6 Reasons Why Membership Matters
“Why bother with church membership?”
But it’s not just about being cared for, it’s about making a decision and sticking with it-something my generation, with our oppressive number of choices, finds difficult. We prefer to date the church-have her around for special events, take her out when life feels lonely, and keep her around for a rainy day. Membership is... Continue Reading
Presbyterians Collapsing, or “Settling Into The New Thing God is Creating”?
The 2014 numbers reveal the PCUSA's largest statistical decline to date.
“The PC(USA) is a church made up of vibrant congregations doing their best to live out the gospel of Jesus Christ in their communities and in the world,” an apparently unfazed Gradye Parsons, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the PCUSA, soothed. “Membership declines continue, but on a whole the denomination is settling into... Continue Reading
Dear Church: An Open Letter From One Of Those Millennials You Can’t Figure Out
We don’t need you to be our therapist, we need you to be our church.
Contemporary worship hasn’t worked. The longer we extend the life of this failed experiment, the more we see the results. In my experience, contemporary worship brings in three groups. Baby boomers who are still stuck in their rebellion against the establishment, parents who mistakenly think that contemporary worship is the only way for their kids... Continue Reading
America’s Changing Religious Landscape: An Assessment of The Pew Center Report
No need to panic about the Pew report; looking more deeply into the study shows some encouragement
American Evangelical Churches on the other hand continue to grow: Unlike theologically liberal mainline churches, the children of evangelicals are far more likely to embrace the tradition of their parents, also, unlike mainline denominations Evangelicals are still experiencing conversion growth. So the good news is that the wheat continues to be wheat, and the tares... Continue Reading
No, Evangelicalism Isn’t In Decline
Challenging Jonathan Merritt’s notion that Evangelicalism is declining as are mainline denominations
On almost every point of fact, Merritt is simply wrong. There are more evangelicals in America today than at any time in our nation’s history. Conservative denominations have continued to grow for the past fifty years while liberal denominations have declined. Currently, 1 in 5 Americans is an evangelical, including 22 percent of older Millennials... Continue Reading
The State of the PCA
Further comments on the present state of the Presbyterian Church in America
Why should we think that in our church in our generation the church should move forward without controversy? I don’t like controversy. I fear those who do. But iron sharpens iron, and that means disagreement. If those in the PCA are unwilling to engage with those in the denomination with whom they disagree, there is... Continue Reading
Conservative Evangelical Leader Appointed Bishop of Maidstone
The next Bishop of Maidstone will be the Reverend Prebendary Roderick Thomas
The Reverend Prebendary Rod Thomas said: “It is both a privilege and a challenge to be asked to become a Bishop in the Church of England. The prospect of serving as the Bishop of Maidstone is similarly both exciting and daunting, and so I ask for prayer that God will give me the necessary strength... Continue Reading
Wanted: A Teaching Church
The heartbeat of the Christian ministry and of the Christian life is a teaching church
The Bible is the Word of God. All Bible-believing evangelical churches affirm this. In historic Protestantism, there is a theology of the Word that not only professes sola Scriptura but also professes the sufficiency of Scripture for all things concerning doctrine, worship, and godliness. What the church of the twenty-first century needs to be is a... Continue Reading
Dear Bryan: Replying to “The State of the PCA”
A confessionalist’s response to Bryan Chapell’s “The State of the PCA”
When confessionalists hear that gender accommodation, positive engagement over homosexuality, and the acceptance of the secularist theory of evolution are necessary to our cultural success (you didn’t mention this, but it is a looming issue in our division), we scour our Bibles in vain to discover valid precedents. In the spirit of Paul in 2 Corinthians... Continue Reading
Church Membership Obligations
Why we should be members of a local church
This is why the Lord’s Day became so important in the early Christianity. It was the time for the formal, public gathering of Christians to worship. In Acts 20:7 we read: “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them.” Had they not gathered... Continue Reading
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