The Gospels give us the historical fact of Christ’s crucifixion. The Epistles explain the theological signification of His death. Wiersbe explained it this way: “History states that ‘Christ died,’ but theology explains, ‘Christ died for our sins’ (1 Cor. 15:3).”
Read moreThe Baptist Distinctives
The late Dr. Colon Smith thought the acrostic B-A-P-T-I-S-T is harmful in teaching the Baptist distinctive rather than helpful. For example, Dr. Smith asks, “Where is the “C” for congregational rule in the acrostic?” Dr. Smith tells of a church that changed its form of government form congregational to elder rule. The pastor sent a challenging letter to the sate association, saying congregational church government is unbiblical. This pastor further claimed that our fellowship must not believe in congregational government because there’s no “C” in the B-A-P-T-I-S-T acrostic. Apparently, someone took the B-A-P-T-I-S-T acrostic as the official definition of the Baptist distinctive, and not simply a handy artificial memory device!
Read moreThe process and result of Fuller Theological Seminary abandoning their doctrinal statement
Fuller Theological Seminary illustrates the effect of a Christian institution or local church abandoning a solid doctrinal statement. The Domino Effect took place at Fuller Theological Seminary which was founded in 1947 by Charles Fuller.
Read moreThe Importance of Doctrinal Statements
I want to grapple with what is necessary for the preservation of a local church or any Christian institution i.e., adhering to a Biblical doctrinal statement. I will eventually discuss Fuller Theological Seminary which slowly abandoned its doctrinal statement. Possessing a Biblical doctrinal statement is only one necessary step to preserving a local church or Christian institution. If the solid doctrinal statement is not adhered to; it is a worthless piece of paper. I would like to survey the inspiring and disappointing history of doctrinal statements and creeds to substantiate my thesis.
Read moreN. T. Wright’s Denial of the Rapture
Kurt Willems writes a post entitled “Why the Rapture isn’t Biblical … And Why it Matters at Patheos.” He has adamantly repudiated what he was taught at church as a child and is also disturbed by the success of the Left Behind series (65 million have been sold). I’m sure the new 2023 Left Behind movie only adds to his frustration.
Read moreThe Manhattan Declaration
We support the three moral and political issues The Manhattan Declaration defends. We support the sanctity of life which the culture of death threatens in the form of abortion, ethnic cleansing, and euthanasia. We also support the integrity of marriage and the defense of religious liberty.
Read moreReview of Building The Church: A Comprehensive Manual for Church Administration by Joseph Miller
Church consultant, Joseph Miller reports that national surveys of evangelical churches indicate that 80 percent of the giving in those churches comes from 20 percent of the constituency. The balance of 20 percent comes from another 30 percent of the people, leaving 50 percent of the constituency contributing nothing.
Read moreThe Non-controversial Subject of Church Music (Part 2)
The church must impact culture which include our music.
We must embed ourselves in a culture and develop friendships with lost people so that we can be informed and avoid making erroneous judgments…. As a missionary, you will need to watch television shows and movies, listen to music, read books, peruse magazines, attend events, join organizations, surf websites, and befriend people that you might not like to better understand people that Jesus loves” (Mark Driscoll, The Radical Reformission, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004, pages 97, 103).
Read moreThe Non-controversial Subject of Church Music! (Part 1)
The powerful influence of music is seen in 1 Sam. 16:14-23 when David, the greatest harpist in Israel, calmed troubled King Saul with his music.
Aristotle said, ‘Music has the power to shape character.’ Satan is clearly using music to do that today. The rock lyrics of the 1960s and 1970s shaped the values of most Americans who are now in their thirties, forties, or fifties. Today, MTV shapes the values of most people in their teens and twenties (Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Church, page 279).
Read moreCALLED TO PREACH, Part 2
Even before the Missional/Missions debate over the call of God and ordinations, Raymond Bailey made the following suggestion: “Perhaps the doctrine of the priesthood of believers could best be demonstrated by doing away with ordination altogether. It may well be that the greater diversity of ministries does not call for more ordinations but for the abolition of the practice as counter-productive to the missions of the church in the modern world” (Raymond Bailey, “Multiple Ministries and Ordination, Review and Expositor 78, no. 4, 1981: 533).
Read moreCALL TO PREACH, Part 2
In his testimony about the call to preach, John Piper, wrote: “The calling to preach and pastor had become irresistible.” Paul describes his call in Ephesians 3.
The Call to The Ministry and The Call to Ministry is not Either/Or but Both/And.
God called Paul to preach the truths in Ephesians 3:1-6 as he states in 3:7: “I was made a minister.” This historically happened in Acts 26:14-18.
Read moreCALLED TO PREACH, Part 1
The debate between advocates of the Missions Church and the Missional Church (old conservative wing of the Emerging Church) continues:
The Missions Church emphasizes global missions and the Missional church emphasizes your local culture, i.e., your city. The Missions Church stresses a special call to the Ministry and the Missional church stresses a call to ministry. The Missions church emphasizes a professional ministry and the Missional church a ministry for everyone. Which is correct? Both.
Read moreTen Steps for Calling a Pastor to Your Church
When a church needs a pastor they should go courting a potential candidate. Here are some brief suggested guidelines that certainly can be modified according to the need and policy of the church.
1. The deacons form a Search Committee or sometimes the deacons are the Search Committee. The committee members should be mature leaders in the church because of the weighty decision they will lead the church to make. Certainly no novices. These Search Committee members should be able to recognize the qualifications for the pastor in 1 Timothy 3:1-7.
Read moreThe Six Marks of Leadership, Mark Two, “He Prays for God’s People” (Nehemiah 1:5-11)
This characteristic of leadership is certainly seen in Nehemiah’s ministry. One out of every ten verses in Nehemiah is a reference to prayer. Chapter Two of Swindol’s Hand Me Another Brick, (his commentary of Nehemiah’s leadership) is entitled “A Leader---From The Knees Up.”
Read moreHow To Get To Know The Preachers of Yesteryear!
Since Spurgeon was not televised and McClaren did not pod cast, does this mean I must leave their beautifully leather bound sermons just to decorate my library shelves? Being personally familiar with a preacher is helpful to benefit from his preaching. Andrew W. Blackwood, who was the professor of homiletics at Princeton, in his book Preaching from the Bible aids us in getting to know preachers from the past. Blackwood encourages preachers to take six months to one year and read at least one good biography of a well known and greatly used preacher before getting into his printed sermons. Next, read any books he has written on preaching and pastoring (Andrew W. Blackwood. Preaching from the Bible. New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1941, pages 235-236).
Read more6 Marks of Leadership: Mark One: Leaders Show Concern for God's Work (Neh. 1:1-4)
Mark Dever promotes Four Aspects of Leadership in Nine Marks of a Healthy Church with the acrostic BOSS.
B=Boss. The leader “reproves, rebukes, and exhorts with all longsuffering and doctrine.”
There is a delicate balance in local churches between pastoral authority (Hebrews 13) and congregational authority (Matthew 18). The pastors must exercise his authority to preach and lead in order for the congregation to fulfill its authority of approving correct doctrine and rejecting false doctrine (Galatians 1:9).
Read more“Praying People into Heaven”
Lewis Sperry Chafer in his book entitled “True Evangelism: Winning Souls by Prayer” writes, “The personal element in true soul-winning work is more a service of pleading for souls than a service of pleading with souls. It is talking with God about men from a clean heart and in the power of the Spirit, rather than talking to men about God…. the divine order is to talk to God about men, until the door is definitely open to talk to men about God” (Lewis Sperry Chafer. True Evangelism. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1993, 69-71). In light of this statement, we need to answer some questions about praying people into heaven.
Read moreYou Can Know God’s Will for Your Life (Part 3)
The first is through our God given desires. Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself also in the LORD, and he shall give you the desires of your heart.” If we are delighting in the Lord, then most likely what we desire is God’s will. One of the reasons I knew God’s will for my life was preaching is because I had a desire which fits with 1 Timothy 3:1: “If any man desire the office of a bishop he desires a good work.” "Desire" is mentioned twice in that one verse.
Read moreYou Can Know God’s Will for Your Life (Part 2)
Three conditions to meet in order to know God’s will for your life
The First Condition, You Must “Trust in the Lord.”
For the unsaved, it is God’s will that you get saved. God has a decreed will and a permissive will. God has decreed some things that will happen. God decreed the death of Christ for our sins before the foundation of the world. In Acts 2:22-23, wicked men carried out the predetermined plan of God when they crucified Christ. Even the decreed will of God does not eliminate human responsibility for which these wicked men are accountable to God.
Read moreYou Can Know God’s Will for Your Life (Part 1)
When John Wesley was thirty-two years old, he was a bachelor missionary in the colony of Georgia. While he was serving a church in Savannah, he met a young woman named Sophia Christian Hopkey. She was pretty and intelligent, and Wesley fell head over heels in love with her. But Wesley belonged to a group called the Holy club, and one of their ideals was that members should remain single. So Wesley was caught in a dilemma. Was it the will of God for him to marry Sophie or not? To find out, he and a friend named Charles Delamotte decided to draw lots. On three pieces of paper they wrote: “Marry”; “Think not of it this year”; and “Think of it no more.” Then they put the pieces in a container. Delamotte closed his eyes and drew out the third one, “Think of it no more.” Wesley was heartbroken, but he took the result to be the will of God. He ended the courtship, and, not long after, he sailed back to England. In his journal, he wrote over the record of his romance, “Snatched as a brand out of the fire.”
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