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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
What began as an initial inquiry back in 2013, and eventually developed into a Bible study in 2018, has now progressed towards planting a United Reformed Church (URC) in Indianapolis—praise the Lord for his faithfulness. Our History And Highlights In 2013, two . . . Continue reading →
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 →
This is the first-ever “best of” Heidelcast episode. The Heidelcast has been in production since 2009. Not every listener has heard every episode and for this one we brought together some of highlights from 2010 including one of Dr Clark’s all-time favorites: . . . Continue reading →
There is a remarkable article on Insider.com which features a series of comments from young people who belong to “Generation Z.” Sometimes described as “Zoomers,” GenZ are those who were born after 1996. The article purports to reflect the fears of Generation . . . Continue reading →
For students across campus, there’s nothing quite as calming as a call home to mom. But from distanced relationships to hectic schedules, this comfort is not so accessible to everyone. Thanks to “Ask A Mom” creators Lori Rose and Sue Jackson, the . . . Continue reading →
In the fall semester I teach two courses on the ancient church. One is a seminar in which we read the Apostolic Fathers (a somewhat arbitrary collection of texts from the second century) as well as other important writers from the period. . . . Continue reading →
One hundred and fifty years ago, Africa was predominantly pagan in the south, and Muslim in the north. Yet incredibly, today most of the world’s Christians are found in Africa. There are presently an estimated 680 million (and rapidly growing) professing Christians . . . Continue reading →
This essay was my response to an 2007 article by Nancy Morganthaler on the failure of the church growth movement (HT: Justin Taylor). It is necessarily somewhat autobiographical. My criticisms of the church growth movement are partly theoretical and partly practical, to borrow an . . . Continue reading →
Chris Gordon sits down with Dan Borvan to discuss what the objective gospel is and how it applies to everyone in the world. Continue reading →
Chris Gordon sits down with Dan Borvan for part two of their three-part series on the gospel. Continue reading →