Tag Archives: preaching

What I’ve missed while not gathering with my local church (Part 3)

What I’ve missed while not gathering with my local church (Part 3)

This entry is part 3 of 3 in the series What's missing in virtual church You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

The novel coronavirus has resulted in a time where many churches have been unable to gather. This has been unprecedented for most of us alive today. Many churches have opted for a virtual or streaming ministry. Others have encouraged family worship, or sent pastoral guidance to church members to follow. As I have repeatedly said,… Continue Reading

Spurgeon Uncut and Unpasted

Spurgeon Uncut and Unpasted

Reading Spurgeon is a sheer delight to the heart. At the same time, it is often faintly discouraging to the preacher. How could a preacher manage such eloquence? His sentences are positively dripping with imagery, his prose saturated with trope and metaphor. It seems impossible for such poetic gold to have flowed from a preacher… Continue Reading

The People’s Work: A Reformation Recovery

The People’s Work: A Reformation Recovery

This year we celebrate the 500 year anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, a theological movement that restored many biblical doctrines and emphases that had been lost or confused during the Middle Ages. Men like John Huss, Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, Martin Bucer, John Calvin, Thomas Cranmer, and others recovered doctrines like justification by faith alone… Continue Reading

The Colloquial, the Casual, and the Crafted

The Colloquial, the Casual, and the Crafted

Those who call for ‘authenticity’, ‘realness’, and ‘sincerity’, are not always sure what they mean, if you press them for a definition. Some mean honesty, some others mean integrity, both of which are virtues the Bible commends and commands. But some of those calling for authenticity are really calling for a removal of formality from… Continue Reading

Encouragement to Ministers

Encouragement to Ministers

Gospel ministry is filled with both great difficulty and great encouragements. When ministers are discouraged, one of the ways that the Lord strengthens them is through the encouragement of other ministers. Along these lines, here are two voices from the past to encourage any ministers out there in the work they are doing: Charles Bridges… Continue Reading

Hearing the Message

Hearing the Message

Preaching is hard work. On the one hand, it is a technical exercise, almost a science. A preacher has to handle the Scriptures well. His sermon has to unpack the biblical message accurately and apply it faithfully. A good preacher has to be a competent exegete and theologian. On the other hand, preaching is an… Continue Reading

How Liturgy Shapes Preaching

How Liturgy Shapes Preaching

This entry is part of 2 in the series The Symbiosis of Preaching and Liturgy You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

The Free Church tradition typically devotes more thought to the way preaching shapes liturgy than vice versa.  This is an unfortunate imbalance that overlooks the importance the New Testament places on liturgy for spiritual instruction (cf. Ephesians 5:18-20, Colossians 3:16). Liturgy trains Christian affections to love biblical preaching. The approach advocated here distinguishes between feelings… Continue Reading

How Preaching Shapes Liturgy

How Preaching Shapes Liturgy

This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series The Symbiosis of Preaching and Liturgy You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Every church follows a form of liturgy, whether intentional or not.  Unfortunately, some churches tend toward two extremes in this matter.  Some traditions take liturgy very seriously, but treat it as if it exists independently from preaching.  Others uphold the priority of preaching as if necessary liturgical choices are only marginally important.  Instead, we must… Continue Reading

Gospel impact and the world’s approval

Gospel impact and the world’s approval

Christians today seem to assume that the best way to have the greatest gospel impact in the world is to gain the world’s approval and acceptance first. If we can just earn their respect, perhaps they will give us a better hearing. There is certainly some truth to this: our behavior before the unbelieving world should… Continue Reading

Article 7: On Scripture Regulated Worship

Article 7: On Scripture Regulated Worship

This entry is part 9 of 17 in the series A Conservative Christian Declaration You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

This is a series to further explain the articles of “A Conservative Christian Declaration.” . We affirm that the worship of God is regulated through his Word. Innovation, however well-intentioned, is “will-worship” (Col. 2:23), violates the free consciences of individual Christians (Rom. 14:5, 23), and is therefore displeasing to God (Matt. 15:9). We affirm that the… Continue Reading

Luther on the centrality of the Word in worship

Luther on the centrality of the Word in worship

Martin Luther did not want to revolutionize completely the traditional worship of the Western church. He did, however, believe that preaching of the Word had been sorely neglected. In 1523, he published some instructions on the “Order of Public Worship,” and therein he identified three errors that were common in papal worship services: (1) the… Continue Reading

Relevance is Irrelevant (Conclusion)

Relevance is Irrelevant (Conclusion)

This entry is part 14 of 14 in the series Relevance is Irrelevant You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 This series has been intended to address biblically the necessity of so-called relevant ministry. I have deliberately avoided articulating “dividing lines” of what is necessarily “relevant methods” and what is not. In fact, I do not believe such lines would… Continue Reading

Relevance is Irrelevant (Part 13)

Relevance is Irrelevant (Part 13)

This entry is part 13 of 14 in the series Relevance is Irrelevant You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 I have been arguing that Paul’s method of ministry deliberately avoided attempts to be (what we would call) relevant. Paul not only says that he himself avoided relevant methods, but compels his successors to do the same. His manner of ministry… Continue Reading

Relevance is Irrelevant (Part 11)

Relevance is Irrelevant (Part 11)

This entry is part 11 of 14 in the series Relevance is Irrelevant You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 Modern American evangelicalism has a tendency to augment the preaching of the gospel with certain practices and cultural adaptations by which they believe the Word of God becomes “relevant” to unbelievers. I have been arguing that Paul’s “method of ministry” outlined in the… Continue Reading

Relevance is irrelevant (Part 10)

Relevance is irrelevant (Part 10)

This entry is part 10 of 14 in the series Relevance is Irrelevant You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 I return this week to the series I abruptly left unfinished about a year ago. According to 1 Corinthians 1-3, the means that God wants to use to save sinners is the gospel, the preaching of “Christ crucified.” The unsaved of this world do… Continue Reading

A Sound Church: Expositional Preaching

A Sound Church: Expositional Preaching

This entry is part 3 of 4 in the series A Sound Church You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

(The articles in this series were originally written for publication in the local newspaper of the town in which I pastor.) In the previous weeks’ essays on the commitments of a sound church, I’ve argued that the Bible alone functions as the highest authority in the church. If this is true, then it becomes exceedingly… Continue Reading

Doing Our Own Thing

Doing Our Own Thing

Winner of “Best Book Subtitle of the Last Decade” must surely go to John McWhorter’s Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of Music and Language And Why We Should, Like, Care. McWhorter is witty, disarming, and generally enjoyable (if, unfortunately, lewd in places) while arguing a serious and convincing thesis. He is no grammar-maven, writing… Continue Reading

Prayer in Gospel Ministry

Prayer in Gospel Ministry

Prayer is a necessary practice of a sound church. The role of secret and corporate prayer in the life of a Christian congregation is sometimes overlooked. Mark Dever, whose insights we value, fails to list to prayer as one of his “marks” of “healthy churches.” (Dever concedes this point and briefly addresses it in his… Continue Reading