This weekend the students at our church participate in our annual fall retreat. It is easy to think of a fall retreat as an event. But we try to think of our fall retreat as a spiritual discipline. M. Robert Mulholland Jr. (1993) describes retreat in these terms: Retreat is the discipline of setting apart a time, individually or corporately, to step aside from the … [Read more...] about The Discipline of Retreat
Articles
John Frame on the Forensic Nature of Justification
John Frame (2013) discusses the forensic nature of justification in this way: The language [for justification in the Westminster Larger Catechism] is forensic, that is, the language of a law court. In that court God is the Judge, and we are on trial for our sins - both the sin of Adam and the sins that we have committed in this life. The wages of sin is death, so clearly we … [Read more...] about John Frame on the Forensic Nature of Justification
The Changing Politics of Church Property
For centuries churches have marked the American landscape. They have stood as icons in the middle of towns, their steeples pointing to a higher reality. But this may no longer be the case. As America continues to urbanize and secularize, and as dying churches shut down and sell off their property, finding a place in the heart of a town or city may be increasingly difficult to … [Read more...] about The Changing Politics of Church Property
Pastor as Overseer
If leadership is largely influence (Northouse, 2012), then pastors are leaders. Yet, this perspective on the pastorate is something that many evangelicals have shied away from. For example, one author and former pastor, Jared Wilson, questions the usefulness of the leadership approach to pastoral work. Wilson (2013) sardonically writes: Enter the leadership cult. What we … [Read more...] about Pastor as Overseer
Hidden Hurts
Somedays it feels like the world is winning.Somedays word reaches you of a person now gone.Some deep struggle now done, now over. Good-bye.And you never knew.You had seen them around, in passing. Maybe you waved. Maybe you were in a hurry, so you looked the other way. But they were drowning, and you didn't know."Most men lead lives of quiet … [Read more...] about Hidden Hurts