The Plodding Preacher

The Naked Cowboy is a fixture around Times Square, New York.  His chosen means of making money is to appear in public dressed in cowboy hat and boots, a pair of jockey shorts, and a strategically placed guitar that makes it appear from the front that he is naked behind the guitar.  I don't know whether he is a busker who accepts donations for singing or whether he charges tourists for pictures taken with him. Recently, Hillsong, New York, hosted a large women's conference with an "I Love New York" theme.  During the event, a youth pastor from Hillsong dressed up as the Naked Cowboy and appeared on stage.  So . . . during a ladies' event a youth pastor from the biggest megachurch in New York appeared on stage in church wearing nothing but a tight pair of briefs, cowboy hat, boots and guitar.  If that were all there was to the story, it would certainly be enough to cause raised eyebrows.  A Christian women's conference with the equivalent of a male stripp...

Controversial author and former megachurch Pastor Rob Bell has said he feels Jesus Christ has been trivialized in today's society, and people are abandoning the concept of adhering to a single religion. Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/rob-bell-jesus-trivialized-people-moved-beyond-one-single-religion-164571/#gLCpOAgkq8lg0AHD.99 Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/rob-bell-jesus-trivialized-people-moved-beyond-one-single-religion-164571/#qh2YtZ0wHeTYxqxc.99 The Christian Post today posted an interview with Rob Bell in which Bell claimed that Jesus has been trivialized.  He believes that people have moved beyond following just one religion and that some of the best followers of Jesus are actually people who would never call themselves Christians. Well, for once I agree with Rob Bell.  Jesus has been trivialized.  Rob Bell and others like him have created a Jesus of their own imaginations who is absolutely insignificant to real life.  The...

The answer Mike Leake provides might not be the one we want to hear, but it is the truth. DID GOD LOVE ME BECAUSE HE SAW WHAT OTHERS COULDN’T? I hate to admit that I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for the guy who took down Don Zimmer, but it’s true. I always loved watching Pedro Martinez pitch. In an age when most pitchers seemed afraid to use the whole plate, Pedro refused to surrender the inside half. He pitched aggressive, and he pitched inside. Given my penchant for biographies it was a given that I’d buy   Pedro’s autobiography   when Amazon put it on sale for $1.99. I was surprised to learn that many of the coaches in the Dodgers farm system didn’t like Pedro’s stuff. At the moment of decision, when the Dodgers were to decide if Pedro would ever make it to the big leagues, Martinez was standing outside a window listening in. This is what he heard: Each time I heard one of the coaches find a new phrase to describe how I was a scraggly, no-good, never-...

The ultimate test of our spirituality is the measure of our amazement at the grace of God. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

As Christians we are often confronted with the secular maxim that Christianity and Science are incompatible.  We are accused of being anti-science because of our religious views.  Particularly our belief in creation, miracles and the resurrection of Jesus are attacked because they contradict the "facts" of science.  This has never really been about science.  This has been about attacking Christianity.  The proof of my assertion lies in the recent secular position on transgenderism.  Science, specifically biology, tells us that there are two genders.  All humans born with two identical sex chromosomes (XX) are female.  All humans born with two different sex chromosomes (XY) are male.  No amount of hormones or surgery can change the chromosomes inherited at conception.  Hence, biologically, a female is always female and a male is always male.  Opposed to this scientific fact is the way a person feels. So when it suits are soc...

A Liberal who understands what free speech truly means. If you seek the removal of freedoms from an opponent simply on the grounds that they have offended you, you have crossed a line to stand alongside tyrants who imprison, torture and kill on exactly the same justifications … If my offended feelings can justify a travel ban on Donald Trump, I have no moral grounds on which to argue that those offended by feminism, or the fight for transgender rights, or universal suffrage, should not oppress campaigners for those causes. J.K. Rowling

One of the Teachers at our Academy, Erika, posted this excellent article on her facebook today. This is the true face of the Sexual Revolution. I apologize in advance. Jonathon Van Maren It’s sobering and frustrating to consider that each and every time social conservatives raised the cultural alarm throughout the last five decades, pointing out that each new manifestation of the Sexual Revolution would lead to devastating consequences, they were written off with derisive laughter. They were accused of “provoking a moral panic,” or being “stuck in the past” or “too prudish.” The “slippery-slope” arguments of aging moralists were simply dogmatic hysterics to be ignored, if not mocked. Unfortunately, the briefest of cultural overviews reveals that those who sounded the alarm were not crackpots, but prophets. Read the Rest HERE

Sixteen Really Strange and Funny Things Pastors Have Been Asked to Do Thom Rainer “Pastor, I have a rat in my house. Please come get it!” It’s a true story. I was the pastor. And I was over 30 minutes away from the senior adult who made the “request.” I tried to call several other church members on the phone to get them to help. I could find no one. Strange. I chased a rat in the senior adult’s home for over an hour. I love pastors and church staff. I love hearing their stories. And, on occasion, I like to provide a bit of levity. Such has been my theme this week. Today, I let these pastors and church staff persons speak for themselves. I made minor modifications to a few so the story does not inadvertently reveal the church members. I don’t want the pastor to get fired. No comments on my part are necessary. 1. “A church member asked, during the Lord’s Supper, if we could have a prayer for her dog that had died earlier in the week.” 2. “A church member called, tellin...

Lifeway Research conducted a survey of 1000 pastors concerning the issue of pastoral sexual misconduct.  Of those surveyed, only 24% supported a life-time ban on pastoral ministry for those caught in adultery.  A further 25% of pastors weren't sure.  The staggering statistic, however, was the fact that 31% of senior pastors surveyed believed that an adulterous pastor should only be required to step down from pastoral ministry for three months to a year.  Is three months to a year sufficient time to deal with the damage of adultery?  What kind of reputation for integrity can be established in a failed pastor's life in under a year?  What hope is there for marriage in society when the leadership of the Christian church is so anemic on the issue of adultery? It is not an affair. . . it is adultery. It is not an indiscretion . . . it is a gross betrayal. It is not a misdemeanour . . . it is a flagrant violation of the faithfulness of our God. Marriage...

I think the modern worship music movement has been driving the church down a dangerous and sinister path. I think it’s because of the move away from theology and the fact the music itself isn't congregational. It doesn't bring people together anymore and the art form itself has been degraded completely. Alternatively, I'm encouraged by churches that still emphasize the Gospel in what they sing. I've seen changes, but artistically and congregationally we have a long ways to go. It's not converting people to a hymn but confirming them to rich theological truth. That affects music, art and everything beyond it. Keith Getty For the full interview go HERE

From the Babylon Bee Powerful Time Of Worship Draws Woman Closer To Her Own Emotions Than She’s Been In A Long Time RAPID CITY, SD—Sources are reporting that local woman Britney Mollison experienced the presence of her own emotions more powerfully than she has in a long time during a time of worship Wednesday night. According to Mollison’s own testimony, about three-quarters of the way through the set of dramatic songs blasting from the band onstage out to the worshipers, she was finally able to surrender all to her feelings. “In that moment, when the bridge to ‘Oceans’ reached its crescendo and the keyboardist masterfully applied the wah pedal, my emotions were more real to me than I can remember,” Mollison sobbed to sources. “It was just me and and my personal relationship to the chemicals in my brain responding to stimuli. Nothing else mattered.” According to Mollison, the only hiccup of the night came during the third song of the set—“...

Dear Ladies, You don't know me. I'm the woman from the other side of the screen. I was the woman who loved that man you "didn't cheat" with. I was the one who waited for him in bed while he was downstairs with you. I stayed up as late as I could, most nights. I waited, one time, perched on the side of the bed in a seductive pose, in a seductive outfit... He didn't know I was waiting, it was supposed to be a fun surprise; but instead he stayed downstairs with you. Eventually I crawled under the covers and went to sleep. I found you, all of you. One morning I wanted to see what had kept him from me and I found you... all of you. You took my breath away. I realized very quickly why he laughed when he discovered me in my lingerie and why he told me that I looked ridiculous. I can't compete with you. You're almost perfect. You're willing to do all of the things that I am not, and you seem to enjoy them. He would come to me every single night, unless I h...

We have had several miscarriages among young mothers associated with our church in recent weeks.  As a man I always acutely feel my inadequacy in speaking to their grief.  Kelly Needham speaks to that grief as a mother who has lost her own child to miscarriage. I was twenty-one, a year into marriage, when those two pink lines first appeared. We rejoiced at the precious life entrusted to us. But soon after, I started bleeding and eventually miscarried in a crowded airport bathroom waiting to board a plane for Houston. I will never forget the excruciating emotional turmoil as I was forced to experience such a sacred moment in that crowded, public, and dirty place. Every person in that terminal felt like an intruder in my moment of raw grief. Having hardly any friends who were married, let alone pregnant, I felt alone and confused. Luckily, our life was busy at the time, so I suppressed most of my emotions and moved on with an attitude of "better luck next time, I guess." ...

This is a thought-provoking article by Michelle Brock.  How do you help your children work through discouragement academically, particularly if they struggle with dyslexia or some other disability? What if they’re just not good readers, and are discouraged with the difficulty? I love being able to respond to these difficulties as they have them, but sometimes it’s helpful to have something to share with kids that can help them find and evaluate Scripture on their own before you discuss it with them. If you’re interested, I’ve uploaded a document I wrote several years back on this topic. It’s a worksheet for children in 4-6th grade, although younger children will do fine with it if a parent or teacher reads it with them. Included in the document is a list of ways that God uses learning troubles in people’s lives. I love seeing how God actually turns learning disabilities into assets. What an amazing example of God’s power and love! Here is the   disability worksheet ESV ...

People tell me they want to make the Bible relevant. The Bible’s already relevant. You’re the one that’s irrelevant! Howard Hendricks