I happen to know that Dave is back home in Iowa at this very moment as I am composing this post because I saw it on Facebook. I for one am glad to see him back in the states and ready (I hope) to resume his regular place as editor in chief of our crazy corner of the blogosphere. It is a relief to be close to being relieved of duty once again. I frankly don't know how Dave manages to do all that he does for this blog on a daily and weekly basis. I imagine that I will wander around in the background once again trying to remain inconspicuous and occasionally cleaning out the spam comments … [Read more...] about I’m Relieved
The Deputy Ain’t Perfect
I know that this goes without saying, but I am not perfect. In trying to keep up with three posts a day as Dave prefers, I published a post earlier that some have questioned. It was from one of our contributors who usually writes thoughtful posts about issues that I think are important to address. I didn't read the post fully before scheduling it. After it went live, I received some feedback regarding the nature of the post and whether this blog was the place for it to be given a voice. We work hard not to censor our contributors here, but the writer wishes to withdraw the post rather … [Read more...] about The Deputy Ain’t Perfect
Innoculated Christianity
A few years ago, I preached a sermon with this title. Lately, I have been thinking more about this. I have been reading a lot of blogs discussing what is wrong with the modern church and what we can do to fix it, and I think one of the problems that is the most troubling is the phenomena of inoculated Christians. Let me explain what I mean by the term so we have something to work with. The type of inoculation I am speaking of is a reference to the process of "immunizing" against a more serious threat. The dictionary definition is something like this: to introduce immunologically active … [Read more...] about Innoculated Christianity
Holy Festival
Yesterday, it was brought to my attention by one of our contributors that the Muslim month of Ramadan is underway again. There are Christians who have developed prayer guides and such to lead fellow believers in praying for Muslims during this time, that they would see the true God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and more importantly get to know His Son, Jesus Christ. I can commend that effort without reservation. But this reminder got me to thinking about something related to this topic. Several years ago now, I ran across a news article highlighting the fact that many guys from the … [Read more...] about Holy Festival
Universal Issues
The longer I live and the more I see and experience, I have come to realize that some things are truly universal. Like, no matter what church we have a community event in here in Langdon, the back rows always fill up before the front ones. I specify church because I found that the baccalaureate in the school gym doesn't suffer from that same problem, which I attribute to the fact that it takes more effort to climb bleachers in order to sit at the back. Because of this truth, I am always excited to see when someone else has done the hard work of illustrating one of these universal issues … [Read more...] about Universal Issues
TULIPY: The Acronym for Hyper-Calvinism
Editor's Note: I originally posted this at my own blog quite a while ago and had thought about publishing it here at that time but didn't. While I am waiting for some of our contributors to finish up some posts and get them ready to go, I figured I would offer this as fodder for discussion. If I have misrepresented any of the core of the five points of TULIP, feel free to offer some constructive correction. It was not my intention to flesh them out fully, but neither did I desire to misrepresent them. I have had a flash of inspiration. Perhaps someone, somewhere has already done this … [Read more...] about TULIPY: The Acronym for Hyper-Calvinism
It Could Be Worse
I am a lot like Dave in some ways. We both serve in states that are out of the main core of the SBC. We both serve in an office that has a title with no real power beyond our ministry as pastors (admittedly his is a much bigger office with no real power than mine). We both dislike the culture of argumentative combativeness that comes with the territory seemingly of the blogosphere. But I remind myself that it could always be worse. Yesterday, I ran across an article that reminded me just how true this statement is. At least we find ourselves arguing over issues that are debatable in … [Read more...] about It Could Be Worse
Ministry: Calling or Career?
Editor's Note: This post was referenced in the one I published yesterday and as one of the commenters suggested, it would be nice to have a separate place to discuss this issue. The original post was published at my blog a couple of years ago, but the economy hasn't gotten better in the meantime so I would imagine this is still happening. How should we respond to those who treat ministry as a career path more than a calling? I know where I stand on this issue, but I would like to throw some thoughts out there for everyone else. The impetus for this post comes from a story on FoxNews … [Read more...] about Ministry: Calling or Career?
Money, Ministry and Motivations
Editor's note: Those of you who frequent the site probably notice that Dave generates a lot of the content himself. While he is away, you will likely see my name on posts a lot more often. Just think of it as me making up for lost time since I haven't posted in a while. This article is a repost from my own blog a while back. Yesterday, I got a strange call. As a pastor, I am no stranger to odd requests and since the church phone rings in our house; we get to answer a lot of calls that might be better left to the machine. When I answered the phone yesterday morning, the person on the … [Read more...] about Money, Ministry and Motivations
The Deputy Is on Duty
With Dave's departure for the island nation of Taiwan, I have been left to man the fort and keep posts posted and comments commented, or something like that. I have asked for help from all of our contributors in continuing to bring you some of the finest content we can produce, since I don't tend to write as many posts as Dave does. To that end, I am going to try and write a little more myself in the next couple of weeks and lean on the expertise of our crack staff. And if anyone tries to take advantage of the deputy, I fully intend to "nip it in the bud." Lastly, while the deputy is … [Read more...] about The Deputy Is on Duty