On this Memorial Day we pause to commemorate the sacrifice of those who gave their lives for freedom.
God is a fan of freedom.
He has lead initiatives to set people free all throughout the Bible, culminating in Jesus setting us free. But we shouldn’t take our freedom for granted (Gal 5:13).
In the same way, let us not take our (American) freedom for granted. Continue reading
The part of my job I love the most is teaching/preaching. This includes the lesson preparation process with the study that goes along with it. I love the discovery and organization of truth into a life-changing presentation that clearly communicates the very word of God.
A close second to what I enjoy about being a Pastor is what you might call “mentoring” or perhaps “counseling.” I love it when people come by to talk about the Bible. I know many pastors who have degrees in counseling. So I ask this question, “is the Pastor meant to be a ‘counselor?'” My answer to this is “sorta…”
The point of a counselor is to listen to you and help you make decisions to make your life better. They help you to feel better about yourself and to improve your individual situation. They meet with you on a regular basis and they keep what you talk about in the strictest confidence.
The role of a “pastor-as-counselor” (I think) is different. Continue reading
This is a foundational question for anyone considering Christianity. I recently received my copy of the synoptic gospel edition of the Editio Critica Maior. it’s an amazing work that shows all the different manuscript readings that are available to us.
What’s amazing about it, to me, is seeing the confidence we can have in the Bible (the synoptic gospels in this case) and that the Jesus of the New Testament is THE Jesus. I believe in the verbal (the words) plenary (all the words) inspiration (from God into men onto paper) of the Bible. That also means, for me, that it is inerrant. (see B. B. Warfield). I agree with Wayne Grudem
Scripture in the original manuscripts does not affirm anything that is contrary to fact.
I usually simply say: “the Bible does not affirm anything untrue,” but it’s more of a stylistic difference for me, I mean the same thing when I say that.
I read a recent article over at the Harvard Business Review that brought up some interesting points about how successful (“great”) businesses started out, around 70% did not have a business plan!!!
In a “former life” I worded in sales for Xerox and a few other companies, and so I’m still interested in business/marketing information. Actually, I think that most of the things that make someone successful in “business” also would help leaders in the church, I think this is what we categorize today as “leadership.”
Leadership is all about people, how to influence them to do what it is you believe they should do (that’s a nicer way of saying, “getting them to do what you want.” if you’re in the church, you should want the right things 😉 )
I lead our Adult Education program here at the church and I have shifted to training more about “core convictions” and “purpose” than the details. I think this article reinforces that idea. Continue reading
I wrote on Wednesday how to be a good husband… die.
There is a big debate between those who are egalitarian (believe men and women are the same in everything), and complementarian (those to hold that men and women are equal in value or worth, but different in role or function, these roles are complementary to eachother).
I’m in the latter group.
This view is put forward pretty well in the Continue reading
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