I’ve not mastered “busyness” myself and fully expect a lifelong battle to maintain a healthy work/life balance, but here are some practical ideas that have helped me over the past few years. Obviously they are ministry focused, but many of them can be applied more generally as well:   I thoroughly enjoyed reading Kevin DeYoung’s... Continue Reading

One of the greatest strengths of Oliphint’s project is that, in a covenantal apologetic, there is no clear boundary between apologetics and evangelism. As Oliphint reiterates throughout his work, apologetics ought to be understood foremost as persuasion; persuading men and women of the truth of the Gospel.   K. Scott Oliphint, Covenantal Apologetics: Principles and Practice... Continue Reading

The most interesting part of Noll’s criticism is the fact that he chooses not to look closely at his own brand of evangelicalism: the Reformed churches.   When Mark Noll’s Scandal of the Evangelical Mind hit the market in the early 1990s it created a “title” wave that continues to move out in multiple directions. This fact... Continue Reading

DeYoung offers up three dangers that busyness presents: ruining our joy, robbing our hearts, and covering up the rot in our souls. He then lists seven diagnoses to help the harried reader start to discern the root of her busyness.   I suppose there was a time in my life when I would answer that... Continue Reading

…when you have turned the last page, you will feel—as I did—that all of them are now dear friends, a cloud of witnesses, pointing you to Christ in the midst of ministry life.   Once upon a time, I walked in the teacher’s lounge of the school where I worked.  The teachers on their break... Continue Reading

These days the word cult is taboo. We don’t really identify Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses as cultists. Rather, we save it for the David Koreshes of the world. We save it for the mass murders who use religion to lure in their prey. But what do we call false religions, claiming to be Christian, and leading many... Continue Reading

Jane had ruled England for less than two weeks, during one of the most turbulent times of its history. Young King Edward VI had just died of a pulmonary illness, leaving unconfirmed orders for the installment of Jane to the throne. Taking advantage of strong popular support, Mary Tudor, Henry VIII’s firstborn, swiftly gathered her... Continue Reading

One of Anselm’s greatest contributions to the church was his book answering the question, “Why did God have to become man?” The book, Cur Deus Homo, or Why God-Man?, explained the necessity of a sacrifice that could save people from their sins. To pay the debt of sin, the sacrifice must live a perfect life and... Continue Reading

The Advocate has an article calling into question the common understanding of Matthew Shepard’s 1998 murder. Almost immediately after Shepard’s death, people began to form the impression that the murder was a hate crime targeting a homosexual young man. Aaron Hicklin reviews a new book that challenges that narrative and says that the circumstances surrounding this crime were... Continue Reading

As a friendly outside observer of the P.C.A., it seems to me that she is so numerically large, so geographically diffuse, and has so many ministries and sub-organisations. Given the managerial complexity of such an organisation, one has to ask whether such a church can sustain a clear theological identity long term.  Or is it... Continue Reading