Caught Between ‘Try Harder’ and ‘Trust Christ’: Keeping Christ Central to Biblical Teaching
If you happened to grow up in an evangelical church during the past fifty years, it is likely that you are familiar with stories such as Abraham and Isaac, David and Goliath, Moses and the Exodus, and Jonah and the whale. Such lessons are usually accompanied by a flannel-graph that makes any child feel as if he is right in the midst of the story. This adventure is often concluded with the “moral of the story” (similar to what is found...
Reclaiming a Holistic Approach to Christian Calling and Vocation
The institution of work affects everyone. No matter the job, we must engage in it to make a living. Yet it is more than a job. It is a vocation. It is a calling from God wherein He has created and equipped us to minister to the lost and to effect cultural change. Many Christians who have secular jobs fail to view their work as from God; or else make a distinction between those vocations that are sacred and those that are secular,...
The Primacy of Preaching
Among the myriad of responsibilities that come with pastoral ministry, preaching stands head and shoulders above the rest in importance. Paul emphasized repeatedly throughout his writings the continual necessity of not just preaching, but preaching from God’s Word. The early church emphasized it, church history has displayed it, and the Scriptures themselves verify the critical nature of biblical preaching. Preaching is God’s ordained...
The Preference Problem
Society has taught many of us to avoid discussing two things: politics and religion. Even regular churchgoers know to avoid certain topics pertaining to worship–particularly music. When we happen to find ourselves discussing music, often we attempt to construct a defense for our favorite style of music. However, such a conversation often results in either one party being angry or both parties “agreeing to disagree”. How do we...
Evangelism’s Hidden Assumptions: When Theory & Praxis Contradict
Central to the Christian faith is the task of evangelism. Orthodox Christians affirm this need for witnessing in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth (cf. Acts 1:8). Nonetheless, bearing witness to the cross of Christ comes with its own unique challenges and principles about its content, as well as its approach or method. Among these challenges are some important basic assumptions. For example, the...
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