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At lunch with a prospective church member, I described the process of joining our church: a six- to ten-week membership class that introduces our church's teaching in its confessions, its worship and life together, and an extensive interview to examine a candidate's profession of faith and knowledge of the catechism. He shook his head and […]
Over a decade ago, the U.S. military entered Somalia on a peace-keeping mission, but threats to troops and other factors gradually transformed it into a vague enterprise. A Washington Post writer working on that story coined the phrase "mission creep," which is a good analogy for what is happening in the church today. Just as […]
First Things First Two preliminary observations are in order. First, it must be understood that there is no guarantee that what has worked in one place will achieve the same results elsewhere. What follows is an overview of what I and others have done and should not be viewed as a sure-fire formula. If anything, […]
The following is a Reader’s Digest version of what led Martin Luther to the discovery of the gospel. It introduces Luther’s upbringing, education, and life as a monk before turning to the nature of the gospel he discovered in the writings of St. Paul. Luther’s Upbringing Luther was the second son in a family of […]
The other night, I called my sixth-grade son from work to check up on him. "Um, actually I'm chatting on Skype right now," he confessed, "with one of your Albanian friends, Marko." Knowing fifteen-year-old Marko, I realized he was probably witnessing to my son. Nevertheless, maternal concern won out: "Miro, it's midnight in Albania. Marko […]
The 2007 Pixar movie WALL-E is set in a ruined Earth of the future. As the planet has become an uninhabitable trash heap from human excess, many Earthlings drift randomly through space on a massive spaceship created by an entrepreneurial mogul. Lifelong tourists, the ship's passengers enjoy daily shopping, entertainment, meals, and snacks. Slurping their […]
Evangelicals take their name from the koine Greek word euangelion, translated into English as "good news" and also known as "the evangel." It is from the evangel or gospel that evangelicals derive their identity. In the past fifty or so years, cracks have appeared in the definition of what it means to be an evangelical, […]
There are many favorite prayer books people like to recommend, such as the following: Matthew Henry in A Method for Prayer models for us how to use the Scriptures in prayer; B. M. Palmer in Theology of Prayer sets the theological foundations for prayer in an unprecedented manner; Austin Phelps in The Still Hour unfolds […]
It was a distinct pleasure to read John Fesko's contribution to a body of new commentaries in Tolle Lege Press's Lectio Continua series. The introduction reminds the reader that "the greatest need of the church today is the recovery of sound biblical preaching that faithfully explains and applies the text, courageously confronts sin, and boldly […]
To someone for whom the twentieth-century philosophers Martin Heidegger and Jean-Luc Marion are unknown gods, reading D. B. Hart can be a bit daunting. My mother called it the intellectual equivalent of riding a seat-less mountain bike. Convinced as I am that there is every bit as much pleasure as there is pain in the […]
According to Mortimer Adler, “Of all things that human beings do, conversing with one another is the most characteristically human.” Unfortunately, the art of conversation has fallen on hard times in our day. Virtual conversations abound’we watch talking heads on television or listen to people debate the issues of the day on talk radio’but how […]
"Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering." (Heb. 13:3) Although we should always remember our persecuted brethren around the world, many Christians will be specifically praying on Sunday, November 11’the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP). Not […]
