April 25th, 2017
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One of the regular complaints I hear from graduates is that they believe their seminary education did not adequately prepare them for the various counseling challenges they face in the pastorate.
April 18th, 2017
When you study for the ministry you will take a number of preaching classes as a part of the Master of Divinity curriculum. One of the inevitabilities is that students end up reflecting the preaching style and conviction of their professor.
April 11th, 2017
I served on a presbytery credentials committee for nearly a decade. The credentials committee has the task of vetting candidates for the ministry. One of the regular questions that we asked prospective candidates was, “Is your wife in agreement with your desire to pursue the ministry?”
April 4th, 2017
It seems like far too many people treat relationships of all sorts as being disposable. As soon as they hit a rough patch of any sort they decide to pull up stakes, move on, and find a new relationship.
March 28th, 2017
One of my biggest frustrations in the pastorate is the sense of being alone. In some sense the old cliché applies, it’s lonely at the top.
March 21st, 2017
One of my favorite books is Christianity and Liberalism by J. Gresham Machen. This is one of the twentieth-century’s great theological classics.
March 14th, 2017
Serendipity is one of my favorite words for two reasons. First, it’s not a word you often hear people say and has a unique sound. Say serendipity ten times fast!
March 7th, 2017
When we read the gospel accounts of Christ’s ministry one of the regular features we encounter is Christ’s interaction with demons.
February 28th, 2017
I was in college when I ran across a rep from a credit card company. Money lenders are shrewd. They know that college students don’t always have the money they want or need, and so getting a young financially inexperienced college student to sign on the bottom line is a relatively easy thing to do.
February 21st, 2017
I can remember as a child that my parents had a trash compactor in the kitchen. To me, it was a neat machine. We could stuff all manner of trash into the can, close the door, hit the button, and then listen to the compactor crush and squeeze the trash into a nice package.
February 14th, 2017
We definitely live in a time when people enjoy many creature comforts. I suppose it’s because I’m quickly aging, but I can remember a time when new cars were not automatically equipped with air conditioning.
February 7th, 2017
A pet peeve of mine is when ministers stand in the pulpit and read the Bible and do so with no inflection. It sounds like the pastor is reading entries in a dictionary . . .
January 31st, 2017
I can remember sitting in church as a young teenager as my pastor posed a question about the possible links between demon possession and mental illness.
January 24th, 2017
I recently received a Christian bookstore catalog in the mail, and so I began to flip through its pages, naturally. One thing I noticed was how large the Bible section was.
January 17th, 2017
In the wake of the death and resurrection of Christ a number of Jesus’ disciples failed to receive word that their Lord and Savior had arisen from the dead. Under the impression that Jesus was dead in his tomb, the disciples walked on the road to Emmaus until a visitor joined them along the way.
January 10th, 2017
If I were to ask my students to give me a list of the top ten theological rock stars, I suspect I know who most of the names that would appear. In many respects, this is understandable.
January 3rd, 2017
We live in an age of celebrity where people become famous for merely being famous—they have little talent or significant skills. They have become adroit at taking selfies and giving people the impression that they’re someone to watch and emulate.
December 27th, 2016
If there’s a part of prayer that few Christians need encouragement to include, it’s supplication. One of the privileges of redemption is our adoption, the fact that our union with Christ grants us the status as God’s sons.
December 20th, 2016
One of the common characteristics we find in the apostle Paul’s letters is the number of times he gives thanks to God in prayer. The opening of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is an example of this: “I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers” (Eph. 1:16).
December 13th, 2016
The familiar phrase, “forgive us our debts,” is probably known to most Christians because it comes from the Lord’s Prayer. When Christ’s disciples asked him how they should pray, Jesus identified the confession of sin as one of the key elements of prayer (Matt. 6:12).
