Seventeen82

  In the early days  following  my conversion to the Faith, I grew quite fond of contemporary Christian music.  A t the age of seventeen, having been redeemed from a  very  rebellious lifestyle, such an appeal was quite necessary and helpful. So ,  to make a full confession, yes, I thoroughly enjoyed Petra  crooning that God had given rock and roll to me, as well as  Degarmo  and Key challenging me not to be a casual Christian. I must say, though, that not all  such music was  doctrinally  vapid. Some tunes actually evinced a fair amount of theological acumen. One example  w as the song Be Ye Glad, by the group Glad. From time to time, throughout my life, the lyrics of that melody have echoed in my mind. I would even go so far as to say that such ministered comfort, strength and joy to me, as it reminded me of certain spiritual truths as revealed in God’s Holy Word. So, for instance, when enduring particularly challen...

  “And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.  Genesis 12:5-6 (ESV)   God-Specified Place Haran, Canaan, Shechem, Moreh.  In Genesis 12, there's a major movement for Abram and his family as God calls them to “the land I will show you.” The four locations in verses 5-6 are just a few. Read on into the next chapters and you’ll find places like Bethel, the Negeb, Egypt, the Jordan Valley, the oaks of Mamre, and more. These are all specific places at a specific time. God specified them as the waypoints and destinations that he would use to bring about his work.   God-Defined Place Years ago, when I was a young Associate Pastor serving in a commuter comm...

   I’m not a very gracious driver. In fact, I’m not sure that I’m even a sorta nice driver. The truth is, I’m kind of a jerk when I’m driving. If you're cruising in the left lane keeping it a couple clicks under the speed limit practicing to pass people, I’m probably frustrated with you. If the light turns green and you’re not off the line within a few seconds, you may get the courtesy “toot-toot,” or you may get a slightly more aggressive singular “toot.” Either way, I confess that you’ve earned my disdain. And, I don’t limit my frustration to drivers only. Interstate 4, the heartbeat of central Florida connecting Tampa to Orlando to Daytona Beach is only 3 lanes! There are myriad other roads in central Florida that — by observation — merely connect one cow pasture to another, that are 3 lanes. Predictably, then, I-4 is congested all day long, because 3 lanes is obviously not enough to bring the world to Disney. The FDOT, lawmakers, entire electorates and whoever else I happe...

We live in a wondrous age. An age of knowledge and technology. The entire catalog of the knowledge of mankind is, quite literally, at our fingertips. However, what man knows and what is truth are vastly different. One of the areas of knowledge that man takes great pride in  is leadership theory. These various theories have been given names; Great Man Theory of Leadership/Charismatic leadership theory, Transformational Leadership Theory, Autocratic leadership theory, Contingency leadership Theory, Situational Leadership Theory, Transactional Leadership Theory, Behavioral Theory, Democratic Leadership theory, Adaptive Leadership theory, and Trait Theory of Leadership has been laid out in various formats. Some are easier to grasp.  Great man/charismatic leaders with examples of Lincoln, Gandhi, Hitler, Alexander the Great, and Reagan stands out. Transactional leadership is manifested by business leaders all the time. We have a great example in the person of Donald Trump.  De...

  A recent article inspired me to write this - not as a rebuttal, but as an alternative. As a pastor in a rural church that plans to plant more rural churches, I offer this as another talking point. Cities are growing, but rural areas aren’t going away. Urbanization has been happening since the first cities began, yet the village has remained as constant as man’s depravity. People in small towns need Jesus as much as people in cities. And while no one would deny that fact, it’s easy to get caught up in the allure of the fast lane. In my ministry career I’ve served in two small-town churches and one large suburban church. The small towns both have populations less than 20,000. The suburban county had a population of well-over 100k, with many commuting to nearby Washington DC. Having experienced both, as well as been in presbyteries that planted churches in both, I speak with some experience. Again, while I think that planting churches in the city is necessary, we should also be equa...

  T here is a crisis in preaching. While books on preaching in every age decry the reverses of proclaiming God’s Word, this  present  alarm rings true. The current landscape of the evangelical church has changed. At the time of the Reformation  many began to look to God’s Word as the primary authority in the Christ’s Church.  Today, many affirm the truthfulness of the Scriptures, but question the sufficiency of God’s Word  to do God’s work.  David Wells , Professor of Gordon-Conwell Seminary   reflecting upon the evangelical church’s current relation with the Bible  states “while the church was tethering itself to the authority of the Word  in belief , it was  at the same time unhitching itself from the  sufficiency of Scripture  in practice .”  ( The Bleeding of the Evangelical Church ) . The 16 th  century Reformation which brought renewal to the church and genuine spiritual awakening  throughout Europe be...