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An indication of the depth of our spiritual blindness is our inability to see efforts to rid the world of the institutional church as one of Satan’s most significant and oldest acts. If the church is both organization and organism, and if the church has existed since the Garden Temple of Genesis 2, then the […]
Two years ago I preached a message entitled "Christmas at Bethel." I recall the furrowed brows this title elicited in the weeks leading up to the sermon when people inquired about my approaching sermon topic. Imagine how they would have responded to the title "Christmas at Luz"! My purpose here is to share some of […]
How many times have you heard that the church is not a place but a people? Across the board, from more traditional to more experimental approaches to ministry, the dominant perspective seems to be that we gather on the Lord’s Day primarily in order to do something for God and each other rather than first […]
Many lament the vast diversity of Protestant denominations on the American landscape: Why cannot we Christians agree more often? Denominations allegedly undermine the unity of the church. Let me suggest it is not denominations that undermine the unity of the church, but rather the way in which most Americans relate to church in the first […]
"EMBRACE Your Inner Pentecostal." In a recent article in Christianity Today, Chris Armstrong of Bethel Seminary (Minneapolis) and senior editor of Christian History & Biography seeks to show that "Holy Spirit religion is quietly infiltrating the church, revitalizing us all." Through the influence of Pentecostalism, he suggests, Christians across all denominational boundaries are in search […]
Individualism is the problem. Community is the solution. That's what they are saying. First the philosophers, sociologists, political theorists, psychologists, and theologians were saying it. Now I hear pastors, church leaders, and impressionable young seminarians saying it. Individualism is what bedevils culture and church both; community is what will save them. Last Thanksgiving I was […]
For good or for ill, we live in a postmodern age. Among the many facets of this paradigm shift are a suspicion of order and objectivity, truth and reason, tradition and institutions; and the church has often devolved into this very institutionalism: with its rigid and distant authority structures, its attachment to traditions, its passion […]
My current pastor demonstrates energy and skill as he works to build a viable congregation in Southern California-and as a Lutheran pastor and professor, I assist him in his ministry; but neither of us foresaw in 1972 (the year of my ordination) the challenges we both face today. The Lutheran theological categories of law and […]
According to Christianity Today, “J.I. Packer was one of the most famous and influential evangelical leaders of our time. He died Friday, July 17, at age 93” [click here for the full CT article]. Dr. Packer had a major influence on many of us at White Horse Inn and Modern Reformation. In this 2008 interview, Shane Rosenthal […]
In this book, Kolb and Arand offer the reader some thoughts on how the riches of the Lutheran tradition might be used in contemporary church life. Both men are well qualified for the task: Kolb is well known for a number of outstanding monographs on Martin Luther; and Arand has worked on the background to […]
This book has two primary purposes: (1) to provide a thorough narrative describing the various revivals of religion in the American colonies between 1730 and 1800, and (2) to show that these revivals constitute the beginnings of evangelicalism in America. There is no question that the book accomplishes its first purpose superbly. Whether the book […]
Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World is not a new book. It was initially released in 2000 in hardback, and was re-released in trade paperback in 2002 as a revised edition with a new Bible study appendix. In 2007, the book was again republished in a gift edition. The 2002 edition, which I […]
