35 years ago, when I began seminary, the “church growth” movement was hitting its stride. In a course taught by an adjunct professor with a Harvard MBA we were taught how be efficient just the way successful CEOs are. Later, in the . . . Continue reading →
As a child I was fascinated by “magicians” such as Harry Blackstone Jr. For a few dollars one could order a kit or study library books and learn to do “magic.” Of course, it was not magic at all. It was merely . . . Continue reading →
Perhaps you have seen on television or in the movies successful, wealthy professionals driving, surfing, and generally enjoying what looks like a magical life in Southern California. Television glitz aside, there is some reality to that portrait and one place it is . . . Continue reading →
American evangelical Christianity has both influenced and been influenced by shifts in American culture since before the founding of the Republic. One of the shifts, which has had lasting effects, was the turn toward a more radically democratic turn in politics at . . . Continue reading →
One of the hottest restaurants in my hometown of Chicago is Next. Chef Grant Achatz’s first restaurant, Alinea, has three Michelin stars and is regarded as one of the best restaurants in the world. Achatz wanted his second restaurant, Next, to be . . . Continue reading →
What happens to WSC students after they graduate? Most of them go on to become pastors in confessional Presbyterian and Reformed congregations. Most of them spend the rest of their lives in faithful service to Christ, preaching the gospel, administering the sacraments, . . . Continue reading →
A faithful HB reader wrote to ask about a good problem. His confessional Reformed congregation is growing. The question is how to proceed? Should the congregation expand the building or seek to establish new daughter congregations? Below is my reply. § It . . . Continue reading →
Clergy are particularly vulnerable in these decades of decline, because the financial security and health of their families are hanging by a thread; and their reputation in the world is already smudged and prejudiced; the cross-sector colleagues who once defended them are . . . Continue reading →
In the medieval and Reformation periods the West had an agrarian economy. In the Modern period we had an industrial-manufacturing economy. By the 1980s we had a service economy. Today, according to Jim Gilmore and Joe Pine (Strategic Horizons LLP), we live . . . Continue reading →
Remember this, at least — the things in which the world is now interested are the things that are seen; but the things that are seen are temporal, and the things that are not seen are eternal. You, as ministers of Christ, . . . Continue reading →
One of the dirtiest little secrets about preaching is that many preachers are using what we used to call in radio “a service.” There are, or at least there used to be, businesses that sell jokes and one liners and gags and . . . Continue reading →
Sean writes (in response to another post) raising the question implicitly of cynicism about the visible, institutional church. My response is below. I understand disappointment with the discipline process. I’m disappointed when a consistory places people under discipline and those who’ve been . . . Continue reading →
David Strain is Minister of Teaching and Mission at First Presbyterian Church (PCA), Jackson, MS. At the time we recorded this interview, he was recently Senior Pastor at Main Street PCA, Columbus, MS. He has also served a Free Church congregation in . . . Continue reading →
The Reformation is not only a doctrine and a piety. It is those two things but it is also a practice. It entails change in the life of the congregation, not for its own sake but for the sake of bringing that . . . Continue reading →
The uniqueness and centrality of the official preaching of the Word is diminished when we equivocate between the official, public, ordained administration of the Word and the unofficial witness to the gospel by the laity. The tendency among evangelical is to describe all . . . Continue reading →
I just got an email request from my internet service provider asking me to rate the service call I received yesterday. As far as I know he did a good job but only time will tell whether the problem is fixed. These . . . Continue reading →
The other day I was talking with a student at a local coffeehouse in beautiful downtown Escondido. He was telling me about his experience in seminary. He said he began at another seminary, even though his pastor recommended WSC, because he was . . . Continue reading →
Time was that church historians also taught church polity and what is sometimes called pastoral theology. This was, I suppose, because we used to recognize that the study of the history of the practice of the church gives a certainsight into how . . . Continue reading →
Seminary students and future seminary students frequently ask how to discover whether one is called to pastoral ministry. It’s a challenging discussion because there are two aspects to the call to ministry, internal and external, and both take time to discover and . . . Continue reading →
The post, “What Pastors Shouldn’t Tell Their Wives” is now available for Czech readers.