I don't know how else to put this, but the Best News you'll ever hear, the truth that sets people free, might sound a lot like some pretty bad news to start with. The Church's job is to make the message clear, not acceptable - only God can do that. That's no excuse for arrogance or other forms of religious jackassery performed in the name of being radical. On the contrary. As I noted at the outset, the idea is making disciples that follow rather than audiences to be entertained. There's nothing wrong with entertainment. That's just not the mission.

I believe we have a crisis of formation in the Church and we must respond to it with an invitation to the Holy Spirit to awaken us to our deep need for Christ himself to not only dwell within us but reshape us, to form us within, to reshape our attitudes about everything from prestige and power to envy, fear, and greed. Dallas Willard wrote, “The greatest issue facing the world today, with all its heartbreaking needs, is whether those who are identified as ‘Christians’ will become disciples - students, apprentices, practitioners - of Jesus Christ, steadily learning from him how to live the life of the Kingdom of the Heavens into every corner of human existence.”

I’ve wondered about the citizens of Bethlehem passing the stable area where Mary had given birth to her son, gently laying him there in a straw-filled stone food trough. I wonder what they thought? They were strolling past the greatest story in human history - the greatest miracle imaginable - and probably never gave the scene a second glance or thought.  We can do the same. We can walk right through Christmas, right past the miracle in the manger, straight to the cranberry sauce singing “I’ll be home for Christmas” without a second glance or thought about the majesty that has unfolded.

The Bible speaks of the Messiah’s arrival as a moment when people that were entrenched in darkness suddenly saw a great light. The ancient world was dark. Very dark. And that was without changing any clocks.

It is so right that we pause this week to give thanks. That we set aside a day for thanksgiving, for pausing to ponder the overwhelming love and mercy that has been bestowed on us, is a great gift. The practice may even yet cultivate in us more than full stomachs, yielding instead glad and grateful hearts on the year's other more mundane days.

Gospel Reformation Network council member Jon Payne recently published a new article on the GRN website in which he notes that there are dismayed church leaders and members wondering if it’s time to give up on the PCA and leave. In “Should We Stay or Should We Go?” he asks that rhetorical question noting that “It’s a question that more than a few PCA elders and members are asking right now.” 

‘Vision’ may well be an overused word in our world but it's an important word, a deeply Biblical idea that describes the why of the what we give our lives for. Sometimes ‘vision’ may be limited in scope (get through another day), professional (get that promotion), or societal (pass that legislation). Those are vital perspectives, but let me suggest that there’s more to ‘vision’ than meets the eye.

“I don’t see the point in praying. God is going to do whatever he’s going to do whether I pray or not.”

I’ve heard that despairing comment - or something like it - from many people over the years. It seems to me that they’ve either forgotten the great meaning of prayer, communion with God, or the great privilege of prayer, to partner with God to accomplish his will. Or perhaps they’d forgotten both. Have we?

Is the gathered worship of the church more like a concert we attend or an offering we make together? Is it more of a performance for others by a few incredibly gifted individuals, groups, and choirs, or the shared labor of all offered to God? Does it really make any difference?

Pastors need confidentiality too. We also have our need for friends and colleagues with whom we can share our concerns, anguish, views, burdens, distress, and fears, and we cherish those relationships. Sometimes those relationships are spread across great distances and so the use of private correspondence - correspondence openly marked as confidential and which cannot be forwarded to others without the written permission of the parties involved - is one more way we get to talk about the important issues we face in ministry, whether in our congregations and denominations or our own personal lives.

The created order — angels, people, stars, & planets, oceans, mountains, and trees — was fashioned for communion with God, to behold and reflect his bounty and beauty. What does sin do? It undoes the perfect communion and happiness. What does redemption do? It restores it. The Gospel received results in communion restored.

Is worship on a Sunday with a congregation really all that necessary for people to grow in faith? Many people today don’t think so. Nevertheless, I continue to contend that those public services are not only necessary but actually the primary means of our spiritual formation and we need to embrace them with great expectation and joy.

Our friends at Core Christianity asked me last Summer to write a booklet on Satan and his tactics, together with an overview of Christ’s triumph over him. They’ve titled that book, “Can the Devil Read My Mind?”

Our friends at Core Christianity asked me last Summer to write a booklet on Satan and his tactics, together with an overview of Christ’s triumph over him. They’ve titled that book, “Can the Devil Read My Mind?”

“I believe. Help my unbelief.”

Never forget that this cry for mercy arose from a parent suffering in his own child’s pain and crying out for help.

I believe that in this boy's experience and his father's struggle of faith we hear a message for our time.

The first stream flowing into our musical life consists of the songs and hymns that are part of the great story God has written in his Church across the centuries, with admittedly special attention given to the way that story is transcribed in the English-speaking world and the American songbook.

In many Christian circles, you can’t get through many days without someone mentioning “Critical Theory” or “Critical Race Theory”, but when pressed few can describe what they so frequently decry. What is CT? Is it really all that bad? What’s all the hubbub about? When I look for answers to those questions I can share with people, they’re often too long, technical, or academic. I thought some postcard length answers on the issue might be helpful.