Category: Church
Friendship Through a Pandemic: Seeing More Clearly With Stanley Hauerwas
Ephraim Radner and others have recently reflected that the church’s theologians have said shockingly little about the pandemic that’s really been helpful, that’s helped Christians think clearly about this global crisis. To get our heads straight, minds clear, and hearts...
Good Friday
Every year on Good Friday as a rule we go dark with regards to publishing new essays or reviews. Instead, we share a few songs to help people mark Good Friday. I pray that today will be a somber one...
Biblical or Institutional?: On Navigating Hard Church Decisions
“It’s 2022, the Bible says nothing about (Insert church action) how on earth are they still (Doing/not doing) that!” If you have spent any amount of time in a local church, you have likely heard this or some similar sentiment...
The Church Will Not Be Consulted
In recent years it has become increasingly popular for churches of differing sizes, locations, and denominational traditions to make use of consultant services to find new ministers and staff for Christian institutions. If you browse the denominational job boards of...
In Memoriam: Rev. Dr. Gregg Strawbridge
The Reverend Doctor Gregg Strawbridge died on January 26th, 2022 from a sudden heart attack. His death was entirely unexpected and has occasioned an outpouring of love and admiration from those who knew him and benefitted from his ministry. An...
Power, the Trinity, and Abuse: Notes on the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill
Predictably, the lessons drawn from Christianity Today’s “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill” vary according to the biases of the listener. Some of those ‘deconstructing’ see the Mars Hill saga as increasing conformation of the wholesale bankruptcy of evangelical...
Why We All Need Baptists to be Baptist
The liturgy started sleepily this fourth Sunday in Advent, people trickling in later than usual. A traffic jam made traveling downtown to our Anglican parish especially difficult. It turned out the standstill was caused by the Secret Service. As we,...
Ten Theses on Homosexuality and the Church
I wrote the following to clarify my own thoughts and also to (indirectly) respond to some recent discussions and developments within my own denomination (the PCA). But at present here are my own reflections on homosexuality today as a pastor...
An Unresolved and Perilous Ambiguity
Recently, the 48th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America convened in St. Louis, Missouri. While much important business was conducted in the span of a few days, considerable attention was directed to the issue of ordination standards, particularly...