In January of 2023, Classis Grand Rapids East of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) reported that they were committing $5,000 to a group within the CRC called Better Together, A Third Way. This group seeks to help churches build unity even when . . . Continue reading →
This is now the third essay to address the problem of falling pastors. In the first two attempts I focused on the importance of pastoral wisdom as they seek to serve and protect the sheep.1 In the second I pointed to the . . . Continue reading →
The other day in class, I was to lecture on the Marrow Controversy (c. 1700–1733) but as I listened to what the students were discussing (while I was getting the tech set up) and as I scanned their faces, I could see . . . Continue reading →
We live in an age of much uncertainty. Confusion and division are the hallmarks of our time. What stands out among the masses is a figure who arises with any amount of charisma, who is given a platform, and is able, with . . . Continue reading →
The laboring mother gave one last push and the baby emerged into the capable, experienced hands of the midwife. Infant mortality was high and the midwife knew it. She had seen too many babies that looked like this one die before they . . . Continue reading →
We live in an age of rapid change and instant gratification. “Outreach” magazine publishes an annual list of the fastest growing churches in America. Christian publishers seek authors with “platforms.” The church now pays more attention to social media influencers and leadership . . . Continue reading →
Perhaps nothing so scandalizes the contemporary (i.e., modern) church as the attempt by the visible church to obey the teaching of Jesus and the teaching of the Apostles concerning the Lord’s Table. I say this for three reasons: 1) recently I have . . . Continue reading →
Kevin DeYoung offers several practical reasons why church membership matters.1 At least one of the comments on his article called for biblical proof for the idea of church membership. I offer these biblical considerations.2 There is a widespread notion that a truly . . . Continue reading →
We often speak of “my church.” That is a colloquial way of saying, “the congregation of which I am a member.” We sometimes act, however, as if the church actually belongs to us. One doubts that many would be willing to admit . . . Continue reading →
What does it mean to be a member of a local church? Those who take church membership seriously recognize it comes with a lot of responsibilities. The faithful church member attends worship regularly and engages meaningfully in the divine service. They pray . . . Continue reading →
One of the themes I have pursued here is the churchlessness of the evangelical movement.1 I have challenged those evangelicals who say they believe the Reformed faith to stop being Nicodemites.2 When other folk see for themselves what is happening and they . . . Continue reading →
In our Bible study for the Eugene Reformed work, we have been faithfully crawling through Romans—the slow pace is my fault I am afraid. Romans is just such a rich book of the Scriptures that I cannot resist looking at every little . . . Continue reading →
An increasing number of pastors in the PCA are either resigning or being fired due to their narcissistic abuses undermining their ministry, which is truly disheartening. However, the more significant issue lies in the job advertisements for pastors, which often attract narcissistic . . . Continue reading →
When Dennis Bills, a West Virginian minister in the Presbyterian Church of America, received his author’s copy of A Church You Can See in 2017, he was writing to a church world certainly in need of the book’s subtitle: Building a Case . . . Continue reading →
Previously, we looked at the office of Ruling Elder (RE) in P&R churches. Today, we continue that conversation. Truing The Spokes When a bloc of REs, however, becomes less a counter-weight to progressive tendencies and more an anchor to prevent Reformation according . . . Continue reading →
In his epistle (3:1) to the Trallians (c. AD 114), written to one of the congregations that visited him on the way to Rome to be martyred, Ignatius, the senior pastor (ἐπίσκοπος) of Antioch mentioned three offices in the church: Similarly, let . . . Continue reading →
My village had two churches, the Anglican parish church and the Baptist chapel. In the nineteenth century, both were central to village life. The current primary (elementary) school was founded by the Baptists in the nineteenth century when their children were effectively . . . Continue reading →
One doesn’t have to look far to finds tracts and treatises of past theologians who wrote about God’s use of calamity and destruction to awaken people to repentance. I have in front of me David Clarkson’s, “God’s End in Sending Calamities.” People . . . Continue reading →
The church is the crowning achievement in the work of salvation, planned by the Father, accomplished by the Son, and brought into reality by the Spirit (Eph 1:3–14). The Father’s “plan for the fullness of time” is to sum up all things . . . Continue reading →
Chris Gordon and Dan Borvan discuss difference between the Reformed Churches and Big Eva congregations. Continue reading →