Church planting: can two views be right at the same time?

Dave Williams responds to some back and forth between myself and Ryan King. His analysis is, in my view, essentially correct. But my original point was not that planting is happening apace, but that it is in vogue to be seen to be planting, supporting planting, and deeming oneself a planter.

Tim Keller and middle class churches

‘Gearing churches towards one race or class may appear to be effective in outreach but in my view it is unbiblical and in the medium to short-term does more harm than good. What are ‘graduate’ churches? If they exist then we should be outraged. What right do we have to effectively restrict the church to one type of people?’

Can women be pastors or deacons? (video)

Can women be pastors or deacons? Dr. Stephen Wellum answers in this short video.

Being a pastor

I quite liked this distillation of some points Geoff Thomas made about being a pastor, particularly who and how we pastor.

How to respond when you get punched in the face

‘I’ve found the words of Mike Tyson to be true of pastoral ministry. “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” In Bible college and/or seminary we dream about what it will be like to give our lives to the ministry. We hear stories from the battlefield but assume those won’t happen to us. Or even if we prepare ourselves for their happening, nothing can really prepare you for that first blow across the jaw.’

The Zwinglian Option

This was quite a provocative post. I’m not sure how it allows room for encouraging one another in ‘Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs’, but still. Bears pondering.

From the archive: Why we shouldn’t preach John 7:53-8:11

‘If you turn in your Bible to John 7:53-8:11, the pericope adulterae, you will find a familiar passage about a woman caught in adultery. Jesus chimes in with his famous statement “let he who is without sin cast the first stone” and everyone slinks off embarrassed, leaving Jesus to tell the woman she isn’t condemned and to “go and sin no more”. You will also notice that, with the exception of the KJV and NKJV (1), the section is placed either in square brackets or is written entirely as a footnote. The reason for this is that just about every modern Textual Critic and New Testament scholar is adamant that this section is not part of the original gospel of John.’