Another practice that is common in CREC churches is that of listening to Scriptures read aloud. This is distinct from the reading of the text for the sermon—it is simply a time in the service where the Word of God is recognized as central and foundational to our lives. We usually have at least one …
The Mother of Shameless Appeals
Here is a clip asking you to consider a gift to CanonWIRED. Thanks very much for your involvement.
Singing in Parts
Another notable thing about our worship services in the CREC is that we are interested in learning how to sing “in parts.” It is a testimony to the damage that has been done in the realm of church music over the last few decades that many young Christians don’t even know what that means. This …
Now Taking Orders for Wordsmithy
My most recent book is at the printer now, and should be on the shelves at Canon later this week, with steam rising off of them, like they was a stack of hotcakes. The book is all about the writer’s craft, and how not to do things with your verbs like was done in the …
Postmodernism and My Neighbor
Please let me take a moment of your time so that I might explain why I hate postmodernism so much. It is the same reason, at bottom, why I hate socialism so much. But I repeat myself — they are at root the same thing, actually. Modernity is a good thing, brought into existence by …
Celebrating Christmas Like a Puritan
INTRODUCTION:Socrates once famously said that the unexamined life is not worth living. In a similar vein, the unexamined holiday is not worth celebrating. Whenever we do anything on autopilot, it is not surprising that at some point we forget where we are going, or what we were supposed to be doing. And when we are …
A Spiritual Meal
The Scriptures teach us that this is a spiritual meal, but we must exercise great caution as we think of it this way. This is not because there is a problem with how the Bible describes it—obviously not—but rather because a number of false assumptions about the nature of spirituality have crept into our thinking …
Evangelism in Particular
Economists talk about the problem of the commons. Every no one in particular is responsible for something, it often turns out that no one at all is responsible for it. We see this sort of thing on the macro-scale, with socialist experiments, and we see it on a small scale, as when none of the …
Covetousness and Sexual Discontent
Not all sexual covetousness is lust. When a man gives way to lust simpliciter the end result is arousal. When a man gives way to sexual covetousness, the end result is discontent and a vague sense of entitlement. Here is the distinction. In Romans 7, the apostle Paul says that he would not have known …