Current Issues

What started as a fluke born partially out of boredom some five years ago has now turned into an annual tradition. Folks have been asking me right and left if I plan on continuing my annual list of the top-ten religion stories from an evangelical and fundamentalist perspective this year. The answer is yes. However, before I give my thoughts, a couple of caveats and words of explanation.

One of the most frequent complaints against premillennialists is that they lack a social conscience. The opponents of premillennialism charge that it is a pessimistic eschatology. It is supposed to bias its advocates against activities that aim to improve the world.

Author Tim Challies has embarked on a “blog tour” to promote the release of his new book, The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment. A blogger on the tour will pose a question about discernment, and Tim will address the question and the comments that readers might have.

The questions SI posed to Tim are as follows, accompanied by his responses.

Another year has rolled by, and it’s time for my annual list of Top 10 Religious Stories for the last 12 months. In years past, I issued the “Top 10 Fundamentalist Stories” and “The Top 10 Fundamentalist and Evangelical Stories.” Last year, I offered two lists—one for fundamentalists and one for evangelicals. But this past year was a relatively slow one, so it’s back to a combined list. Doing a combined list is awkward at best for a variety of issues.

Greenville, S.C.—The Soulforce Equality Riders, a gay and lesbian activist group, has informed Bob Jones University that it intends to visit BJU’s campus April 4 as part of an 18-stop tour of Christian colleges and universities that maintain a Bible-based position on homosexuality. Bob Jones University has informed Soulforce that the Equality Riders will not be granted access to the BJU campus or to the student body.

More on the Blessings of Small Groups

In my last article, I sought to address some of the reasons that led us to begin a small-group ministry at our church. In this offering, my initial plan was to attempt to explain what a typical midweek service (Wednesday evenings for us) looks like at Calvary. However, the plans of men are plans at best.

Within broad Evangelicalism today, words like community and small group are fired around with unprecedented frequency. For instance, Rick Warren and company are now following up their “40 Days of Purpose” program with “40 Days of Community.” On the website introducing the program, Warren says, “You cannot be what God made you to be, you cannot do what God created you to do … without other people… . We were made for each other, God made us for a family.