Another thought-provoking article popped up recently in the Theology section over at CT.1 The subject of this brief piece is clothing and its place in post-Fall human experience. The author, Robert Covolo, starts: Before becoming a PhD candidate at Fuller Theological Seminary, I served for 12 years at a church in Long Beach, California. A…
Rachel Mitchell will be questioning the Supreme Court nominee tomorrow. Some media organizations picked up an interview we did with her in 2012 for our magazine, FrontLine. We posted the interview on our site in two parts (Part One, Part Two). Rachel Mitchell is unknown to many. Our interview was for an issue of our…
The NT uses three corresponding words to describe this role of church leadership. Pastor The first word is pastor or shepherd, an overarching word God chooses to describe the nature of this role (1 Pet. 5:2-3). It highlights the proper motive and manner of church leadership, leading a congregation of believers the same way that…
Ed. Note: In the first post in this series, Pastor Sweatt introduced the topic of affliction and depression in Pastoral Ministry. Many issues may be the immediate cause, God’s grace is sufficient, but the preacher will need to turn to God for that grace. In this installment, Pastor Sweatt identifies areas of pressure that are…
The Supreme Court nomination hearing seem to be a theater of the absurd—and sleazy. With new and unsubstantiated accusations today the American people are plunged into the mire for which the accusations are intended—doubt. Years ago, a police officer in our church told me a story about the most important arrest of his career. He…
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5:18 This command seems to be ignored today, and yet it is clearly God’s plan for believers for this age. In Romans 8 the Apostle Paul even says that the ethic of this age is characterized by the law…
And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that He had said that He would do unto them; and He did it not (Jonah 3:10). The question relating to God changing His mind seems to come up quite often. The idea of God repenting would…
2 Corinthians 4:2 When you set out to shine the light of the gospel to nonbelievers and believers alike, you may not anticipate the adversity that may come your way as a result. The apostle Paul himself experienced adversity to an intense degree in his teaching ministry. His candid response to this adversity provides us…
One of C.S. Lewis’s enjoyable reads is his Screwtape Letters, a collection of “letters” written by a senior demon to his understudy, his nephew demon. These letters are instructions of how to seek to undermine the effectiveness of the nephew’s Christian “patient.” You can purchase the book here, and a nice dramatized version by Focus…
The failure of pastors is sadly too much in the headlines in recent months. The reasons are many. Our culture is increasingly hostile to our message so that many are skeptical of organized religion. Even church members, hurting from their church experience, create discord by careless criticism and self-serving divisiveness. These and many more factors…