Seventeen82

It started with a phone call from an old colleague, an old classmate, an old friend. His company had a position opening up in Florida and he wanted me to consider it. My qualifications were good, my friend’s recommendation was better. It would provide a remarkable increase in pay for our family and the work would be interesting, it would be difference-making. The only problem was, I loved my current job. It was stable, reliable, and allowed me to work from home. After much prayer and discussion with my wife, and continuous recruitment from my old friend, we decided to pursue the new opportunity. And as we so often do once we make that commitment in our hearts, I had assimilated the new job into my present reality. I could already feel how much I’d enjoy the new benefits. But then one day as the hiring process was moving along, I received a call asking me if I would consider relocating to take the same position in another region of the country. An internal candidate had expressed a desi...

   “...Until I Read What I Say” Flannery O'Connor said “I write because I don't know what I think until I read what I say.” I’m not ashamed to say that I make notes and talking points for all sorts of things. It helps me to be clear and make sure I say what I mean and mean what I say, regardless of the medium. How many times have you cringed when someone asserts, “Well, the Pastor said...,” only to hear your words misconstrued or repeated in the exact opposite way that you intended? By taking a few moments to outline my thoughts beforehand, it helps keep things clear later on. One practice that I’ve found to be helpful is a kind of personal pastoral essay. I’m not sure if “essay” is the right descriptor. Maybe whitepapers would also be a good label. Such a document is researched, concise, and to be used as a template for discussion. It’s definitely not a journal-ready article or sermon-length resource. These documents can help shape the tone of one’s ministry over the course o...

  ​ I dearly love the Lord’s Supper. To be able to approach the Table and partake of the bread and wine rejoices my heart greatly. I have not always held to a Reformed view of the Supper (as I do now). Yet, even in my “Zwinglian” days, I treasured my participation in this means of grace (though I certainly would not have referred to it as such then). Despite my underdeveloped theological understanding, especially related to the efficacy of the Supper for my spiritual growth, the Lord still blessed my participation by his spiritually feeding me his body and blood. For, thankfully, our participation in the Supper centers upon our faith in Christ and the promises of God attached to this sacrament, and not upon our advanced theological acumen. Still, now that the Lord has enriched my understanding of what he is doing in the Supper, as I do participate in this sacrament by faith, my appreciation and enjoyment  of this means of grace  has only been amplified.   I now wish ...

The presbytery of which I am a member, Mississippi Valley Presbytery, met on Monday and Tuesday of this week, and apparently a few other presbyteries in the ARP met this week as well. The host church for this meeting was close by (only about 40 minutes away, which was a blessing; when I was at a previous church, I would sometimes have to travel 8 hours to attend a meeting). I serve as the Principal Clerk for our presbytery, a job I've had since 2009. I've noticed that several of my friends in other presbyteries have now moved into that position as well. I used to be one of the "young guys," but now most of the clerks are all younger than I! Why do we have presbyteries and presbytery meetings? Some might look at these meetings of churches as irrelevant and unnecessary. I recently heard a popular Reformed Baptist gentleman state, rather emphatically, that there are no presbyteries found anywhere in the New Testament. On his podcast, he put briefly for the rationale for ...

Though I grew up with the benefits of a Christian home and in a solid, Bible-teaching church, it wasn’t until my adult years that I really began to understand the timeline of Redemptive History, and more specifically, that of the Old Testament. Not much ca n account for my ignorance other than my own dull ears and disinterested heart, but the process of piecing together familiar stories and events into the timeline of God acting in history on behalf of his people has been a true delight in the last 15 to 20  years.  I’ve particularly enjoyed learning more about what may be an especially neglected portion of Old Testament history, the restoration, or the time period after the exile. (1) Prior to a deeper dive into the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, my understandin g of events in the Old Testament probably stopped around Daniel 5, when Babylon was overthrown by the  Medo -Persian empire. Truthfully, I’m not sure where I would have placed the book of Esther, much less the post-...