Friday, January 31, 2020

Three More Trends for Churches in 2020


Thom and Sam continue their conversation from episode #610 examining major trends churches can anticipate and prepare for in the coming year. While some of these trends will seem familiar, others will be new with the hope all will be informative and helpful for church growth. Listen Now

Also See:
Four Trends for Churches in 2020

Are We Overlooking People and Areas in Need of Gospel Impact and Resources?


We now have numerous unprioritized areas that God calls us towards.

We live in an age where there are countless ways to reach people through technology, financial support, and missions work. It is common to hear about certain places and people groups that are in these resources and efforts, such as third-world nations or areas under restrictive governmental regimes.

However, certain ethnolinguistic people groups continue to be unreached, and at the same time, overlooked.

For example, we can point to Quebecois in Canada and the thousands of South Asian Indians in the western suburbs of Chicago. There are also geographical areas that are unacknowledged. Perhaps the most notable are rural areas in the United States and around the world.

Paul strategically prioritized urban centers during his missionary journeys. Think of Philippi, Ephesus, Colossae, and Thessalonica: they were all places where large numbers of people lived, worked, and worshipped.

Paul could reach the most people with the gospel by preaching and planting the gospel in these cities. Acts actually tells us “all Asia” was reached from Paul’s three years in Ephesus (Acts 19:10). While today’s cities are still vitally strategic and important, our world is different than Paul’s.

We now have numerous unprioritized areas that God calls us towards.

When thinking about these forgotten areas, as pastors in particular and Christians in general, we begin to ask questions about what we should do to improve the church’s reach: Do we travel to these places and evangelize? Do we plant churches there? Do we send money? How do we accomplish all of these things?

I believe that there are two main answers to the questions concerning outreach to overlooked peoples. Read More

Also See:
ʻWherever You Are, Be All Thereʼ: Living a Life of Mission

Half of US Churches Now Enlist Armed Security


Survey: Evangelical, Pentecostal, and Baptist churches are most likely to have church volunteers carry guns.

In the aftermath of several high-profile church shootings, most Protestant pastors say their congregations have taken some precautions to protect those in attendance.

Since 2000, 19 fatal shootings have taken place at Christian churches, while gunmen have also taken lives at other religious sites like Jewish synagogues, a Sikh temple and an Amish school.

Around 4 in 5 Protestant pastors (80%) say their church has some type of security measure in place when they gather for worship, according to a survey from Nashville-based LifeWayResearch.

“Churches are some of the most common gatherings in any community, and that makes them targets,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research. “Most churches understand this and have responded in some way.” Read More

Are We Undervaluing the Lord’s Supper?


The Significance of the Bread and Wine

In this episode of The Crossway Podcast, Tim Chester, author of Truth We Can Touch How Baptism and Communion Shape Our Lives, discusses the Lord's Supper, explaining why he thinks many evangelical churches undervalue communion, the significance of the fact that Jesus gave us the physical elements of bread and wine, and what it means when we say that Christ is present in our celebration of the Lord's supper. Listen Now
A transcript of this podcast is found on the same page. Just scroll down the page.

Online Communion? Theology and the Digital Church


There are many pressing areas in need of fresh theological thinking in light of a rapidly changing world. The redefinition of family, the nature of sexual identity, artificial intelligence, genetic engineering

... and the digital church.

One of the more pressing concerns will be how much tech can and should be used – and how – in light of an orthodox and robust ecclesiology. Is someone considered “attending” if it’s through an internet connection and a virtual reality (VR) headset? Is it appropriate to perform a digital baptism where avatars are immersed in water? What of a completely computer-generated church using VR and augmented reality (AR)? Which, I might add, already exists.

On the most basic of levels, what is to be thought when people participate through an online service but consider themselves a part of a church—the so-called “bedside Baptists” and “pillow Presbyterians?” Or using apps to attend digital “events” and enter into corporate prayer through emojis and avatars?

There will be a knee-jerk reaction against such innovations, but there can be little doubt that a new way of doing – and being – church is being forged through technological innovation and an increasingly digital world. In other words, instead of a knee-jerk negative reaction out of distaste or stylistic preference, it demands vigorous theological reflection that takes the digital revolution seriously.

A single blog is grossly insufficient to tackle this task, but perhaps I could suggest one way of thinking about one of the many questions being raised: If someone is involved in an online campus, should they be encouraged to participate in the Lord’s Supper as they watch? Read More

Also See:
Online church: Ministries use VR, apps to deliver digital services and virtual baptisms
The Lord's Supper, or Holy Communion, has an important horizontal dimension as well as vertical one. The apostle Paul touches upon this dimension in his first letter to the church at Corinth. When we gather together to share bread and wine (or grape juice) in obedience to our Lord's command to "do this in remembrance of me," we give visible expression to the reality that we are the Body of Christ, united to our Lord by the Holy Spirit. This dimension is greatly diminished when we receive the elements apart from the gathered church from the hands of a deacon or eucharistic minister. It is lost entirely when we administer the elements to ourselves in isolation from the rest of the church. Communion is not a solitary action but a collective one. A major part of the worship renewal of the last half of the twentieth century and the opening decades of the twenty-first century has been the restoration of this important dimension to the Lord's Supper through the use of a single loaf of bread and the common cup. With the increasing popularity of digital services we are in danger of losing it again.

There is a growing body of evidence that digital technology is contributing to the epidemic of loneliness that is affecting our society. Rather that bringing people together, it is isolating them from each other. There is a substantial body of evidence that human beings need to interact with each other face to face for healthy physical, emotional, and intellectual development. This is particular true of infants but it is true of adults too. Digital technology cannot provide such interaction.

Thursday, January 30, 2020

Not Just Any Song Will Do: Three Basics for Choosing Church Music - UPDATED


Why sing songs written by fallen mortals when Almighty God has inspired 150 of his own hymns?" That kind of thinking made choosing music for worship a moot point for many of our Reformed forebears. You sang the psalms. No wrestling over hymns versus praise choruses. How things have changed over the centuries!

One hundred and twenty-one years ago, Presbyterian theologian Robert Lewis Dabney voiced concern over the fact that the popular gospel music of Dwight L. Moody's cohort, Ira Sankey, was finding its way out of the revival tent and into the sanctuary of many a Reformed congregation.
The most that can be said of Mr. Sankey's [songs] is that they do not appear to have introduced positive error as yet, and that they exhibit no worse traits than a marked inferiority of matter and style to the established hymnals of the leading churches. The most danger thus far apparent is that of habituating the taste of Christians to a very vapid species of pious doggerel, containing the most diluted possible traces of saving truth, in portions suitable to the most infantile faculties supplemented by a jingle of "vain repetitions."
Today, worship planners and leaders stand beneath an avalanche of hymns and praise choruses. Never before have we had so much music to choose from. But much church music (new and old, "contemporary" or "traditional") is of suspect quality and appropriateness for authentic worship in the Reformed tradition. However, in our entrepreneurial ecclesiastical climate, there is no longer a "supreme court" that determines what music is appropriate to sing in our churches, as there was in Dabney's day. That choice must be made by worship planners/leaders in each local congregation. Throw on top of that the rapid growth of "contemporary worship," coupled with the ever-present pressures of the "church growth movement," and the temptation is rife to incorporate merely what's "popular" or "what works" without first asking some more important questions of the music: questions of theological faithfulness, musical quality, and liturgical appropriateness. Read More

Also See:
The Future of Congregational Singing: Hymnals or Tablets? NEW
Sing to the Lord, All the Earth (and Minnesota)
How to Keep Your Worship Services Free from Disappointment
The Key To Making the Most Out of Congregational Singing
3 Reasons Music Matters

Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Wednesday's Catch: "Church Planting in Secular Scandinavia" and More


Church Planting in Secular Scandinavia

The more I consider Denmark’s spiritual climate, the more convinced I become that secularization isn’t our biggest problem. It’s Christians believing Satan’s lies. Read More

Why We Need Networks

God can do amazing things through leaders who believe we are better together. Read More
Denominations may be a thing of the past. Networks are not.
The Rise of the Dones: The ‘Done With Church’ Population

For the church, this phenomenon sets up a growing danger. The very people on whom a church relies for lay leadership, service and financial support are going away. And the problem is compounded by the fact that younger people in the next generation, the Millennials, are not lining up to refill the emptying pews. Read More
This past Sunday I sat through what felt like an excruciatingly long sermon in which the preacher did not touch upon the text upon which he was supposed to be preaching, much less explain what it meant and how it might apply to the congregation in the present day. What he gave was essentially the background to the book in which the text is found, the kind of information that you might use to introduce a series of Bible talks on that book in a Sunday school class. The sermon was read in the first half of a lengthy communion service taken from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, a service in which the congregation has a very small part. It is almost a one-man dog and pony show. It was not surprising that at least one member of the congregation fell asleep during the talk: I could hear him snoring in the back of the sanctuary. I was sitting on the platform and had to struggle to keep myself from dozing off. Now the preacher in question does not preach at the church every Sunday. He was not beginning an expository series on the book. Having gone through a similar experience on a number of previous Sundays, it does not surprise me that some people are throwing up their hands in disgust and walking away from their churches.
Once a Sheep, Always a Sheep (Ten Observations on What Jesus Said about Our Eternal Security)

The issue before us isn’t whether or not a born-again, justified by faith, adopted child of God can sin or backslide or wander away from the Lord or spend an extended season of their life in doubt about their faith. Yes, we all acknowledge they can. The issue is, instead, whether or not they remain in their sin unrepentant and defiant, or eventually come under conviction and seek God’s forgiveness and fellowship. Read More

3 Ways We Destroy Discipling Relationships - and What to Do about It

Whether you’re in charge of a discipleship ministry at your church or you’re personally discipling someone one on one, we’re all prone to make missteps in building these relationships for the gain of community and spiritual maturity. Here are a few of the most common mistakes—and how to correct them. Read More

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Four Trends for Churches in 2020


We are one month into 2020 and there is much we can learn about anticipated trends and how churches can begin to connect the dots and prepare for the future. While some trends you will expect, others will be new and our hope is that these four trends will be informative. Listen Now

Also See:
10 Characteristics of Mission-Minded Churches

What A Church Does, in Dollars and Cents


A sociologist explains a congregation's contributions to the local economy.

University of Pennsylvania sociologist Ram Cnaan has been researching the economic value of churches for more than two decades. Because some congregations would almost certainly close their doors without tax exemptions, Cnaan thinks proponents of taxing churches are misguided.

Your research looks at the “halo effect” that churches have on their communities. What is the “halo effect”?

It is the way that congregations contribute to the local economy. Churches spend money locally, and since they spend money locally, they enhance the local economy. So on a small scale, every church buys flowers. Where do they buy flowers? From a local florist. No one mentions this, but across the country there are florists in business because of local congregations.

People don’t look at the value of the congregation financially. They look at the spiritual aspect. Now, I’m not a person of faith, I’m a social scientist. I started to look at the congregation as an economic engine. What is the value that an urban congregation on average contributes to the local economy?

In the first study [in 1996], we went to 10 congregations in Philadelphia and we looked at the replacement value of social services like finding people jobs. On average, it was $140,000 per year. Of course, social services is only a small component of what congregations do. So next we looked at 90 churches in Philadelphia, Chicago, and Fort Worth, and all the ways they contribute to the local economy. There was a range—each generated between $1.2 and $2.5 million annually. Read More

Also See:
No Friend of Tax Collectors

What Does ‘Evangelical’ Mean?


CT discusses key distinctives of evangelical belief, identity, and spirituality.

What does it mean to be evangelical? The term, without a doubt, is widely misunderstood and frequently misrepresented. In recent years, the term evangelical has become highly politicized, invoked to describe a voting bloc or as a blanket label for those with conservative or, perhaps, fundamentalist views. Meanwhile, some from within the movement have dropped the label or left evangelicalism entirely, coining the monicker exvangelical.

Since its inception, Christianity Today has been distinctly evangelical, bringing together a broad readership of Christians from across the denominational spectrum who find common ground in their shared faith in Christ, commitment to orthodoxy, and passion for proclaiming the gospel. Throughout the decades, CT has discussed what it means to be evangelical (such as in this 1965 cover story). In recent years, the conversation has continued with renewed vigor. What is really at the heart of evangelical identity? Here’s a sampling of articles from the past few years that dig deeper into what it means to be an evangelical Christian today. Read More
Anglican Evangelicalism has its own distinctives. Anglican Evangelicals may be classified as "Conservative Evangelicals" and "Open Evangelicals." In the nineteenth century "Open Evangelicals" would have been described as "Liberal Evangelicals." One sometimes hear the term "High Church Evangelical" banded around but those who identify themselves with this label upon close examination more accurately would be described as Anglo-Catholic. Former ACNA Archbishop Bob Duncan is a good example. His beliefs and practices are more in line with those of traditional Anglo-Catholicism than they are Anglican Evangelicalism. What passes as "evangelicalism" in the Anglican Church in North America does not line up with classical Anglican Evangelicalism on many issues. Its practitioners have been described as "Open Evangelical Ritualists."

When Is an Elder Disqualified from Ministry


We all have treasured items we keep for special events. It may be a shirt, a dress, a pen, dishes, or a piece of jewelry. We pull them out to be used for something unique, but otherwise, we leave them tucked away and protected from daily use. These items are set apart.

In the same way, the person who is called to Gospel ministry is “set apart” for God’s special purposes. We call these men pastors or Elders, in many, if not all cases, these titles are interchangeable. This does not mean these individuals are more special or more loved than any of God’s other children. However, God has “set them apart” for His special use.

s early as the tabernacle period, it seems God set certain people aside, namely the Levites and other individuals throughout history, for His special purposes. However, God loved all people equally, such as the eleven other tribes. Think about the set apart tribe of the Levites for a moment. They were to live, eat, dress, make money, and serve others in a specific way that was different than the other tribes. They didn’t have all the same privileges as the others, such as inheriting their own land, but they did have the special privilege of mediating between God and man.

While pastors and Elders of today are not the same type of Levites, they do seem to have a special set of explanatory Bible verses on how they are to be “set apart” for serving God’s people. We desire for every man at Grace Chapel to be Elder-qualified if he may never be Elder-called. Read More

Also See:
The Leadership Practice That Could Also Ruin Your Ministry
6 Practices to Overcome Criticism
In post-apostolic times the role of New Testament elder would be confused with that of Temple priest, giving rise to the sacerdotal view of the clergy that characterizes the Roman Catholic Church. At the time of the English Reformation the Anglican Church rejected this view of the clergy. While the Anglican Church would retain the word "priest," it was understood to be a contraction of the Greek word "prebyter," or elder. The nineteenth century Oxford movement and the resulting Catholic Revival would reintroduce into some quarters of the Anglican Church the Roman Catholic sacerdotal view of the clergy. In these quarters of the Anglican Church the unbiblical notion that Christ through the priest at Mass offers himself to God for the sins of the living and the dead would overshadow the New Testament teaching that the calling of the elders of the church was to teach and shepherd Christ's flock, a teaching embodied in the Anglican Ordinal.

Monday, January 27, 2020

Monday's Catch: The Attendance Replacement Postulate and More


The Attendance Replacement Postulate

Larger churches will have a more difficult time staying larger. Read More

Focus on One House

Coastal Church in Vancouver puts Luke 10 into practice. Read More

Understanding The True Gospel

Whether you are just beginning to investigate Christianity, or are a life-long follower of Christ, the Gospel is the one, single thing you must grasp if your life is to be all God designed your life to be. Read More

6 Questions for Assessing Bible-Study Material

Bible-study questions must lead us somewhere.... When we choose a Bible study, then, we need to determine: where will the material lead me? Read More

Three Steps to Lead Your Church to Pray for the Unreached

In what ways can you not just ask your congregation to pray for the unreached but tangibly lead them in doing so? Read More

3 Ways to Harness Social Media to the Glory of God

While I’m not always successful, before sending on an online message, I try to ask myself.... Read More

Saturday, January 25, 2020

4 Tips for Passion in a Rural Church


I (Matt) remember it like it was yesterday. “I don’t know that you’ll like it here, brother,” a member of the search committee said, “There’s not much to do. You might be bored.”

Underneath my polite smile were two eyes rolling and the reminder I have four daughters—there’s no such thing as bored. But let’s be honest, it was a town of 60 folks in the absolute middle of nowhere.

Though we did have a café, we had a convenience store plastered with racist epitaphs, a gas station without gas, and were nearly an hour away from the nearest Walmart.

There really wasn’t much to do. Read More
Kyle Bueermann (FBC Alamogordo) and Matt Henslee (Mayhill Baptist Church) co-authored Replanting Rural Churches: God's Plan and Call for the Middle of Nowhere (Replant Series Book 9). They have written a number of articles and made a number of podcasts. They can be heard at NotAnotherBaptistPodcast.Com.

Roman Catholics and Protestants: Commonalities and Differences [Podcast]


The Reformation is not over, but the context has greatly changed in the past 500 years. This lecture introduces Roman Catholic theology and practices with a view to discovering what Protestants and Catholics have in common, as well as what still divides us. Listen Now

Also:
What Does ‘This Rock’ Refer to in Matthew 16:18?
Protestants and Catholics Use Same Terms, Different Dictionaries

Why Roman Catholic Countries Should be Considered Unreached


Thankfully, the American church is becoming more aware of unreached people groups.

Generally speaking, these are defined as populations with little to no access to the Gospel. There is, however, much disagreement over what constitutes an unreached country. The IMB, for example, considers any country with less than a 2% evangelical presence as unreached.

While the Joshua project (which has been so helpful in shedding the light on the unreached and I’m very thankful for that!), on the other hand, would agree with the 2% evangelical number, but in order to consider a country unreached it would also expect a less than 5% “christian” number. The “christian” 5% would include Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Orthodox and Roman Catholics, which would make predominantly Roman Catholic and Orthodox countries reached by their standards.

In the IMB world, the Italian people would be considered unreached, but in the Joshua project world, Italy is very reached with over 90% of the people considering themselves “Christian.”

It has been and continues to be a burden of mine to seek to help the American church to have an appropriate view of Roman Catholicism. The question is, when dealing with the Roman Catholic church are we dealing with a church that, although it has many issues, can be used by God to bring people to Himself, or are we dealing with a false religion that is on par with Islam, Buddhism, and all of the major false religions on earth?

As someone who is heading to Italy as a missionary, I believe that I am heading to an unreached nation. I believe that most Italian people have never heard the Gospel, and the likelihood of them having a Gospel conversation in their lifetime is miniscule. Here are four reasons why I believe this to be true. Read More

Practical Preaching Advice for Pastors and Lay Preachers #56


15 Excellent (And Simple) Ways To Improve Your Preaching

Chuck Lawless is leery of telling other people how to improve, but each one of these tips have worked for him. Read More

Case Study: How to Start a Sermon Series Well

To help you navigate and decide how to start your next sermon series well, I did a case study where I looked at a number of different churches to see if there were some trends. Read More

5 Keys to Creating a Compelling Sermon Series

No matter what some would try to tell you, many people do care about what is being preached – especially when it’s a compelling sermon series. Read More

6 Key Questions to Ask of Your Sermon Before You Preach it

Before you preach your next sermon, take the time to answer these 6 questions. If you do, you’ll have greater clarity for the content of the message and the congregation will have greater clarity for the expected action from the message. Read More

Jeff Ray and Three Text-Driven Elements

Jeff Ray (1860-1951) was the first professor of preaching at Southwestern Seminary. His convictions concerning expository preaching in the early 20th century played a critical role in laying a foundation for a text-driven movement among Southern Baptists. Ray’s conception of expository preaching was critical in establishing the roots of modern text-driven preaching. Read More

Saturday Lagniappe: College Students - The Overlooked and the Unreached - and More


5 Reasons Churches Struggle to Reach College Students

The sad reality is that most college campuses are filled with thousands of lost young people who are broken and searching for direction with only a handful of under-resourced college ministries seeking to make an impact on the campus. The harvest truly is plentiful and the laborers are few. Many college campuses in our nation are less than 2% reached, which missiologists would qualify as an unreached people group. Read More

Tips For Starting A College Ministry - Free eBook

Practical how-to’s for starting a college ministry from scratch. Download Now

3 Basic Ways to Care for the Lonely

“Ask God to help you become a welcoming person.” Read More

10 Reasons Even Committed Church Attenders Are Attending Less [Repost]

It comes up in a surprising number of conversations a lot. And no one’s quite sure how to respond to it. The issue? Even committed church attenders are attending church less often. Read More

Why Christians Support Abortion (And How We Can Change That)

Almost 50 years after Roe v. Wade, a new Marist poll shows that When asked to align with one side of the abortion debate, a majority of Americans describe themselves as pro-choice. The disturbing implication is that this means that a large number of those who claim to be faithful Christians are not pro-life. Read More
Even Christians who are opposed to abortion on demand do not always think through the full implications of being pro-life. Being pro-life also entails opposing infanticide, euthanasia, and assisted suicide and supporting a generous immigration policy and an ample social safety net. It sees the inconsistency between calling for a ban on all abortions while permitting food insecurity among vulnerable populations, withholding health care from such populations, and promoting the use of non-renewable energy sources which pollute the environment and shorten human lives. Being pro-life means valuing life in the broadest sense.
Some Men Just Like the Fight

Some men just like the fight. But these are not real men. Real men are willing to fight when it is necessary. Faux men are itching to fight no matter what. Read More

Do You Blame Others For Your Ministry Failures? 12 Ways To Escape This Foolish Trap

I don’t blame anyone but myself for my failures in ministry -- Why are people so surprised by that? Read More
This article and the preceding article prompt an interesting comparison between the kind of leadership that we might expect from Christian leaders and the kind of leadership that a number of top political leaders are offering our nation. The latter are too eager to pick fights and to blame others for their mistakes. They indulge in conduct that Christians who are committed to live by the standards Jesus set in his teaching and by his example should find abhorrent.
How Church Leaders Can Effectively Lead Through Today’s Divisive Political Climate

If we drift too far from our core purpose, it can seem like we’re walking in a field of land mines hesitant to take the next step because we might blow something up. Read More

VBS: A Time-Tested, Effective Strategy to Combat Cultural Crises

We have an evangelism crisis in our churches. We have a loneliness epidemic in our communities. But we—the Church—have a solution to both of these problems. A solution that’s been in front of faces for decades: VBS. Read More
VBS is not a panacea for today's evangelism crisis and loneliness epidemic but it can be an effective part of a church strategy to tackle these problems.
Is Evangelism on Its Death Bed?

Looking at the current state of evangelism is healthy so we can be brought to an awareness of reality, but shame on us if we recognize our sickness and then do nothing to address it. We have to ask, What will it take to turn this around? Read More
Anti-evangelism sentiment infected the Episcopal Church perhaps as early as the late nineteenth century. It was certainly evident in the 1990s--the so-called "Decade of Evangelism," which many Episcopal clergy treated as a joke. Unfortunately the disaffected Episcopalians who fled the Episcopal Church in the 1970s and later brought this attitude with them into the Continuing Anglican churches. It accounts in part for their slow growth and subsequent decline. Preaching on the importance of evangelism and its inseparable relationship to discipleship can elicit a reaction of guilt and hostility in Continuing Anglican congregations, making the task of turning Continuing Anglican churches around even more difficult than it is.

Friday, January 24, 2020

The ACNA Has Released the “Final Version” of Its Catechism


By Robin G. Jordan

The Anglican Church in North American has finally gotten around to releasing the latest version of its catechism. The “final version” of To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism, as it is billed, like its predecessors, belies the claim that its contents are agreeable to all legitimate Anglican schools of thought. First, it asserts that the Holy Spirit is given at baptism, a view that is not shared by all such schools of thought and which is not supported by the Scriptures. While the Holy Spirit may have manifest himself as a dove that alighted on Jesus when John baptized him in the Jordan River, the New Testament tells us that Cornelius and his household and the apostle Paul received the gift of the Holy Spirit before they were baptized and the Ephesians and the Samaritans received the gift of the Holy Spirit after they were baptized. Although Simon Magus was baptized, he did not receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. In his conversation with Nicodemus as recorded in the Gospel of John, Jesus compares the Holy Spirit to the wind which blows where it pleases. In the same way the Holy Spirit is not bound by our actions.

The benchmark sixteenth century Anglican divine Richard Hooker wrote “all receive not the grace of God which receive the sacraments of his grace.” The historic Gorham judgment recognized as a legitimate position in historic Anglicanism that the gift of the Holy Spirit may be given before, in, or after baptism or not at all. In its assistance that the gift of the Holy Spirit accompanies baptism, the "final version" of To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism takes a position historically associated with the Anglo-Catholic movement in the Anglican Church.

Second, the “final version” of To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism further claims that there are five other sacraments in addition to the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. These purported sacraments it maintains are “confirmation, ordination, marriage, absolution,” and “the anointing of the sick. It refers to these acts as “the sacraments of the church,” a term used to describe them in the canons and catechism of the Roman Catholic Church. It goes on to state:
“They were not ordained by Christ as necessary to salvation, but arose from the practices of the apostles and the Early Church, or were blessed by God in Scripture. God clearly uses them as means of grace. (Articles of Religion, 25)”
Note the wording of this section of To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism. While it paraphrases the wording of  Article 25, it does not convey the same meaning as Article 25 does. Article 25 clearly states that these acts are either corruptions of apostolic practice or states of life allowed in Scripture. Nowhere do the Articles of Religion affirm that God uses them as means of grace. Here again the "final version" of To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism takes a position historically associated with the Anglo-Catholic movement which has sought to reestablish the Roman Catholic sacramental system in the Anglican Church.

Third, the “final version” of To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism infers that regeneration accompanies baptism. This position has historically been a major cause of controversy in the Anglican Church and is generally but not exclusively associated with the Anglo-Catholic movement. It caused a major split in the Protestant Episcopal Church in the nineteenth century and the departure of conservative Evangelical Episcopalians from that denomination.

The afore-mentioned sections of the “final version” of To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism are not the only problematic sections in the catechism. They, however, point to a major weakness of the catechism. It is designed to promote the doctrinal views of one school of thought in the Anglican Church in North America and the larger Anglican Communion. It is not designed to comprehend the other schools of thought represented in the ACNA and the Anglican Communion. For this reason Anglican clergy who are committed to upholding the teaching of the Holy Scriptures and the principles of the historic Anglican formularies will want to steer clear of using the catechism in instructing inquirers, new church members, existing church members, and their children.

Despite the claim made on the ACNA website the “final version” of To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism, while it may have received the endorsement of the College of Bishops, has not been approved as the official catechism of the Anglican Church in North America. Such approval would require the adoption of an authorizing canon by the Provincial Council and the Provincial Assembly. Individual bishops may permit its use in their dioceses but they will be treading on dangerous ground because some of its sections are arguably contrary to Scripture. It is ironic that a catechism which includes sections explaining what the Ten Commandments mean, including what it means to bear false witness, itself contains what may be regarded as highly questionable material.

As in the case of The Book of Common Prayer 2019, the “final version” of To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism gives the appearance of having been produced not to move the Anglican Church in North America in the direction of authentic historic Anglicanism but away from the Anglican Church ‘s historic formularies and its central theological tradition. After all, authentic historic Anglicanism is Biblical, Protestant, evangelical, and reformed in character. It is the very antithesis of the unreformed Catholicism which The Book of Common Prayer 2019 and To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism promote. The failure of the ACNA to produce a more comprehensive prayer book and catechism are further evidence of the need for a ecclesial body in North America, which genuinely represents the Biblical, Protestant, evangelical, and reformed character of authentic historic Anglicanism.

How the Sacraments Act as Contracts


Two Distinctive Sacraments

The word “sacrament” comes from the Latin word sacramentum. It was used in two ways at the time. First, it described the oath taken by soldiers in the Roman army. It was a sacred pledge of allegiance. Second, if you were suing someone in Roman civil law, then both parties deposited the contested amount into a common fund. At the end of the case, it was winner takes all. But until that moment, the deposited money was sacramentum or, as we might say today, “sacrosanct.” In this sense sacramentum implied that the water, bread, and wine were set apart from their ordinary use to represent God’s promise or pledge to us in the gospel, along with our corresponding response of commitment.

Matters were confused by the fact that sacramentum was also used to translate the Greek word for “mystery” (mystērion). This is used in the New Testament to refer to the revelation of Christ in the gospel (Col. 1:27; 2:2; 1 Tim. 3:16) and the relationship of Christ to the church. But mystērion is never used of the sacraments in the New Testament. The problem was that the association with the word “mystery” meant the sacraments were confused with the religious practices of Roman “mystery religions,” which were thought to convey magical powers on the worshipers. So in medieval theology the sacraments were commonly seen as objects with inherent spiritual power.

To avoid these mistaken associations some churches have preferred the term “ordinances” to describe baptism and Communion, since they are activities “ordained” by Christ. The problem with this term, though, is that it doesn’t distinguish baptism and Communion from the other activities Christ has ordained (like preaching and prayer). Baptism and Communion have distinctive roles as expressions of joining and belonging to the church. Plus, their physicality sets them apart and requires us to think about them in a distinctive way. Read More

5 Reasons to Recover Benedictions at Church


To modern ears, benedictions may sound like archaic and rigid conclusions to worship services. Why not just say, “You’re dismissed”?

But what if benedictions reach down into our deepest hopes? What if they train us to have God-sized expectations for the future? And what if they aren’t just for pastors in worship services, but for all of us in everyday life?

Benedictions are gospel blessings that teach us to expect what only God can give, and the Bible is filled with them. God’s first word to humanity was to bless them (Gen. 1:28). He commanded Israel’s priests to place his blessing over his people (Num. 6:22–27). As Jesus’s final act before ascending to heaven, he lifted his hands and blessed his disciples (Luke 24:51). Most of the New Testament letters include at least one benediction, and God’s last words to us in the Bible are a benediction: “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen” (Rev. 22:21).

Why do benedictions matter for us today? Here are five reasons we should recover the use of them in our worship services. Read More
I personally came to appreciate the use of a benediction at the conclusion of a worship service after attending the worship services of a church in which the pastor, after making a few announcements, routinely dismissed the congregation with the words, "See you all next week." If it was anything, it was anti-climatic. There was not even a closing song. 

Lessons from the Earliest Christians for Our Secular Age


In Resilient Faith: How the Early Christian ‘Third Way’ Changed the World, Gerald Sittser—professor of theology at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington—shows how the early church emerged in the Roman world with a distinctive identity in Christ. The phrase “new race” or “third race” comes from a second-century letter written to a Roman official named Diognetus. Christians became the “Third Way” after “First Way” Rome and “Second Way” Judaism. Christ’s followers blended into Roman society seamlessly when it came to language, clothing, food, and commerce. But when life involved worship, sexuality, family life, caring for the poor, and proclaiming the gospel, they “functioned as if they were a nation within a nation, culturally assimilated yet distinct at the same time.”

The Roman way was an all-encompassing civil religion, tolerant, pluralistic, and syncretistic. As Sittser observes, “Rome’s religion was Rome itself.” It absorbed new religions into its pantheon, while maintaining absolute subservience to Rome and strict allegiance to the divine status of the emperor. Rome “had the most trouble with the religions that demanded exclusive commitment to one God and to one way of life. Most religions of this kind, especially Christianity, were considered by definition anti-Roman.”

Sittser recounts a conversation he had with a Kenyan pastor in Nairobi. The pastor asked why Christians in America refer to themselves as “American Christians,” suspecting more to the identification than a person who happened to be an American. The title “American Christian” seemed “heretical to him because it tempted Americans to confuse the two identities, and thus to import American culture (e.g., wealth) to other parts of the world, always ‘in the name of Christ.’”

The conversation highlights an explicit connection between first-century Rome and post-Christendom America. Indeed, Sittser’s description of ancient Rome fits America today. I believe the scholar-historian is the best person to bridge these two worlds and show us the “Third Way”—how to live for Christ in America without being “American Christians.” We must become bilingual interpreters of history, taking what we know of the early Christian “Third Way” and applying it to “Third Way” Christ-followers today. Read More

Thursday, January 23, 2020

Forgotten Lessons About Communion and Preaching


Francis Chan dropped a theological bombshell in his much-discussed recent sermon about communion and the need for Christian unity around the Lord’s Table. This vision of the Eucharist (or Lord’s Supper) bases much of its argument on a certain reading of church history that many Roman Catholics would find congenial in its portrait of communion, the Reformation, and Catholic practice down through the centuries.

I will provide what I hope will be an irenic answer, one that explains the need to retrieve Christian thought from the history of the church, the legitimate centrality of preaching, and the significance of Christ’s presence in communion. Read More

Thursday's Catch: Churches Planting Churches and More


Should Church Planting Be Done Through People or Through Churches?

In today’s churches, we place more of an emphasis on church planting through people than we do church planting through churches. Read More

Planting Churches with a Lasting Gospel Legacy

Church planters invest significantly in a church’s launch. We prepare, plan, pray, and pour out our creative energy and pastoral heart on this seedling of a church. But are we starting churches that last? Are we planning and pastoring today for what our churches will become tomorrow? Read More

Four Statements That Stop Revitalization Cold in Its Tracks [Podcast]

The following four statements have the power to stop the important work of revitalization cold in its tracks. Thom and Kevin share stories, and discuss the importance of recognizing these problematic statements and how to address them before it’s too late. Listen Now

12 Keys to Picking Great Songs for Worship

Picking great songs for worship is one of the most important skills a worship leader needs to learn. There are many different kinds and levels of worship songs. Read More

Live As If Jesus Rules and Eternity Is Real

Have you ever seen someone trying to get out of a boat ... slowly? They’ve got one foot on the dock and one foot in the boat, and they just don’t want to commit. When you see that person on the dock, all you can think is, “Make a decision. And quick, buddy.” Because as the boat starts to drift away, it’s going to get really uncomfortable really fast. You’re either in or you’re out! Read More

Missionaries Need to Know What a Church Is: A Lesson from Adoniram Judson

Before being sent out, missionaries should come to a biblical, convictional understanding of what a church is. This was a lesson Adoniram Judson learned the hard way. Read More

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Wednesday's Catch: "Your Church Needs Boomers" and More


Your Church Needs Boomers

How a hyper-focus on “attracting the young” can sideline the aging faithful. Read More

Small MN Church Makes Headlines for ‘All the Wrong Reasons’

Cottage Grove Church, a small church in Minnesota, has made national headlines for “all the wrong reasons” according to church leadership. Read More

How to Measure the Success of Offline Marketing for an Outreach Event

While social media is a powerful tool in marketing your outreach event, don’t be too quick to dismiss traditional marketing. Read More

Church Names: 10 Tips for Church Planters and Rebranding Churches

A church planter friend of mine bounced some potential church names off me for his forthcoming church plant. After speaking with him, I began to think more about some practical thoughts on how to name a church. Read More

What Are the Most Common Objections Against Christianity? [Podcast]

Don Carson and Tim Keller talk about a few of the most common arguments against Christianity they’ve heard over the past 50 years. Watch Now

More Non-Evangelicals Are Calling Themselves Born Again

A growing share of mainline Protestants and Catholics have taken on the once-distinctive label over the past three decades. Read More

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Talking about the Church...


Talking about the Church is actually quite a difficult task, since Scripture speaks of the Church in a variety of ways. More often than not, individuals have failed to rightly distinguish between the different ways in which the biblical authors speak about the church. This, of course, raises the question, “What is the Church?” In order to give the most biblically robust answer possible, we must consider the origin of the word “church,” scriptural titles for the church, theological categories by which the church is distinguished, and the defining attributes of the church. Read More

Also See:
5 Tips to Survive Planting a Church
4 Wins Worth Celebrating in Church Ministry

3 Overlooked Symptoms of Loneliness in the Church


There’s a silent epidemic ravaging our churches and communities. Its symptoms are often visible. Other times, telltale signs are hidden in plain sight.

Loneliness is an unbiased beast. It can mar the rich, poor, adult, child, introverted, extroverted, educated, or uneducated.

Despite how it may feel, this doesn’t mean it’s untamable. It’s important to be aware of the symptoms in order to confront and care for the feeling.

Although many symptoms are obvious and we may easily picture this person as one who lurks in the corners of a social gathering (if he even shows up to the event), it’s important to remember there’s always more beneath the appearance of any person.

Sometimes it can be difficult to even spot symptoms in one’s self. But one thing is certain: Everyone knows what it’s like to feel lonely.

A great working definition of loneliness is from Dr. Todd Frye, head of the counseling department at MidAmerican Nazarene University in Olathe, Kansas: “Loneliness is when things inside a person seem bigger than things outside.”

This is a scary feeling that limits one’s functionality in everyday life. Here are a few signs someone in your community or congregation is suffering from loneliness. Read More

20 Questions Every Preacher Should Ask The Day Before Preaching


Bob Hostetler has a penetrating set of questions as part of his sermon prep. Perhaps they could help us all.

Years ago, when I began preaching, I developed a list of 20 questions to evaluate a sermon—before preaching it. It remains a mental checklist I use to this day.... Read More

Also See:
The Case for Sermon-Centric Sundays
Celebrating Expository Preaching in the African American Tradition
When You Preach on Abortion, Don’t Leave Hope Behind
Preaching with a Plan
Should We Use Humor in Our Preaching?

One of the Most Overlooked Reasons Why We Should Trust the Bible

Great Synagogue, Capernaum
When deciding what to believe about the Bible, who should we listen to?

That’s a rather basic question, and I suppose there are many possible answers. We could listen to our friends—maybe a roommate or a co-worker. Then there are family members, maybe our parents or siblings. Surely they would have an opinion. Or we could look to our leaders, a pastor or professor who seems to be an “expert.” And there’s always Google if we really want to know what to think!

But in the midst of all the options there is one person that, ironically, Christians (and non-Christians) overlook. Jesus. Read More

Image: UNESCO (unesco.org), CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

You Can’t Reject a Faith You Never Knew


Historian Alec Ryrie offers a revisionist take on the roots of unbelief. But there’s another story that needs telling.

Let’s begin with a quiz. Think of some specific people you know who do not believe in God. Do you have your answers? I thought of Jill, and then, to make it more challenging, imposed an alliteration rule before adding Jeremy, Jeanette, Jane, and Jeffrey.

Most of us can cobble our own lists together without too much trouble. Which raises an interesting question: How did we reach the point where this exercise is so easy? After all, there were numerous generations in Europe when almost no one could have named a single true unbeliever.

In his well-researched and thought-provoking book, Unbelievers: An Emotional History of Doubt, historian Alec Ryrie recounts a McCarthy-like atheist scare in late-16th-century England. The authorities were determined to root the problem out, but the deeper they dug the less they found. One man was subpoenaed because he was overheard saying he knew that some people did not believe in heaven or hell. Asked to name names, he duly explained that he had learned of the existence of such people when a minister denounced them in a sermon.

So how did we get from unreliable rumors of atheists to alliterative lists of them? Ryrie’s thesis is that the standard account, which focuses on intellectual arguments for atheism, is wrong. He believes that these are generally just rationalizations concocted after the fact: “What if,” he wonders, the true story is that “people stopped believing and then found they needed arguments to justify their unbelief?” Read More
Ryrie's thesis may also be applicable to a number of Christian beliefs. They are explanations thought up to justify the practices with which they are associated. We find little or no genuine basis for these practices in the Scriptures. Indeed, Ryrie's thesis, when applied to the origin of Christian beliefs, is not new or radical. It has been around since the nineteenth century if not earlier. The factors that Timothy Larsen identifies as having contributed to unbelief in our time are also not new. They have antecedents in earlier times.

8 Characteristics of Disciple-Making Churches


I admit that the North American church has done a poor job of making disciples. Too often, we expect baby believers to grow on their own—and then get frustrated with them for not growing. On the other hand, I’m seeing an increase in churches who are trying to correct this problem. Here are some characteristics of these churches.... Read More

Should Missionaries Expect Rapid Growth?

Yanghwajin Foreign Missionary Cemetery, Hapjeong, Seoul, South Korea
Missionaries often start their journey into ministry with high expectations. Chief among them is a hope for fruit from their labors. However, it doesn’t take long for some to realize their dreams may not instantly translate into reality. Cultural differences shock the system. Language learning is slow and can frustrate a family. Team dynamics may erode. Early in the process, any sort of positive results might feel distant and unattainable.

One of the first principles our family learned in missionary training school is that misplaced expectations can rob your joy and undermine your ministry. However, it seems some in the missions community are now contributing to greater missionary anxiety by promoting the idea that rapid growth is to be expected—that ministry done the right way produces predictable results beyond addition, all the way to rapid multiplication.

While the desire for God’s Word and his kingdom to advance is a good one (2 Thess. 3:1), we must be careful about burdening missionaries with unrealistic expectations. Current methodologies in missions such as Church Planting Movements (CPM) or Disciple Making Movements (DMM) are right to seek the expansive and exponential spread of the gospel. But strategies promoting rapid growth are sometimes built on faulty assumptions that create unhealthy expectations. Read More

Why Has Evangelism Declined?


Instead of starting with our questions, we should start where people are and walk them to the gospel.

We have entered a decade or two lull in evangelistic passion among evangelicals now. This is ironic since “evangelical” and “evangelistic” come from the same root word which means gospel, good news, or evangel. I think there are several reasons for this. Read More

4 Guidelines to Keep Your Church Superbowl Party from Being Illegal


Most church Super Bowl parties are perfectly legal, but a few regulations could cause the NFL to throw a penalty flag on a congregation.

A few years ago, Super Bowl parties appeared to be in jeopardy. Many churches canceled their plans after the NFL began legally objecting to virtually all public showings, including those hosted by religious organizations.

In 2007, Fall Creek Baptist Church received a letter from the NFL informing them their planned Super Bowl party violated copyright laws.

The league objected to the church showing the game on a giant screen. As news spread, other churches began to cancel their events.

After substantial backlash, however, the NFL amended their rules to allow churches to show the Super Bowl regardless of screen size.

Despite the change, other regulations remain in place. Make sure your church follows these four guidelines. Read More

Monday, January 20, 2020

10 Ways Pastors Can Encourage Church Attendance


Since coming to faith in Christ at age 15, I’ve had a strong desire to gather with the body of Christ. Even hearing not-so-stellar preaching and being with cantankerous people, I always loved gathering with God’s people.

When isolation due to chemotherapy kept me from church for four months in 2019, my deepest longing was to be with God’s people. I even asked our tech director to leave the livestream on after the service so I might see the people mingle. Gathering with the body seems natural.

Yet church members are wired differently, face varied issues, battle individualism, and struggle with numerous spiritual matters. So while church participation should be an automatic for Christians, it doesn’t always happen. Nevertheless, attentive shepherds can help spur faithful participation.

Here are 10 ways I’ve found useful in 40-plus years of pastoral ministry. Read More

Also See:
7 Ways to Grow Church Attendance by Increasing Engagement

10 Ways Porn Culture Will Target Your Kids in 2020 (Be Prepared, Not Scared!)


It’s not difficult to look around and surmise that porn culture targets kids. We meet and hear from parents all the time who are full of fear over this. And for good reason. With the ease of access to porn and its harmful effects on children, porn is a formidable enemy indeed! But fear can be very debilitating.
“If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.”–Sun Tzu
So let’s get to know the enemy so we can gear up for those battles! Here are TEN things to look out for this year as you raise kids in a hypersexualized porn culture AND what you can do about it! Read More

Are Your Sermons Hard or Easy to Listen to?


While earning my executive master’s degree in the neuroscience of leadership, I learned some fascinating insights about the brain that can help us pastors lead, speak, and live more effectively. To prep you for today’s post, answer this question? How would people describe my sermons: hard to listen to or easy to listen to? Take a moment and stop reading and honestly answer that question for yourself. Whatever your answer, we can all improve our preaching. In this post I share some interesting insight about the brain that can make your sermons easier to listen to.

I’ve included below a short checklist based on neuroscience insight that might give you a clue and help you improve.

But before that checklist, I’ve listed a few important brain facts to set the stage. Read More