Southern Baptist Elites May Be Woke, But Southern Baptists Are Not
85-plus percent of Southern Baptists who voted for Trump are not woke and will not want the $30 billion in SBC assets that belong to them deployed for woke causes.
In contrast to Berger’s aphorism, the elites of the Southern Baptist Convention do not rule Southern Baptist churches. But they do run the institutions and enjoy the handsome salaries paid for rank-and-file Baptists. As trusting, instinctual conservatives, it’s not easy to rouse the Southern Baptist masses to activism that targets the SBC. But if history... Continue Reading
Pray for Other Members
Jesus taught his disciples a pattern of prayer that we now call “The Lord’s Prayer” (Matt. 6:9–13). We can use this pattern to pray for one another.
As Christians, we should pray continuously (1 Thess. 5:17), taking each other’s anxiety to our caring God (1 Pet. 5:7). We should also pray with thanksgiving, bringing one another’s requests to God (Phil. 4:6). The Lord also invites us to pray expectantly for wisdom (James 1:5). We shouldn’t grow weary of faithfully praying these prayers.... Continue Reading
Former ARP Canadian Pastor, Steve Richardson, Under Attack and Needs Our Help
A former pastor in the Canadian Presbytery of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church is being persecuted for his principled stance against the lockdowns in Canada because of Covid-19.
Richardson has not faced the dire consequence of some of his fellow pastors in Canada who have also taken principled stands under their respective circumstances. Three of them—particularly James Coates, Artur Pawlowski, and Tim Stephens—have been jailed for their opposition to the public health guidelines. The Rev. Steve Richardson, formerly a pastor in the... Continue Reading
Good Faith Subscription? (Part 2) Confessional Integrity in the PCA
There is a great deal of confusion about the role a healthy and functional confessionalism ought to play in the life and ministry of pastors, elders, and congregations.
If we are to recover our confessional integrity, brothers and sisters, we must do more than analyze what is wrong. We must take our own responsibility seriously to love and defend and promote a healthy adherence to the Westminster Standards, in the firm conviction that the theology, piety, and practice expressed and promoted in them... Continue Reading
We Don’t Like Theology, Do We? Three Reflections from the 2021 Southern Baptist Convention
Instead of permitting biblical doctrine to take precedent, we are running to lived experience and personal testimonies.
The arguments that are made—when they are allowed to be made—are theologically vacuous. Add to that the two previously mentioned concerns—rejecting theological precision and the chance to talk about CRT—and it does not bode well. If we cannot ground our convention in biblical doctrine, and if we replace such exegetical theology with pragmatic decision-making and... Continue Reading
The Gospel and Racism
An implications-free gospel is merely a shibboleth, a theological golem built from the deadness of our self-comforting platitudes.
If you want to see ethnic harmony in your church—if you want to see the unity that can only be explained by the gospel—you must fiercely proclaim justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, but you must also not be afraid to both call out ethnic disparities in the church when you see... Continue Reading
To My Fathers and Brothers: A Plea from Your Sister
A letter from a sister in the pew to the PCA shepherds as they deal with serious issues at General Assembly.
I need men who unabashedly profess the whole doctrine of God, all of Scripture, who are not ashamed of its direct language. I need pastors who exegete these difficult and sometimes uncomfortable passages, who explain the entirety of God’s Word plainly to me and to my children without embarrassment. I need in my pastors’ examples... Continue Reading
Preachers Gotta Preach
Preaching is an immense privilege and preaching is supernaturally powerful.
If there is a crisis of confidence in preaching, it is a crisis in the pulpit as much as in the pew. “Who is going to believe,” asks Stewart, “that the tidings brought by the preacher matter literally more than anything else on earth if they are presented with no sort of verve or fire... Continue Reading
What’s New about the New Commandment?
Vigorously pursue multiethnic relationships within the church of Jesus Christ, so that the beautiful love of Jesus among former “incompatibles” becomes un-ignorable.
Jesus paid for our unity by dying on the cross, thereby tearing down the dividing wall of hostility (Ephesians 2:14-16) between Jews, Gentiles, and all other warring factions. He prayed for our unity just before his arrest, seeing it as a sign to the world that he came from God (John 17:23). He said our... Continue Reading
Preaching by Faith
"If you speak by the Holy Spirit, you cannot speak in vain." C.H. Spurgeon
Preachers are to preach by faith as Spurgeon says, expecting the lame to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear, and the dead to rise! With confidence in God blessing the means of preaching He has ordained, they are to call forth these actions with heavenly authority. From the pulpit and in... Continue Reading
