Church Transfer Growth: Fictional Letter to a Fellow Pastor
Dear Fellow Pastor, Thanks for reaching out about the recent developments in your ministry. Your excitement about your church’s growth is palpable. It’s definitely a “good problem” to decide how many services, classes, and/or groups you need to support this growth! As I’ve told you before, our church prays for you and your church. We regularly pray for other Bible-believing, gospel-preaching churches in our region. While we differ on...
Neglecting to Meet Together: The Vital Role of the Church in Perseverance
Recently, I was scrolling through social media when I noticed someone holding up a book I have read, benefited from, and even distributed to others. What struck me about this social media post was that it claimed the author of the book had quietly apostatized from Christianity. I was not aware of this downfall, and although the author has not made any public statements regarding his deconstruction or apostasy, I suspect it is true...
Recommended Books (Winter 2021)
What societies read, or do not read, has a significant effect on the nature of political discourse in modern democratic countries. Historian Paul Johnson argues that the press, as we now know it, first set “the pace of political change in all the advanced societies” during the 1820s with the invention of the steam press.[1] In the intervening two centuries, the printing industry has gone through massive changes that have surely...
Church Membership: Whose Idea Is It Anyway?
The Christian church constantly faces the challenge of tensions in its faith and practice. Believers have to look forward to heaven’s glories while avoiding gnostic tendencies toward escapism. Churches have to determine how addressing social conditions such as poverty relates, if at all, to the Great Commission. And more recently, Christians are learning to participate better in the environmental conversation while not succumbing to...
The Church and the Surprising Offense of God’s Love (Jonathan Leeman)
Review by Jesse F. Owens Since the dawn of the Church there have always been those opposed to the work of God and His Church. Some have persecuted it, others have corrupted it and, in the present day, many are largely apathetic toward it. Understandably, pastors are concerned for the culture and are curious as to what may done to bolster their church’s attendance. While the Church has properly diagnosed the problem, an appropriate...
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