Category Archives: Church
Let the conversation begin
Review
A closer look: Ephesians 5:22-33
The Hard Ask: Disagreeing with your pastor
Life
“When I have disagreements with my pastor, how can I deal with them in a godly way?”
This question is a subset of the question “What do I do when I disagree with any brother or sister in Christ”? Since the Bible is for realists and not romantics, it gives us guidelines for action. God knows that we are sinful people and he doesn’t pretend that such events won’t happen.
The future of evangelical Christianity
Life
With doom and gloom being predicted on all sides for the future of mainstream Christianity, what sort of future should evangelicals look forward to? Phillip Jensen looks into the Bible and into the future for some answers.
Too much sport
Interchange
Dancing with wolves: When false teaching is too close for comfort
Thought
The novelty of words … becomes especially useful when the truth is to be asserted against false accusers, who evade it by their shifts. Of this today we have abundant experience in our great efforts to rout the enemies of pure and wholesome doctrine. With such crooked and sinuous twisting these slippery snakes glide away unless they are boldly pursued, caught, and crushed. (John Calvin, Institutes I.xiii.4)
Doing what works (part 2): The Bible’s marching orders
Thought, Sola Panel
In the first part of this article (in our last Briefing), we looked at the pluses and minuses of pragmatism. We saw that ‘doing what works’ is a quite legitimate path to follow in one sense, because God has created an orderly world. Yet pragmatism has its limitations, as a result of the complex and flawed nature both of the world and of ourselves. We ultimately need a revelation, a word from outside, to guide us.
But how does the Word guide us? In our last article, we looked at one approach, the so-called ‘Hooker Principle’. Let us begin Part II, by looking at a related but much more recent way of using the Bible.
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Words for worship
Interchange
Repentance
Interchange
Interview: Is the church a house of worship?
Amidst the mist and cold and rain of Katoomba at Easter, I sat with Don Carson in the warmth of the CMS Speaker’s Lodge. His series on ‘Turning points in the history of salvation’ had been the highlight of the Easter Convention for many. I was now inviting him to train his formidable theological weaponry on the subject of ‘worship’. What would ‘the Don’, as we deferentially like to call him around the office, say on this pressing question?
Homosexuality in church
Everyday Ministry
Elizabeth Moberly, author of Homosexuality, a New Christian Ethic, has this to say about homosexuality:
The secular media could very easily give the impression that all homosexuals support the gay lifestyle, but this is very far from true. Many thousands of homosexuals are not committed to a gay identity. They want change, and they seek help in making this change. People are entitled to make their own choices for their own lives. But the point is that for many homosexuals change is their choice. No-one can be forced to change. However, when people choose change, that choice deserves to be respected and supported.