Tag: Head and heart
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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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Water From the Rock
It is a privilege to preach every Sunday. It is an opportunity that not everyone has. My community has entrusted me to faithfully exegete and interpret the sacred scriptures. It is truly a humbling privilege and responsibility, and it certainly is not one that I take lightly. However, after preaching almost every week for the…
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Accepting Jesus as Personal Savior? (Part 2)
In the first part, I discussed exegetically and theologically some of the challenges when talking about “accepting Jesus”. In this second (and much shorter) part and conclusion, I will address the problems with the second part of the statement, referring to Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior. The terminology “personal Lord and savior” is…
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Accepting Jesus as Personal Savior? (Part 1)
I cringe every time I hear someone ask me if I’ve accepted Jesus as my “personal Lord and Savior”, primarily because I don’t know how to answer. I identify as a child of the covenant. I was baptized when I was an infant, and when I was growing up, I responded to the promises that…
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Evangeli-mainline-icalism
I grew up in the heart of Michigan’s “Bible Belt,” in an evangelical subculture where people often asked me if I had accepted Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior. When I went to seminary, I joined a mainline (but related) denomination. I wholeheartedly embraced my new mainline identity. I read and studied (almost exclusively)…
Matthew van Maastricht 