Tag: Church
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From Beyond the River
Joshua 24:1-28 God comes to Abram with no apparent reason, makes a promise that God will bring forth from Abram a great nation which will be blessed so that they can be a blessing to all the world. So without any recorded hesitation, Abram goes, as God told him, to the land which God will…
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Why I Welcome the Demise of Christendom
In my corner of the Evangelical Bible Belt, a few things take concern above all else. Opposing gay marriage, decrying taking God out of the schools, mourning the loss of the privileged position of the church in the United States. We fear that the church is losing ground and we fight against it in every…
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Wounds in the Body of Christ
Eendracht maakt Macht These words adorn the banner at the bottom of the crest of the Reformed Church in America. Often the translation into English is, “Unity makes strength” but, as I understand it, a better translation is “Concord makes strength” — a pulling together like a team of horses. *** The Christian church today…
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When it All Comes Together
Half-way through my sermon, I saw about one third of the congregation sleeping, another third appeared to be present in body only (somewhere else in mind), and the final third appeared to be engaged. After the service, I was told that the bathroom was out of toilet paper. It was full before the service. This,…
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…God First Loved Us
I had the privilege of administering my first baptism yesterday. It was an infant who was recently born of one of the families in our congregation. It was a wonderful celebration of the sacrament of baptism. The liturgy is beautiful, the child was adorable and dressed in this lovely white dress. She fussed a little…
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The Minister as Particular Theologian
I have not been very faithful the last couple of weeks in my writing. The reason for that is largely because I have been immersed in writings by and about Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758). Jonathan Edwards is most known for his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” This is, of course, in a…
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How the Teacher Becomes the Student
The highest assembly of my denomination, the General Synod, meets annually in June. There are delegates which are elders and ministers, and there are corresponding delegates which can speak but not vote. Corresponding delegates are often people with particular expertise or particular experiences that make them valuable additions to General Synod and the denomination values…
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The City and the Redemption of Creation
I try not to talk or write about politics very often as a normal course of my ministry. My congregation is composed of people of all political stripes, and I strongly believe that no one political ideology has a corner on the Gospel. However, something has been disturbing me as of late about the Wisconsin…
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My Un-Cool Church
I enjoy reading the blog of Rachel Held Evans (rachelheldevans.com), and I was particularly impacted by this post: http://rachelheldevans.com/blessed-are-the-uncool Her basic argument is that our churches should be the places where everyone is welcome, people who have a lot of money as well as people who live on the street, people who have physical or…
Matthew van Maastricht 