Fundamentals of Church Leadership: Six Articles

4 Things I Want to Be as a Leader

Reading Nehemiah and Ezra has sort of wrecked me out recently. I am learning a lot from them about the kind of leader I want to be.... Keep reading

6 Necessities of Effective Leadership

My definition of a leadership is, “The ability to obtain and retain followers, organizing them, unifying them, and directing them to accomplish a God-given vision.

There are six elements of leadership, each of them easily embraced and vitally important.... Keep reading

Four Ways to Express Love to the People You Lead

Gary Chapman’s book The Five Love Languages has been a helpful resource to many couples. He challenges spouses to learn each other’s love language—how one most feels loved, pursued, and valued—whether through time, words of affirmation, acts of service, gifts, or touch. When Kaye, my wife, jokingly insists that she has all five languages, I remind her of the portion in the book that says if your spouse cannot determine her love language, it is because her “love tank” is full. I’m all about Kaye with a full love tank. Dr. Chapman’s work provided a simple framework that helps couples think through how to pursue and express love to their spouses.

While Chapman’s work is grounded in marriage, there are some takeaways for leadership. A great leader cares for those on the team and does not view those on the team as if they exist for him/her. The opposite is true—a great leader sets himself/herself up as the servant of the team. A wise leader pursues those on the team, not just to recruit them initially but to keep them engaged. The reality is that your best people are volunteers, regardless if you pay them. So expressing love and appreciation to them is essential. To serve the team well, you must know those you are leading. You must know how members on the team feel valued and appreciated. How do those on the team feel most valued and appreciated? Is it time, words of affirmation, acts of service, or gifts? Keep reading

Trusting Your Team With Decisions – How to Make the Best Decisions When A Quick Decision Is Needed

As a leader, I am forced to make dozens of decisions every day. I’ve learned the secret to making better decisions faster.

When I’m pushed for a quick answer — when everyone knows a decision needs to be made now, but without time to get all the information I would normally require to make a decision.

I empower people on my team to make the decision. Keep reading

6 Qualities To Look For When Hiring Administrative Staff

Whether you are a small church or a megachurch, every church staff needs people who help keep the trains running on time.

When your team is looking to hire an administrative staff member, you need to seek someone who is not only a great culture fit but who also has characteristics and qualities needed to do the job well.

Here are six traits to seek when hiring administrative help for your church staff. Keep reading

10 Ways to Find More Energy Today

Energy comes to you from your inner world and the world around you.

Find energy by respecting it.

The way you feel about a thing changes you, not the thing. Keep reading

Issues in Pastoral Practice: Three Articles

Five Pastoral Errors That Can Kill a Ministry

Ministers are called, trained and equipped for ministry. That goes without saying, but though the calling might be there, the training and equipping sometimes fall short. That's not always the fault of the college or the mentor: sometimes it's because of personal flaws like pride, over-confidence or a poor understanding of what pastoral ministry is all about.

Of course, ministry's different in different places. But I think there are some surefire ways of harming your ministry, whatever the context. Here are five.... Keep reading

Four Hard Questions Pastors Should Continually Ask Themselves

When the apostle Paul challenged the believers in Philippi in their obedience to the Lord, he told them: “Do what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me” (Philippians 4:9). When he wrote the believers in Corinth, he said, “Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). Though not perfect, Paul was willing to say, “You can imitate what you see in me.” Church leaders are wise to constantly evaluate their lives to ensure they can say the same thing. Here are four hard questions to ask yourself. Keep reading

Pastor, You Should Share The Pulpit

There are two laymen in our church who are good preachers. Both of them are obviously gifted communicators who love Jesus, His bride, and His Word. And we have it set up so that one of these men preaches about every six weeks.

We are not a large church. We don’t have a staff—just me. It's not a necessity that they fill in. I'm not out of town or anything. It probably even seems a little strange to some folks that I'm at the service but not preaching.

I love to prepare and preach sermons. Love it. It's easily my favorite part of pastoral ministry.

And these men are not getting paid to preach (whereas I am) and they have fulltime jobs outside of the church (I don't). So why have them preach?

I have a few simple reasons for sharing the pulpit. Some of these are particular to my personality and gifting. Some are pretty universal. Here they are.... Keep reading

What other reasons are there for sharing the pulpit?

Identity Crisis: Preaching to a Confused World [Audios]

The Proclamation Trust has posted audios of the talks given at the 2015 Evangelical Ministry Assembly, held June 22-24 at the Barbican in London.

The theme of the gathering was "Identity Crisis: Preaching to a Confused World."

Among the speakers were Christopher Ash, Director of the Cornhill Training Course; Tim Keller, Redeemer Presbyterian, New York; Andrew Reid, Holy Trinity, Doncaster; Vaughn Roberts, St. Ebbe's. Oxford; Bruce Ware, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; and John Wyatt, University College, London. Listen now

The Problem of Doctrine in the Anglican Church in North America

By Robin G. Jordan

The Anglican Church in North America has a doctrine problem. The problem originated during the days of the Common Cause Partnership. It has grown progressively worse since the formation of the Anglican Church in North America.  Let’s take a brief look at that problem and how we might respond to it.

What is the “official doctrine” of the Anglican Church in North America?

Beyond the doctrinal statements and inferences in its constitution and canons, what may be considered official ACNA doctrine—at least at the present time—are the doctrinal views endorsed by its College of Bishops. These doctrinal views may be explicit or they may be implied—typically associated with a practice endorsed by the College of Bishops. They are found in two documents—Texts for Common Prayer and To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism.

The Anglican Church in North America’s constitution and canons do not vest in the College of Bishops the authority to determine matters relating to the faith, order, and worship of the denomination or recognize this authority as inherent in the body. The constitution identifies the “chief work” of the College of Bishops as propagating and defending the faith and order of the Church and serving as “a visible sign and expression of the unity of the Church.” Whether the propagation and defense of the Church’s faith and order extends to the determination of matters relating to the faith, order, and worship of the denomination is debatable.

The constitution vests in the Provincial Council authority to make canons ordering the denomination’s common life in respect to such matters as safeguarding of the denomination’s faith and order, common worship, and standards for ordination among other things. The constitution also recognizes the Provincial Council as the governing body of the denomination. Based upon the provisions of the constitution, the Provincial Council is the denominational organ that has authority to determine matters relating to the denomination’s faith, order, and worship, not the College of Bishops.

For the foregoing reasons I deliberately avoid the use of terms like “adopt” or “approve” to describe the decisions that the College of Bishops makes as a body regarding matters related to the faith, order, and worship of the denomination. If the College of Bishops and the Provincial Council were operating strictly in accordance with the provisions of the constitution and the canons, these decisions might be described as recommendations by the College of Bishops to the Provincial Council. The Provincial Council would decide whether it would act on these recommendations or the recommendations of other bodies that it had created to make recommendations to it on matters related to the denomination’s faith, order, and worship.

The College of Bishops’ endorsement of particular doctrinal views must be seen in the light of the present situation in the Anglican Church in North America. The College of Bishops has been progressively encroaching upon the authority of the Provincial Council. The Provincial Council has to date made no attempt to resist that encroachment and to assert its prerogatives. Rather the Provincial Council is abnegating its authority over such matters and deferring to the College of Bishops. What is endorsed by the College of Bishops may under the circumstances be viewed as official ACNA doctrine albeit provisionally.

The College of Bishops is the only denominational organ that is doing anything that approximates issuing doctrinal statements—endorsing the doctrinal material produced by a number of denominational task forces under its supervision and with its input. These taskforces are technically organs of the Provincial Council. As can be seen from this description of the present situation in the Anglican Church in North America how the organs of the denomination are supposed to operate according to the provisions of the constitution and how they operate in practice are two different things.

The result is that the College of Bishops’ endorsement of particular doctrinal views has weight as long as the Provincial Council or any ecclesial organization or network in the denomination does not challenge such endorsement. They do not, however, have the force of law: They have not been incorporated into the canons.

The result is also a state of affairs not unlike that in the Episcopal Church in which the denomination has not formally adopted a doctrinal position on a number of key issues. In order to file charges of heresy against a bishop, the House of Bishops must poll its members as to what in their opinion is the official doctrine of the denomination and whether the bishop in question holds views inconsistent with that doctrine.

Doesn’t the Anglican Church in North America affirm the Jerusalem Declaration?

As I pointed out in a number of articles, the Anglican Church in North America’s affirmation of the Jerusalem is only incidental to the narrative of the denomination’s formation in the preamble to its constitution. As it is only incidental to that account and appears in the constitution’s preamble, it is not binding upon the denomination. This is the reason that it was moved from the fundamental declarations in Article I of the constitution to the preamble. If it has been retained in the fundamental declarations, it would have technically had the force of law and would have binding at least on paper upon the consciences of congregations and clergy in the denomination, including its bishops. Whether the bishops of the Anglican Church in North America would have paid any more attention to it than they have other provisions of the constitution is a matter for conjecture.

It is quite evident from the doctrinal views that the College of Bishops has endorsed to date that the College of Bishops as a body does not fully accept the tenets that the Jerusalem Declaration identifies as underpinning Anglican orthodoxy. It is quite evident from statements made on the Internet that a segment of the denomination, clergy and laity, also do not fully accept these tenets. The cumulative evidence belies the claim on the ACNA website that the denomination wholeheartedly embraces the Jerusalem Declaration.

Doesn’t  the Anglican Church in North America receive the Anglican formularies as doctrinal and worship standards?

When used in relation to a standard, the term “to receive” means “to accept as authoritative, true, or accurate; to believe.” When one examines the ACNA fundamental declarations what stands out about its reception of the Anglican formularies as standards are the qualifiers. These qualifiers limit its reception of the Anglican formularies as standards.

For example, the fundamental declarations state that the denomination receive the 1662 Book of Common Prayer as a doctrinal standard, in other words, one of a number of doctrinal standards, which the fundamental declarations do not identify and may include that amorphous body of beliefs which John Newman referred to in Tract 90 as “Catholic tradition.”

The fundamental declarations state that the denomination receives the 1662 Prayer Book as its worship standard along with the books that preceded the 1662 Prayer Book. Among the books that preceded the 1662 Prayer Book were the partially reformed 1549 Prayer Book and the unreformed pre-Reformation medieval service books.

In regard to the Articles of Religion of 1571 those who drafted the fundamental declarations use language that avoids committing the denomination to fully accepting as authoritative the doctrine and principles set out in the Articles. They add an additional qualifier in form a phrase from the Royal Declaration of Charles I, which Anglo-Catholics associate with John Newman’s reinterpretation of the Articles in a Roman direction. Newman used this phrase as justification for his disregard of the historical context of the Articles and the intent of their authors.

What is official ACNA doctrine relating to grace, faith, baptism, the Holy Spirit, and regeneration?

What the College of Bishops has endorsed is the view that the work of prevenient grace is faith, not regeneration. Faith is the cause of regeneration, not its fruit. This is essentially the Scotian-Arminian view of the ordo salutis historically associated with Roman Catholicism and Wesleyanism. It is not the Augustian-Reformed view of the order of salvation articulated in Article 10 and further expounded in “the Homily for Whitsunday,” “the Homily on the Misery of Man,” and “the Third Homily for Rogation Week.”

While tying the gift of the Holy Spirit to water baptism, To Be A Christian: An Anglican Catechism shies away from connecting the new birth, or regeneration, to water baptism. The Order for Holy Baptism, however, connects the gift of the Holy Spirit and the new birth to water baptism. Members of the College of Bishops had a hand in the drafting of both documents which have received the endorsement of the College of Bishops.

What are the implications for Anglicans in and outside of the Anglican Church in North America?

The Order for Holy Baptism leaves no doubt as the direction in which the College of Bishops is taking the Anglican Church in North America. It is certainly not responding to GAFCON’s call to return to the Bible and the Anglican formularies. Rather the College of Bishops has embraced Roman Catholic views of the priesthood and the sacraments and Eastern Orthodox views of the Holy Spirit and sanctification. It has turned its back on the teaching of the Holy Scriptures and the doctrine and principles of the Anglican formularies.

In England, as in other countries, the sixteenth century Reformation was a movement to restore the New Testament gospel to its rightful place in the Church. Whatever its motivations the College of Bishops appears set on undoing the English Reformation and the Elizabethan Settlement and reshaping the Anglican Church along unreformed Catholic lines. Under its leadership the Anglican Church in North America is becoming a denomination that proclaims a “different gospel” from the New Testament Gospel—a gospel of sacraments and works.

These developments and other developments in the Anglican Church in North America should be a major cause for concern to Anglicans who uphold the teaching of the Holy Scriptures and the doctrine and principles of the Anglican formularies and who see the renewal and revitalization of confessional Anglicanism as the most reliable bulwark against the encroachment of liberalism and other systems of beliefs that threaten the authority of the Bible and Anglican formularies in the Anglican Church. The College of Bishops is itself espousing such a system of beliefs.

Sooner or later the College of Bishops is going to take the step of calling for a canon to enforce the use of the ACNA service book and catechism and to push such a canon through the ACNA legislative process. There is already a canon on the books requiring the use of the ACNA service book once it is adopted. In the case of the ACNA service book the only thing required for the enforcement of its use is its formal adoption. A canon enforcing the use of the ACNA service book and catechism would make conformity to their unreformed Catholic teaching and practices a canonical requirement. The doctrine endorsed by the College of Bishops would have the weight of canon law behind it, not just the backing of the bishops.  

What next?

One response to developments in the Anglican Church in North America is to do nothing. The result of inaction is that the present situation in the Anglican Church in North America will not only persist but it will also grow worse.

A second response is to undertake a major overhaul of the denomination—its doctrinal foundation, its governing documents, its rites and services, its catechism, and the like—and to replace its existing leaders with fresh ones. This involves trying to work within a system that was created to prevent such changes from happening. It would be a futile exercise.

A third response is to establish new orthodox Anglican province fully in line with the teaching of the Bible and the doctrine and principles of the Anglican formularies and to provide an alternative not only to the Anglican Church of Canada, the Continuing Anglican Churches, and the Episcopal Church but also the Anglican Church in North America. A drawback of this response is that it would add to the raft of Anglican entities competing with each other in North America.

A fourth response is to establish such a province but within the Anglican Church in North America itself—a second province with its own doctrinal foundation, governing documents, rites and services, catechism, bishops, and synodical government. This would require congregations, clergy, and others in the Anglican Church in North America, committed to the full acceptance of the authority of the Bible and the Anglican formularies, to take the initiative and to form such a province within the ACNA despite the opposition of those who do not see the need for a second province. It would also require boldness and resolve on the part of the group forming the second province.

As for Anglicans outside of North America, they also have four choices. They can do nothing. They call for meaningful reforms in the Anglican Church in North America and put pressure on the denomination to undertake them. They can back the formation of a new orthodox Anglican province in North America. They can give their support to the group forming a second province within the Anglican Church in North America.

What are you going to do?

Learning to Both Love and Hate the World

What do you think of when you hear the phrase “the world?” Does it elicit a positive or negative response?

The Scripture has a lot to say on the subject of “the world” that, on a cursory reading, can seem contradictory. Consider, for example, what the apostle John says. In John 3:16 he wrote: “For God so loved the world … ” But then in 1 John 2:15 he wrote: “Do not love the world or the things that belong to the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in Him.” He records Jesus’ words in John 12:47, “For I did not come to judge the world but to save the world,” but relates Jesus’ admonition in 15:19, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

It seems like poor John can’t seem to make up his mind about “the world,” and whether we should love it or hate it.

Of course, John wasn’t confused. The Scripture draws a distinction between the people of the world and the fallen system of ideas that work in rebellion against God. In that sense, we are to both love and hate the world (Prov. 8:13). Part of what that means is living in the world (being present and active where God has sent us) but not being of the world (being influenced by and accepting a system profoundly opposed to God). Many Christians, however, are so fearful of being of the world that they completely isolate themselves from anything in the world. Under the banner of “separation,” they’ve gone underground and disappeared from sight. That’s not how we are supposed to live as citizens of God’s kingdom—and it denies the missional nature of the church. Keep reading

Pointers for Preachers: Two Articles and Four Videos

How to Preach Like Jesus (Part 1): Start with People

There has never been a more appealing and interesting preacher than Jesus. Why not model him? Keep reading

What Jesus Can Teach Us About Sermon Illustrations

Jesus used sermon illustrations.

Truth.

We usually call them parables. Let me tell you about one from the book of Matthew. Keep reading

David Cook on Preaching Acts [Videos]

Four video from the 2012 2 Timothy 4 Trust workshop on preaching through Acts, featuring the teaching of David Cook, are posted on the Trust's website. Watch now

6 Tips on Church Nursery Safety

Keep your nursery safe for children by following these suggestions.... Keep reading

8 major religious groups in US prohibit same-sex marriage, according to study

Eight of the largest religious institutions in the United States oppose same-sex marriage, which was recently legalised by the Supreme Court nationwide.

According to a recent study by Pew Research Center, the major religious groups in America that prohibit gay marriages include American Baptist Churches, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon), Islam, and Roman Catholicism.

Other religion institutions that do not allow unions between individuals of the same sexes are Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, Orthodox Jewish Movement, Southern Baptist Convention and the United Methodist Church. Keep reading

Also see
Surprise, surprise... Baylor University isn't OK with gay sex after all
When Assaulted by Rainbows
How Should Christians Treat Their Gay Neighbors?

The New ACNA Order for Holy Baptism: An Evaluation

By Robin G. Jordan

What one first notices when one examines The Order for Holy Baptism that the College of Bishops endorsed at its most recent meeting in Vancouver is how those who compiled the rite have taken material from the 1662 Baptismal Service, made significant alterations and omissions, and employ it to serve their purposes in the rite. The rite bears only a superficial family resemblance to the 1662 Baptismal Service.

The opening acclamation and the special versicles that precede the salutation and the collect of the day are taken from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. For the salutation “the Lord be with you: and with your spirit” has been substituted for “the Lord be with you: and also with you.” I have discussed elsewhere the particular interpretation that Anglo-Catholics give to “the Lord be with you; and with your spirit” and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer’s deliberate omission of this greeting and response from 1552 Book of Common Prayer (with the exception of the Orders for Morning and Evening Prayer) on the basis of its longstanding association with the Roman Catholic understanding of the priesthood and the sacraments.

What is labeled “the exhortation” precedes the presentation of the candidates. It is at this point the ACNA rite makes its second major departure from the 1662 Baptismal Office, the first major departure being its use of the aforementioned greeting and response, which are also omitted from the 1662 Baptismal Office. The 1662 Baptismal Office begins with an exhortation to pray for the baptismal candidate. This exhortation does not assume that the baptismal candidate, when he is baptized with water, will also be baptized with the Holy Spirit, and received in Christ’s Church and be made a living member of Christ’s Church. It only urges the congregation to pray that God will grant to the baptismal candidate “that thing which by nature he cannot have.” What is labeled “the exhortation” in the ACNA rite is not so much a exhortation to pray for the baptismal candidate but a statement of the ACNA doctrinal position on baptism, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and regeneration.

Dearly beloved, Scripture teaches that we were all dead in our sins and trespasses. Our Savior Jesus Christ said, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God,” and he commissioned the Church to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Therefore we will ask our heavenly Father that these candidates, being baptized with water, may be filled with the Holy Spirit, born again, and received as living members of Christ’s holy Church.

From very outset the ACNA baptismal rite affirms the doctrinal position that the gift of the Holy Spirit and regeneration are conferred in water baptism—a position over which Anglicans have historically been divided with Anglo-Catholics espousing this position and Evangelicals rejecting it as contrary to Scripture. While To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism avoids making a connection between water baptism and regeneration, the ACNA baptismal rite does not show that hesitancy. The 1662 exhortation leaves open the possibility that the baptismal candidate may receive the Holy Spirit and the new birth (or regeneration) at a time other than at the moment he is dipped in the water in the font or the water in the font is poured over him. The so-called exhortation in the ACNA baptismal rite does not leave open this possibility. It infers that the baptismal candidate will receive the Holy Spirit and the new birth at the moment the water in the font is applied to him.

The presentation and examination of the baptismal candidates is to a large extent taken from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. It has two alterations that distinguish it from the presentation and examination of baptismal candidates in that book. It incorporates an address to the baptismal sponsors for infants and younger children which follows the baptismal candidates’ presentation and in which the celebrant explains their duties to the baptismal sponsors. What is notable about this address is the emphasis that it places upon the baptismal candidates’ learning of “the Creeds, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord’s Prayer,” in other words the contents of the ACNA catechism, and the insistence that they should be presented to the bishop for confirmation in order to receive the strengthening of the Holy Spirit. The implication is that confirmation is a sacrament that operates ex opere operato: it is efficious in and of itself and confers the strengthening of the Holy Spirit to those who are rightly disposed.

This view of confirmation embodies an unreformed Catholic view of confirmation, not that of the English Reformers and the historic Anglican formularies. Their view of confirmation is that it is a catechetical rite at which those baptized in infancy make a mature profession of faith in the presence of the gathered church and receive its prayers. Whether God increases the Holy Spirit in the confirmand in response to the church’s prayers is solely in God’s hands. God is sovereign in all things.

The presentation and examination of the baptismal candidates also incorporates a prayer for the deliverance of the baptismal candidates from “the powers of darkness and evil” and the anointing of the baptismal candidates with “the Oil of Exorcism.” This prayer and anointing follows the baptismal candidates’ renunciation of the world, the flesh, and the devil (in reverse order) and is what is known as the “minor exorcism.” It is a part of the baptismal rites of the Roman Catholic Church. 

Archbishop Cranmer did away with the minor exorcism and number of other medieval Catholic ceremonies in the 1552 Baptismal Office and the minor exorcism is not a part of the 1662 Baptismal Office. Cranmer found no basis for the practice in the Holy Scriptures. Jesus himself refers to driving out evil spirits with fasting and prayer, not anointing with oil.

While the anointing with “the Oil of Exorcism” is optional in the ACNA bptismal rite, its inclusion in the rite must be considered in any evaluation of the overall doctrine of the rite.

What is also notable about the presentation and examination of the baptismal candidates is the awkwardness of the wording of the baptismal covenant. This awkwardness would be eliminated if the question and answer format was discontinued at this point and the congregation joined together with the baptismal candidates and/or their sponsors in reciting the Apostles’ Creed.

For the four prayers for grace to carry the baptismal vows into effect, the ACNA baptismal rite substitutes a single prayer adapted from the Flood Prayer. This adaptation of the Flood Prayer contains a significant omission. It omits the clause in the Flood Prayer, which refers to God, by the baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan, sanctifying or setting apart, the element of water to the mystical, or symbolic, washing away of sin. This clause is important part of the doctrine of the 1552 Baptismal Office and the 1662 Baptismal Office on which it is based. Among its implications is that since God by Jesus’ baptism has set apart the element of water for the purpose of baptism, any prayers for the sanctification of the water in the font are unnecessary. It is redundant to beseech God to set apart what he has already set apart. 

The prayer that immediately precedes the baptism of the candidate in the 1552 Baptismal Office simply entreats God to grant that the person baptized in the water in the font may receive the fullness of God’s grace and be numbered among God’s faithful and elect people for ever. The Restoration bishops, influenced by the 1637 Scottish Baptismal Office, would add a petition to this prayer entreating God to do what he had already done, set apart the element of water for the symbolic washing away of sin. The petition was entirely superfluous. Its addition, however, would set the Anglican Church on a road that led away from a Scriptural view of baptism that was solely God’s doing to a sacerdotal view of baptism in which emphasized the power of priests as mediators between God and humankind and as dispensers of sacramental grace.

Both the Bible and the primitive Catholic doctrine take the position that all that is essential for a valid baptism is the right matter—water; the right minister, which may be a lay person; the right recipient –here there is some disagreement among Christians; and the right intention—to do what Church does.

Since the twentieth century this sacerdotal view of baptism has been manifest in the omission of the Flood Prayer from baptismal rites or its alteration, the recasting of the prayer over the water in the font along the lines of a eucharistic prayer, the invocation of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the water in the font, and the addition of ceremonies that the Cranmer and the English Reformers rejected on Scriptural grounds. The ACNA rite displays all these characteristics.

The thanksgiving over the water in the ACNAbaptismal  rite is adapted from the prayer by the same name in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. Like the 1979 thanksgiving over the water, it ties regeneration to water baptism.

The rubrics direct that celebrant immerse the candidate or pour water on the candidate three times—a ceremony that Cranmer dropped from the 1552 Baptismal Office.

The celebrant may use “the Oil of Chrism” to make the sign of the cross on the forehead of the newly-baptized.  The words accompanying the signation do not do justice to the original words in the 1552 and 1662 Baptismal Offices. They blunt the force of the original words. The rubrics permit the use of the words at the signation in the 1979 Book of Common Payer as an alternative. The revival of this practice appears largely motivated by a fascination with the 1549 Prayer Book and the pre-Reformation medieval Catholic liturgies.. Cranmer discontinued the practice in the 1552 Prayer Book as it fit into the category of what Cranmer describes as “dark and dumb ceremonies,” ceremonies that do not serve “a decent Order and godly Discipline” and do not have a “notable and special signification” by which the congregation may be edified. Rather they are apt to foster error and superstition.

The post-baptismal thanksgiving is taken from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. The words "with your spirit" are substituted for "and also with you" in the salutation that precedes the sursum corda that introduces the prayer.Like the thanksgiving over the water in the 1979 Prayer Book, the prayer infers that the newly baptized receives the Holy Spirit and the new birth when he is baptized.

The rite concludes with the welcoming of the newly-baptized and the passing of the peace. The wording is taken from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. The only difference is that “with your spirit” has been substituted for “and also with you” in the exchange of the peace.

The requirement in the additional directions that the font should be filled with clean water immediately before the thanksgiving over the water would appear to preclude the full immersion of the baptismal candidate and the use of lakes, rivers, and other bodies of water, including swimming pools, for baptisms. Among the optional ceremonies authorized in the additional directions are the vesting of the newly-baptized in a white garment and the giving of a lit candles to the newly-baptized.

The anointing of the baptismal candidate with the Oil of Exorcism, the anointing of the newly-baptized with the Oil of Chrism, the vesting of the newly-baptized in a white garment, and the giving of a lit candle to the newly-baptized are needless embellishments which are far from harmless. These embellishments have no clear precedent in Scripture.  They draw attention away from the central symbolism of baptism—the washing of the baptismal candidate in water—and weaken the sign value of this act. They can, in time, obscure and overshadow the act of baptism itself. They can be used to teach doctrine that is not agreeable to Scripture or compatible with its teaching.

Cranmer did away with such embellishments, retaining only prayer for the candidate, the symbolic washing of the candidate, and the signing of the newly-baptized on the forehead with the cross. The 1552 Baptismal Office is marked by simplicity and restraint, which along with close attention to the teaching of Scripture characterize the Anglican genius. The compilers of the 1789 Baptismal Office would go a step further and permit the omission of the signation.

As David Phillips point out in a 2002 Cross+Way article, “The reformed worship of 1552,” good liturgy combines “sound doctrine and the eloquent use of language.”  The ACNA baptismal rite falls short in both areas. The doctrine of the rite is unreformed Catholic. The language of the rite is awkward in a number of places and could be improved. The rite is also marred by excessive ritualism that is not characteristic of Anglican liturgy at its best.

From a conservative Evangelical perspective the ACNA baptismal rite contains texts, rubrics, and ceremonies that are objectionable to the point that an Evangelical Anglican could not in good conscience use the rite without compromising his convictions. The rite is further evidence of the direction in which the College of Bishops is taking the Anglican Church in North America and its unwillingness to comprehend in the ACNA conservative Evangelicals and other confessional Anglicans along with Anglo-Catholics and those whom Gerald Bray describes as “charismatic open evangelical ritualists” who through the influence of Robert Webber and the Ancient Future Movement are receptive to unreformed Catholic teaching and practices. The College of Bishops appears to be set on making room in the Anglican Church in North America only for those who share its unreformed Catholic doctrinal views and ritualistic proclivities. As in the case of the ACNA ordinal, eucharistic rites, and catechism, the ACNA baptismal rite points to the pressing need for a second province within the Anglican Church in North America, a province that embodies the Protestant, Reformed, and Evangelical character of the Anglican Church and which has its own liturgy as well as doctrinal foundation, constitution, canons, bishops, and synodical government.

Issues in Church Leadership: Three Articles

7 Ways to Raise up Young Leaders

I talk to pastors and leaders my age and older who want to see a new generation of leaders. They claim to love investing in younger leaders. They recognize the huge need in churches and organizations. Our future depends upon doing so.

The problem they claim is either they don’t know how or can’t seem to find them. Or they can’t seem to keep them. Frankly, some pastors I talk with are frustrated with what they see as a lack of leadership among the newer generations.

As a church planter, we hired several staff members into their first ministry position. We struck “gold” several times. I was frequently asked how we have managed to find so many talented young leaders. Much of the work God did at the church plant was done through the leadership efforts of people 10, 15, and 20 years younger than me.

Now I am pastoring an established church. I falsely assumed — because of what I’d been told — younger leaders would not want to join our efforts. They only wanted hip and cool church plants.

Not true. At all. We are once again surrounded by young leaders. Sharp young leaders.

Along the way we’ve discovered a few things. Keep reading

10 Fine Lines of Church Leadership Tension

Dr. Rainer recently wrote on “Nine Common Tensions Pastors Face.” Today, I add ten tensions to that list – tensions often separated by a fine line.... Keep reading

How To Know If You Can Trust Your Gut Instinct As a Leader

You have a gut instinct about almost everything that comes across your radar.

Before you even say anything out loud, often you have an intuitive sense of whether you should move ahead or not, whether you should jump in or step back, or whether someone is trustworthy or not.

The question is, how do you know if you can trust your gut reaction as a leader? Keep reading

Teach the Calendar, Follow the Story

How I learned to let God do the creative work, and escaped the illusion of novelty.

I try to think of the Christian year less as a perpetual circle and more like an ascending cone. Tracing a circle, one goes around, eventually returning back to the point of origin. Tracing a cone, one can go around in a circle, yet never returns merely to the point of origin, but somewhere above—somewhere beyond.

I believe the church calendar is something like that.

Every Advent I find myself stepping into a new place in the river. This is the slow and winding journey of character formation—which happens to be one of the primary strategies the church has historically employed to grow her people up into the image of Jesus. This incremental formation is designed to occur over the course of a lifetime as we are shaped by the story of the gospel. Keep reading

How to Push Through The Preaching Curve to Better Sermons

Preachers, have you ever noticed that some of your most well received messages are the ones for which you have studied the least? Don’t worry, I’m not advocating a lack of study. However, I think it is important to understand why this phenomenon occurs. Keep reading

It’s Okay for Kids to be Bored During Church

Every Sunday my regular front row at church is filled with little girls (and Sawyer). I’m not really sure why these sweet little gals like sitting on the front row during worship, but I’m glad they do. They all bring their little notebooks and pens, and they draw during the sermon.

No one is playing on iPads or cell phones. No one is sleeping. No one is eating or drinking. There isn’t a single entertaining thing happening (except for my husband’s brilliant and lively sermons), but still they come to me week after week and sit there. Keep reading

The Epidemic of Bible Illiteracy in Our Churches

Small groups are key to studying and understanding Scripture.

When was the last time you read a book? For almost 1 in 4 of us, it was more than a year ago, according to Pew Research. That's three times the number who didn't read a book in 1978. In America, we have a literacy problem. But more concerning to me, we have a biblical literacy problem. Americans, including churchgoers, aren't reading much of any book, including the Good Book. Keep reading

8 Signs You Are a Discipleship Bully

No one likes a bully. Most of us recoil when we encounter a person who preys on the weak and uses verbal and physical abuse to display his superiority. But bullies aren’t only found on grade school or high school playgrounds; they can be found in churches as well, particularly in discipleship relationships.

This kind of bullying, however, does not need to express itself in verbal or physical abuse. It can manifest itself in a subtle form of spiritual tyranny where the teacher, by virtue of his position and self-perceived knowledge, tends to overwhelm and micro-manage his disciple. Sadly, when these kinds of discipleship scenarios progress unchecked, both parties—the discipler and the one being discipled—will find their spiritual life stunted and their relationship with one another in serious jeopardy.

What about you? Are you a discipleship bully? Am I? How can we know if we have become or are on the path to becoming a discipleship bully? I will suggest eight signs. Keep reading

How ‘Biblically Faithful’ Is the Anglican Church in North America?

By Robin G. Jordan

Almost three years ago I posted an article, “Add Inaccuracy to the Anglican Church of North America’s Growing List of Problems,” in which I drew attention to the fact that the Anglican Church in North America has posted a slightly altered version of the Common Cause Theological Statement  on its website without identify this statement as that of the now-disbanded Common Cause Partnership. I noted:

A visitor to the website who is not familiar with the Common Cause Partnership and the Anglican Church in North America would assume that what they reading is the theological statement of the ACNA, not the Common Cause Partnership. They would be misled into believing that it states the beliefs of the ACNA.

I further noted:

The ACNA, however, incorporated only a part of the Common Cause Theological Statement into Article I of its constitution and not the entire statement. It dropped the article “the” from before the phrase “fundamental principles of authentic Anglican belief.” The statement on the website’s “Theology” page retains the article “the.”

The addition or omission of the article “the” makes a significant difference in meaning of the clause “expressing [the] fundamental principles of authentic Anglican belief.”

Earlier this week I was prompted to revisit the “Theology” page on the ACNA website after determining that a number of Anglican Ablaze readers had recently viewed the article. Nothing had been changed from when I first wrote the article. Visitors to the website would still be misled into believing that it was a present day statement of the beliefs of the denomination, and not a historical document from the days of the Common Cause Partnership.

Within the past six months I have been involved in a discussion with a poster on another website, who claimed that the Anglican Church in North America accepted the doctrine and principles set out in the Articles of Religion. He based his claim not on a survey of all the doctrinal statements that the ACNA has produced to date but on one clause in this statement, the same clause that has been altered in Article I of the ACNA constitution. Whether the poster in question was not aware that he was not citing an official statement of ACNA doctrine or simply “cherry picking,” I cannot say. In any event his use of this statement to support his claim points to the problematic nature of posting the statement on the website’s “Theology” page without identifying it for what it is—a historical document. This does not suggest that those who are responsible for the content of the website have a commitment to a high standard of accuracy. They have had ample time to rectify the problem but have done nothing about it.

This problem raises the question of how honest are those who occupy the place of power in the Anglican Church in North America in their dealings with the GAFCON Primates and other conservative Anglicans outside of the denomination. Is inaccuracy in the representation of the beliefs of the Anglican Church in North America confined to the denomination’s website? Is it more pervasive?

The Most Reverend Stanley Ntgali, Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, in a statement regarding developments in the United States and the Episcopal Church related to same sex marriage describes the Anglican Church in North America as “an alternative and biblically faithful Anglican Church in North America.” In light of the doctrinal positions that its College of Bishops has taken to date, one is forced to ask, “On what basis does Archbishop Ntgali view the Anglican Church in North America as faithful to the Bible—an exhaustive survey of the doctrinal statements that the denomination has issued since its formation or the assurances of those occupying the place of power in the denomination?”

The Anglican Church in North America may be viewed as being “Biblically faithful” to a point. Beyond that point those occupying the place of power in the denomination and determining its official doctrine are guided not by Scripture but human tradition. The Anglican Church in North America maintains the Christian faith set out in the Apostles and Nicene Creeds where these creeds agree with the Holy Scriptures. The denomination to some extent takes a Biblical and traditional view of marriage and human sexuality: In its position on divorce and remarriage the denomination may be accommodating the culture in North America. However, in the case of the sacraments the Anglican Church in North America departs from the teaching of the Holy Scriptures and the doctrine and principles of the Articles of Religion, which as the GAFCON Theological Resource Group points out in Being Faithful: The Shape of Historic Anglicanism Today derive their authority from Scripture.

In the case of Holy Baptism the denomination officially takes a mechanical, sacramental view of the gift of the Holy Spirit, maintaining in its catechism that the gift of the Holy Spirit is bestowed exclusively at baptism. In endorsing this position its College of Bishops is sanctioning the expounding of “one passage of Scripture in such a way that it disagrees with another,” which Article 20 tells us is unlawful for the Church to do. According to the Holy Scriptures the gift of the Holy Spirit may be bestowed at baptism but it may also be bestowed before baptism, after baptism, or not at all.

In the case of the Holy Eucharist the College of Bishops in its endorsement of Texts for Common Prayer endorsed the medieval Catholic doctrines of Transubstantiation and the sacrifice of the Mass, doctrines embodied in the eucharistic rites in Texts for Common Prayer. These doctrines maintain that Christ is substantively present in the consecrated eucharistic elements and through the priest offers himself on the altar to God for the sins of the world. The Articles of Religion rejects both doctrines. Article 28 describes the doctrine of Transubstantiation as having no basis in Scripture and as being incompatible with the plain meaning of Scripture. It overthrows the nature of a sacrament and has given rise to numerous superstitions. Article 31 describes the doctrine of the sacrifice of the Mass as a blasphemous fable and dangerous deceit.

In the case of confirmation, absolution, ordination, marriage, and anointing of the sick the College of Bishops in its endorsement of To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism endorse the position that these rites are sacraments and “arise from the practice of the apostles and the early Church, or are states of life blessed by God from creation.” This position is in direct conflict with the position that the Articles of Religion take in regard to these rites. Article 25 points to our attention that these rites “have in part developed from a false understanding of apostolic practice and in part represent states of life allowed in the Scriptures.” Furthermore, the same rites “have no sign or ceremony commanded by God.” They are not the special channels of divine grace that the catechism claims that they are.

What we have here is not secondary matters on which Anglicans can agree to disagree. They affect our understanding of the economy of salvation and the gospel. Cumulatively the doctrinal positions that the College of Bishops has endorsed and the other doctrines associated with these positions, the theological freight that they carry, teach a different gospel from that of the New Testament. They obscure and undermine the New Testament doctrine of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Whatever affirmations the Anglican Church in North America may make in its constitution and canons and its College of Bishops in public statements and private conversations, these doctrinal positions and their theological freight show that the denomination does not fully accept the Holy Scriptures as its “ultimate rule and standard of faith.”

The same doctrinal positions and their theological freight show the pressing need for a second province within the Anglican Church in North America, one which is in full alignment with the teaching of the Holy Scriptures and the doctrine and principles of the historic Anglican formularies and which has its own constitution and canons, rites and services, catechism, bishops, and synodical government. The latter is essential to ensuring that the second province is indeed in full alignment with the Holy Scriptures and the historic Anglican formularies and ultimately to safeguarding the truth of the gospel. .

Eight Weekly Records That Every Church Should Keep

If you have an aversion to numbers, you may want to skip this post. I understand. There have been too many church leaders who see numerical realities as a goal. Numbers thus can become the end instead of the means.

But let’s not lose sight of the ways numerical tracking can help us. To use the parabolic illustration of Jesus, we can never know where the missing sheep are if we are not keeping track of them (see Luke 15:3-7).

The list of potential records to keep is long, but I am focusing on those eight records I have seen be most helpful to churches. They do not have to be arduous to track. Keep reading

Pastors Who Don’t Delegate

The new pastor had just turned 50. He had advanced in ministry through his relational skills, solid biblical teaching, and pastoral care he had shown to congregants as an associate pastor and in other roles. He was easy to like and most people felt comfortable with him. To this point in his career, his relational skills were sufficient when it came to leadership. But he had really been more of a manager than a leader. He thus depended on the senior pastor at his previous churches to make decisions; he would carry them out with a good attitude and a good work ethic.

The First Sign of Problems

The problems began when he was called as a senior pastor. He was now expected to make decisions. He was to take initiative instead of waiting on others to move. He now had people who worked under him and with him who waited on him to make critical decisions.

He failed. He seemed frozen in making decisions. He would not let others under him help him. He treated his new level of pastoral leadership as if he was still an associate pastor who carried out tasks. He perceived it was his responsibility to do everything in ministry, rather than to equip the saints for the work of ministry.

He failed to delegate and thus he failed in his new pastorate. Keep reading

8 Killers of Motivation — and Ultimately Killers of Momentum

Leaders need to remain motivated so they can help motivate their team. Leaders also need to be keenly aware of how motivated their team is at any given time.

I have found over the years that regardless of how motivated I am if the people around me are unmotivated, we aren’t going to be very successful as a team.

Which is why it may be even more important a leader learns recognize when a team is decreasing in motivation.

But, here’s the greater reason. Keep reading

Encountering Challenges to Bible Inerrancy Part 1 [Video]

Video on the inspiration of Scripture from Dallas Theological Seminary's Hendricks Center for Christian Leadership and Cultural Engagement - part 1 of a two part series. Watch now

4 Questions from the Supreme Court’s Gay Marriage Ruling

In a 5-4 ruling on June 26, 2015, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the right of same-sex couples to marry is part of the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantees of due process and equal protection of the laws, and therefore any state law that in any way limits this right is unconstitutional and void. The effect of the Court's decision was to invalidate laws and constitutional provisions in 13 states defining marriage solely as a union between one man and one woman.

For many church leaders, the central issue is the impact of the Court's ruling on religious practices. In particular.... Keep reading

The Sexual Revolution’s Coming Refugee Crisis

This past weekend I met a couple who were married on the Fourth of July and baptized on the fifth. They had been cohabiting for many years and had several children together. They had never known anyone who was part of a church. But when their lives didn’t turn out the way that they hoped, they were willing to try anything, including a local church. There they ran into an old gospel, and new life. As I watched them plunged into the waters of baptism—and as I heard their three year-old son yell from his pew “Wow!”—I thought about how their story may well be the story of the coming generations.

The Sexual Revolution certainly seems triumphant. After a generation of no-fault divorce, cohabitation, ubiquitous pornography, and the cultural unhinging of sex from marriage and marriage from childbearing, we now see the courts and the culture decoupling marriage from even its most basic reality: gender. And there are hints on the horizon that the next step is to culturally, and perhaps legally, decouple marriage from, well, couples. If sexuality is about personal expression and individual autonomy, after all, then by what right can society deem that sexuality should be limited by such an arbitrary number as two?

The danger for Christians is that we buy into the Sexual Revolution’s narrative. I don’t just mean that we accommodate ourselves to the sins and heresies of the movement, although that’s always a danger too. I mean the danger is that we assume that the Sexual Revolution will always be triumphant, progressing upward and onward. To assume such is to assume that the Sexual Revolution will be able to keep its promises. It can’t. Keep reading

Also see
Modern Christians and the Dumbing Down of Sin

The Sexual Revolution will have its casualties--young people exploited by older people as well as their peers, women struggling to raise children on their own, and others. Christians can be the instruments of God's healing in their lives.

What’s Next in Multisite—How New Locations, Mergers and Aquistions Could Impact Most Churches [Podcast]

Should your growing church go multisite?

Should your declining church consider merger?

Leading multisite expert Jim Tomberlin talks about how the multisite movement is changing and how more and more churches are pursuing mergers and acquisitions. Keep reading

The church with which I am sojourning went multisite a couple of years ago. Among the things that we have learned from this experience is that communities are different. An approach that works in one community may not work as well in another. Or it may not work at all.  Churches going multisite need to exegete the community beforehand before launching a new church in that community and to tailor the new church's approach to the community. 

Skills Can Kill: 4 Dangers of (Only) Skill Based Leadership Development

Both character and competence are essential for leaders. Of David, the king of Israel, the Scripture states, “He shepherded them with a pure heart and guided them with his skillful hands” (Psalm 78:72). In other words, David possessed both character and competence.

When people think of developing leaders, they often think in terms of necessary skills that need to be acquired. Often leadership development degenerates into only skill-based training. While skills are important, there are four dangerous outcomes of only developing skills.... Keep reading

Seven Keys to Recruiting Volunteers in Your Church – Rainer on Leadership #139 [Podcast]

Today on the podcast we tackle a problem every church has in some form—recruitment of volunteers. Whether you need teachers, small group leaders, ushers, or nursery workers, these seven keys will help you activate and retain volunteers in your church. Keep reading

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:32 — 18.8MB)

12 Pointers for Small Group Leaders

Be Like Christ—and Be Liked

12 Ways
Getting your small group to like you isn’t something you may have explicitly set out to do. While you may not have written that goal down, it’s on the back of your mind whether you’re a leader or a group member. Don’t lie. You want to be liked. And that’s not a terrible thing. Caring what others think (while not being dominated by it) shapes our responses, and helps us become more loving and generous. If people genuinely don’t like you, and you’re a representation of Christ for them, then there’s a good chance you’re acting as a barrier to them enjoying Jesus. Here are 12 ways to be like Christ—and liked. Keep reading

Also see
Small Groups: Beyond the Meetings
Small Groups and Prayer

6 Reasons Our Discipleship Strategies Miss the Mark

If your church is like mine, your mission or vision or purpose probably includes some aspect of the Great Commission. Many of us have even gone a step further and proclaimed that we are in the business of making disciples and we’ll know we are succeeding when we make some amount of more and better disciples. So…if we’re all trying to hit the same target, why are so many of our discipleship strategies missing the mark?

Any theories? I have a few and before you think I believe I have it all together, I’m actually guilty of a few of these myself!

Here are 6 reasons our discipleship strategies miss the mark.... Keep reading

Methodist Official Dismissive of Christ's Teachings on Homosexuality

Bill Mefford, an official of the General Board of Church & Society of the United Methodist Church, posted a response on social media dismissing the teachings of Jesus Christ on human sexuality, following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling last month.

Mefford posted on the Facebook page of Maxie Dunnam, president emeritus of Asbury Theological Seminary, where Mefford celebrated and confused the Supreme Court's ruling with the Holy Spirit. Mefford told Dunnam, "I never have asked Jesus to define marriage."

Dunnam, a United Methodist himself and outspoken proponent of a Christian understanding of marriage, posted on social media declaring "Jesus, not the Supreme Court, defines marriage for the Church."

The United Methodist Church's Book of Discipline states that "The practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching." Practicing homosexuals are ineligible for ordination, according to the rules governing the largest mainline Protestant denomination in the United States.

Mefford's full reply to Dunnam's post reads:

"Well I never have asked Jesus to define marriage, but I have sensed the joy of the Holy Spirit today as so many of our brothers and sisters in Christ (and in the United Methodist Church as well!) celebrate that their love for each other is recognized at long-last. Love really has won the today and I can only hope love will win in the United Methodist Church as well." Keep reading

Orthodox Anglicans Respond to Episcopal Church's Authorization of Gender Neutral Marriage Rite: Three Articles

Reform Response to the US Episcopal Church Resolution on Marriage

The Episcopal Church in the USA redefined the definition of marriage and approved liturgy for the blessing of same-sex marriages.

Reform shares the Archbishop of Canterbury’s deep concern about the stress this action will cause the Anglican Communion. We echo his call to respond to the Lord Jesus’ prayer for his followers, that “they may be one so that the world may believe” (John 17.21).

Jesus’ prayer for unity was “for those who will believe in me through [the apostles’] message.” (John 17.20). The unity for which Jesus prays is built on the foundation of the teaching he revealed and entrusted to his apostles, recorded for us in the Scriptures. Jesus is not silent on the definition of marriage. “Haven’t you read,” he said to the religious leaders who sought to redefine marriage in his own day, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female’, and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?” (Matthew 19.4-5)

In rejecting this definition of marriage, the bishops of the US Episcopal Church have rejected Jesus’ own teaching. As such, they have denied the faith they profess to teach, forfeiting any right to be regarded as true bishops of the church of Jesus Christ. Jesus warned us to “watch out for false prophets” who come in his name (Matthew 7.15, 22) Keep reading

TEC decision ‘a mistake with serious consequences’

A Response to The Episcopal Church of the United States’ (TEC) decision to make ‘Same – Sex Marriage’ official

The recent decision of the General Convention of The Episcopal Church, to remove reference to gender in the marriage canon and introduce rites for conducting ‘same-sex marriage’, is a mistake with serious consequences.

The problems for the rest of the Anglican Communion have already been noted by the Archbishop of Canterbury. But the fundamental reason that it is a mistake – and the reason why it is so destabilizing – is that it is a significant departure from Holy Scripture. This is a departure which Christians are not at liberty to make.

With this action, TEC has officially rejected the Anglican Communion’s standard, Lambeth Resolution 1.10, which expresses the Communion’s received and historic understanding of marriage and sexual relationships. TEC has now taken the pattern of behaviour which Lambeth describes as ‘incompatible with Scripture’ and equated it with Holy Matrimony.

It may be claimed that TEC is modelling ‘two integrities’, but the Church of God finds its integrity in teaching and living according to the received Word of God. The determination of TEC to press ahead with changes which ignore the serious concerns of many others in the Communion, in some cases for their physical safety, shows very clearly the inadequacy of initiatives designed to create reconciliation without repentance. Keep reading

Statement in response to the House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church resolution regarding same sex

We are deeply grieved again by the Episcopal Church USA (TEC) Resolution to change the definition of marriage in their church canons in their current ongoing General Convention.

By this action, TEC has chosen by its own will and actions in clear knowledge to depart from the Anglican Communion’s standard teaching on human sexuality according to Lambeth Resolution 1:10. This TEC Resolution is another example of such unilateral decisions that are taken without giving the least consideration to the possible consequences on other provinces and the Anglican Communion as a whole, the ecumenical partnerships, the mission of the church worldwide, and the interfaith relations. This Resolution clearly contradicts the Holy Scriptures and God’s plan for creation as He created humankind as man and woman to complement each other physically and emotionally.

Indeed the church must provide pastoral care for all, whether heterosexuals or homosexuals. However the church should not alter the teachings of the Holy Scriptures, that was interpreted by the majority churches globally, to provide such pastoral care. The aim of pastoral care is to restore people to the bosom of God where they encounter His love and design to live a life according to His plan. We are against any criminalization of homosexuals, they are like all of us, need God’s mercy, grace and salvation. The church is intended by its Lord to be the holy leaven to shape society by its spiritual and moral valuesin line with God’s design. But sadly, by this action of TEC, the church gives way to the society to alter and shape its values. In other words the church is losing its distinctiveness as salt and light in this world. Keep reading

Transitioning a Small Church

I’ve been called to pastor a small, declining and aging church. I’m excited about the opportunity but not sure what to do—or where to start. I desperately want to lead this church to become a healthy and growing spiritual community. I could use some encouragement and counsel.

I can definitely relate to your thinking, especially the part about desiring encouragement. Though I’ve been the senior pastor of NorthRidge Church for the past 25 years, it is the fourth church where I’ve held that responsibility. In each of those churches, I was inheriting a declining and aging church. The first two were small in attendance—18 and 60, respectively. The second two were a little larger—275 and 1000.

Here’s my encouragement: During my season of ministry in each church, we ultimately began reaching people and growing. As I’ve previously written in this column, my ministry at the first church didn’t end well. I made the mistake of doing leadership to the people rather than leading them. Though it worked for a short time, it ultimately blew up. It wasn’t a happy ending. The second two churches fared much better during the season of my pastoral ministry and the season that followed. As for NorthRidge, though we’re far from a perfect ministry, the health, growth and impact over the years has been staggering.

I have come to realize that in each ministry the same principles of leadership were necessary for transitioning to health, growth and effectiveness. Keep reading

Six Warnings for Leaders of Growing Churches

The metaphor has been called the “Berry Bucket Theory,” but I prefer the “Tipping Scales Theory.” Imagine a scale like the scales of justice (pictured above). On one side of the scale are tokens that represent members who were at the church before the present pastor arrived (PPMs, pre-pastor members). On the other side of the scale are tokens that represent members who came to the church after the current pastor arrived (APMs, after-pastor members).

When the pastor first comes to the church, the scale is completely tilted toward one side because everyone in the church is a PPM. Over time, however, the PPM side can only become lighter. You can’t add to the members who came before the pastor arrived. But the APM side usually grows.

When the APM side of the scale starts getting close in weight to the PPM side, problems can develop. The church is changing to the point where the newer members will soon be in the majority. The scales are tipping, and that reality engenders fear in some members.

With that metaphor in mind, let’s look at some possible troubles for church leaders. I call them warnings for leaders of growing churches. Keep reading

After Mars Hill, Will the Multisite Church Movement Grow Up?

More small churches are joining big ones in order to keep their doors open. Can multisite congregations grow without treating congregations as little more than real estate? Keep reading

The Original Bohemian

Six hundred years ago today, Jan Hus was burned at the stake. A popular preacher who opposed corruption and indulgences, much like John Wyclif before him and Martin Luther after him, Hus had been lured to the Council of Constance with the promise of safe passage, but he continued to preach and serve the Mass. Eventually the authorities lost patience with him, and in breach of their arrangement, Hus was imprisoned, chained, and finally led to the stake as a heretic on 6 July 1415. (This was two months after Wyclif himself was condemned as a heretic, and just two days after the bull of Gregory XII was read, finally resolving the whole three popes omnishambles.) Not the Roman Catholic church's finest hour. Keep reading