Harold Best, church musician, aesthetician, and no fundamentalist, in a discussion about American church music: One of these days we're going to be talking about evangelicals who were saved out of evangelicalism; and that day is probably on us right now. That quote...
ChurchLife
Terrorism and Evangelism
Here's another little helpful and challenging quote I read in Total Church. At present the military and economic might of Western nations is struggling to counter the threat of international terrorism. It is proving difficult to defeat an enemy made up of local cells...
“You Are Now Entering the Mission Field”
I found this little excerpt from Total Church to be a challenging source of wisdom. May God help me to apply these insights. I'm not sure I have good answers to all these questions. We sometimes ask people to imagine they are part of a church-planting team in a...
The iPod Touch, Neil Postman, and Mount Calvary Baptist Church
A friend and fellow iPod Touch owner sent me Tim Challies' "Don't Take Your iPod to Church" a few days ago and asked me what I thought. It just so happens that I do take my iPod Touch to church and take voluminous sermon notes on it, but that friend made some good...
The Shack
The Shack has taken America by storm, and like most storms it has kicked up a good bit of controversial dust along the way. I recently reviewed it in order to get a free copy. Mackenzie Alan Phillips is the central character in The Shack. His young daughter, Missy,...
In the Nick of Time
Kevin Bauder of Central Seminary is always worth hearing. And this blog hears him. It's my firm desire that this blog never be what he describes in the last line of the following paragraph of this excellent, timely essay: These young [fundamentalist] leaders are aware...
Enduring Counsel from B.B. Warfield
I regularly return to this enduring counsel from B. B. Warfield—required reading for all BJU seminarians who take Systematic Theology: A minister must be learned, on pain of being utterly incompetent for his work. But before and above being learned, a minister must be...
Capitalism Samizdat
I read nearly everything Carl Trueman puts out; I always find his analyses helpful. And he writes very well English. And he's a nice, uh, bloke, I happen to know from personal experience. His recent review essay shows how easy it is to boast that we're not "conforming...
Bravado + Bible = Just Sort of Ridiculous
Note: I sent this post to Lecrae's record label (I was unable to locate his e-mail address in repeated attempts), and received no reply in several months. I don't blame them; I'm sure they're busy! But this is a public issue calling for public comment. I think you'll...
The End for Which God Created the World
What is the biggest purpose of God, the Father's business in the world about which we must be about? It's the glory of God. God's glory is the ultimate purpose or end of all creation—and it should be our ultimate end in every act (cf. a book recommended by my pastor...
Ask Not What You Can Do for Your Church, But What It Can Do for You
I spoke last night to a new seminary student here at BJU. He just arrived from another undergraduate institution. I looked through his eyes at the choices he is about to make—especially about church attendance—and I trembled a bit. A word to him: You are the product...
Literacy Rates and the King James Version
Literacy in the U.S. is embarrassingly low. Nearly 50% of the adult US population reads at a 7th grade level or lower. Nearly 25% has reading proficiency so low they cannot read instructions on medication bottles, the manual that comes with a piece of machinery, or a...