In choosing ECO, Trinity’s session stated the new Reformed body has “much of the same ‘DNA’ (values, beliefs and practices) as the PCUSA at its best, but will be less likely to drift from them because its leaders will agree to a written statement of essential beliefs, which will provide clearly defined boundaries.” After bidding... Continue Reading

You can set out to do traditional worship or contemporary worship or jazz worship or Taizé worship or gospel worship. In the end, the style you choose doesn’t matter as much as understanding what resources you have to draw upon. Shakespeare said it succinctly: “To thine own self be true.” That’s one of the secrets of healthy... Continue Reading

Most people don’t realize pastors have their own secrets. These spiritual leaders refuse to share their thoughts or pains for fear that their own ministries will be damaged. By their very nature, pastors are a confidential lot. They counsel numbers of people who share their deepest secrets and problems. They know things about families that... Continue Reading

The result is that we have a committee presenting conflicting motions to the General Assembly. We have two different minorities arguing the opposite point. Paedocommunion will be one of the hot issues at the 40th General Assembly.

Without knowing Jason, I’m not going to judge his motives or how he’s handled the process. It looks to me as if Jason kept his ordination vows by making his reservations known to the presbytery and resigning his position. He appears to be a man of honesty and integrity, even with mistaken theological conclusions.

Aunt June, That sounds nice, but tell me: how am I supposed to find a Christian guy these days—somebody who actually wants a relationship? All the guys I meet want to party until they’re 35. I feel like I have to give in some or I’ll never meet anybody. It’s not like there’s some single guy at church; practically everybody is married with four kids

In the heroic stories of church history (Athanasius defeats Arius! Augustine turns back Pelagius!) and in the awful parts (state churches and triumphalism and scandals), God is orchestrating a flow of the river of redemption that takes it from the hillsides of Judea through the bustling streets of Antioch right down to that Baptist church in Arkansas…

Therefore, Christians may make careful and discriminating use of proper technologies, but must never buy into the contraceptive mentality. We can never see children as problems to be avoided, but always as gifts to be welcomed and received

You could have eased your task by quoting some paragraphs of the Westminster Confession of Faith or the Philadelphia Confession. These at least, written in agreement with Calvin, would be more reliable than one statement plucked as by hazard out of Calvin's work by one manifestly hostile individual.

Which leads me to conclude that Lerner undervalues what is perhaps the one factor that makes being a stay-at-home mom the most difficult: the sheer challenge of parenting all day, every day. The constant sacrifice of body and soul to another being. The unrelenting subjugation of your desires to another’s needs. The fact that sometimes you can’t even