admin | May 14, 2013
4:48 AM Looking forward to our study of the doctrine of the church on Sunday mornings. Much of what we call “church” today originated, not in the New Testament, but in post-apostolic times. The Lord’s Supper has changed from a celebration to a ceremony. Worship has changed from participation to observation. Witness has changed from [...]
admin | March 10, 2013
8:12 AM When preachers use Greek from the pulpit, should someone be required to interpret (see 1 Cor. 14:26-32)? A preacher, for example, might etymologize. “The Greek word here [name the word] is composed of two roots [name them in Greek], the first meaning ____ and the second meaning ____; hence the word means ______.” [...]
admin | February 28, 2013
Recently PBS published a story called Colorado Springs Evangelicals. The new head of Focus on the Family is interviewed in depth. His goal? To engage the culture without becoming “wrapped around the axle of politics.” He is so right about this! The bottom of the bottom line is simply this: politics and religion don’t mix. [...]
admin | February 14, 2013
5:46 PM Good Wednesday evening to you, thoughtful bloggers! I’ve been preparing for my course on hermeneutics at Odessa Theological Seminary next month in Ukraine. For what it’s worth, I’ve been jotting down some initial thoughts about hermeneutics. I’m calling them “Tentative Tenets of a Course in Hermeneutics.” I want to be clear that I’m [...]
admin | February 11, 2013
9:35 AM Working on a “missions strategy”? I’ve got a few practical suggestions: 1) Rely solely on the Holy Spirit. Not your missions textbook or the latest fad in missiology. The early church had a secret for its success: It was Spirit-filled and Spirit-led. They were guided by God. 2) Be flexible. The Holy Spirit [...]
admin | November 16, 2012
7:43 AM How do you build genuine community in a church? Jesus’ disciples enjoyed community simply because Jesus and not a set of dogmas was at the center of their life. They never tried to “build community.” They didn’t have to. Community was the result of being united in the Christian mission; community emerged naturally [...]
admin | November 8, 2012
8:10 AM I often wonder what missions would look like if missionary agencies and churches actually worked together — as in “cooperatively.” I discussed this in my book Will You Join the Cause of Global Missions?
admin | November 1, 2012
6:38 AM The other day I heard someone describe Becky as “suffering for Christ.” I respectfully disagree. Cancer attacks all, Christian and non-Christian alike. Our enemy the devil is always busily at work trying to distort our understanding of Christian suffering. Our God is wanting us to understand that suffering for Christ is something we [...]
admin | September 12, 2012
7:18 AM Do you remember this dialogue from the movie Schindler’s List? It haunts me to this day. It’s between Schindler and Stern: Oskar Schindler: I could have got more out. I could have got more. I don’t know. If I’d just… I could have got more. Itzhak Stern: Oskar, there are eleven hundred people [...]
admin | July 14, 2012
4:02 PM I’ve always despaired of coming up with any exhaustive list of what I believe a New Testament church ought to look like. The notion of a royal priesthood captures well, I think, my overall perspective of the composition of an authentically New Testament congregation. I have frequently argued this point on my website [...]
