And I started to recognize another danger to this approach: If we assume that winsomeness will gain a favorable hearing, when Christians consistently receive heated pushback, we will be tempted to think our convictions are the problem. If winsomeness is met with . . . Continue reading →
Evangelism
“Who Do You Say That I Am?” (Mark 8:27–30)
The Next Church-Growth Fad: Big Data
One of the several quiet revolutions introduced into American life by the two Obama Administrations was the use of “Big Data” to target voters. To that point no campaign had harnessed the power of the internet the way the Obama campaign had. . . . Continue reading →
Straight Talk About Homophobia
In just a few short years the noun Homophobia has become one of the most powerful words in the English language. It has an interesting, if brief, history. It was derived from the combination of two Greek loan words brought into English, . . . Continue reading →
Mass Anesthesia: Self-Medicating Our Deconstructed Souls
Americans have always been restless. We are, after all, a nation of immigrants and once those immigrants arrived here they kept moving. The impulse to move and to keep moving is driven by dissatisfaction. Sometimes it has been dissatisfaction with the religious . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: Planting A Confessional Reformed Congregation In Ventura To Reach The Lost
This episode (#274) begins the 13th season of Office Hours. This semester Westminster Seminary California began its 41st year and the original primary purpose is still the primary purpose: to prepare men for pastoral ministry. It is the seminary’s conviction that it . . . Continue reading →
Seeker, Franchise, Or Reforming: Moving Beyond Some Current Models In Reformed Church Planting To Recover The Whole Mission
The need is great, the mission is great but our God is greater and his grace is greater than all our sin and weakness. Pray for the harvest. Organize for the mission (to plant churches) and ask yourself where your congregation falls in the seeker — franchise — reforming continuum: is there a passion for the whole mission? Continue reading →
A New Reformed Congregation In Ventura, CA
I am thankful to introduce Ventura Reformed to readers of the Heidelblog! In April, Pasadena URC called and sent me to three households in the city of Ventura to lead them in a grassroots church-planting project. We are asking the Lord to establish a URCNA congregation on the Oxnard Plain (population ~ 400,000) not only with Reformed-and-relocating people, and with Christians-becoming-Reformed people, but especially—especially!—with people who do not attend any church. Continue reading →
Who Shared The Gospel With You?
Editor’s Note: Earlier this summer I had the opportunity to reconnect with Bob, the Christian layman who first shared the gospel with me in 1976, while I was spending part of one day at week at an elementary school near my high . . . Continue reading →
Dear Wandering Sheep
Dear Wandering Sheep, You were baptized into the visible church. You were catechized. You made a profession of faith but, for one reason or another, you wandered away from the church. This letter is addressed to you. Why People Wander: The Visible . . . Continue reading →
What Does It Take To Become A Christian?
The way people answer this question says volumes about what they think Christianity is. Continue reading
There Is Only One Way—But Thank God That There Is A Way
The Illusion Of Choices One of the first Bible verses I learned as a young Christian remains near the forefront of my mind because it captures an essential truth. It is John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 173: As It Was In The Days Of Noah (17): Defending And Giving Witness To The Faith
According to Peter, we are living in days like Noah, as our Lord said. People are marrying and giving in marriage, Noah was announcing the gospel of free salvation and the coming judgment, and then the flood came. So it is for . . . Continue reading →
Interested In A URCNA Church Plant In The Eastern USA?
Contact info. NB: A Classis is a regional assembly of Reformed churches. It is a Latin word that originally referred to a fleet of ships. The Presbyterians say essentially the same thing with the word Presbytery Resources How To Subscribe To Heidelmedia . . . Continue reading →
Thinking Of Planting A Confessional Reformed Church On The Plains?
It is not easy to plant a confessional Reformed congregation on the American Plains (the area of the USA from the between the Rockies and the Mississippi River, from Canada to Mexico). In some places it is sparsely populated. The confessional Presbyterian . . . Continue reading →
Your Neighbor Has Everything But Hope
“Day one. Day one. Four weeks. I can do it. Day one. Day one.” She wore a wool hat pulled down low over her forehead, and a giant mask, which covered everything but her eyes, and gloves. She moved to the furthest . . . Continue reading →
Two Big Events In The Life Of A New Confessional Reformed Congregation
In Matthew 28:18–20 our Lord gave a mission to the visible, institutional church: preach the gospel, administer the sacraments, and make disciples. He did not give that mission to a million evangelical para-church organizations. He gave it to the visible church. The . . . Continue reading →
What Should We Think When An Evangelistic Crusade Comes To Town?
A correspondent wrote to ask for help thinking through how to respond to the arrival of a large evangelistic event in his town. This is my reply slightly revised for the HB. Continue reading →
Talking With Unbelievers: Conversation Not Conversion
“Reformed evangelism.” I used to think this was an oxymoron, that Arminians ask people to choose, and that Calvinists let the Arminians do the work of the evangelists. I thought that the Calvinists would teach converts the doctrines of the faith once . . . Continue reading →
AGR: What a Blind Man Can Teach Christians About Witnessing (with Mike Abendroth)
John 9 is one of my favorite places in Scripture from which to think about witness. There are few topics that most Christians dread more than witness but they dread it, in part, because they are afraid that questions will arise that . . . Continue reading →