“Of course, some might object to quoting a writer like Tozer, a man outside the Reformed tradition, but we live in confused times. So men like Tozer might be worth half a dozen of our contemporary pretty boys, men who subscribe to the Westminster Confession because they think they might have read it once” (Mother …
Bland Leading the Bland
“The churches today are effeminate because effeminate men with wireless mikes and cardigan sweaters stroll around a platform chatting with the congregants in a nonthreatening and relational way. The churches are leaderless because we are nervous about prophetic preaching, and settle instead for bland and balanced leadership teams. The churches have no sense of the …
More Church Fights
“If a man were to see his wife being attacked by rapists, all his professions of love and deep concern are meaningless unless he fights for her. Under such circumstances, a refusal to fight does not stem from a love of peace, but rather from the now-revealed contempt he has for his wife. In the …
A Little More Standing Around
“A sound hermeneutic of anything can never be sustained without discipline. If a man wants a garden full of weeds, he does not need to do a thing. If a man wants his ability to play the piano to get rusty, he needs to do nothing. And if a church wants its lampstand removed, in …
Evangelical Devolution
“Whatever disagreements existed among believing Christians in the era after the Second World War, evangelicals at that time were clearly doctrinal vertebrates of some description. But in recent decades, we have added more than a little money to the movement, some academic respectability, a lust for influence, and the result is the widespread existence of …
Dishonesty Always Wants More Scope
“This high view of preaching has consequences. Christians are people of the Word, and as a result they are people of words. They are people of the enscripturated Word, and the preached word. We love the Truth, and this is why we must necessarily love truths. The flip side of this is that when a …
And We Are At Midmorning, At the Latest
“The gospel will be preached in true spiritual authority until the end of the world. The authority of true preaching did not diminish after the apostolic era. The ability to write Scripture diminished — indeed, it ceased when the last apostle died. But the death of the apostles and the closure of the canon of …
The Folly of Preaching
“The foolishness of preaching saved those who believed, and the preaching of the gospel continues to manifest itself as the power of God after conversion. But to those who perish, preaching is always held in contempt; it is foolishness. Those who believe the Scriptures should not be astounded that preaching today is held in such …
High Preaching
“Any reformation of the church depends upon a high view of preaching. But a high view of preaching by itself, apart from a scriptural basis for that high view, will lead only to puffed-up and conceited preachers. Personal bombast and dogmatism are not the need of the hour. But neither do we need preachers who …
Foundations and Structures
“So the issue is not whether we like this gift or that one, or whether we are to duplicate the phenomena of the first-century church. Rather, the issue is whether we understand the nature of blueprints. No real need for doing concrete work while building the attic” (Mother Kirk, p. 65).