This is a difficult question, but with Aaron’s post about this being his last year leading SI, it has caused us to reflect.

Our hope and prayer is that another individual or group would be able to continue SI and its unique niche in our lives.

SI has blessed me in so many ways, and you probably have the same testimony.

Is there anything that stands out ahead of the pack, even slightly?

Please comment as well.

Leaders get a lot of criticism. Sometimes people try to engineer them into being what they are not.

I remember a pastor friend who saw two people the same day in his office. One man said he was leaving the church because his preaching wasn’t emotional enough. The second man later said he was leaving the church because the preaching was too emotional.

People read a book about humility, and they want to humble their leader. Then they lead a book about forceful leadership, and they want a leader who is not afraid of conflict or ruffling feathers.

Besides praying for God’s will about this matter, have you (if you are a pastor or preach) or your pastor preached about or mentioned the Trump impeachment?

I haven’t (except for prayer), but I rarely get into anything political. But what about you or your church?

Poll Results

Has your pastor (or you, if you are a pastor) preached or talked about the Trump impeachment during a sermon?

I remember Rick Warren asserting that Jesus preached topical sermons. If learning what I have learned about midrash, I disagree with Warren.

But whether Jesus (or the writer to the Hebrews, for example) was doing exposition or not, it seems as though expository preaching is not longer considered a sign of a good church — at least not in the popular evangelical mind.

Will it survive at all? Will it survive as a secondary form of preaching?

Please don’t get caught up on the word “resolution.”: We do not mean a vow or promise, and we are not “trusting in the flesh” by using the term. Think, instead, of a specific practice, habit, or goal you are going to aim toward.

Unfortunately, these polls are not set up for more than one answer, so, if you can, make the choice that will get a special emphasis this year.

There seems to be a growing viewpoint that Christ could have been born on December 25. Offhand, any day would have a one out of 365.25 chance of being correct, but is there enough evidence to suggest December 25 has more going for it than other days of the year, as per this article:

https://www.circeinstitute.org/blog/december-25th-day-christ-was-born-8-arguments

So what do you think?

Poll Results

Beth Moore (and John MacArthur’s comments) have sparked a controversy, reminding us of a great controbersy: the role of women in the church.

Most of us on SI have a problem with women serving as (teaching men) pastors, based upon ! I Timothy 2:11-15 and other passages.

But where would we draw the line as far as participation (separation) goes?

A recent SI post got me thinking about this, and the effect of Puritan writers in my own devotional life. I am not an avid Puritan reader, but an occasional one. On the positive side, their quest and hunger for godliness inspires me. On the negative, they tend to “pound,” and I am the type of person who finds pounding counterproductive. But, despite the negative, I can appreciate the positive.

What about you? Have the Puritan greats (or unknowns) inspired or challenged you?

According to an article in Chrsitianity Today, both Glenn Stanton’s The Myth of the Dying Church: How Christianity is Actually Thriving in America and the World and Rick Richardson’s You Found Me: New Research on How Unchurched Nones, Millennials, and Irreligious are Surprisingly Open to Christian Faith document how the evangelical church is growing or at least holding its own in the U.S.

John Dickerson, in The Great Evangelical Recession says the opposite, that people — especially young adults and single moms — are ditching the church in droves.

A recent SI filings article documented that most churches still use hymnals. Tyler has begun a series of articles about Christian Music (CCM, etc.). So now is probably a good time to take this poll.

Our church still uses hymnals, but we often project the hymns as well as our contemporary choruses (we do blended). Some people use the hymnals, others just look at the screen. Sometimes we have a blip, and we all use the hymnals.