Always Reforming

One of the great ecclesiological debates of our day is regarding the validity of holy orders.  Whom do Roman Catholics recognize?  What about the insular, ethnically-focused Eastern Orthodox?  How do Presbyterians, Baptists, Lutherans, and other Protestants interact with clergy outside of their tradition?  Anglicans, who purport to be Catholic and to hold the Apostolic Episcopate, seem to spend an inordinate amount of time talking about this.  It certainly is an important issue as it relates to questions about full vs impaired communion, the validity of the sacraments, and how denominations work together on the mission field.  Ultimately, it is a key subset to the broader question of authority, which is the pressing issue of the Church in our era. My goal today is not to answer (or even address) this question.  My assertion, instead, is that the discussion is altogether misguided.  To say it another way, if you are debating the validity of one den...

He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3:30) Oh, that my heart would own these words! These words of the Baptist ought...must...be the resolution of every Christian.  The decisions we make, the paths we take, and that which we forsake must all flow from a desire to glorify Christ.  "Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." (1 Cor 10:31)  This is the guiding ethic of the Christian life.   He must increase .  This is the easy part of the verse.  Exalting Christ sounds good.  We like to praise, to worship, to tell others about Jesus.  He must increase?  Amen! But... I must decrease .  This is the painful part.  This is the part that is so radically counter to both our culture and our natural inclinations.  Humility--how demeaning!  Submission--how passe!  Subservience--how repulsive! I must decrease .  The second part is indispensable to the first.  We cannot serve Go...

People create conspiracy theories to make sense of the reality they experience. COVID is the perfect example. It was difficult to believe that the "powers that be" were really that foolish or naive, so certainly something more insidious was afoot! The shadow government was depopulating the world intentionally through a man-made virus and the subsequent "miracle" vaccine! Now, stranger conspiracy theories have been proven true, but the reality is probably much less orchestrated or exciting. What the human brain has trouble fathoming is that someone could be this calloused. Evil--that we get. Calloused, unconcerned, heartless--that we struggle to comprehend. Faced with the opportunity for fame and fortune, Fauci chose to downplay and/or outright lie about the dangers of the vaccine. He went on TV and told America it was safe and effective. He was the darling of the media and celebrities, who demeaned and slandered anyone who posed legitimate questions. Gover...

Parents, Your kids don't need a bunch of stuff.  They don't need all of the experiences their friends have.   Heaven knows they don't need more entertainment! They need you. Mom and Dad, they need you both . They need your time, your attention, your presence.   They need your big hugs and your kisses on the top of their heads. They need to know that they're more important than whatever is on your phone at any given moment. They need to know that they're part of something bigger--a family, a community. They need your friendship and your discipline.   They need you to show them how to live, how to align priorities properly. They need to see you work, yes, but also play.  And rest. And read. And exercise. And, most importantly, they need to see you worship God.   Every "yes" is a "no."  

For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.  (Romans 6:14) Christian, you have been freed.  Through the Person and Work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, you have been set free from the guilt and corruption of sin.  The Fall has been reversed.   The guilt of sin no longer has dominion over you.  There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1).  No one, not even the accuser, can bring an accusation against God's elect (Rom 8:33).  Satan has no right to your body or your soul.  Resist him; he will flee (James 4:7).  The power of sin no longer has dominion over you.  "For one who has died has been set free from sin," Paul says (Rom 6:7).  "So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus" (Rom 6:11).  We have been given the gift of true freedom--not freedom from restraint, but freedom from slavery to sin.  W...

Thank you, Dr. Fauci.   Thank you for your transparent corruption. Thank you for destroying public confidence in the experts . Thank you for revealing how things really work . Thank you for normalizing vaccine injury awareness and education . Thank you for unveiling the religious fervor of medicalists . Thank you for showing us what the elites really think about the common man. Thank you for reminding us that no one is immune (pun fully intended) to the wiles of power, money, and fame. Thank you for stirring up the sleeping hearts of regular men and women in this country. So, thank you.  Despite yourself, thank you.  You set in motion things that cannot be undone. May God have mercy on you.

For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers, and deceivers... (Titus 1:10a) Speaking in the 1st Century, Paul was warning Titus about the challenges that the soon-to-be ordained overseers in Crete would face, but he could just as easily have been speaking to the modern pastor about navigating the Internet in the 21st Century. There is nothing new under the sun.  Technology changes, but human nature remains the same (unless changed by Almighty God).  The Internet is full of insubordination .  Submission has never been easy, and it never will be.  It should be said that this is as true of disgruntled parishioners in a local congregation as it is of keyboard warriors.  This vice lies in the heart of man, not merely in his fingers.  However, social media and other online spaces provide a voice for those who are probably better left voiceless.  Christians need to be on guard for this tendency.  Those of us who fancy ourselves writers shoul...

What is the name of your church?  Why was that name chosen?  Have you ever thought about it? Much has been made about the way people choose baby names these days.  We try to sound intellectual or original, modern or old-fashioned.  We want people to say, "Oh, what a [fill in the blank] name!"  As expressive individualists , we name our children so as to communicate something about ourselves.   This is unavoidable, to a certain extent.  Naming things is inherently expressive.  What we choose to call something (animate or inanimate) will communicate something about ourselves and how we experience that thing, the world, etc., whether we like it or not.  This is good and has always been true.  Nevertheless, children's names today certainly seem to reinforce the expressive individualism that dominates our modern society. Well, it turns out churches can be expressive individualists, too.  A quick Google search reveals an interesting ...

Forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (Eph 4:32) To forgive as you have been forgiven is one of the foundational principles of the Gospel life.  If you do not forgive, you will not be forgiven (Matt 6:15).  How can we who have been forgiven much not forgive what little our brethren have done to us (Matt 18:21-35)? We are to forgive others as God forgave us.  How did God forgive us? He forgave us completely.   No debt is left unpaid.  No sin is left unsatisfied.  The saving work of Christ requires no supplementation, from ourselves or from any other mediator.  As far as the east is from the west, so far have our sins been removed from us (Psalm 103:12).   He forgave us freely.   Our salvation is a gift (Rom 3:24).  We have not earned it, deserved it, or warranted it in any way.  We are forgiven, in fact, despite ourselves.  While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Rom 5:24).   He forgives us,...

For he himself is our peace... (Eph 2:14a) Jesus is our peace.   He is our peace with God (Rom 5:1).  Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, has reunited God and man.  We who were rebels--children of wrath (Eph 2:3)--have been restored to communion with our Creator through the Person and Work of the Incarnate One.   He is our peace with our fellow man.  Jesus Christ is the new Adam (1 Cor 15:45); those united to Him are a new humanity.  He has broken down the dividing wall of hostility between Jews and Gentiles (Eph 2:14b).  He has made one Body from many members (1 Cor 12)--united to Him, we are united to one another.  He is our peace with and within ourselves.  In Christ we rest.  We find meaning and purpose--telos.  We find identity.  Dying to self and living to Christ, we find that His yoke is easy and His burden light (Matt 11:30). He is our peace.  He is peace. And the peace of God, which surpasses all underst...

Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain (Psalm 127:1a). Christian, whatever you do--whatever you build--is futile without the Master Builder.  Your blood, sweat, and tears are lost in the dirt without the plans, materials, and empowering of the Arch Architect.  Without the grace and wisdom of God making your efforts effectual, they are shallow and vain.   Did we in our own strength confide , says Luther, our striving would be losing . You can build a business, a family, or even a church, but it means nothing without the Father.  You can create a following, but it is transient without the Great Guide.  You can build a life, but it will soon be forgotten without the Creator's gaze.  Human ambitions can only build human institutions.  Carnal methods and strategies can only grant carnal success.   If you want to build something eternally meaningful--a truly Godly legacy--you must consult the LORD every step of the ...

Church polity has been a divisive issue, to say the least, throughout Church history.  Should individual congregations govern themselves independently?  Should regional groups of elders oversee the Church?  Is the Episcopate a divinely ordained and indispensable means of unity for the Church of Jesus Christ?  How should clergy be selected, trained, etc.?  How do we determine jurisdiction?  Wars have been fought and heads lost over over these and similar questions. I myself am a bit of an ecclesiastical mut.  Having attended a presbyterian church, a quasi-presbyterian church, and an elder-led, non-denominational church, I am currently serving as a deacon in an Anglican church, which features an Episcopal form of church government.  I am no expert, but over the years I have learned a few things about how church government actually works out in real life.  I won't attempt a thorough treatment of this subject, but here are a few thoughts on churc...

Are Calvinists the frozen chosen?  Do the Doctrines of Grace create proud, belligerent snobs?   If you’ve spent any time in online theology groups, you’re likely to answer in the affirmative.  Keyboard warriors bickering about things like election and total depravity can be quite off-putting, I’m sure.  Unfortunately, the way a person studies the Word of God is not always reflected in the way he treats other people, online or in real life.   Calvinists, of course, do not have a monopoly on this shortcoming.  In 1 Corinthians 8:1 Paul tells us that knowledge puffs up–it inflates the ego. Regardless of what one believes, intellectual endeavors have the potential to produce pride and tactlessness.  This is nothing new, of course.  Bad blood has been a feature of theological debates as long as theological debates have been had. This can be true, regardless of how knowledgeable one truly is.  Mastering a particular system of theology, es...

We don't have time for parables. For depth. For wrestling with texts or concepts. We don't have time for stories. For good stories anyway. We don't have the mental fortitude for truth. We don't have patience. We can't wait for stories to develop. For details to emerge. For clarifications to be offered. Heaven knows we don't have attention spans! We don't have brains or hearts that seek for more. Our precious freedom to think critically has been exchanged for baubles. Our ability to discover--to explore--has been burgled by complacency and algorithms.   We don't have time for love. For friendship. For community. We have more time than anyone has ever had in the history of the world. Yet We never have enough time. We certainly don't have time for parables.

Why don't modern Christians worship? That question may seem a bit harsh.  After all, nominalism has been a cancer within the Christian Church since at least Constantine's day.  We can't lump committed Christians in with cultural Christians, can we? And yet, even many regular churchgoers seem uncommitted to weekly church attendance, as borne out both by anecdotal evidence and by many studies.  See here , here , and here for examples (do note the encouraging trends among younger generations).  Particularly telling is the fact that what constitutes regular attendance is itself somewhat of a mystery.  Beyond this, stats regarding family worship throughout the week would probably be too depressing to consider.  I think we can agree that that is rare, at best.   It suffices, and is fair, to say that many professing Christians, even relatively devout ones, view regular worship as  optional . Why?  I think there are a few reasons. Firstly, we are d...

Why? Why do Protestants keep joining the Roman Catholic Church (RCC)?   You probably know someone who has converted to Roman Catholicism recently.  You likely have a friend, a family member, or an acquaintance who has taken the plunge and made that difficult swim across the Tiber.  He or she was raised within Protestantism, whether one of the mainline traditions (Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, etc.) or an independent, non-denominational church, but found a renewed sense of faith by "going back to Rome." Perhaps it wasn't Rome.  Perhaps it was another liturgical tradition like the Eastern Orthodox Church (EOC).  I personally have a cousin who became a Byzantine Catholic and a friend who joined the Polish National Catholic Church.  I'm sure statistics would show that these older churches have their own issues losing parishioners, but it cannot be denied that there is a movement, especially among young men and young families, towards the older, more li...

Delivered on as part of The Seven Last Sayings of Christ on the Cross at St. John's Anglican Church in Canton, OH (Good Friday, 2026). After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.”  A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. (John 19:28-29) We have all been thirsty, I trust.  We all know what it is like to have parched lips, a dry palate, a frothy tongue.  We all, to one degree or another, can identify with the weakness–the faintness–of dehydration.   Jesus, a genuine human being with a genuine human body that had genuine physical needs, experienced genuine thirst as He hung from the Cross.  He experienced what we experience.  He felt what we feel.  As the author of Hebrews says, we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses .  When you’re thirsty after a hard day of work or a ri...

There is nowhere  I would rather be Than snuggled up Beside you Under covers On a cold Saturday morning There is nothing I would rather do Than spend my life Loving you Creating memories Sharing laughs And sorrows There is no one With whom I would  Rather share  My time My heart The long days and The cold nights

Conversions are often for the sake of expedience.  Android users adopt Apple products.  Energy drink drinkers start drinking coffee.  Fair-weather fans join the bandwagon for whatever team seems to be building a dynasty.  People are always changing their allegiances when it is convenient to do so. Religious conversions are no exception.  Such a conversion is often costly, as Christians in places like Nigeria and Pakistan can attest, but it is just as often done for power, money, or respectability.  Christianity, especially the quaint, neo-conservative kind that opposes Commies, supports Israel, and produces alternative entertainment content, is kind of in right now, so it's fair to question celebrity conversions at this particular moment in American history. Much has been made of the fact that Kid Rock headlined a conservative, religious alternative to Bad Bunny's halftime show.  If you don't know, Kid Rock hasn't exactly spent his career creating fa...

  A few thoughts on the Halftime show: I live in Canton, OH, about five minutes from the Pro Football Hall of Fame. NE Ohio practically invented professional football as we know it, so it's still like a religion around here (how else can you explain such loyalty to the Browns?). It was the blue-collar American man's game. It was a game of skill, strength, and endurance--everything that built this country, especially the Midwest. Over time this game we love became a product. Ironically, it once again epitomized the American spirit--we can make anything about money. It eventually overtook baseball as America's favorite pastime. Even yet, it was still a uniquely American game. After all, other countries still refer to it as "American football." America has a lot of money, but not as much money as the entire world, so it was inevitable that the NFL would begin to push to create an international fanbase. It started with games being held in London, Germany, M...

The Internet has never been so partisan.  Immigration, ICE, Greenland--everyone parrots their tribal taglines.  If you do not loudly and proudly proclaim your position, you are a bad person and should feel bad about yourself.  You will certainly be on the wrong side of history! Alas, I have found great freedom in remembering that I do not, in fact, have to voice my opinion on every matter.  I do not have to endorse or decry politicians, government entities, and/or ethnic groups every time some conflagration occurs.  I don't have to pick sides, solve social ills, or litigate uses of force.  As a follower of Jesus Christ, I am responsible to love my neighbor, to pray for my leaders and fellow-citizens, and to do what good I can in the world.  I am not responsible to declare my position on every issue, every tragedy, every outrage.  I will not be judged by whether or not I had every issue figured out.  I will be judged by whether or not I loved ...

Sisyphus, What kind of trick is this? Always walking uphill, Always winding the clock, Always wondering  If? When? You call this formation, But it feels like punishment, For wasted years and  Wayward thoughts. Does it ever end? The struggle, the ardor, The self-doubt and  Self-surrender? Weary, I wander, Is it giving up Or reading the signs? I'm beginning to think  No one ever arrives, We merely do our best To survive Until we die. Won't you put me out of my Misery? Cut off my head And set me free? Do you do well to be angry? I'm not looking for Redemption, Just purpose, and Resolution.