This is the last in a series of posts related to women serving as pastors. My point has been and is that the Bible is abundantly clear that the office and function of the Elder/Pastor/Bishop is for men only. Thus, any person who serves as a “lead pastor” or in any office in the church…
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Ordination
The Bible is clear about God’s design for a properly ordered church. The local church is to be led by men who are set apart by the members of the church who recognize in these men a call of God upon their lives as displayed in the exercise of their gifts and abilities to serve…
A Properly Ordered Church
This post is the second in a series on the question that Southern Baptists will face in June over whether women can serve as pastors in our local churches. What I am suggesting in these posts is that the question of women serving as pastors must be preceded by if not joined to other both…
The SBC and Women as Pastors
The Southern Baptist Covnention will meet in the month of June in the city of New Orleans. This is our annual meeting when messengers from churches affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention meet to celebrate in worship, to hear reports from our various entities, and to engage in matters of business that require the attention…
Laughing and Crying Christians
My quiet time reading this morning included 2 Corinthians 1. Two words seem to dominate Paul’s mind in 2 Corinthians 1: suffering and comfort. Paul ties the two together. He is speaking of Christians facing suffering and because of that suffering being enabled by God to bring comfort to other Christians who are suffering. He…
Revival and Revivalism
The title of this post is lifted from one of the most influential books I have read in recent years. The book is by Ian Murray (anything and everything he writes is worth reading), Revival and Revivalism. Murray makes a distinction between these two things. The basic distinction is this: God alone brings revival. God…
Reading and Reflecting on Scripture
I have two goals in this post. First, I want to address the issue of how to read Scripture so as to be in a proper posture to reflect on what is read. Second, I want to show you how this works through looking at 1 Corinthians 5. Both these goals emerge out of two…
Sure Signs that Cultural Christianity is in the House
I think a lot, probably way too much, about cultural or nominal Christianity. One of my questions is, “how do I define it or describe it to others in a way that makes it visible?” I know it when I see it. I have seen it throughout fifty plus years of ministry in the church….
Does “The Chosen” Get Us
Almost every heresy in the history the church has been tied to one of three issues: The authority of Scripture, the deity and humanity of Jesus Christ, and the nature and character of the Trinity. The one that most likely has attracted the most attention is the deity and humanity of Christ. Nestorians gave us…
Personal Peculiarities that can cause Pain
Do you ever wonder if anybody in the whole wide world deals with some of the things that you deal with? Do you ever wonder if your craziness is unlike anybody else, so much so that you would rather nobody know about your own craziness? Are there things that come to your mind and cause…