Thoughts About Retirement

By G. N. Barkman

When is the right time for a pastor to retire? There clearly is no one size fits all answer to this question. There are too many variables, and each situation must be considered individually. More to the point, when’s the right time for this pastor to retire? I do have a few thoughts about that question.

When I was a few months away from 65, I was surprised when several members of our congregation asked me, at different times, if I planned to retire any time soon? Initially, I was taken aback. I hadn’t given much thought to this question, and I wondered if they were hinting…

On Winning the War, Part 2: The World

By DOlinger

So we’re fighting a three-front war—something no one’s likely to win without divine power. Let’s take a look at the first enemy, the world.

I wrote some on this just a few posts ago(link is external), focusing primarily on definitional matters. Here I’d like to focus on how to fight so as to win. I think a key biblical source on this question is John’s first epistle.

The Right Family

I’d suggest that the…

Does the Bible Teach Eternal Security, “Once Saved Always Saved?”

By Christopher Cone

The question of whether the Bible teaches eternal security or that believers are “once saved always saved” is not uncommon at all. We might recall Nicodemus—a brilliantly educated Jewish leader—asking Jesus how things related to the new birth and salvation could actually be.1 In a sense, Jesus’s answers were so simple that they seemed to throw Nicodemus for a bit of a loop. But Jesus’s teaching in John 3 is very clear.2

Jesus explains that a person must be reborn “of spirit” (or by the Spirit…