Last week we discovered that the founders of the first church were characterized by united, fervent prayer. But prayer is not the only thing with which… Read More »The founders of the first church had a proper respect for Scripture
(The articles in this series were originally written for publication in the local newspaper of the town in which I pastor.) What do you look… Read More »A Sound Church: Submitted to Scripture
We have begun a series looking at characteristics of the founders of the first church that we should emulate in our churches today. The first… Read More »The founders of the first church were united in fervent prayer
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… Read More »Doing Our Own Thing
After their Lord ascended into heaven, the disciples stared into the sky, having just have receiving instruction to remain in Jerusalem until they were immersed by… Read More »Characteristics of the founders of the first church
Regular readers of this blog know that I am a fervent defender of the Regulative Principle of Worship. However, today I’d like to set that debate… Read More »Four Commitments of the Infant Church
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… Read More »Prayer in Gospel Ministry
For previous installments from this series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 A further word ought to be said about building… Read More »Afterthoughts on Building Community
Many professing believers today are asking, “Is it really necessary at all to be a member of a visible, local church? If I am a… Read More »Why join a church?
For previous installments from this series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 . At least in America, few rural communities are left. Rural… Read More »Closing Thoughts on Building Community
As conservatives, it can be easy to grow discouraged. There are very few of us. It seems that all of American Christianity (sorry, David de… Read More »The Lord is God (still)
In the past couple weeks I have tried to suggest two reasons (among many others) problems in worship exists today. The first is that pastors… Read More »How to convince a pastor that worship and music are important
I suggested last week, springing from Kevin Bauder’s excellent article, that one of the reasons worship is in such trouble today is that pastors who… Read More »Why else are we in this mess?
I’m currently reading Tozer’s The Knowledge of the Holy and plan to share some quotes over the coming weeks. From the preface, here is the… Read More »A. W. Tozer on the Church in His Day
There is little doubt that the missional church movement has been influential in evangelical churches, and that it continues to grow. Having surveyed the history… Read More »The Good and the Bad of Missional Worship
With regard to the missional movement’s understanding of Christendom, it is important to recognize that they saw what happened during this period as little more… Read More »The Incarnational Mode of Missional Worship
According to missional authors, the Christendom model significantly affects how the average 21st century American church practices worship. During the Christendom period, the church dominated… Read More »Twenty-first Century Western Post-Modernism as Missional Worship Context
Part of the difficulty in attempting to synthesize a philosophy of missional worship is that many different groups have adopted the term missional to describe… Read More »The Missionary Imperative of Missional Worship
Missional authors argue that the church today has failed to recognize that the Christendom era has ended. It no longer enjoys the level of influence… Read More »The State of Mission Today
Fostering a right view towards the Christian tradition is part of true Christianity. Conservative pastors will do their best to see the Christian tradition rightly… Read More »Fostering a Love for Tradition