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…
A few months ago, Daniel Darling (of the ERLC) wrote a special for the CNN Belief Blog called “Millennials and the false ‘gospel of nice.'” You can go directly to that article here: http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2014/04/03/millennials-and-the-false-gospel-of-nice/. There are a number of points that he makes that faithful pastors and Christians may find encouraging, and so I am linking to it here for your edification (just ICYMI). The main thing I would draw your attention to is his rejoinder to the oft-repeated assertion that…
Protestants have always believed that how we worship, the manner of our public worship, matters. The main reason for this is because Protestants believe that the Bible itself, in both the Old and New Testaments, commands a number of important things about how we are to conduct ourselves in gathered worship. There are, of course, historical reasons for this interest in the manner, or how, of public worship as well. For instance, the Protestant reformers believed that the way you worship actually influences and reinforces what you believe. That…
Do you need help with prayer? Many Christians struggle there. Over the centuries, learning to pray the Scriptures has been the best solution to the problem. But where can one find help in learning how to pray Scripture? For the last three hundred years, one book has helped Protestants more than any other in learning to pray the Bible back to God – Matthew Henry’s A Method for Prayer (it’s full title is A Method for Prayer with Scripture Expressions proper to be used under each head). I first “met” this book through…
Yesterday, at the monthly Executive Committee meeting of Reformed Theological Seminary, I read from C.H. Spurgeon’s classic work Morning and Evening as part of our devotional. I have been deeply moved by his meditation on “Brethren, pray…
The congregation that aims to be biblically directed and informed in its approach to public worship will gather weekly on the Lord’s Day for Bible reading, Bible preaching, Bible praying, Bible singing and biblical observance of the sacraments.…
Why does a congregation gather on the Lord’s Day? More can be said, but not less than this: our aim, as the congregation gathers to meet with God in public worship on the Lord’s Day, is to glorify and enjoy God, in accordance with his written…
“All history is subservient to the great work of Redemption” so begins Thomas Chalmers Sabbath Scripture Readings. From October of 1841 to September 20, 1846, Chalmers wrote a series of devotional-expositional thoughts on each chapter of…
Here’s a regular podcast that you don’t want to miss. 5 Minutes in Church History, by Dr. Stephen Nichols. 5 Minutes in Church History is a weekly podcast that provides an informal and informative look at church history: the people,…
Why do we worship? There is more than one right biblical answer. Surely at the top of the list is “for his own glory” (1 Corinthians 10:31, Psalm 29:1-2). There is no higher answer to “why do we worship?” than because the…