Ten Myths About Premarital Sex
The empirical data suggests that these are not true most of the time.
Between 50 and 70 percent of couples cohabit today. But only about 1 in 5 such relationships result in marriage. And the results are consistently pessimistic for those cohabiters who do marry
Psychiatric Medication and the Image of God
Psychiatric medication does not address the main dilemma in human trouble: sin
Since medication falls under dominion as an attempt to address the effects of the Fall, psychiatric drug use should seek to restore regular brain functioning. In cases of injury and underdevelopment, this could mean compensation for what is damaged or absent. In cases of uncontrollable excesses or deficiencies of neurotransmitters or hormones, it could mean stabilizing the brain's regulatory functions
Could this be the church to calm our secularist outrage?
Evangelical worship gets many on the left hostile or awkward. So how do we respond to believers that save the destitute?
Drawing on the Book of Joshua, the presiding pastor, a former Bristol GP named Nic Harding, advises his audience to fix their sights on metaphorical mountains, parts of society where their beliefs might be brought to bear. The examples he offers might chill any non-believer to the bone: "Education, healthcare, politics, government – these are all areas where God says, 'Who will claim that mountain?'"
What’s so uncool about cool churches?
Unintended Consequences: How the “relevant” church and segregating youth is killing Christianity.
What might we do instead? The opposite of giving people what they want is to give them what they need. The beauty is that Christianity already knows how to do this. Once upon a time our faith thrived in a non-Christian empire. It took less than 300 years for 11 scared dudes to take over the most powerful empire the world had ever seen. How did they do it? Where we have opted for a relevant, homogenously grouped, segregated, attractional professionalized model; the early church did it with a multi-ethnic, multi-social class, seeker INsensitive church
The Two Kingdoms Doctrine: What’s The Fuss All About? Part One
AKA Two Kingdom Theology 101
(In) several books, including The Lost Soul of American Protestantism, A Secular Faith, and From Billy Graham to Sarah Palin, (Darryl) Hart has skillfully demonstrated the pietist post-millennial origins of both American evangelicalism and the social gospel, arguing that these groups have far more in common than most scholars would like to admit
Is Tim Tebow a Chauvinist?
Tim Tebow says he wants a wife with “a servant’s heart.” Does that make him a misogynist?
Husbands serve wives. Wives serve husbands. Children serve parents. Parents serve children. Pastors serve churches. Churches serve pastors. That concept might be demeaning in the world of Vogue, but it’s not in a new creation where “the leader is the one who serves” (Lk. 22:26). Tim Tebow says he wants a wife with “a... Continue Reading
Reflections on our recently departed brother-in-the-Lord Bill Gresham
PCA Teaching Elder William B. Gresham, Jr. died on September 14, 2002
In those early days of RUF in the state of Alabama there was one who did not fit anyone’s image of a campus minister. Bill Gresham. Bill was equipped to be a campus minister – teaching, pastoring, preaching, faithful, caring. But he did not fit anyone’s image of a campus minister. Many times as he... Continue Reading
The Church’s Antipathy to Popular Music
Part 5 of the Christian church's history in relation to popular entertainment
T.G, an unidentified Puritan divine, wrote a 1616 treatise on why Christians should not go to stage plays and listed seven reasons why not: “The Puritan authorities hated and feared the theater because it portrayed immorality and could be used to promote subversive ideas.”
3 Key Changes for Churches in Latest Robert’s Rules of Order
11th edition goes beyond parliamentary procedure.
The latest edition provides a new subsection on “electronic meetings,” with substantially expanded treatment of the topic. The new edition devotes three pages to “electronic meetings,” up from one paragraph in the 10th edition.
Hearing reveals impact of clergy abuse
Southern Baptist evangelist sentenced to 10 years for video voyeurism
A graduate of Williams Baptist College and Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary, Sam Nuckolls served on staff at several churches before entering fulltime itinerant ministry. LifeWay hired Nuckolls as a summer staffer to serve in the role of camp pastor for Centrifuge camps in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. In 2007 his role changed to a contract position, where he served several weeks during the summer preaching at general assemblies and large gatherings. He served in that capacity through the summer of 2011.