become a church in every place and of every people. We see the ultimate result beautifully and vividly described in passages like... Continue Reading
Brand Awareness in the Church
We are not in the church to make much of ourselves.
All too often, brand awareness becomes less about commending the gospel and more about commending our particular church or organisation. Far too quickly it becomes less centred on Christ and more directly centred on a particular personality (often the pastor of the church, or director of the organisation). Brand awareness in the church so often... Continue Reading
My Suffering Has Not Defined Me
I wonder if some of these Christian women are longing for security and significance that’s more touchable than a faith whose substance is merely hoped for and frustratingly unseen.
Although they would never discount their Savior, they want something more tangible than their name written in an invisible book of life: Who am I? My backdrop is a Christian, but I’m a warrior, a cancer survivor. Know and respect me by that. A strange thing happened when word first spread that I had stage... Continue Reading
I Would Rather be Treated by a Smart Turk than an Untrained Christian
The idea of a comprehensive understanding of salvation that traces the influence of redemption (which is different from creation) to all positive developments in human society and culture is nonsense.
The statement doesn’t say, but the implication is that Christians by virtue of faith, regeneration, the Bible, trust in Christ, are somehow competent to conduct scientific investigations, perform medicine, and write laws and public policy simply by virtue of their faith. These writers may assume that to work in medicine or science you need to... Continue Reading
A Plea for Pastors to Get Outdoors
As with children, so with pastors: it’s essential to our well-being to delight ourselves in God’s creation.
Known for our love of learning and study, pastors—particularly Reformed pastors—can easily spend successive days in sermon preparation, meetings, and pastoral counseling with our skin never feeling the sun and our eyes rarely beholding the spectacle of God’s creation. What free time we do have, we often spend watching TV shows and sports or engaging... Continue Reading
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