Why Pastors Aren’t Perfect: An Interview with Zack Eswine
Pastors are a very unique species. They are not only called to bridge two worlds in their preaching, as the John Stott title famously put it, but to live in two worlds. They bear the demanding burden of feeding and leading the flock of God, while at the same time being members of the flock (1 Pt. 5:1-4). They must find a way daily to manage the expectations of those they serve, while living with the fact that those expectations still...
The Church in Light of the Trinity
What is the church? Is it a building? Is it a bride? Is it a body? Evidently it’s all of the above. Scripture gives us a myriad of pictures for how we might understand the gathering of believers (Eph. 2:21; 5:22-33, 1 Cor. 15:20-23).[1] Each picture offers a different perspective. But none of them describe the Church in her entirety. Throughout history, the church has been understood largely by her marks and/or attributes. According...
Christianity and Technology: A Primer
Many years ago, various circumstances led me to focus my research and reflection on technology. In reality, what led me down this rabbit hole was observing the rapid change in the world around me. I saw its influence on Christian thought and practice, and I was curious as to why much of the best literature on technology and social change was not produced by people of traditional religious faith.[1] A recent CNN Films documentary...
Recommended Books (Summer 2015)
You may have noticed that a sizable proportion of books carried by bookstores (Christian and non-Christian alike) are very poor in quality. The reason, of course, is that cheap easy books sell better than more demanding titles. As Donald Stauffer wrote in The Nature of Poetry, “A debased currency will always drive out the genuine article, and there are plenty of ways today to get others to do our thinking and our feeling for us.”[1]...
Striking a Balance Between Duty and Delight
Serving the Church is hard. Staying motivated when things are not going well is especially difficult. Studying for the Sunday school lesson seems pointless when we are not even sure if anyone will attend the class. Striving for excellence in our given position can can be grueling when the only reason we accepted it is because no one else would. If we serve God long enough, we will experience these things, and the only thing that keeps...
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