The court’s decision established Indiana as a “neutral principles of law” state. “Because the neutral-principles-of-law approach permits greater fairness, consistency, and equality of application to all church property disputes regardless of the structure of the denominational church organization, we adopt the neutral-principles-of-law approach for settling property disputes between religious organizations in Indiana,” the decision read.... Continue Reading

  Westminster Presbyterian Church, located about a block away from the University of Southern Mississippi campus, was hit hard by the storm, which also caused damage to the offices for the Mississippi Presbytery. “That’s a devastating blow to Westminster; it’s a great church,” said the Rev. Michael Herrin, pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Port... Continue Reading

If all else fails, the final step is to announce triumphantly and with a terrific celebration of grace that “Christ is, in an amoral fashion, the end of the law” and charge others with legalism if they don’t share in your antinomianism.   Tom Oden, writing in his book Requiem way back in 1995, explains... Continue Reading

But how exactly can we recognize whether someone’s teaching is prone to leading us astray or not? As I look at the best-selling Christian books in America, I see much that is mis-leading or deceptive and some that is rich and Biblically faithful. How can we tell the difference?   How Can You Tell if... Continue Reading

An EF-4 tornado struck Hattiesburg, MS two days ago causing considerable damage. While there are a number of people who were injured, by God’s grace, no deaths have been reported. The University of Southern Mississippi was in the path of the storm and has sustained damaged to several buildings. What follows is an update from... Continue Reading

In short, confessions serve to curb the power of the elders by making the limits of their power clear to the congregation and thus making them publicly accountable. This is vital, as even the church leader with the most cheerful Celtic smile and avuncular sexagenarian demeanour can fall prey to the temptations of exerting too... Continue Reading

Everyone at The Sunday Assembly seemed to believe that by adding community once a month and singing random songs, they will fill that nagging void in their life. The more I though about this, the more I wanted to stand on my chair and yell “You’re missing the point! It’s not enough!” But, perhaps the... Continue Reading

Discipline promotes God’s holiness , protects the church from infection, and restores the rebellious, making clear the seriousness of their resistance to Christ’s Word and church.   The third mark of a true church, church discipline, has a largely negative connotation in our culture, but the biblical idea is both positive and negative. A person... Continue Reading

What cannot be allowed is a confessionalism which is undisciplined in both senses of the word: where the individual does not understand that, in terms of a particular church’s public ministry, his conscience is not the ultimate court of appeal and arbiter of what he can and cannot say while being an officer in the... Continue Reading

For those in ECO the PCUSA is already fully in the rear view mirror and shrinking fast on the horizon. They are enthusiastically moving on. They are very energized, highly collegial, and joyfully working to redefine what it looks like to be faithful Presbyterian in an ever changing world. But the context of ECO is... Continue Reading