Scripture, Sufficient for What?
When I was young and living under my parent’s tutelage, cleaning my room was a primary chore assigned to me. However, even though I was the chief custodian of my room I was not the boss! After cleaning, my mother…
Tag Pastoral Theology
Introverted Pastors, Part 2
Adam McHugh, plainly and accurately states that the “slant towards extroversion in the larger culture has also infiltrated the church.”[1] (See part 1 of this series for more on how this ‘slant’ came to be.) Not only has this slant…
Getting Along in God’s Family
The gospel of Jesus Christ is astounding. To think that when we were yet sinners God sent His only begotten Son to keep the law that we were unable to keep and to bear the curse we were unwilling to…
Introverted Pastors, Part 1
“Anybody else discouraged today by the pastoral blueprint in the ‘church growth’ movement?” writes Jared Wilson, a pastor from New Hampshire. “The most ‘successful’ types of pastors today,” he continues, “are more of the entrepreneurial type than the pastoral.…
Windows on the Crucifixion
I love photography and, although I’m not a great photographer, I have learned some of the secrets of capturing a scene or portrait effectively: the most important being to choose angles that allow the details to stand out clearly. When…
Adoption as New Life
On January 31, 2017, P&R Publishing released David Garner’s new book, Sons in the Son: The Riches and Reach of Adoption in Christ. This excerpt (pp. xxi–xxiv) from the introduction to the book offers a quick taste of themes developed in…
Systematic Theology at Covenant Seminary is Biblical and “Missional”
“A few weeks ago, we ran an interview on missional theology with Dr. Mark Dalbey, president of Covenant Theological Seminary. We’re grateful for the responses we have received as a result of that conversation. Some of the feedback has been…
No Little Women: Choosing the Better Part
Women are not second-class citizens in the Kingdom of God ruled over by Jesus Christ. There are two errors which we can fall into when we consider the role of women’s ministries in the church. We can either ride roughshod…
The Doctrines of Grace: Thinking About Application, Part 2
Why do some pastors so strongly emphasize the “means of grace” or God’s “ordinances”—God’s word, the sacraments (Baptism and the Lord’s Supper) and prayer? It boils down to this: humans are dead in their sin, wholly corrupted in their soul,…
Calvin’s First, Very Augustinian Point: Human Imperfection Requires Order
Professor Harro Hopfl identifies the following three signatures of political Calvinism that would be timely if part of network coverage of the Inauguration of the new President: Calvin detested as much as anything rulers who acted as if their will made right…