God’s provision doesn’t equal God’s pleasure
‘Just because God is providing it doesn’t necessarily mean you are being obedient and pleasing to Him. It might just mean that while you are being a complete goober God is still faithful.’
Church and agency partnerships
‘If agencies are serious about partnering with churches they will not start by asking the church to do something for them. The starting point should always be to discover what the church is doing and to see what sort of overlap and cooperation is possible and serious partnership starts with a face to face conversation, not with a marketing email or a mail shot.’ Also worth checking out Eddie’s post in response to a question I sent him here.
Judge Everything
John McArthur is right about the need for discernment and right judgement in the church (he even tackles the whole ‘judge not’ argument that is often falsely thrown up). ‘False teachers flourish where there is no scrutiny. That’s why so many of them set up camp in environments where there is little to no biblical discernment—where God’s Word is nothing more than a supplement to personal experience, anecdote, and embellishment. Why do the heavy lifting of careful Bible study when one can simply “let go” and be drawn into the gravitational pull of a religious guru? Our short attention span and quick-fix culture is easily preyed upon by charismatic sideshows, feel-good philosophy, and the television hucksters of modern pseudo-Christianity.’
Five ways to spend a legacy
Adrian Reynolds offers some solid advice on what you could do if your church receives a unexpected sum of money. Incidentally, this all applies if you receive an expected chunk of money too.
Church discipline is a rescue operation (video)
Juan Sanchez makes it clear that church discipline exists in order to rescue a wandering sheep and bring them back to the fold.
Always reforming
‘The Latin phrase semper reformanda–usually translated “always reforming”–is the widely known slogan of the Reformed tradition. It has become quite popular. Authors conjure it. Theologians cite it. Trendsetters love it. But I have become suspicious. And my suspicions stem from seeing the phrase appear at all too convenient times for a person’s point or agenda. My fear is that it is now regularly used as an excuse for novelty and innovation.’
From the archive: four questions to ask about prayer
‘Last night was our corporate church prayer meeting. Our usual format is to have a short time in the word and use that time as a prompt to our prayers. Having been helped by Tim Keller’s book on prayer in which he notes Martin Luther’s method of meditating upon the word to prompt his prayers, we decided to take Luther’s lead.’