Category – The Christian life

John Calvin had many friends in his life, but some of his friendships did not stand the test of time and the stress of ministry. One friend in particular, Sebastian Castellio, embraced the Reformation and joined Calvin in Strasbourg to work alongside of him. Calvin made him a member of…
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We live in a day and age when activism of all kinds is on display on the internet, cable news broadcasts, and print media. The world’s mentality is, if you want to get something done, you have to protest, march, boycott, or do something to wield power and influence to…
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One of the casualties of the modern theological curriculum is the division of the different theological disciplines. In the nineteenth-century theologians created the fourfold division of theology: biblical studies, church history, theology, and practical theology. While there are undoubtedly other factors at play, such as the distancing of the theological…
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A retired football player recently made headlines when he was flummoxed by the fact that he was not nominated to the pro football hall of fame. On the one hand, the player has a point. He was one of the NFL’s top players and has the statistics to prove it.…
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I can remember that over the course of 24 months I had more than ten families tell me that they were re-locating due to job transfers. When I received the first intimations of these moves, I thought, “Well, that’s ok. God willing we can find some other families to fill…
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I regularly run across statistics that say that thousands of pastors each year leave the ministry and cite burn out as a chief reason. While some have challenged the accuracy of these statistics, it doesn’t change the fact that burn out is a real problem for many pastors. They graduate…
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Sigmund Freud once famously opined that religion was merely the wishful projection of weak people who were looking for their lost father figure. Freud was echoing the earlier theory of Ludwig Feurbach, who made the same claim. In his book, Faith of the Fatherless: A Psychology of Atheism, Paul Vitz…
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I can’t help but wonder how many preachers and teachers spend a great deal of time in prayer before they undertake their sacred task. There is a story about Martin Luther King Jr. that illustrates my point. Rosa Parks, the woman who famously started the Montgomery, Alabama bus strike to…
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Over the years I have had many students come into my office and ask me about pursuing doctoral studies. One of the first questions I ask them is, “Why?” I ask this question because many students don’t know that pursuing doctoral studies is a long, difficult, and burdensome path. Once…
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There are preachers and theologians to whom we listen and read. They fill our hearts with joy because they excel at pointing us to Christ. They move us to tears when we hear them preach, or they instill zeal in our hearts when we read their thunderous prose. We elevate…
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