Testimonies are popular because preaching Christ and the gospel has become not just unnecessary, but “boring” to many evangelicals.
Preaching, Kim Kardashian Style (Updated)
“Jesus loves you all, and has a wonderful plan for your life, even how much your life may be totally depraved like mine.”
What is MTS Preaching?
Add to this moralistic therapeutic mix Ed Young’s “Sexperiment” and Mark Driscoll’s pornographic dreams. Christless pastors, in Christless megachurches, producing Christless “Christians.” And what do you have? Mark Driscoll, Ed Young and company. They’re all obsessed with MTS preaching. Sociologist
Ted Williams and Great Testimonies
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been hearing about this Ted Williams story, but was never interested enough to inquire more than just the usual mouseover summary. But the story must have been interesting enough that even R. Scott
God’s People Grumble
Numbers 11 and John 6 show us that Jesus as our Mediator is better than Moses the mediator between God and Israel. Unlike Moses, even in his darkest hour, Christ did not grumble against God about the rebellious people he was saving. Instead, he prayed for their salvation and for God to be with them.
Reverence & Joy, Word & Sacraments in Worship
New Horizons magazine has a special issue on Worship in its June 2009 edition. Here’s an excerpt: “That the sacraments are sacred signs and seals of the covenant of grace and are the visible word of God tells us that they play a vital role as an element of worship. The central element of Reformed worship… is the reading, but especially the preaching, of the Word of God.”
Lord’s Day, May 31, 2009
This Sunday, May 31, I’ll be preaching in a couple of places, driving two hours in between two churches, one in Pasig City and the other one in Tagaytay City.
Beeke Conference Outline Notes
“Apart from election, no one will be saved because we are all totally depraved. Election compels evangelism. Election leads to holiness. Rejecting particular redemption leads to a confusion among the Persons of the Trinity in the work of salvation.” — Dr. Joel R. Beeke
What’s common between U. S. military prisons and churches? (updated in comments)
CBSNews.com reports that U. S. military detention centers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay systematically used loud music on hundreds of suspected terrorist detainees. The tactic was designed “to create fear, disorient … and prolong capture shock.” What does this have to do with churches?
Rock Bands as Holy Spirit
Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, recently weighed in again, this time with a profound thought that “Beatles songs are as likely to explain Christianity as the Bible.” Essentially equating rock bands with the Holy Spirit, he says, “They [rock music] are able to open our imagination to a way of thinking about God that we’ve become deaf to in church language.”
“Pastor, what does baptizo mean in 1 Cor 10:2?”
After a two-year “self-review process” in which it solicited questions and concerns about the examination, the Presbyteries’ Cooperative Committee on Examinations (PCCEC) has junked a couple of exegetical examination requirements: (1) a working knowledge of Biblical Greek and Hebrew; and (2) understanding the “principal meaning” of the assigned examination text.
Bill Hybels and Mother Teresa
Bill Hybels’ address at the 2008 Leadership Summit was the result of months of studying Mother Teresa. He told 50,000 attendees that no one has affected him more deeply than Mother Teresa. Why do Hybels and other pop evangelical leaders frequently praise their non-Biblical, even non-Christian, heroes?