Many of us were reared in pious evangelical homes and churches where "Christianity" and "Churchianity" were regularly contrasted. Christianity involved having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ whereas Churchianity involved an attachment to mere externals. This contrast could also appear in terms of the informal versus the formal, real versus nominal, born-again versus dead religion-or […]
Pietism is a recurring tendency within Christian history to emphasize Christian practice over theology and church order. Its own historians identify four general traits in this tendency: (1) it is experientialpietists are people of the heart for whom Christian living is a fundamental concern; (2) it is biblicalpietists are, to echo John Wesley, people of […]
In September of 1994, I became the pastor of a local congregation in Washington, D.C., composed of about 500 individual members. As good Baptists, we counted individuals, not families. Computing the number of members that way reflects the strong Baptist tradition of the necessity of individual profession of faith for Church membership. Membership cannot be […]
1Study the biblical passages relevant to the practice of church discipline. Consider getting copies of Jay Adams, Handbook of Church Discipline (Zondervan, 1986), or the volume I edited, Polity (Center for Church Reform, 2001). Although the first is written by a Presbyterian, I as a Baptist think it is very helpful, and though the second […]
When Paul, Silas, and Timothy first wrote to the church in Thessalonica, they said they knew that God had saved the Thessalonians because "our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction" (1 Thess. 1:5). The authenticity of the Thessalonians' faith was evident […]
f Lutheran theologian Paul Raabe, in A Confessing Theology for Postmodern Times (Crossway 2000), is right, then an examination of any cultural group's practice of Christianity must be rooted in the religion and God of Israel: "The only hope for Hispanics or Chinese or Germans or Americans is to come to Zion and worship the […]
hat happens to Christianity in the workplace? Does faith make a difference in the way believers work? These are questions that the 1999 movie The Big Kahuna, starring Kevin Spacey and Danny Devito, raised in surprisingly thoughtful ways. The film features three colleagues from the same company who host a cocktail party at a manufacturers' […]
hen my children are grown, the one thing I hope they will take with them from our family is …" How would the average American parent answer that question? The answers would certainly vary, but how often do we hear a parent say, "I want my child to have learned piety in our family?" Would […]
MR: Would you give us a little background as to how you came to see the importance of spiritual disciplines? Your theological journey?DW: My desire to be an effective minister or just preacher, as a very young man, led me to intensive prayer, and to make that effective I was driven in turn to lengthy […]
This very important book will strengthen the hand of all who seek to witness within the churches to a traditional ethic concerning homosexuality. It will also blunt the edge on the use of science-or, rather, pseudo-science-to intimidate proponents of the traditional view. This work reveals the face-behind-the-mask of the assault on the classical viewpoint that […]
Texas politician Jim Hightower famously dismissed moderates with the crack that "the only things in the middle of the road are yellow stripes and dead armadillos." Texas highways notwith-standing, the English Puritan Richard Sibbes was a moderate in every best sense of the word. Sibbes's moderation enabled him to pursue a fruitful gospel ministry amidst […]
This ambitious work is organized in three parts. Part One is composed of twelve major articles that "are intended to provide the reader with a clear statement of the basis upon which the rest of the Dictionary is built." Part Two opens with seven articles "on the most important biblical corpora" and then proceeds to […]
As a publication arm of the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Geneva Press has a penchant for books with inviting titles. Several years ago it published How to Spell Presbyterian. This book raised the important point that becoming a Presbyterian involved, literally and figuratively, a lesson in spelling, even if the book itself was replete with […]
