Is the Pro-Life Cause Winning?
We must have a realistic view about how ingrained the abortion-rights worldview is in our culture
The cause of the unborn will triumph, ultimately, because Jesus is alive and justice will win. Until then, polls go up and polls go down. We advocate for life, whether “winning” or not, because life isn’t a government grant or an act of charity granted by the “choice” of another human being. This week’s TIME magazine... Continue Reading
Tending the Weeds in Your Ministry Relationships
God's words to Jeremiah are a model for real and lasting change
Change is needed because there are things in you, or in your ministry situation or relationships, that need to be uprooted or torn down, and if change is actually going to be change, there are new things that need to be planted or built in the place of what was uprooted and torn down. ... Continue Reading
A New Diet for a New Year
Cutting out the junk of worry and fear and feasting on the peace of God
As Paul explained, our media diet will not only change the way we think, but the way we feel, speak, and act. Hardly surprising, is it? Just as the quality of the food that we put in our mouths affects our thinking, feeling, and doing, so the kinds of words, sounds, and images we put... Continue Reading
Why We Need More Churches in Small Towns
Pockets of the unchurched and dechurched are scattered throughout rural communities and small towns
As long as there are people in rural communities not being reached by the gospel, we need to revitalize and plant healthy gospel-centered churches there. It takes gospel partnerships and some bold new thinking to do it well. Do we really need more churches in rural America? When I first moved to the States... Continue Reading
Evangelicals Have Incredible Reasons to Engage the Life of the Mind
Loving God with all your mind
With that said, though, within confessional bounds intellectuals should feel exhilarating freedom as they research, write, and teach. They are serving the Lord in their work just as Christians in all other honorable professions and callings do. They are not hampered by the Bible; they are set free by it. But when the Pharisees... Continue Reading
Six Ways to Look Godly While Not Growing In Your Faith In 2013
Effective ways to fail
It’s just so much easier (and more pleasant) to work out how other people should change than it is to unsettle our own hearts and lives. If you really want to listen to sermons in an apparently godly but non-growing way, pick one encouragement from the sermon which will make no difference to your life,... Continue Reading
Natural Law Pops the Question
A Review of What is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense
“Marriage is, of its essence, a comprehensive union: a union of will (by consent) and body (by sexual union); inherently ordered to procreation and thus the broad sharing of family life; and calling for permanent and exclusive commitment, whatever the spouses’ preferences.” To summarize: Sex. Kids. Faithfulness. What Is Marriage? Man and Woman: A... Continue Reading
Proust, Paglia and Exit Wounds
Thoughts on Ordain a Lady, feminists, and empowerment through casual sex
At some moment in the past, feminists decided that objectified sex and objectified sexuality, far from being degrading to women, were their most potent means of empowerment. Part of me thinks that that may be the greatest confidence trick which men ever played on women. I am sure if the average fourteen year old boy... Continue Reading
Pregnancy Centers Gain Influence in Anti-Abortion Arena
Ground level, one-on-one, reaching the women where they are
Amanda Hall met Care Net’s definition of “abortion-vulnerable.” Twenty-five, pregnant with her second child, her husband in jail, she was facing eviction. Although uncomfortable about abortion, she checked “undecided,” saying, “I can’t support two kids.” Care Net let her stay in a house Ms. McGregor owns, found her a job, negotiated debt payment plans, offered... Continue Reading
What Is a Family Integrated Church?
Rejecting activities which separate children from parents
Is your Christian education based upon evolutionary and secular thinking? It is if your church practices the usual age-segregated Sunday school according to a new church movement. The family-integrated church movement, primarily within the homeschooling community, is a self-conscious challenge to classic Christian nurture. It has already affected some Reformed churches. But what exactly is... Continue Reading