Seventeen82

  ​ In recently reading the classical Systematic Theology by John Brown of Haddington, I ran across the following quote regarding the work of faith in our sanctification:  It enables us to improve outward things as means of fellowship with  God,– prosperity, for exciting our thankfulness to him, and desire of more full enjoyment of him …. Now I am sure that a prosperity gospel preacher or two could well go to town with a quote like that. Yet, what John Brown is here stating and what a prosperity gospel preacher  advocates are two entir ely different things. The good Rev. Brown is pointing to our, by faith, viewing our outward prosperity as a means by which to engender thankfulness in our hearts ,  as well as greater longing for a  more full  enjoyment of God in our lives. Yet, we cannot escape the fact that John Brown does speak positively of outward prosperity, and for good reason. Outward prosperity, especially of the prosperous type, is a good gift ...

  Truth be told, I am very much an introvert. Unlike the woman in the Geico commercial, I don't think it is a rare thing. But it is a real thing, and it is not necessarily a good thing. People need to interact with other people. This is certainly true when it comes to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is one reason I was a bit surprised when, just a couple of weeks ago, I found out about the metachurch (which is apparently part of the metaverse). The metaverse, if I understand it correctly, is a virtual reality world where people can create avatars of themselves, enter the VR world, and "interact" with other people there. Space (property?) is even bought and sold in the metaverse. To some (introverts), this might sound like a dream, to others (extroverts?), it may sound like a nightmare. To me, it sounds a lot like The Sims video game from about 20 years ago. So what, then, is the metachurch? It's a church that exists in the metaverse. I first heard about it ...

 There are a couple of falsehoods I’m seeing more and more often on social media that I want to push back on in this article. The first is an idea becoming popular in evangelical Christian circles that the only way Christian women can avoid the dreaded "Pink Bible" studies and get substantive teaching, discipleship, and fellowship is by embracing evangelical feminism and joining egalitarian churches. That simply isn’t true. There are plenty of Reformed evangelical churches like our own congregation that are committed both to the principle of male headship in the church and family AND robust teaching, discipleship, and fellowship of both men and women.  As an example of that our Ladies Bible Study recently finished a months-long study on the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the study itself which was mostly taught by my wife used G.I. Williamson’s “Shorter Catechism” and the Bible as its core books along with additional readings from Thomas Watson’s “Body of Divinity” and “The T...

  Imagine for a moment that you are having people over to your home for dinner and a Bible study. You are in the midst of trying to get dinner prepared and doing those things that are in keeping with having the house ready for hospitality. Before the people arrive you look around and see things out of place, perhaps a couple of toys on the floor, some art materials (slivers of paper cut from what looks like 2,436 different papers) from your child’s latest artistic effort, and  a stray sock or two. You ask the children to help you clean up.  They scurry off to begin cleaning. After a while you look back and notice that the mess they have made is still there! You go find them in their rooms. One has taken their clothes out of their drawers and is folding and organizing them in each drawer by color, in the order of the rainbow. The other has pulled their desk from the wall, and is cleaning behind the desk. They have missed precisely the point of what you had meant when you ...

To whoever is reading this, please know that what you are getting to read grieves me. It grieves me to write about this subject. It grieves me that you are reading about this. But, even in this grieving, I am hopeful for Christ and His mercy to reign supreme and His grace to guide our thoughts and actions.   What grieves me is the moral failings of pastors. I don’t mean to sound like I am above such a failing, because I am not … and you are not. I am reminded of the story of two Christian men walking along a street and seeing a drunkard, passed out in the gutter, bottle in hand. One of the Christian men, when he saw the drunkard, made a remark along the lines of “look at that pitiful excuse of a man”, to which the other Christian said “there but for the grace of God go I”. That is the best summary of my approach to the moral failings of other pastors - there but for the grace of God go I. I am only one conversation, one decision, one slip up away from my name being added to the li...

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...