Ryan Burge, who is Professor of Practice at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis, and who co-authored “The Great De-churching” with Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando grads Jim Davis and Michael Graham, has released an article called “What’s Happening with America’s Seminaries?” on his Substack that has gotten a lot of attention on X. I love to read Ryan’s work. His article has tons of helpful and accurate information and analysis. What he has done is take the ATS ADT (The Association of…A Word about Stats for the Growth and Size of…
Ryan Burge, who is Professor of Practice at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis, and who co-authored “The Great De-churching” with Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando grads Jim Davis and Michael Graham, has released an article called “What’s Happening with America’s Seminaries?” on his Substack that has gotten a lot of attention on X. I love to read Ryan’s work. His article has tons of helpful and accurate information and analysis. What he has done is take the ATS ADT (The Association of…
The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Brazil began its work on Saturday evening, July 19. The Rev. Dr. Augustus Nicodemos was elected Vice-Moderator. I had the joy and privilege of hearing him preach on Sunday morning, July 20 at Igreja Presbiteriana Marinas Praia Sul in Natal. Then on Sunday evening, July 20, I preached the opening worship service of the General Assembly. Organizers announced that 6000 were in attendance. My translator was Dr Valdeci dos Santos, who was my student at RTS Jackson and is now a leader in the IPB…
This is one of my very favorite hymns. I love its true and moving words. It is a glorious and realistic and emphatically Christian and spiritual meditation on God’s providence. This one is worth memorizing. “It was composed in 1641 with the heading ‘A Song of Comfort. God will care for and help everyone in His own time,’ under the text Psalm 55:22. The author was robbed by highwaymen near Magdeburg as a student and left destitute with no prospect of earning a living. At last he unexpectedly received an appointment as tutor in the…
Sometimes reverence and joy are viewed as mutually exclusive in the worship of the church. I have friends who suspect “reverence” is a code word for austere, cold, somber and dour. So, when they hear someone talking about the need for reverence in worship, they want to have none of it. On the other hand, I have friends who are suspicious of calls for “joyfulness” in worship, as if this necessarily entailed emotional manipulation and superficial sanguinity. In some churches, there is such an emotional display in worship…
I will be heading to Natal, Brazil soon for the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil (in Portuguese Igreja Presbiteriana do Brasil, or IPB). The IPB is the largest and oldest of the Presbyterian and Reformed denominations in Brazil.…
It has just been announced today that Dr. Paul Kooistra, former Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson faculty member, former President of Covenant Theological Seminary and retiring PCA Mission to the World Coordinator has been named the new…
Many years ago, my friend Dr. Mark Dever, Senior Pastor of the Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC, shared this moving quotation with me from the hand of the great English Baptist minister William Kiffin, writing in 1682, of the death of…
Isaac Watts (17 July 1674 – 25 November 1748) was an English hymnwriter, theologian and logician. A prolific and popular hymnwriter, he was recognised as the “Father of English Hymnody”, credited with some 650 hymns. Many of his hymns…
Here is the Intercollegiate Review’s list of the fifty best books of the 20th century (edited by Mark C. Henrie, Winfield J.C. Myers, and Jeffrey O. Nelson). They are going to post their fifty worst books of the 20th century soon. Good…
The Matthew Henry Tercentenary has come to a close, but resources will be added soon to the site. Summaries of all the papers and presentations, and more. I’ll keep you posted as all of this develops.