I have made the point often here that the New Testament portrays pastors knowing their people well, and not just speaking to crowds of unknown people. The command to watch over their souls, knowing God will hold us accountable for this (Heb 13:17), requires this as does a ministry in which we “warn everyone” and …
Continue reading ‘Beza, A Pastor Must Know Each of His People by Name’ »
“Both of us are deeply troubled by the way in which modern scholarship continues to produce studies of the text that do not (and often cannot) connect with Scripture’s target audience, the people of God who gather each week by the power of the Spirit to be sanctified as disciples of Jesus. We refuse to …
Continue reading ‘Doing Scholarship Like the Church Matters’ »
Over the holidays I tried to listen to the audio of The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World, by Edward Dolnick. I appreciate the general topic, but after a few chapters I stopped. The condescending caricature of Christianity presented in the book was too much. To tell …
Several years ago I began keeping an annotated list of every book I read each year. It has been a very useful discipline and resource for later. As part of my own review of this past year I will post here what have been the best books I have read this past year. Included in …
Mike Garrett alerted me to a recent interview of Rosanne Cash, Johnny Cash’s daughter, at Garden & Gun. Towards the end of the interview she is asked about her favorite memories of her dad, and I was taken with the place of the Psalms. Here is that part of the interview: Your dad has been …
The 2013 version of my annual survey of new study Bibles and Bible reference works for Preaching Magazine is now available. The photo above shows the books which are covered in this installment. I hope it is helpful to you as you study the text. And perhaps the timing will help you with requests for …
Last week I posted at PastoralEpistles.com on the marginalization of the Pastoral Epistles, drawing from the book, 1 Timothy Reconsidered (edited by K. P. Donfried; Peeters, 2008). The essays by Luke Timothy Johnson and Karl Donfried were my particular focus. Johnson noted that the Pastorals have been “increasingly moved to the edge or even out …
Carl Trueman has helpfully challenged the common discussion of how hard pastoral ministry is. I encourage you to read his post. Is pastoral ministry difficult? Of course. Life is difficult as a sinner in a fallen world. But the problem comes when anyone begins to talk about their life, their setting, their calling as the …