Series: Toward Conservative Christian Churches

Imagination and Shaping the Affections

Imagination and Shaping the Affections

This entry is part 21 of 32 in the series Toward Conservative Christian Churches You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Many of the pastors I have met are unwitting moderns. I should know, for I am also a pastor, and a recovering modern. That is, I am someone who believed the lies of scientism: that the way to know reality is by fact-collecting, and that humans are capable of being completely objective in their fact-collecting.… Continue Reading

A Christian Imagination

A Christian Imagination

This entry is part 22 of 32 in the series Toward Conservative Christian Churches You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was “terrible”, describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”: make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words… Continue Reading

The Christian and Meaning

The Christian and Meaning

This entry is part 23 of 32 in the series Toward Conservative Christian Churches You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Two propositions summarize why a conservative Christian church is concerned with meaning: Christians are humans, and Christians live in the world. What is the world? The world Christians live in is a world that is the handiwork of an intelligent Being, filled with all His purposes and designs. What is a human? A human is… Continue Reading

The Pastor and Sola Scriptura

The Pastor and Sola Scriptura

This entry is part 24 of 32 in the series Toward Conservative Christian Churches You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

If pastors are to shepherd churches in which there is a desire to understand the meaning of the world and apply it to worship, obedience and ministry, some will need to adjust their understanding of their doctrine of Scripture (or their theories of applying Scripture). A strange paralysis has come over many evangelical pastors. They… Continue Reading

A World of Meaning

A World of Meaning

This entry is part 25 of 32 in the series Toward Conservative Christian Churches You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Once a pastor has it settled in his mind that sola Scriptura does not require him to ignore, dismiss or reject extra-biblical sources of knowledge, he may safely walk through God’s world and examine it, knowing that it is, indeed, his Father’s world. A pastor should become personally fascinated with meaning. How could it be… Continue Reading

Encouraging Reflectiveness

Encouraging Reflectiveness

This entry is part 26 of 32 in the series Toward Conservative Christian Churches You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Ours is not a particularly reflective age. When a pastor begins speaking of the meaning of the media, devices and technologies that surround us, he may receive something of a puzzled, if not combative, reaction. Many today are oblivious to the meanings of the things they read, the music they listen to, the films they… Continue Reading

Conservatives and Tradition

Conservatives and Tradition

This entry is part 27 of 32 in the series Toward Conservative Christian Churches You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

A church that is self-consciously conservative has a relationship with both the past and the future. If we are conserving Christianity, we must be conserving the Christianity we have received – from the church of the past. If we are conserving Christianity, we must be doing so for the sake of passing it on –… Continue Reading

Form and Meaning

Form and Meaning

This entry is part 28 of 32 in the series Toward Conservative Christian Churches You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Christians’ affections are greatly shaped by the moral imagination. The moral imagination is largely shaped by the meaning of the various media it encounters. This meaning is largely contained in the form of such things. If a pastor is serious about meaning, then he must be serious about form. Form, in its simplest sense, is… Continue Reading

Rightly Viewing Tradition

Rightly Viewing Tradition

This entry is part 29 of 32 in the series Toward Conservative Christian Churches You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

The religious scene of the country in which I minister is populated by mainline Protestant churches, some of whom place great emphasis on tradition. However, in many of these churches, the gospel itself is all but invisible, an assumed but unseen foundation of the house. The problem is, most of those in the house have… Continue Reading

Rightly Evaluating Tradition

Rightly Evaluating Tradition

This entry is part 30 of 32 in the series Toward Conservative Christian Churches You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

If we are to grow a right view of the Christian tradition within our churches, we will have to overcome the ‘suspicion of tradition’ that pervades many evangelical churches. One way to do this is to teach Christians how to evaluate writings, hymns, prayers, and liturgies from the Christian past. When Christians have a set… Continue Reading

Fostering a Love for Tradition

Fostering a Love for Tradition

This entry is part 31 of 32 in the series Toward Conservative Christian Churches You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

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 viewed and used in their local churches. Living in an age which assumes that the latest point in church history is the most advanced point, a respect for tradition may not come naturally to… Continue Reading

Conclusion: Brothers, We Are Not Populists

Conclusion: Brothers, We Are Not Populists

This entry is part 32 of 32 in the series Toward Conservative Christian Churches You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Conservative Christian churches are not eccentric. They believe they are merely consistent in their understanding and application of Christianity. They believe that the Christianity they have received must be passed  on without diminution. Where they differ from many other Christians is that they believe there is more to Christianity than the gospel and a statement… Continue Reading