We can no longer afford the conceit that our helpful and powerful technologies—for all their help and all their power—come without remarkable human costs. “But these days, our problems with the Net are becoming too distracting to ignore … The ties we form through the Internet are not, in the end, the ties that bind.... Continue Reading

When it comes to giving, the key is to meet your donors where they are, and a lot of them are on their phones non-stop. Making giving convenient for them through a channel they are familiar with will help boost your giving. And while giving should be convenient for your donors, it must also be... Continue Reading

According to Smith, “the language and therefore experience, of Trinity, holiness, sin, grace, justification, sanctification, church, Eucharist, and heaven and hell appear, among most Christian teenagers in the United States at the very least, to be supplanted by the language of happiness, niceness, and an earned heavenly reward.”   One of the stories from the... Continue Reading

Although none of the major proposed restrictions were placed on the charitable deduction, the “Pease” limitations—phasing out deductions for charitable giving, mortgage interest, and state and local taxes for high-bracket taxpayers—were reinstated and made permanent beginning 2013 to the disappointment of many in the charitable sector.   Late on the first day of the new... Continue Reading

Since it appears as though God would use your blood to sign his truth, there is nothing better than for you to prepare yourself to that end, beseeching him so to subdue you to his good pleasure, that nothing may hinder you from following whithersoever he shall call.     Quotes from Tracts and Letters... Continue Reading

My concern is that Reformed folk are tempted to become the sanctification police and scope out everything that is said on the subject, analyzing it to its tiniest minutiae, as if the doctrine itself is at stake.  The Reformed tradition is not completely uniform on this doctrine (though there is a unified core belief about sanctification).... Continue Reading

There is, however, another threat of genocide in the Middle East. It is the religious cleansing of Christians and other religious minorities from the Sunni-dominated Middle East. This danger remains unacknowledged by President Obama and has received little attention, with few exceptions, from U.S. Christian leadership on both the right the left.     When... Continue Reading

“Applying the Bible” doesn’t quite get at it. That comes across to me as a bit quiet and clean. Gardening is full of grunting, sweat, dirt–and sometimes holding your nose. Read the Bible with a pitch fork, garden rake, and shovel in your hands–not with rubber gloves and tongs delicately turning over crackling pages of an ancient... Continue Reading

It was a sneaky thing that Victor Hugo did, publishing this book 150 years ago. We can’t have Bibles in schools anymore, but still we have “Les Miserables,” which puts forth the essence of the Christian faith as well as John, Mark, Matthew, and Luke — and with a much better soundtrack, it must be... Continue Reading

The church is thankful for Dr. Bumgardner’s thirty years of faithful preaching….Preaching that has been faithful to the Word of God and to the Glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not only has he been a faithful preacher, but also a faithful pastor to his flock and to many others in our community with his... Continue Reading