Susanna, over at her blog, has just posted a stimulating article she entitled “Pious and Reclusive for Christ” which discusses Christian children who attend public schools. I’d like to point out that Susanna, who is a particularly intelligent and beautiful blogger, just so happens to be one of my three little sisters. At this point…
For some reason the whole family woke up early this morning. By 7 AM we were all out of bed and sitting in the living room, waiting for something to happen. Naturally nothing did happen, so I decided I’d catch up on some DVD reviews. After watching an episode in a 6-part history of Christianity,…
This morning we had a “guest” pastor. I put guest in quotations because he was one of the founding pastors at our church, but recently moved to a neighboring town to help stabilize a floundering daughter church. So he was only a guest insofar as we have not seen him for a while. He preached…
This will be the final article in which I address advertising and the church. Since posting the first two articles I have received many comments about what I wrote. Today I’d like to add a little bit of clarity, especially to the questions of pastorruss who wrote “As you attempt to advertise your church via…
Yesterday I posted an article about church web sites that turned out to be a little bit controversial. I was quite sure in advance of the direction the discussion would take and intended to address the controversy today. So here goes. In the article I pointed to the fact that many, if not most, church…
My church has asked me (once again) to redesign our web site. This is going to be the fourth redesign of the site in the four years I’ve been at the church. Some of the previous changes have been initiated by myself, while others were at the bequest of the staff. This time it is…
Today I’d like to once again crack open the Feedback Files, where I answer questions that have been sent to me by readers of this site. I decided to post this one because it challenged me to deal with some issues that I have often questioned but never pondered. “Certain aspects of reformed theology make…
Of all the books I read, and admittedly, that is quite a few books, I often feel that the biographies are most helpful to my Christian walk. I developed an early love for biographies, for as I’ve mentioned in the past, my mother reads those and her Bible almost exclusively. She taught me the importance…
A reader wrote me recently to ask what I thought of tithing or giving offerings to the church electronically. These days many churches allow and even encourage giving to be done automatically – the bank simply transfers funds directly from a person’s account to the church’s account at a set time of the month. This…
This is a difficult article for me to write. This is not because of the gravity of the topic or a lack of knowledge of the topic at hand. I hestitate to post this because it may seem self-serving, but that is certainly not my intent. This article stems from concerns I have in the…
I’ll file this one away in the “just what we need” files. It is almost too crazy to believe, but it seems that there is a Purpose Driven Life movie on the horizon. Ralph Winter, who has produced a lot of major Hollywood blockbusters, such as X-Men, X-2: X-Men United, the Planet of the Apes…
I recently found the following lengthy excerpt from the book Pilgrim Fellowship Of Faith: The Church As Communion by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (aka Pope Benedict XVI). There are a few typos in the text, but since I do not own this particular book I am unable to correct them. This represents the current pope’s stance…
Today I come looking for answers. I trust that some of you lurking out there have some experience in this matter that you will be willing and able to share. As you know, I lead a home church (small group Bible study) through my church. Not too long ago our discussion turned to our children…
Canada is poised to become one of the most progressive countries in the world. Following in the footsteps of such avant-garde nations as Holland and Belgium, the Canadian government will, in all likelihood, legitimize homosexual marriage this evening. It will still take some time for the law to pass through the necessary channels, but Bill…
This is the first in a series of articles that will examine various doctrinal and societal challenges the evangelical church must face early in the 21st Century. Today we will look at the doctrine of open theism. Future articles will examine the Emerging Church, ecumenism, postmodernism, and a variety of other topics. Open theism is…
Earlier this year, Eric over at Evangelical Underground presented the 1st Annual Evangelical Blog Awards. He gave recognition to some of the leading sites in the Christian blogosphere. Sadly, he did not recognize those bloggers who deserve demerit. That is what I intend to do today through the 1st Annual Christian Blogosphere Awards of Demerit.…
Have you ever stopped to consider just how strange prayer is? Have you considered the implications of the fact that we, through our prayers, have the ability to interact with the God who is sovereign over all of the universe? It is a profound thought that God even changes the future (so to speak) based…
I received an interesting book from Moody last week. Entitled Perimeters of Light, the authors take on a daunting task. They seek to define some boundaries for the emerging church. Notice the lower-case “e” in “emerging,” as they are not referring to the Emergent church but to what evangelical churches are becoming in the early…
In recent weeks I have read several books addressing Christian perspectives on our North American society. Postmodern culture is, as you well know, difficult to define and understand. In fact, postmodernism almost defies definition, as one of the basic tenets of the postmodern mindset is a removal of absolute standards, even when it comes to…
My friend Rick Pearcey asked if I would consider posting this article, which is an appreciation of the ministry of Francis Schaeffer, known primarily through the work of L’Abri Fellowship, begun this month 50 years ago. As you may know, both Rick and Nancy Pearcey were profoundly impacted by the Schaeffer’s ministry. What you may…