A Defense of Ethical Evangelism
How Religion Spoils Everything is the subtitle of Christopher Hitchens’s New York Times best-seller God is Not Great. And there are many who share Hitchens’s feelings about religion. Increasingly, it seems, many see religion as a dangerous thing. Still, the vast majority of people (especially Americans) are religious. Despite the prevalence of religious peoples, increasing pressure mounts nevertheless to privatize faith. For religions...
Christian Worship: “Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs”
We sing. As Christians, it’s something we do. It’s what we’ve done in the past, it’s what we do today, and it’s what we’ll do forevermore. Yet, the simple act of singing in the church is more than just words crafted together, or lyrics set to music—though it is these things. Ultimately, we offer praise to God in worship by it. Today, some sing with instrumentation, and others without. Some sing from screens, and others from books....
The Pursuit of Excellence
Introduction “True greatness should never go unrecognized,” or so says Audi’s recent luxury sedan ad campaign. Indeed, the truly great or excellent should never go unrecognized. It should be sought after and recognized for its worth. Yet the question remains, “In our pursuit of excellence, what is truly excellent?” In this essay I will explore the topic of excellence: What do we find concerning excellence in the natural world? And...
The “Doctor”
Essay by J. Clint Adams David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, affectionately known as “the Doctor,” was arguably the greatest preacher of the twentieth-century. Born in Wales in the winter of 1899, Lloyd-Jones showed great medical abilities at a young age. Before reaching the age of 22 he already held four degrees and even began working under the great Sir Thomas Horder at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital [1]. While working at St. Bartholomew’s, he...
When Technology Comes to Church
What happens when technology comes to church? For kingdom-minded Christians, this is the logical question to ask following my prior essay, Is Technology Neutral? Once we’ve agreed in principle that technology is no neutral force in human affairs, this raises questions for its usage in all areas of life. For those who worship in most Protestant churches today, technology is everywhere. Technologies aren’t just overhead screens and...
Is Technology Neutral?
After conversing with a 22-year-old following a service, I realized my mistake. I had used iPods in a sermon illustration as a point-of-contact with my twenty-first century, media-saturated congregation. Yet the young man disagreed—“I don’t think most of them knew what you were talking about”—and he was right. I remembered that over half my congregation was 65+ years old. Few iPod owners were in my midst. Though many Americans today...
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