What I Learned from Five Years of Church Planting, 3 of 3

[1] Heb. 6:11, NLT. See also the story of Hagar and Ismael in Gen. 16. [2] Tod Bolsinger, Canoeing the Mountains (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2015), 21 of study guide from 2018. [3] Fleming Rutledge, Advent: The Once & Future Coming of Jesus Christ (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018), 18, 26-27.

What I Learned from Five Years of Church Planting, 1 of 3

For the last ten years, my life passage has been Ecclesiastes 9:7-10. I’ve written about that here, but for our purposes in this series, David Gibson’s insights bear repeating: “It’s vital to see that the eating, drinking, and loving in these verses do not form an exhaustive list of God’s gifts. Rather, it’s a representative list of what it means … Read More

A Critical Concern for Paedo-Baptists

Last week I gave a few challenges to my Baptist friends. This week I want to give some similar love to my fellow paedo-baptist church leaders. Specifically, I want to talk about the critical need for intentionality in encouraging and facilitating professions of faith from non-communicant members. [BTW, “non-communicant members,” a term we’ll discuss below, are those who’ve been baptized … Read More

A Challenge to My Baptist Friends

In finishing up a five-year season of church-planting, I wanted to make some updates to the Constructive Conversation booklet Baptism & Its Significance. Along with several updates, this is one of two new bonus tracks I’ll be adding. As always, I welcome your feedback. Also, the pictures above and below are of some of my favorite people and memories from … Read More

Did the First Baptists Baptize by Immersion?

“A strange view held by many Baptists: Only immersion counts as real/valid baptism, but grape juice instead of wine will suffice in communion.” -Derek Radney, Pastor at Trinity Church (PCA) in Winston-Salem, NC In preparation for a Mantua Creek baptismal service on Sunday, September 15th hosted by our parent church, Ashland Church, I’m adding some updates to the constructive conversation … Read More

Defining Christian Nationalism, 1 of 2

I was finishing tiling her floor when my friend, Margaret, asked me “What is Christian nationalism?” She had seen the term referenced in this Mantua Creek story of impact from last year: “When we first started coming, I was questioning if there was a place for me in the evangelical church. I was discouraged by the rise of Christian Nationalism … Read More

Nurturing a Healthy Church Family

“Do not speak harshly to an older man, but speak to him as to a father, to younger men as brothers, to older women as mothers, to younger women as sisters—with absolute purity.” 1 Timothy 5:1-2, NRSVUE This year, at Mantua Creek, we’re going through the pastoral epistles and Philemon. Last week my study of the text above was so surprisingly … Read More

The Problems with Single-Issue Voting

I’m not a fan of single-issue voting, especially the kind that seeks to intimidate and impose one person or group’s convictions on another. Like other forms of fundamentalism, it tends to oversimplify reality, ignore a forest of other issues, dumb people down into clones, alienate upcoming generations who prioritize differently, and judge others who don’t think as they do. As … Read More

Gospel Transformation vs. Politics

As a minister of the gospel serving at the center of the pro-life movement, I often used the phrase “non-political” to distance myself from unhelpful associations with white Republicanism and single-issue voting. Additionally, as a “never-Trumper,” I did it to protect myself from being canceled by many in my own network. I say this last statement not to disparage those … Read More