“Your souls, more precious than thousands of worlds”

How should a pastor think of the members of the church he serves? Too often today church members are thought of as customers or potential workers. This is not the scriptural pattern; nor is it the practice of our forebears. Just today I came back to “The Glory and Ornament of a True Gospel‐constituted Church” …

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Anniversary of William Tyndale’s Death

A week ago we passed the 478th anniversary of the martyrdom of William Tyndale (Oct 6, 1536), strangled and burned for his work of translating the Bible into English and for teaching justification by faith. As we pass this significant anniversary, I commend to you a wonderful, moving lecture by Timothy George on the life …

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Kipling’s Lament for a Dying Culture

Rudyard Kiping’s poem, “The Gods of the Copybook Headings,” is a powerful and poignant challenge for our cultural situation today. Kipling wrote the poem in 1919 in response to the cultural despair after World War I when so many began rejecting the moral and religious truths which had undergirded European civilization. We need to hear …

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No “Safe Distance” Ministry

A main theme of this blog is the necessity of pastors knowing their people in order to be able really to pastor them. A colleague of mine, Justin Barnard, recently pointed me to Henri Nouwen’s In the Name of Jesus as a source making a similar point. The following excerpt is a powerful summary of ministry …

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