Seventeen82

First of all, my name is not Mark Driscoll, and I don't mean those kind of words. Nor would I suggest that any preachers out there try to spice up their sermons with salty language. We are called, as ministers of the word of God, to preach the word with great patience and instruction (2 Timothy 4:2). The gospel of Jesus Christ is to be preached to the nations (Matthew 24:14). We are called to proclaim the atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ and His glorious resurrection. It is wonderful duty to do this in the pulpit of my local church every Lord's Day, and it is an immense honor when I am asked to preach in another congregation. All of us preachers should say, along with the Apostle Paul, "woe is me if I do not preach the gospel." Yet there are many potential pitfalls when it comes to this task of preaching the gospel. One is that we may assume that folks know what the gospel is when they actually may not. Ask someone to explain the gospel to you sometime and you m...

    ​ I t  has become s omewhat of a  settled conviction in America Christian education circles  that the task of the Christian teacher and student is to work at integrating faith and reason, or Christian belief with the subject matter of one’s study.  While the integration project  seems to have a death grip on Christian education, there is good reason to question it. When we look at what the Christian is called to do in the integration project, and examine it in the light of Scripture, we discover that it denies in significant ways both the biblical doctrines of creation and redemption. What Scripture actually requires for education to be “Christian,” necessitates that the Christian engage in interpretation not integration , as the latter is conceived in this integration project . Those who recognize the value of Christian education for the advancement of God’s kingdom will do well to examine or re-examine the validity of the integration approach. ...

  We live in tumultuous and divisive times. A year of a pandemic and social and political unrest has revealed and exacerbated fault lines that have been in existence, but it has also given rise to new divisions and turmoil. No doubt what has played out on a national level in places like Washington D.C.; Kenosha, Wisconsin; and Portland, Oregon; you have witnessed to some degree locally in your own settings. And the conflicts seen nationally and locally are then most definitely seen virtually in the world of social media. And what happens in social media in great part fuels the tensions, divisions, and the turmoil we see on the local and national levels and all in a seemingly endless feedback loop.   If you are like me, as you watch the battles ro l l, feelings of helplessness and hopelessness can quickly set in. There seems to be so little you can do to stop it all and it’s enough to make even the most optimistic postmillennialist suffer bouts of depression. Can I get an “amen...

As our political environment has gotten more and more charged over the past year, I have been asked multiple times how we are to pray for our political leaders. The place to which I often turn when answering this question is 1 Timothy 2 where Paul wrote the following to Timothy:   “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:1-4 ESV).    In this passage, Paul gives great wisdom that is as helpful to us as it was to Timothy when it comes to praying for our leaders. The first thing we are to do is: pray for them. Make it a habit to actually pray for your leaders, those at the local, state, and national levels. Sometimes we ask quest...

          When I was in youth ministry, numbers reigned supreme as the goal and motivation. The goals on paper say super spiritual things like, “Growing in Christ” and “Loving Community” and my personal favorite, “Effective and Improving Ministry.” All of those things are great, but when I saw a stakeholder, they always asked, “How many did you have Sunday?” It’s definitely easier to count heads than it is figuring how effective I am. So rather than fight it, I bent the knee to King Numbers. You might now expect a story about the crowds I drew, but that never happened. We hovered around the average ratio for a church our size and I considered my ministry ineffective and unimproved. After 10 years of full-time youth ministry in two churches, I decided youth ministry was finished with me.      After planting our church ( Redeemer Community Church in Murray, KY), I still have regular flashbacks to my youth ministry days. They always come in the...