Balancing Family and Education
I have attended school for about twenty-five years now. I had the average K-12 grade schedule, with no hiccups along the way. I graduated on time from Tecumseh High School back home in southeast Michigan. I then took five-and-a-half years to finish my four-year bachelor’s degree at Welch College (beginning with a semester at a community college back home). During the last two years of my undergraduate education, I worked full-time in...
A Serious Concern for Discipleship
by Eric K. Thomsen In recent decades, the American church has expressed much hand-wringing angst over the challenges it faces. Concerned leaders point to growing numbers of young people who have abandoned their congregations and their faith. They groan over shrinking churches, an increasingly secularized culture, and the gradual compromise of church to culture. While these concerns are valid, perhaps the most pressing theological...
Book Review of The Compelling Community: Where God’s Power Makes a Church Attractive
A constant temptation for us as pastors and church leaders is to do something that we think will make our church more appealing to those in our community. This desire is good, since we should all want to see our churches grow. But we must ask ourselves: At what cost? Mark Dever and Jamie Dunlop remind readers of The Compelling Community that the gospel, not our creativity, is ultimately what makes a church attractive. Dever and Dunlop...
Theological Retrieval for Evangelicals: A Review
My first significant exposure to historical theology occurred during college in a course that covered the creeds and councils of the early Church. I was astonished by the brilliance of these early Christian pastors, theologians, and philosophers as they wrestled with important theological truths. They often did so in response to various heretical teachings from influential teachers such as Arius and Marcion. Reading primary and...
Pastoral Ministry in the COVID-19 Season
I often think of pastoral ministry as occurring in seasons. Each season of the year creates a unique dynamic in the church calendar. Yet we could also think of seasons as times of sowing, watering, and reaping. That Scriptural principle describes the world of agriculture. But I mean “season” in a broader sense. During most seasons of ministry, pastors do the normal work of praying for others, studying for sermons, leading meetings,...
The Church and the Coronavirus Challenge
by The Commission for Theological Integrity By now it’s fair to say that not a single church has escaped the impact of concerns over the Coronavirus. Churches have been urged to consider measures to ensure people’s safety, along with schools, businesses, and virtually every other assembled group of people. Governors and public health officials have called for certain forms of activity to be suspended, especially when they involve even...
Recent Comments