The Washington Post put it most succinctly: Two Cities. Thirteen Hours. Twenty-Nine Dead. The circumstances for each mass shooting could not be more different, yet, as I will argue, they could not be more similar. One assailant was a white nationalist motivated by his hatred for the migrant population in Texas while the other was
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By now, you have no doubt heard about the article released by the Houston Chronicle regarding sexual abuse in Southern Baptist Churches. The article details sexual abuse that has plagued Southern Baptist churches over the past 20 years. If you are like me, you are disgusted with the revelation. The most infuriating truths that it
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Today, is the second installment on my blog series on how the Law and Gospel call us to act justly. Today we discuss abortion. On the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the state of New York passed one of the most aggressive Pro-Choice/Abortion provisions to date. It legalized abortion on demand through the third trimester,
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Over the past few months, there has been a considerable discussion concerning the role of social justice in the church. So much so, that a group of pastors and theologians, most of whom within the reformed tribe, gathered together to draft a statement called The Statement on Social Justice and The Gospel. Considerable heat has been generated
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When I first entered the ministry, I fell for the allure of the “big” church. You probably know what I am talking about. The ‘big’ church measured everything by bodies in the building and butts in the seats on Sundays. The impulse that lies behind this metric is that only ‘big’ churches are ‘real’ churches. Every
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When I was 20 years old, I discovered something that shocked me. As a clerk at the Baptist Book Store (Now Lifeway), I discovered that there were multiple translations of the Bible. At first, this really startled me. As a child, I grew up in and out of the church and the only church’s I
Read MoreSo over the past couple of blog articles, I have been unpacking 2 definitions: What is a disciple? What is discipleship? Now I want to take some time to unpack how we will make disciples at Grace Church. Before I do, I want to make sure I am clear that all programs, systems & processes
Read MoreJeff Vanderstelt defines discipleship as follows: This definition is very helpful and serves as a great starting point to how we want to make disciples at Grace Church. We are to live all of our lives under the Lordship of Jesus. This is a counter-cultural ideal in a world that values radical autonomy on every
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I came to Christ as a young boy at around 8 years old. My mother was my Sunday school teacher at the time and one of the challenges we were working through in the class was to memorize the 10 Commandments. The reward for memorizing them was a brand new set of 50 markers. As
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As a church planter, there is a seemingly endless cornucopia of pressures that are forced upon my church. One of those pressures is what to do with children during our worship gatherings. Pastors are reminded constantly that there are 4 things guests will grade your church on when they visit. One of those is the children’s
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