It’s very true that were we to build the case for the church’s physical gathering merely upon a text like Hebrews 10:25 that our case would be, at best, incomplete. (And the presence or absence of church buildings is completely beside the point).  But it is bewildering to the point of being speechless to read... Continue Reading

“While the expressions are varied, by and large the attractional church serves the end of attracting people in two ways: music and creative elements that appeal to the desired audience and teaching that is designed to be both inspirational and practical. This is true regardless of the size or style of an attractional church.”  ... Continue Reading

I recently attended a meeting with other pastors (on Zoom, of course) in which a seasoned and much respected Christian leader spent some time developing his thesis that the pandemic is a clear instance of divine judgment. At the other end of the spectrum, Ruth Valerio and Gideon Heugh for Tearfund assert that Covid-19 is all our... Continue Reading

Among all of the providential logic of our present day, perhaps God is prompting us to value afresh the intricate simplicity of stepping into a pulpit and declaring God’s name. Perhaps he has allowed us this famine of live preaching so that we might feast once again with a heightened appetite and taste for truth... Continue Reading

Editor’s note: Brad Winsted wrote this article many years ago when his family was young and at home. His adult children still recall how “special” it was to have a unique “Family Catechism.” Brad offers this approach to encourage parents to catechize their children.   As Presbyterians and in the reformed tradition we are intrinsically... Continue Reading

Most of us doubtless want to distance ourselves from what might be regarded as “the lunatic fringe” of contemporary Christianity. We are on our guard against being led astray by false teachers. But there is more to discernment than this. True discernment means not only distinguishing the right from the wrong; it means distinguishing the... Continue Reading

In contrast to the homeschooling endeavor I have pursued for more than a decade—where we are able to take the good parts of education and create a whole that far exceeds its constitutive parts—home-churching has proven to have quite the opposite result: Most of the parts are present, and yet they fail miserably to create a... Continue Reading

This pandemic has touched us all in more ways than one. For Christians, the cancellation of in-person worship services has been particularly distressing. At times, even prayer seems difficult. We want to ask God to fix it, to put an end to this pain, but we know this is his work. In the end, he... Continue Reading

If I were to die from COVID-19, or anything else, there will be no replacing my void as a husband or father. Losing a parent, child, or spouse leaves a permanent scar. Or maybe it’s more like a missing limb—a vital part that is supposed to be connected to the body, but no longer is. Here,... Continue Reading

Without the pure preaching of the gospel a congregation is not an oasis. It is only a mirage, which has nothing to offer the pilgrim but more heat and sand when what the sojourner needs is relief from the heat and the water of life. This is a basic point and obvious but it bears... Continue Reading