Don’t Underestimate the Doctrine of Providence

I shifted uncomfortably in my chair, conscious of the tension in the little room. I'd guessed this conversation was coming, since the people now sitting in front of me had seemed unhappy with my pastoral leadership for a good long time. I wasn't sure what would happen now, but I was afraid it might end badly, with hurtful words spoken and their bitter departure from our church. I mention this moment not because it's unusual in pastoral ministry—every pastor experiences such meetings sooner or later—or because it had a miraculous and uplifting outcome, but because I recall my own heart in that conversation. I claimed to be Calvinist, but I wasn't living like one. I was thinking little of God's role in this conversation—and much of the people sitting across from me.

A Doctrine to Cherish

In the years since, I've come to cherish the doctrine of God's providence and to draw strength and encouragement from it. I've begun learning what a difference it makes in the Christian life. In his Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin underscored the high stakes of believing or rejecting this doctrine: "Ignorance of providence is the ultimate of all miseries; the highest blessedness lies in the knowledge of it."

http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/dont-underestimate-providence#When:05:00:00Z

We are with Global Proclamation Congress-Come join in 2016 !!

Video: https://vimeo.com/127281918

What: The Global Proclamation Congress for Pastoral Trainers (GProCongress) connects, unites and strengthens pastoral trainers in order to better deliver training to the world's 2 million-plus undertrained pastors.

Who: The GProCongress, convened by RREACH, is for anyone involved in formal and non-formal pastoral training of any kind, anywhere. We expect attendance of up to 5,000 pastoral trainers working in 200 countries, including individuals, churches, organizations and institutions.

How: This specialized gathering will fulfill its purposes by providing opportunities to Build Community, Explore Opportunity, Discover Resources and Receive Encouragement. To carry momentum created by the GProCongress into the future, attendees will commit to training, on average, 25 pastors a year for the following four years (2016-2020).

Why: Pastoral health is systemically enhanced by better delivery of more pastoral training with coordinated follow-up. Healthy pastors lead healthier churches, and healthier churches are more able to reach their communities for Christ.

Anticipated Outcome: The measurable outcome is 100,000 connected, united, strengthened pastors and 20,000 more pastoral trainers ministering in 200 countries by 2020.

When: June 15-22, 2016 (follow-up: June 23, 2016-December 31, 2020)

Where: Bangkok, Thailand

Click to visit site

Alvin Plantinga's Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism

Plantinga's book is a semi-popular treatment of the conflicts, real or perceived, between science and religion, broadly construed. Because these disciplines are so broadly construed, the Christian who is interested in apparent conflicts between science and biblical Christianity will likely be somewhat disappointed in Plantinga's treatment. In the two chapters on "Evolution and Christian Belief," for example, one will find no engagement whatsoever with the biblical text; the discussion is restricted to the compatibility of theism with evolutionary biology. That is because Christian belief is taken to be what Lewis called "mere Christianity," which does not include any specific creation account. So while the Christian reader may be readily convinced of Plantinga's claim that no conflict exists between theism and evolutionary biology, he may still be left wondering how the biblical creation stories are to be properly interpreted and to what degree the evidence of evolutionary biology is compatible with that interpretation.

Read more: http://www.reasonablefaith.org/where-the-conflict-lies-science-religion-and-naturalism#ixzz3ji62vd8H

China Sees Red: Christian Protest Puts Hundreds of Crosses Back in Public

Several churches held a prayer service outside a government office yesterday, holding up crosses and banners that read, "Can't remove the cross in our hearts," reports the Union of Catholic Asian News.

The cross dispute is "destined to become one of the 'pain points' in the history of the [Chinese] church's development," wrote Lude Wang in a Pushi Institute for Social Scienceanalysis highlighted by ChinaSource.

"At its core, the Zhejiang Cross Dispute has revealed that in light of the backdrop of a new society, neither the church nor the state has sufficiently prepared to enter into a mature and constructive dialogue; nor have they shown a readiness to settle their differences and conflicts on the basis if the rule of law," she wrote. "How the church will coexist within a community holding different values to itself is an urgent question."

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Pope Francis: Climate Change A 'Principal Challenge' For Humanity

Pope Francis today issued a sweeping 184-page papal letter, writing that climate change is a global problem with far reaching environmental and social consequences — especially for the poor. He blamed apathy and greed and called on developing countries to limit the use of nonrenewable energy and to assist poorer nations.

"Those who possess more resources and economic or political power seem mostly to be concerned with masking the problems or concealing their symptoms," Francis wrote of the impact of climate change in the encyclical titled "Laudato Si," or "Praise Be."

He called on humanity to collectively acknowledge a "sense of responsibility for our fellow men and women upon which all civil society is founded." And he wrote that climate change "represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day."

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The Centrality of Doctrine and the Christian Faith

Last fall, LifeWay Research conducted a study commissioned by Ligonier Ministries to examine the theological views of Christians throughout the United States. The results were disconcerting for those of us who hold evangelical beliefs.

Americans who self-identify as Christians seem to believe in heaven, hell, and a little bit of heresy, likely without even realizing their error.

Biblical illiteracy is running rampant within many contexts. Fewer and fewer people know what the Bible actually says about key moral and theological issues, but more and more people know what they want the Bible to say on these issues.

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Roll Tide and Read Your Bible: Alabama Ranks No. 1 for Scripture Lovers

Southern states dominate annual list of Bible-minded cities.

The Bible Belt lived up to its name as Southern locales topped the American Bible Society (ABS) and Barna Group's annual list of Bible-minded cities, with Birmingham, Alabama, earning the No. 1 spot.

The rankings, based on a city's Bible reading habits and beliefs, come from a decade of interviews with more than 63,000 adults in the country's 100 largest metropolitan areas. While the study crowned a new winner (Chattanooga ranked first last year), manydemographic trends stayed the same, notes ABS:

As in past years, the Bible Belt performed strongly in the 2015 rankings, while East Coast cities once again brought up the rear of the list. Small cities also generally performed better than did large cities. Just one of the top 10 Bible-minded cities ranks in the top 25 media markets.

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Can Atheists Be Moral? That’s the Wrong Question

Occasionally you will hear people question whether an atheist can be a moral person. But is this the right question to be asking?

Can an Atheist be Moral? Of Course, but that is the Wrong Question

As Christians we know that the moral law comes from a Creator God, and some think that those who reject Him are therefore unable to to have good morals. In an effort to address the worldview of atheism, some will suggest that an atheist is incapable of being a moral person. But is this true? Is this even the question we should be asking?

As we begin to examine this issue, note that we're referring to a person's ability to be moral in a practical, everyday sense. Theologically, we understand that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). No person who has not been redeemed by the blood of Christ can be considered moral in a spiritual sense. This is as true of the atheist as it is of the person who sits in church every week in an attempt to earn their salvation apart from God's grace. For our purposes, "moral" is being defined as being able to distinguish right from wrong and make choices that we would recognize as "good."

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Christianity Today's 2015 Book Awards

Some of the finest books pull us deeper into familiar subjects—biographies of great statesmen, say, or fresh takes on the essentials of Christian doctrine and discipleship. Others introduce us to people, places, and ideas about which we know very little, if anything. Last year, I finally discovered Laura Hillenbrand's epic World War II survival story, Unbroken. Going in, I'd never heard of her protagonist, the indomitable prisoner of war Louis Zamperini. Now, I won't soon forget him.

It's like that with our current crop of book awards, which pursue paths both old and new. One of the victory nods goes to a new study of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. You've perhaps heard a thing or two about him. And like always, we honor plenty of volumes touching on the Bible, the church, and perennial matters of faith. But hopefully, we'll also inspire at least some readers to acquaint themselves with abolitionists Hannah More and Sarah Grimke, or the philosopher Charles Taylor (and his penetrating look at our "secular age").

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Unlocking your Lament

Every one of us wrestles through the realities of a very broken world.  Government is sometimes dysfunctional, seemingly beyond repair.  Laws can be unjust, penalizing the innocent.  Communities discriminate against people because of the color of their skin or their zip code.  Chronic pain may be your unwelcome friend, visiting you each day. 

This world is not without its troubles.

How does the Christ Follower deal with his own downturns?  How do we handle troubles that are not a direct result of our own poor choices?

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Counseling God's Way Leadership Seminar - Part 1 by Bob Hoekstra

Session 2 - Secular and Integration Theories (Sept 2011)

The TOXIC Tongue of Comparison

Words matter.  God speaks loud and long regarding the power of our words.  One prime example, Proverbs 18:21 says, "The tongue can bring both death or life (NLT)."

While there are many expressions of a toxic tongue, comparing ourselves to others leads to words of death. Comparisons can be a carefully laid trap that will lead you down a road of relational ruin.  Sinful comparing tends to measure our own worth through the lens of others' lifestyle or accomplishments.  Ecclesiastes 4:4 notes, "Then I observed that most people are motivated to success because they envy their neighbors.  But this, too, is meaningless ­– like chasing the wind (NLT)."

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House Church Critiques of the Megachurch: 3 Ways to Make it Better

Some people are passionate about the debate between megachurches or house churches. This can be good, but passionate people tend to be enthusiastic to the point that they can exaggerate their position—even when research and data do not back up their claims.

For example, some assert that people are leaving megachurches in droves and are headed toward house churches en masse.

Statistically, there is no real evidence of that.

I was recently asked about house church critiques of the megachurch, recorded what I said, and my team turned it into this brief (and narrowly-focused) article.

So, let me share some thoughts on how that conversation might be made better—from a friendly outsider's perspective.

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The language of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism-MTD

This morning on the way in I was listening to an old episode of the unfailingly excellent and indispensable Mars Hill Audio Journal, in which sociologist Christian Smith discussed his findings about American youth and Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. I was struck by the part of his discussion with host Ken Myers about how American teenagers lack the basic vocabulary to discuss religious particularities. They are so theologically ignorant they can't even articulate what their own traditions teach. And in this, Smith suggests, they are like their parents.
Myers asked if there are any data to indicate that teenagers today are any more ignorant than past generations of Americans. Not really, Smith said, but anecdotally, when he interviews older professors, they tell him that young people today are markedly less able to discuss religion to any informed degree. Atheist humanities professor Camille Paglia is also bothered by this, but for different reasons:

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God Still Performs Miracles: An Interview with Mark Batterson

Do we dare believe that God can speak into our lives powerfully and tangibly? Jesus did this. During his earthly ministry he healed the sick, opened the eyes of the blind, and even raised the dead. What if he would do these things today?

How do you define "miracle" and its place in today's world?

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Restaurant's 'Prayer Discount' Sparks Mix Of Praise, Anger

When Jordan Smith got her tab after breakfast at in Winston-Salem, N.C., she was pleasantly surprised to find a 15 percent discount — for "praying in public."

Smith, on a business trip, that she and her colleagues "prayed over our meal and the waitress came over at the end of the meal and said, 'Just so you know, we gave you a 15 percent discount for praying.' "

Smith then snapped a photo of her receipt, complete with a line item for "15% Praying in Public ($6.07)" and posted it to her Facebook page. Not surprisingly, it's gone viral.
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Robin Williams’ Death an Opportunity to Look at Depression in the Scriptures

"The human spirit can endure in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?" (Proverbs 18:14).

The shocking news of the suicide death of actor Robin Williams has left millions of people all over the world with a mystery: how could someone known for a whole-face smile that caused multitudes of people to laugh to the point of tears be so distraught that he would take his own life? Many are perplexed, and there are many others who are saying to themselves: if anyone knew how desperately depressed I am, they would be surprised.

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Beware of Obscurantism

"I can't go to your church, I'm not a Republican."

That was what a pastor friend of mine heard from a neighbor to whom he was reaching out. He eagerly replied, "You don't have to be!" to which his friend responded, "But everyone at your church is."

That's hard to argue when it is true.

So, why does that matter? Well, it matters in a way that might surprise you. You see, this is not a blogpost about politics, but about the gospel—and the need for it to be clearly understood.

Not Politics, But Gospel

The fact of the matter is that the more you to go church, the more likely you are to be a Republican. That's just math. (See my earlier article with cautions about that reality.) The less you go to church, the more likely you are to be a Democrat. (There are individual and group exceptions, but that is what the media call "The God Gap." Don't yell at me about it—I did not create math.)

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Former Bergdahl Pastor Calls for Mercy for 'Prodigal Son' Bowe

"Christians are getting engaged in the lynching," he says. "In any other situation, we'd be hugging the parents."

Since his release on Saturday, white-hot controversy has dogged US Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was exchanged for five senior Taliban leaders. The Taliban held him captive for the past five years. Bergdahl is being branded as a deserter for abandoning his unit in eastern Afghanistan.

On Sunday at a White House press conference, President Obama with Bergdahl's parents Robert and Jani at his side announced Bowe's release. Earlier this week, Phil Proctor, pastor of Sterling Presbyterian Church, an Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sterling, Virginia, began distributing an email in response to questions he was receiving about the Bergdahls since he served as their pastor and has remained close to the family. In the five years since Bergdahl's capture, there has been a nationwide campaign for his release with many posters describing Sgt. Bergdahl as a POW.

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