Pastoral Ministry
What Do Mormons Really Believe?
The term Mormonism denotes a religious group currently headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, who call themselves the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But since the foundation of Mormonism, there have been at least 400 splinter groups of the LDS church that began with the founder, Joseph Smith. Mormons believe that God, through…
Read MoreThe Hungry Pastor
Every few years, my wife and I go on a diet. Neither of us particularly enjoys dieting, but we do it for our health and because the discipline required for a diet usually bleeds over into other areas of our lives. The most frustrating part of a diet is not necessarily what you eat while…
Read MoreDoes Every Christian Persevere in the Marathon of Faith?
If you’ve been paying attention to Christian celebrity culture in the last five years or so, you can probably think of an example of a deconstruction or deconversion story—the story of a person who although they once professed to trust Jesus for salvation, and perhaps even seemed to be bearing some fruit, now claims they…
Read MoreWhat Is Death?
Do you remember how you learned the Alphabet? A, B, C, D… and so on, right? At some point, you probably had a nice picture book to help you out: “A” is for apple you dutifully learned. “B” is for ball. “C” is for cat. The acrostic wasn’t always so cute. In seventeenth-century New England,…
Read MoreMaster and Be Mastered By Scripture
I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. (Ps. 119:99) Some of my favorite seminary classes were the electives I took with the learned, insightful, near-legendary Dr. Peter Gentry, including the Hebrew exegesis of Isaiah. The set text was Isaiah 1–11 and 54–56. We were required to read the…
Read MoreWhat Luther’s Trip to Saxony Teaches Us about Connecting Church and Home
My grandparents once had a wall of pictures in the long hallway at the top of the stairs in their home. I can remember my mom and aunts standing around the pictures after a new cousin was born, talking about how much the new addition favored one older relative or another. These days it seems…
Read MoreWhy Preaching the Cross is Not Enough
We are in an era of wonderful gospel-centered seminaries, gospel-centered books, gospel-centered ministries, and gospel-centered preaching. But we have a problem. It’s great that people are preaching about Jesus and how salvation comes by grace through faith. Gospel-centered preaching helps people see how parenting, forgiveness, and serving are rooted in the gospel. We’ve learned to…
Read More2 Truths from John Owen about Being Spiritually Minded
While this past year has brought many unexpected difficulties, it has also brought some surprising gifts. One of the surprising gifts of the pandemic came for me when an old seminary friend asked if I wanted to be a part of a Zoom book study. Thursday mornings have now become a place to dig deep…
Read MoreHow Do We Pray in Accordance with God’s Will?
Have you ever prayed for something that didn’t happen? You poured out your soul before God, begging him to come through, and your prayers seemed to go unanswered? I think that’s the experience of a lot of Christians. There are some today who would even teach that if you have enough faith and you pray,…
Read MoreWhat Is God’s Will, and How Do I Know If I’m Doing It?
When I talk with Christian teenagers and college students, discerning God’s will for their life is a big concern. They all seem to want their future to be perfect—or at least as perfect as they can dream it should be in light of the things that matter most to them. So often for young Christians,…
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