Last week my article, “The Care of Souls: The Heart of the Reformation,” was published in the latest issue of Themelios. The article is my attempt to highlight the pastoral impulse behind this pivotal moment in history. Amidst the important theological and political issues which were involved in this historic movement and which continue to …
“He who can only generalize in the pulpit, but has not ability to individualize out of it; who cannot in some measure meet the varieties of religious perplexity, and deal with the various modifications of awakened solicitude; who finds himself disinclined or disabled to guide the troubled conscience through the labyrinths which sometimes meet the …
I was privileged to be in attendance last Sunday when Dr. Dub Oliver, President-elect of Union University, preached at First Baptist Church in Jackson TN. Dr. Oliver noted that this was his first time to preach in Jackson, and he preached a moving message on Matthew 14:13-21, the feeding of the 5,000. I encourage you …
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This was originally published in our state Baptist paper back in 2005. I’m currently discussing Martin Luther’s booklet, A Simple Way to Pray, with some colleagues and the discussion of praying through the Lord’s Prayer reminded me of this. One of the most important decisions a church makes is the calling of a new pastor. The …
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I don’t know John Mark Comer or Solid Rock Church where he pastors. But I resonate with what he says in this interview about their move away from a multi-site mega church model to a family of independent churches. This is what I have been urging so I am heartened to see this being done. …
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In the most recent issue of the Baptist & Reflector Justin Wainscott has a wonderful column by this title. Justin rightly notes the importance of congregational singing and the fact that this is too often overlooked by pastors. Justin writes: Let’s face it. If our churches don’t value congregational singing, it’s likely because we don’t …
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My poem of the week this week comes from Elizabeth Prentiss, whose poems abut faith in the midst of suffering have for years been a challenge and comfort to me. “So Be It” So be it; ’tis Thy plan not mine, And being Thine is good; And God, my will shall yield to Thine Ere …
I am reading All Quiet on the Western Front with my boys for school. The writing is powerful and sobering, raising many key issues of life. One passage particularly caught my attention as an illustration of the church. After the narrator got lost in no man’s land after a reconnaissance mission at night he began …
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A couple of weeks ago I visited a bookstore with some friends and noticed this figure of Jesus. It struck me that this is the Jesus our culture is interested in: a discounted, bendable Jesus. Jesus is welcome as long as he doesn’t cost much and as long as we can shape him as we …
“Our Savior Christ … was a carpenter, and got his living with great labour. Therefore let no man disdain … to follow him in a common calling and occupation. For as he blessed our nature with taking upon him the shape of a man, so in his doing he blessed all occupations and arts.” …