Author: Pastor Rich Lusk

Many pastors today dress like slobs when they’re in the pulpit on Sunday. Pastors should not contribute to the ongoing slobification of America and the juvenilization of the church. I’m not saying you need to wear an alb+stole like I do (though I think there good arguments for it). I’m not even saying you need…

What does it mean to be “pastoral”?

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The adjective “pastoral” is an interesting one. What do we mean when we call a man “pastoral”? Most often today, “pastoral” seems to mean nice, soft, gentle, and most of all, winsome. But biblically, that’s not how pastors are described. It is true that pastors are called to be gentle and not quarrelsome. But it’s very…

May-June ’25 Miscellanies: Calvin’s Ecclesiocentrism, the Politics of the Gospel, Racism and Nationalism, Mahler vs. White Debate, P*rn and the Jews, Theonomy vs. Christian Nationalism vs. Libertarianism, Responsibility and Masculinity, Nostalgia, Atheism, and more…

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A lot of this post (though not all of it) first appeared on X. — When John Calvin described the office of pastor, he centered the pastor’s work on the three marks of the church: pastors are to faithfully preach God’s Word, rightly administer the sacraments, and seek the proper application of discipline. But Calvin…

Dispensationalism’s False Prophets

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Does Genesis 17:8 mean Israel as a permenant right to the land of Palestine and deserves unconditional political support from Christians and America? Here are a few considerations: This land promise was not unconditional. See Genesis 17:1 and the covenant curses in Deuteronomy 27-28. Later in history, God judged Israel and Judah by exiling them…

A Thread on Natural Affection

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A Thread on Natural Affection: In recent years, the Reformed segment of the church has been roiled by debates over natural affection. Interestingly, Scripture has very little explicit material on natural affection (“storge” in the Greek), but it does mention the lack of natural affection (“astorge”) as a sign of apostasy and idolatry in a…

The Folk Wisdom of Country Music

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I’ve written several posts over the last year or so that invoke country music as a source of folk wisdom. A few examples: — We need more dads like the one Ashley McBryde sings about in her song “Bible and a .44.” Great song, with a great vision of fatherhood. — “Well, you know what’s…

Notes on the Use of YHWH and Jehovah

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Some are arguing we should never use the name “Yahweh” or “Jehovah” for God, even when the Tetragrammaton was used in the Hebrew OT. My response: What’s the concern here? I don’t see why not knowing the exact pronunciation for the Tetragrammaton matters. We don’t know how lots of ancient words were pronounced. In some…

The Means of Grace and Pastoral Ministry

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1 Corinthians 2:12-13 is a key text for understanding pastoral ministry, especially preaching: “[12] Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. [13] And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but…

Towards a Practical Theology of Covenant Breaking: Nothing Objective Guarantees Subjective Faithfulness

Jun 22, 2025

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