“Christians … tend to believe missions is a calling for some (51%), not a mandate for all (25%). On the other hand, the vast majority of pastors (85%)—regardless of denomination—says missions is work that all Christians participate in.” - Barna

“Groome said she wanted her children to be able to participate in extracurricular activities, but sought a secular alternative to the Joy El Christian club, which operates at nine of the 16 school districts in the county and offers off-campus activities.” - C.Post

“As a young culture warrior, I was getting a hit of righteousness. I needed to know that I was a good person, and waging the culture wars was a great way to convince myself and those watching me.” - Hannah Anderson

“Applications for unemployment benefits inched down last week as the total number of Americans collecting aid fell to its lowest level in more than 50 years.” - C.Index

Read the series.

Why should we praise God—or, for that matter, even care—that Dr. Martin Luther has triumphantly “driven the devil away with ink”?¹

“The final Together for the Gospel (T4G) conference, taking place April 19-21, has prompted many Southern Baptists to reflect on the conference series’ impact on evangelical Christianity as well as their own personal lives.” - BPNews

“Occupation has many advantages over exile as an organizing metaphor for ministry, but I will enumerate only two.” - C.Today

“The shrinking of the middle class has been accompanied by an increase in the share of adults in the upper-income tier – from 14% in 1971 to 21% in 2021 – as well as an increase in the share who are in the lower-income tier, from 25% to 29%.” - Pew

“Platt gave a talk yesterday at the T4G conference that was an excellent challenge for all Christians to be more committed to pursuing disciples of Christ among all nations…. I believe something was missing from his message, and that missing element is vital to understand the work of missions.” - Ben Edwards

I toyed with entitling this article “SharperIron Wins” or “The Interview Steve Pettit Wishes He Could Give” (for my BJU friends). Instead, I chose the title above.

Almost 20 years ago, the SharperIron forum was created. It quickly became the leading outlet for concerns that young fundamentalists had about their movement. SI was a place where YFs could question everything they believed in – except for the fundamental doctrines of the Faith.

“The budget provided by Guidepost Solutions, the firm contracted to conduct the investigation, originally projected the investigation to cost between $1.3 million and $1.6 million.”- C.Index

“Even if we haven’t seen a dramatic increase in pastoral attrition, many people believe it’s still coming…. If the bubble does burst later this year or next, all eyes are on three demographics: pastors early in their careers, those nearing retirement, and bivocational ministers.” - C.Today

“72-year-old street preacher John Sherwood has been cleared of charges of hate speech, a year after an incident in which he was arrested after preaching the traditional definition of marriage in an open air sermon near London’s Uxbridge Underground Station in April 2021.” - C.Leaders

“Over the past few years, it’s been difficult for me to avoid thinking that decadence accurately describes many elements of contemporary evangelicalism.” - TGC

“Socialism requires not only that we overcome the self-interest problem, the incentive problem, and the knowledge problem, but we’re going to give these social planners all this power and say ‘…we’re going to be benevolent.’ This never happens.” - IFWE

“The earliest idea that war should be governed and moderated, however, dates long before any formal formulation of Just War Theory. In Deuteronomy 20, Moses instructed the Israelites not to kill the women and children of their enemies.” - Breakpoint

“Strachan begins his program by describing the figures he takes issue with: contemporary protestants who commend Aquinas as a fruitful pedagogue….But his description of our commendation is quite inaccurate; he sets up a very tall straw man” - Samuel Parkison

“…the Holy Spirit hasn’t gone on vacation. I’m afraid the problem lies with us. Perhaps we are afraid to preach on sin, righteousness, and judgement. We run the risk of people turning away (or turning on us). Felix turned away. The rich young ruler turned away.” - Don Johnson

“I’m always a little stunned to hear someone counter with, ‘How many churches have been sued for copyright infringement?’ In other words, what’s the chance of us getting caught and what are the risks?” - C.Leaders

“The footprint or space needed to hold our meeting is significantly larger than back in 2016 when the city [of Charlotte] was chosen.” - C.Index

Sheffield Phoenix New Testament Monographs, 43, 2021, 204 pp.

By David H. Wenkel, PhD

Messianic expectations in the first century were varied, but rarely did they include a figure associated with the sunrise or the direction of the east. However, in Luke’s gospel (1:78) the prophetic song (the ‘Benedictus’) of the priest Zechariah, father of John the Baptist, includes a title for Jesus that means the “dayspring,” “dawn,” or “rising sun” (“the sunrise shall visit us from on high” ESV).

“…please do discover in Scripture all the things concerning Christ, but do not find things concerning Christ directly in every verse of Scripture. Your credibility depends on your successful discernment of the two.” - Snoeberger

“Though a staunch Calvinist, Spurgeon befriended the Arminians of his day. Though a convinced Baptist, he happily hired paedobaptists to lead his pastors’ college and the Stockwell Orphanage. Though a proud nonconformist, he even counted some Anglicans among his close friends.” - TGC

“It’s not the significant external problems of rising antagonism against convictional Christians in the West or the barrage of lies about gender and sexuality…. An even greater danger threatens the church from within. Many Christians don’t know the Bible.” - Ligonier

“The settlement lifts any requirements for Meriwether to use preferred pronouns for students that may contradict their biological sex, according to ADF. Additionally, the university has reportedly agreed to rescind a written warning issued to Meriwether in June 2018.” - C.Post

“Though there isn’t an official national registry for clergy in America, an October study from the Barna Group found that 38 percent of pastors were at least considering leaving … concern is even higher among Millennial pastors, roughly 50 percent of whom were considering quitting.” - Relevant

In the previous essay, we defined family worship as “the occasion in which the members of a given family gather together in order to participate in special acts of worship, such as the singing of praise, the reading and hearing of Scripture, and the offering of prayer to God.” In this segment of our study, we’ll attempt to provide some biblical support for the practice of family worship.

We must acknowledge at the outset that there is no single proof text which explicitly commands family worship as I have defined it. J. A. Alexander seems to recognize this point as well.

“The National Association of Evangelicals has hired a director of its new Racial Justice & Reconciliation Collaborative, an initiative aimed at providing resources and training for churches in its 40 member denominations.” - RNS

The CRC at Arizona Christian University “released the third installment of its American Worldview Inventory on Tuesday, which provides ‘a detailed look at how the worldview of parents of preteens misses the mark.’” - C.Post

“The number of full-time students at the evangelical seminary has dropped 44 percent in 20 years.” - C.Today