In my current vocational role at Care Net, the Christmas story is especially significant, as it deals with the most famous “unplanned” pregnancy in history. Earlier this year, my wife and I went to Orlando to celebrate my mom’s birthday. While there, she gave me a figurine of the Holy Family. It was originally my grandparents’, and my mom thought … Read More
Making Life Disciples: Lessons from Allison’s Story
[Note: This post, also published here, gives a glimpse into the work I do at Care Net. The intro and lessons learned, however, have wide application to all of our ministry efforts.] Sometimes we think—or certainly want—our discipleship efforts to be like biting into a York Peppermint Patty: joy explodes into the lives of those we’re ministering to and things are never … Read More
Why I’m More Interested in Conversion Than Collusion
One of the greatest joys I’ve had to date is baptizing new believers into the Christian faith—especially my children (that’s my son, Timothy, above!). Experiences like that—especially given the disheartening state of politics—are far more compelling than Hillary’s email server, collusion with Russia, or Donald’s tweets. It’s not that I don’t want justice to “roll down;” I do. It’s not … Read More
The Problems with Justification by Faith Alone
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1, ESV) “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.” (James 2:24, ESV) I thought about titling this piece “How Wesley Helped Reformed Folks Get the Gospel Right” or “Orthodox Church Corrects Protestants for De-emphasizing … Read More
Why the Reformation Still Matters
I’m a Protestant who believes Luther made an awful lot of mistakes, but got the big thing right—the gospel.- Mark Noll This summer I traveled to Sacramento to attend the General Assembly of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC). A highlight of my week was getting to hear EPC member and American historian Mark Noll. In honor of the 500th anniversary of the … Read More
What I’ve Learned from My Catholic Friends
In an interview celebrating the legendary friendship of J.R.R. Tolkien, a Roman Catholic, and C.S. Lewis, evangelicalism’s “patron saint,” British author Colin Duriez describes what Lewis learned from Tolkien: [Tolkien showed him that] “the nourishment he had always received from great myths and fantasy stories was a taste of that greatest, truest story– of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ… Lewis … Read More
Women in Church Leadership, Part 2
“Women have more to offer the church than mad decorating skills or craft nights. I look around: I see women who can offer strategic leadership, wisdom, counsel, and teaching.” ― Sarah Bessey, (egalitarian) “What women rightly long for is spiritual and moral initiative from a man, not spiritual and moral domination.”[1] -John Piper (complementarian) I mentioned last week that the … Read More
Women in Church Leadership, Part 1
In a previous fellowship of churches, I was often asked to speak when a pastor was away. On one occasion, I asked my daughter to read the passage I was preaching on that morning before I spoke. To my surprise, a fellow pastor in our denomination wrote a letter questioning why we would let a woman stand behind the sacred … Read More
Wary & Tepid No More
Abortion makes us uncomfortable. It’s an extreme topic associated with extreme politics—right or left—and we don’t like controversy. I understand. I must write about this, however, and here’s the reason: Although I hate partisan politics, I love children—especially their potential and this includes those yet unborn. Further, having experienced the joy of being a father, as a minister of the … Read More
In Pursuit of Authentic Worship, Part 2
In part one, I talked about church services that make me want to run rather than worship, and trends that may promote “less discipleship and more one night stands with Jesus.” On a constructive note—one that respects a diversity of traditions and styles not my own, below are six suggestions specifically for those who influence the weekly worship of others, … Read More