“Welsh poet David Jones lamented decades ago the sacrifice of our divinely inspired vocation as artists and makers to machines. The advent of AI threatens to hasten this decline.” - Acton

I attended, had a speaking role or exhibited at 11 major ministry conferences for The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry in 2024. In this article, I’d like to summarize my experiences at these events and share some general reflections for anyone who may benefit from them. I have previously written reports about several of these meetings individually.

Let me begin by stating that I have always enjoyed these kinds of assemblies, but there were many years when I simply did not have the time or opportunity to attend almost any of them. I know that many people, especially pastors, are in the same situation, and I hope that the comments I provide at the end may help to stir some ideas and inspiration as you plan for the year ahead.

“The Bible tells us that the end of our sanctification will be our glorification, when all vestigial remnants of sin will be removed from our character. We will be pure. No more doubt. No more fear. No more error. No more pain.” - R.C. Sproul

Whether in media (The Chosen) or in writing (like Max Lucado, for example), there seems to be a trend of blending fiction/speculation with Bible content. When this is done irreverently, I think we all agree it would be wrong. But, in the cases of the above, it is not. This is quite different from prophetic fiction (an attempt to create fiction within a theological frame but with the clear understand the story itself is fiction). How do you feel about that? What are the proper limits of imagination when dealing with Bible narrative?

“ ‘Our people were elated, for the most part, over the election results,’ said Robert Jeffress, a Southern Baptist pastor.” - RNS

“…a recent Harris poll of over a thousand 18- to 27-year-olds about their experience with and attitudes toward technology. The most shocking finding was that around half of Gen Z wishes social media platforms like TikTok and X didn’t exist.” - Breakpoint

“In a culture of death, nothing can satisfy us. The things of our world have become exclusively means… of our self-directed projects of building and securing worth, goodness, and meaning—and thus are no longer meaningful, good, worthy ends in themselves.” - Desiring God

“Messengers to Texas Baptists’ annual meeting soundly defeated a motion affirming the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, the Southern Baptist Convention statement of faith that limits the role of pastor to men.” - Baptist Press

Read the series.

The fourth characteristic that God emphasizes about himself is that he is “abounding in lovingkindness.”

If you’ll compare the different ways that last word is translated, you find that it has a broad range of meaning and significant theological depth—

In other passages it’s rendered widely: kindness, mercy, devotion, favor, loyalty.

“Interlacing representative, essential, mostly brief passages from Confessions with a breezy but incisive ongoing commentary… Dr. Kreeft navigates us through the mind of a man who, in changing his own world, helped lay the foundations for our own.” - Imaginative Conservative

“the concept of blessing lies at the very heart of the gospel. The Apostle Paul highlights this in his letter to the Christian believers in Galatia…. ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed’ (Gal. 3:8).” - Ligonier

“Like most things, Mars Hill had some beautiful and terrible fruit from its ministry. I will always treasure the good but want others to learn from the not-so-good.” - Church Leaders

“There’s no racial or ethnic superiority to be found in one place versus another. Instead, what makes one culture superior over another is what it recognizes as true about people, and which of our instincts need to be governed and controlled.” - Breakpoint

“Welby failed to report Christian summer camp volunteer accused of serial sexual abuse” - Ministry Watch

Collin Hansen talks with Hans Madueme, author of Defending Sin: A Response to the Challenges of Evolution and the Natural Sciences. - TGC

“The sound of the eight bells in Notre Dame’s northern belfry came a month before the cathedral is to reopen following five years of painstaking restoration work in the wake of the blaze.” - France 24

“Before you start complaining, be sure you’ve checked arrogance at the door. Come with your pain, not your pride.” - Ref21

“Why are we so good at recognizing and enforcing ethical limits when it comes to medical or genetic experimentation on animals, but not humans?” - Breakpoint

“I realize that each firing has its unique characteristics. What you will read is a typical pattern, not a fixed sequence of events for every dismissal of a pastor.” - Thom Rainer

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There are many books on Christian worship: some helpful and some not-so-helpful. Nicolas Alford’s Doxology: How Worship Works clearly belongs in the former category. Though affirming the broader sense of worship (as a way of life), the book intentionally focuses on congregational worship. Alford is preeminently concerned that God’s people worship by the Book. Drawing from the Reformed tradition, he concisely expounds and carefully applies the Regulative Principle of Worship (RPW), which, in essence, is the doctrine of sola Scriptura applied to church life and ministry.

But Alford does more—which is what makes this book superior to many others. First, he prefaces the the major principles that should govern our worship with a chapter that distinguishes between authority and influences. The Bible is the ultimate authority for worship. Nevertheless, there are other considerations that may and, in some cases, should affect the way we understand and apply the Bible. Alford defines and explains these influences in the following order of priority: Confessional/Convictional, Traditional/Cultural, and Preference/Deference.

Second, Alford identifies seven prefatory principles that we must employ as we seek to order our worship aright: the Biblical, Trinitarian, Covenantal, Ecclesiastical, Sabbatic, Governing, and Commissioned principles. These are Scriptural vantage points or perspectives from which we can ascertain the biblical contours of worship more clearly.

“Our hope is in our Lord. That is true when the side we voted for wins AND when it loses…. this occasion for rejoicing should be a bit muted. We are not in the Kingdom yet.” - P&D

“Before seeking medical care, LeClair performed his last ministerial duty in Vietnam, officiating a soldier’s funeral despite the intense pain.” - Baptist Press

“your neighbor who voted differently than you may not have the power to destroy or save democracy as we’ve been told. Correspondingly, any pride you feel in what your own vote accomplished must be mitigated as well.” - Hannah Anderson

“I don’t think it’s much of a secret, but the NT volume of The Words of the Covenant is now available to be purchased. So far the paperback and E-book versions are available” - Paul Henebury

(Repost from 2022)

A confession: Veterans Day is not a holiday that usually ranks high in my awareness. There’s no tradition of family gathering, no feasting, and almost no special decorations or merchandising. Most people don’t even get the day off.

So, these reflections are partly a kind of penance. I want to compensate a bit for my customary Veterans Day obliviousness—and maybe help a few others do the same.

When I give it some thought, reasons to be thankful for veterans come quickly to mind. These are just a few.

“You might think that worry that consumes us would drive us to prayer. The burden is deep, so we pray….You would think this would be the case, but that’s not always so. At least not for me.” - Chuck Lawless

“Christians sometimes fail to speak out against this distorted view of leadership strength because they embrace a false dichotomy between secular and sacred spheres. They tout biblically-based leadership models like “steward leadership” or “servant leadership” for those inside the four walls of ministry but hesitate to apply those same biblical truths to secular leadership.” - IFWE

“But before I start digging deeply into the relationship between religion and fear, I wanted to help orient us to how fear is distributed in the public on a number of demographic variables like age, race, and education.” - Ryan Burge

“The opposite of election is reprobation, sometimes called double predestination. This is the belief that God not only predetermines those who will be saved but also predetermines those who will not be saved. Admittedly, this is a hard doctrine.” - Kevin DeYoung

“I still have academic work to do, I’ll promote my two KJV books next year, and I may do further debates if three strict criteria are met.” - Mark Ward