Biblical Leadership
What is Biblical leadership? How should leadership function in the church? How should authority be delegated? This is an important issue that should be considered carefully because we cannot afford to be careless about matters of leadership in the church. Believing that the Word of God is the first and final authority on all matters of faith and practice, I believe we have a solid foundation for church leadership clearly conveyed in Scripture. It is important that we get this right. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says, “We have somehow got hold of the idea that error is only that which is outrageously wrong; and we do not seem to understand that the most dangerous person of all is the one who does not emphasize the right things.” To begin the process of...
In or Out?
Many of us just do church. We do church like we do sports, school, work, hobbies, and other activities. Christianity gets put on our checklist of things we should do. It gets bumped up and down on the list depending on the priorities of the things we want to do and the urgency of the things we have to do. Daily we make choices on what to do with our time and in the end I think we would be surprised at just how little time we spend with God, with His people, and at His church. This seems a brazen contradiction for people who are heirs to the Kingdom, fellow heirs with Christ and children of the Almighty God. Shouldn’t we desire to spend the majority of our time with God and with the people of God carrying on the work Christ came to do in this world? ...
Falling Through The Cracks
I’ve heard it said that one of the biggest frustrations with larger churches is the inability to keep up with one another. When there are multiple services and hundreds of people in and out of the building on a weekly basis, it is quite difficult. If you go to one service then you miss the people in the other service. There may be members of the church that you’ve never met or talked to. It becomes increasingly difficult for the pastors of the church to keep up with everyone. This type of church dynamic makes it easy for people to fall through the cracks. This can be one of the most frustrating things for me as a pastor. There are some folks who are members of the church but don’t have family at the church. At some point they may...
Biblical Illiteracy Among Christians
“An old preacher used to say, ‘the Word has mighty free course among many nowadays, for it goes in at one of their ears and out at the other; so it seems to be with some readers–they can read a very great deal, because they do not read anything. They eye glances but the mind never rests. The soul does not light upon the truth and stay there. Such reading is not reading at all.’” – Charles Spurgeon I often wonder how we can claim to know and love that which we do not pursue? When my wife and I were dating, one of the most exciting things about our relationship was discovering who we were. We talked for hours, we relived our childhood, we discussed our dreams, and mulled over the things we liked and disliked. Our...
The Altar Call
“We are to preach the Word, and if we do it properly, there will be a call to a decision that comes in the message, and then we leave it to the Spirit to act upon people” Early in the 1970s Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones was the speaker at a ministers’ conference in the USA and at a question session was asked the following question: Question: During recent years, especially in England, among evangelicals of the Reformed faith, there has been a rising criticism of the invitation system as used by Billy Graham and others. Does Scripture justify the use of such public invitations or not? Answer: Well, it is difficult to answer this in a brief compass without being misunderstood. Let me answer it like this: The history of this invitation system is one with which you...