Category: Church
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TPC’s Bright Vision in a Dark Age
I have often thought this quotation from T. S. Eliot sums up what TPC is all about and what we are trying to do: The World is trying the experiment of attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The experiment will fail; but we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse; meanwhile redeeming the time:…
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Life in the Father’s House: Why Should I Join a Church?
Note: This article was written in 1996 for the church newsletter of Redeemer Presbyterian (PCA) in Austin, TX, where I was serving at the time.] By and large, the church today is in a real mess. Because so many churches are unfaithful and unfruitful, it is somewhat easy for us to assume the church is…
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Hebrews 10 — Sermon Follow Up
These are some follow up notes on the sermon from Hebrews 10:19-31. ——Some background on the billboard on I-65. If you want the Sunday School version of the sermon , go here. If you want the youth Bible study version, go here. —— Here’s thumbnail sketch of the argument: Why go to church? And to supplement the argument for church…
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Roman Catholic Rights and Wrongs
You may have seen that the archbishop of Nancy Pelosi’s Roman Catholic parish in San Francisco has excommunicated her for her views on abortion. Of course, this is long overdue, and there are many high-profile pro-abortion Roman Catholics (like Joe Biden) who have still not been disciplined. But nevertheless it’s a good sign. This is what…
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The Resurrection and Women Preachers
Some memes are funny and accurate. Other memes are misleading or even dishonest. There is a meme going around right now that says something like, “In the interest of biblical accuracy, all preaching about the resurrection this Easter Sunday will be done by women.” One does not have to appeal to the more obvious texts…
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Pride vs Community
One of the great obstacles to genuine Christian community is pride. We certainly see this with the Pharisees in the gospel accounts. The Pharisees’ self-‐righteousness makes them sectarian and divisive forces within Israel. The same kind of pride can rear its ugly head in the church today. For example, when Christians make too big a deal out…
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Communion Prayers, Ancient and Modern
The ancient communion prayer from the Didache: As this broken bread was scattered over the mountains, And was gatheredtogether to become one, So let Your Body of Faithful be gatheredtogether From the ends of the earth into Your kingdom; for the glory andpower are Yours forever. A modern adaptation of the prayer (source unknown): As grain…
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Community and Communion: Quotes and Notes
Community is about the convergence of our lives in Christ. It’s about God giving us the gift of each other. When Sartre said, ‘Hell is other people,’ he had it exactly backwards. C. S. Lewis was much more accurate in The Great Divorce when he pictured hell as people moving further and further apart. It’s been said…
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Wisdom Interview
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of doing a podcast interview with my good friend Larson Hicks on the topic of wisdom. You can find the interview here:
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The Church in Three Dimensions
These are lecture notes from a talk I gave at the Auburn Avenue Pastor’s Conference in 2006, but I believe they are more relevant now than when I first delivered them. I argue that when we consider the church’s relationship with culture, we must remember it is a dynamic and fluid, not fixed and static,…
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