Now that budget season is well behind us, I’m taking a little time to reflect on the budget process in my current church. It can be challenging to anticipate how an entire year will unfold, much less try to do so months before that year even begins. We all know too well that things can change very quickly (yep…I’m still thinking about the impact of Covid among other things) and in ways that simply cannot be anticipated.
s we navigate our daily lives, the hum of next year’s elections might seem like distant background noise. But it’s crucial to perk up our ears and pay closer attention now. The decisions made at the polls in 2024 will shape our community in Fayetteville and our state for years to come. A few months ago I wrote an article called “Issues for Christians to consider in the 2024 elections.” There I mentioned a number of issues Georgia Baptists should seek clarity on as we consider candidates vying for our votes.
It seems whenever sin comes calling, it usually finds a willing accomplice. Never mind that it is easy to find…
In my role as an education pastor, I spend a good bit of time thinking about how the church can…
Summer is upon us and it is a really fun time of year. I have enjoyed seeing the commencement photos…
Apparently Starbucks has altered their coffee cups for this Christmas season and I am supposed to be either a) really,…
From left: Dr. John David Trentham (Chair), Dr. Christopher Sanchez, Dr. Barry Gibson, Dr. Bruce Cannon, Dr. Danny Bowen (2nd…
For those of my readers who are not connected to me via social media, you may not be aware that…
The grand jury charged with reviewing the actions of Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown in…
So many opinions being expressed about the SCOTUS’ decision this morning concerning Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties which I…
I was having a conversation with a friend recently who is struggling with some of the things he finds in…
Essentialism: a second reaction to pragmatism/experimentalism/progressivism, essentialism found common ground with the perennialist view of progressive educational practices attempting to…
Behaviorism: a major force in education since the middle of the twentieth century welcomed by those who prefer scientific methodology…
Neo-Scholasticism: scholasticism is an approach to understanding and blending the study of philosophy and theology. Early in the movement, which…
What is Success for the Christian Academic? ObedienceMatthew 28:19-20; James 3:1 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the…
Most folks who know me know I usually attend the annual Johnny Hunt Men’s Conference each year. I am especially…
Conclusion There is a great deal of agreement in the New Hampshire Baptist Confession of Faith (1833) and the…
Differences Clearly there are similarities in the two confessions being reviewed. However, the differences in the two statements abound. …
Similarities Upon close examination of these two confessions, one immediately notices the many areas of agreement. Both hold that…
This series was originally posted a couple of years ago while I was a seminary student at Liberty Baptist Theological…
With the recent spate of evil rearing its ugly head, it strikes me that now would be a good time…
In the secular world, I have been a part of management for many years. My undergraduate degree is in management…
Like many, I was unaware of how interrelated the books of Ezra and Nehemiah are. In fact, until my time…
Erickson outlines three views of the image of God; substantive, relational, and functional. I will briefly discuss each view, offer…
Conclusion There is certainly more than one approach to teaching in general and teaching Scripture in particular. It is…
Three Possibilities In their discussion of communicators determining their goal, Andy Stanley and Lane Jones state there are three…
INTRODUCTION For a teacher, understanding how those whom they teach learn is probably second only to understanding the material…
So I was having a conversation recently with someone about the character of God (big surprise right! His reason for…
Biblical criticism does not mean that people are criticizing the Bible though in our day and age there is certainly…
Have you ever been involved in a discussion with another believer that turned towards what one of you assumed was…
The approach to discipleship ministries is as diverse as the churches that seek to obey…
As overwhelming as the points covered in my last few posts might seem, there is…
As Christians, we have a strong desire to reach people where they are and share the…
Clearly, culture plans a critical role in communicating the gospel whether that is in different…
Much like the idea of culture itself, the concept of worldview would seem to be rather simple. In passing…
Early missionaries went out into the world with unbridled enthusiasm to reach the world for…
Decades before the call of the Lord to ministry was placed on this seminarian’s life,…
A Journal Review of THE LOCAL CHURCH IN MISSION: BECOMING A MISSIONAL CONGREGATION IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY GLOBAL CONTEXT AND…
There can be no doubt about the tense political climate in the United States in recent years. This is particularly…
Let me begin with the passage that nearly everyone in will reference when considering world evangelism: Matthew 28:18-20: And…
Conclusion For the missionary, it should be comforting to know that the Bible itself is a…
Mission Theology: Two Key Motifs A motif is a recurring element in a story that has…
Mission Theology and Other Aspects of Theology Through the centuries, Christians have done a good job…
The Nature of God and Mission What has been demonstrated thus far is the fact that…
Scriptures Related to Missions From beginning to end, the Bible is a missionary book telling the story of God reaching…
**This series began as an assignment for a class at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary** INTRODUCTION The notion of sending missionaries…
William Carey once said, “Expect great things; attempt great things”.[1] And attempt great things he did! Carey was born August…
Let’s talk about the Apostle Paul and his missions. As the Apostle to the Gentiles, Paul undertook several lengthy mission…
My regular readers know I am wrapping up my MRE with a couple of classes focused on missions. Well, as…
The question of the role giving should play in the lives of Christians arises fairly often and in my experience…
Conclusion The matter of whether gambling should be permitted or not has a long history. At present, the perception of…
The Case Against the Permissibility of Gambling A thorough case that supports gambling both in the context of larger society…
The Case for the Permissibility of Gambling There are a number of reasons given for allowing gambling, even among professing…
The Different Forms of Gambling When discussing the topic of gambling, an image of casino-style gambling such as that found…
**This series originated as part of my studies at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary** INTRODUCTION In Christendom, whenever discussions of so-called…
Chapter 4: Sweet Hour of Prayer Arriving at the third of the three classic ethical systems, Reuschling provides the definition…
INTRODUCTION Dr. Wyndy Corbin Reuschling’s book, Reviving Evangelical Ethics: The Promises and Pitfalls of Classic Models of Morality, seeks to…
Strategy: a simple little word that so many in our congregations use daily in their secular employment. Yet when it…
Application The letter to the church at Laodicea is the final letter of seven written to the churches of the…
Literary Analysis Revelation, apocalyptic in its genre, was written to the Roman province of Asia. There were a number of…
Historical Context There are varying opinions as to the authorship and date of writing of Revelation. The author identifies himself…
**This series originated as an assignment for my studies at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary** INTRODUCTION Perhaps the most complex book…
Michael Fabarez. Preaching that Changes Lives. Grand Rapids: Wipf and Stock Publishers., 2002. 224 Pg. $24.99. ISBN 1-59752-368-2. Reviewed by…
John R.W. Stott. Between Two Worlds: The Art of Preaching in the Twentieth Century. Grand Rapids: W.M. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,…
The funeral service for pop star Whitney Houston has come and gone and the world gathered to remember her music,…
A small group of men from our church attended the 20th Johnny Hunt Men’s Conference this weekend. I was amazed…
Howard G. Hendricks & William D. Hendricks. Living by the Book: The Art and Science of Reading the Bible. Orlando:…
Conclusion In the nine verses studies in this passage of Scripture, a great deal of theological truth has been unpacked.…
Application for the Modern Christian The Apostle John said a great deal to his readers in this short passage of…
Verses 18 – 21: Faith Provides Understanding “18 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not…
Verses 14 – 17: Faith Enables Prayer “14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if…
**This series originated as an assignment for my studies at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary** Without actually breaking from the preceding…
One of the cornerstones of sound hermeneutics is to understand the context of a passage…
So the follow up question in this discussion was whether or not Jesus implies that all Scripture is inerrant. I…
Recently I was involved in an online discussion about the inerrancy of Scripture. An interesting question was posed when I…
Introduction Originally published in 1981 and now in its third edition, Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart’s How to Read the…
Conclusion There is much that the Anabaptists have contributed to the Free Church movement over the years. As a Southern…
Pacifism Pacifism is a term derived from the Latin word for peacemaking and is defined as the belief that disputes…
Economic Sharing The Anabaptists came to be in the earliest days of the German Reformation. The German Reformation was essentially…
Communion As with baptism, virtually the all Christian churches have some observance of Communion or the Lord’s Supper. The Greek…
Baptism Virtually all Christian churches perform the rite of baptism. As such, baptism is an important part in the life…
**This series originated as an assignment for my studies at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary** INTRODUCTION Baptist history is far more…
Several days ago Steve Jobs passed away into eternity. The accomplishments he made during his 56 years on Earth will…
The Plural-Elder-Led Church As with the single-elder-led church, there is ample biblical evidence to support a plurality of elders in…
The Bishop-Led Church The Bishop-led church exhibits a loose hierarchy system where the decisions of the church made by its…
The Congregation-Led Church At the center of congregationalism is the firm belief that Christ is the head of his church…
The Presbytery-Led Church Presbyterianism emphasizes the importance of elders, or presbyters, though adherents do not generally hold this polity is…
The Single-Elder-Led Church Akin spends thirty-eight of his forty-nine pages describing congregationalism before arriving at a place where he begins…
**This series began as an assignment for my studies at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary** INTRODUCTION Church government should be a…
Bounds, E. M. The Necessity of Prayer. Baker Book House (1976), ISBN 0-8010-0659-7. Digitized by Harry Platinga, 1994. Available: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/bounds/necessity.toc.html.…
I have never done this sort of exercise here at the blog before so this should be interesting. Take a…
We do not need to go far into the OT before finding Scriptural support for small groups. We see that…
It occurs to me that I have been rather inactive here at the blog so I thought I should remedy…
Happy Easter! He is risen!
This single week is probably the greatest week in the history of the world! In this week Satan was defeated…
Conclusion Where there are two or more people involved, sooner or later there will be conflict. Conflict is not the…
Church Discipline in Conflict Does conflict reach a point where church discipline becomes necessary? Before this question can be answered,…
Resolution in Church World The ways conflict is resolved as discussed in the previous section all involved a third party…
Resolution As stated previously, not all conflict is negative. In fact, some conflict and tension is actually desirable if it…
Different Types of Conflict There is more than one type of conflict. It also bears mentioning…
Conflict Exactly what is conflict? According to Oxford Dictionary, conflict is a serious disagreement or argument, a prolonged armed struggle,…
**This series originated as an assignment for my studies at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary** INTRODUCTION The topic at hand is…
Paul’s relationship with the church at Philippi was always close and cordial. Paul established the church at Philippi during his…
There were many reasons given for the persecution of the early church which included social, political economic, and religious. There…
So just how do we know about the period between the Old and New Testaments? If you are like me,…
Calvin and Feral first attempted to reform the church in Geneva in 1536.[1] Not everyone was ready to follow Calvin…
When answering the question of the authorship the book of Acts, it is important to note that acceptance of Lucan…
Paul on many occasions mentions his Jewish background and upbringing. Until his death, Paul remained proud of the fact that…
Paul’s theology can best be described as being Christocentric[1]. Paul’s view was that salvation was found “in Christ” and the…
It is apparent that Paul realized that he both “received” the Gospel through revelation and through the tradition imparted to…
Paul believed that careful observance of the Law was critically important as a faithful response to God’s love. It is…
Ephesians is among Paul’s letters referred to as the Prison Epistles. It is generally assumed that Paul wrote these epistles…
Both 1 & 2 Thessalonians were written by Paul and also include Timothy and Silas. Timothy was a young man…
From Acts 13-14 we have learned that Paul and Barnabas evangelized the southern part of Galatia[1] during their first missionary…
According to Acts 18, Paul first preached the Gospel in Corinth during his second missionary journey.[1] Corinth was an ancient…
The New Year is upon us and I am excited about the coming year! 2011 begins much differently than 2010…
Erickson describes two types of evil: natural evil that does not involve human willing or acting and moral evil that…
Is man free or is God sovereign? My answer is yes! For me, this continues to be one of the…
A number of milestones here at the blog. This is my 100th post this year and I wanted to make…
Adams points out students of the Bible should remember that the Bible we read today is not its original form.[1]…
THIS CRITIQUE ORIGINATED AS AN ASSIGNMENT FOR MY STUDIES AT LIBERTY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY Bibliographical Entry Pipes, Jerry F,, and…
The term theology is derived from the Greek words theos (meaning God) and logos (meaning speech or reason). B. B.…
The Pharisees, like all intertestamental Jewish groups, never questioned the sanctity of the written law. The Pharisees did have their…
The advantages and disadvantages of having four Gospels instead of one single Gospel abound. One advantage of having four gospels…
Bibliographical Entry Fay, William and Linda Evans Shepherd. Share Jesus Without Fear. Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 1999. Author Information William…
Application/Conclusion When it comes to placing our trust in men or in wealth, we see in this Old Testament Scripture…
What gets answered in this passage? So now you’re wondering where I am going with this, right. Of course, we…
Scripture Verses Now that we have a little background information, let’s move on to our text. Our study passage is…
**This study originated as one of my school projects** Introduction Before I get into this four part study of Psalm…
For my most recent project in school, I had to come up with some graphics. Let’s just say a graphic…
Conclusion The vast majority of modern churches would look far different today if the Biblical model described were adhered to…
Examples for Others to See In the NT we examine four passages of Scripture beginning with Mark 3:14. Here we…
Job Design Honesty must prevail and a hint of excitement confessed when discussing job design. Previous graduate studies that touched…
**This series began as an assignment for Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary** INTRODUCTION Throughout the Scriptures, regardless of the situation being…
Connection to Worship If Christian education, discipleship, and spiritual formation are all interrelated and the primary focus of church ministries…
Focus of Ministry If the ultimate goal is the creation of true disciple of Jesus, then this should be the…
Education What is Christian education? Howard Hendricks discusses at length the traits visible in student but fails to offer a…
**THIS SERIES ORIGINATED AS AN ASSIGNMENT FOR MY STUDIES AT LIBERTY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY** INTRODUCTION During the preparation for this…
Conclusion Philip Schaff, in his History of the Christian Church, said that revolution is followed by reconstruction and consolidation and…
The Church There can be no doubt about the way Calvin came to view the Roman Catholic Church in general…
Fallen Man For Calvin, human beings are the noblest of all of God’s works as they are created in the…
The Lord Calvin firmly believed that everything we can know about God is strictly limited to what God has revealed…
The Scriptures To understand how John Calvin viewed the Scriptures, one need only arrive at the sixth chapter of his…
**This series was taken from a term paper submission for my studies at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary** INTRODUCTION The number…
Noll, Mark A. The Rise of Evangelicalism: The Age of Edwards, Whitfield, and the Wesleys. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press,…
Conclusion The progression of the apostolic writings to actual recognition as Scripture is a process that spanned hundreds of…
Fourth Century Eusebius (ca. 265 – ca.339) could be written of in either the third or fourth centuries. A…
Third Century There are over thirty extant treatises by Tertullian (ca.160 – ca. 220). Converted in Rome where he…
Second Century Within thirty to thirty-five years of the apostle John’s death, there is ample evidence that all four…
First Century At the time of Jesus there was no New Testament as we know it today. Simply put,…
**PLEASE NOTE: This series originated as a term paper for a class at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary** INTRODUCTION …
F. F. Bruce. The Canon of Scripture. Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1988. 349 Pg. $18.30. ISBN-10 0-8308-1258-X. Reviewed by Christopher…
The sheer volume of scholarship on this topic presents a formidable task for a work…
Paul’s background and God’s choice of a man like Paul to be the apostle to…
Saunders has stated that Paul’s problem with Judaism is that it is not Christianity. This…
In defining what the law is, the purpose of the law is implied. The law…
Martin Luther saw the law as something terrifying and humbling as it revealed sin and…
Before one can come to an understanding of Paul’s view of the law, we must first know what the law…
**This 7 part series originated as a paper for my studies at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary** Having written over…
David C. Deuel. “An Old Testament Pattern For Expository Preaching.” The Master’s Seminary Journal, Fall 1991: 125-140, http://www.tms.edu/tmsj/tmsj2f.pdf (accessed March 28, 2009) Like…
Conclusion While skepticism is necessary I have found most form criticism passes beyond skepticism and borders on a lack of…
Solutions to the Synoptic Problem There are many solutions offered for the Synoptic Problem. As stated previously, the parameters…
Similarities and Differences of the Synoptic Gospels There are a great many similarities to be found in the Synoptic…
Development of the Synoptic Gospels In what has become known as the prologue of Luke’s Gospel, the author describes…
Introduction: So What’s The Problem? In preparation for this project, I have asked a great many people in my…
I forget where I found this but thought I would share it.