When we first decided to pursue planting a church in our city, we needed to think carefully about why we would plant and how we would do it. This was particularly important for our core team. If these brothers and sisters were going to link arms with me and my family, leave their current church…
Every Wednesday we suggest a few articles that haven’t wasted our time. Hope these links are helpful. Preacher’s Toolkit: How Do I Teach Difficult Doctrines without Splitting the Church? Hershael York offers wisdom for preachers dealing with tough topics. 20 Quotes from Mark Dever on Church Leadership. Dever has led the way in thinking about…
Every Wednesday we suggest a few articles that haven’t wasted our time. Hope these links are helpful. The Curious Case of the Adult 9-year old by Owen Strachan. This is massively important. Pay attention to the logic. Recovering the Cure of Souls by Jared Wilson. Pastoral ministry is more preaching on Sunday. Pastoring, or shepherding, involves…
Twitter is a horrible place to dialogue about serious matters. Space is simply too limited to allow for careful communication. Blogs are a bit better, though pitfalls still exist. What is often missing in a tweet is, far too often, nuance and precision. Because of the space limitations, lucid brevity is a challenge. Therefore, I…
Every Wednesday we suggest a few articles that haven’t wasted our time. Hope these links are helpful. John Piper stirs the pot—In an Ask Pastor John podcast, Piper says he doesn’t think females should serve as seminary professors. We don’t necessarily endorse his view (I’m inclined to disagree with my Chancellor), but he raises interesting questions.…
This past year, evangelicals (whoever they are: see this article) celebrated the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. In the five centuries since Martin Luther nailed his thoughts to the castle door in Wittenberg (1517), have Roman Catholics (RC) and Protestants closed the gap between them? To state it differently, one wonders if RC’s and…
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) is widely known for his scientific ventures. Did you know he was also a tremendous philosopher and writer? When it comes to writing, he once said, “reading makes a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.” That last phrase, “writing an exact man,” hits home with me. I…
How are your new year’s resolutions doing so far? If you are two days into 2018, still not quite sure what you should “resolve” to do this year (if anything), perhaps an old set of resolutions can help. Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) is one of the greatest theologians in the history of American Christianity. During his…
This post originally appeared at For the Church (here) and is slightly updated for this site. **Another update: Tim Keller writes on this issue for the New Yorker. If you have limited time, his article should take priority. Click here. What’s in a name? Well, sometimes a lot. People name their kids after a family member,…
Stanley Porter and Beth Stovell have compiled essays that present various approaches to the task of interpretation. Though “students and scholars alike struggle to differentiate between the meaning of terms like biblical exegesis, interpretation and hermeneutics,” their book focuses on hermeneutics in reference to biblical interpretation (9–10). Many of the books in this area tend…
Theology Along the Way 