Penn State and The Danger of Insular Communities
The news from Penn State University continues to shock, anger, and sadden all of us. A once-proud University, known for it’s commitment to excellence and integrity is now humbled by the revelations that it allowed one of it’s longtime coaches to abuse children on their campus. The allegations are still forthcoming and most of us don’t know […]
Friday Five – Drew Dyck
Drew Dyck is the author of Generation Ex-Christian (Moody, 2010). He has served in a variety of ministry roles. He currently works for Christianity Today International as the managing editor of Leadership Journal. Prior to this, Drew was the editor of New Man magazine. Drew stopped by today to answer questions for today’s Friday Five:
Friday Five: Bradley Wright
How often have you heard, in the last year, some alarming statistics that “prove” young kids are sprinting away from the church, that Christianity in the West will die in the next generation, and that the world thinks Christians are idiots? If so, then today’s Friday Five will challenge some of those statistical assumptions. I’m delighted […]
Are Pre-Packaged Sermon Series a Good Idea for Pastors?
Pastoring in this age is a great blessing, because of the volume and variety of resources at our disposal. I have hundreds of books and commentaries on my computer thanks to Wordsearch software. Then I have a library full of books and a number of key websites I visit. That’s not to mention the study […]
Why Pastors Don’t Often “Speak Up”
A few years go I had the opportunity to volunteer for a dear friend of mine who was running for Congress in the district in which I live. I was heavily involved–my job was to rally evangelical leaders to support the candidate, whose views lined up with evangelicals, especially on the social issues like abortion, […]
Why We Work
When I think of Labor Day, I think first of my father, a union plumber who has spent nearly every day of his adult life working with his hands. I’m a bit biased, but I happen to think he’s the best at what he does. Every job he does to near-perfection, not satisfied until he […]
Taming the Tongue
We’re going through James at Gages Lake Bible Church in a series we’re calling Authentic Faith. Currently we’re in the middle of chapter three, which gives perhaps the most specific, biting description of the tongue in all of Scripture and perhaps all of literature. It begins with a warning, in James 3:1-2 about the importance […]
What a Pastor Says
At Gages Lake Bible Church, we’re going through the book of James, in a series we’ve entitled, Authentic Faith. (You can listen/download the sermons here.) James is a section of Scripture that really makes you sit up and listen. And it’s written specifically to Christians in the church. There is no way to dance around […]
The Ethics of a Church Protest Blog
It’s become more and more popular: a group of disgruntled church members set up a website to “protest” the church leadership of a big and established congregation. In the last two years, there have been protest sites set up against prominent megachurches like Bellevue Baptist Church in Tennessee (Adrian Roger’s old church), Coral Ridge Presbyterian […]
Friday Five: Collin Hansen
Today I’m pleased to chat with Collin Hansen, the editorial director of The Gospel Coalition. Prior to his work with TGC, Collin was a journalist with Christianity Today. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is the author of Young, Restless, and Reformed and most recently co-author of a […]
Do Christians Rely Too Much on Statistical Research?
With a title like that, I’m sure to stir up some controversy. But lately I’ve been reading through Bradley Wright‘s magnificent book, Why Christians are Hate-Filled Hypocrites and Other Lies You’ve Been Told. In this book, Wright, a sociologist at the University of Connecticut and an evangelical Christian, looks at major polling data on evangelicals and […]
Why Christians Should Care about the Facts (But Often Don’t)
Our church has been going through a study of the book of James. Last week we came upon a verse that is mightily convicting in this digital age: Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; James 1:19 (ESV) You don’t have to parse the […]