One of our central difficulties with missions is that we have not yet identified the bane of benevolence. We have not yet figured out how to protect the mission field from destructive do-gooding. Not only do we not prevent it, we still positively recruit for it. We learn a great deal from the parable of …
The Real Test for Paedocommunion
The General Assembly of the PCA has now taken a strong stand against paedocommunion. But the practice of communing baptized children faces greater challenges than just this kind of opposition. Churches that practice paedocommunion (as a good number in the CREC do) face their own challenge to the practice, a challenge that arises from within. …
The False Gods of Missions
If the driving and fundamental motive for missions is to be joy over the resurrection of Jesus, resulting in the consequent message that He is indeed Lord over all, does this that we may have no other motives whatever? Well, we may have other motives, but there is a strict condition placed on it. If …
Driving Joy
The biblical motive for mission is to be joy, gratitude and excitement. Christ is risen. The first missionary movement was born out of persecution (Acts 8:1), but the disciples involved in it scattered in all directions, telling people the good news about Jesus (Acts 8:4). Declaring the good news about Jesus is the only point …
Burrowed Into the Woodwork of Puritanism
Here is a small necklace of things that should be strung on the same thread, at least in my mind. To the casual observer, it might seem more like a pearl, a washer, a wooden bead, and a small metallic nut, but this is only because that casual observer is not looking at it with …
The Mutual Funds of Missions Funding
A few days ago I was visiting with some fellow CREC ministers, and we were talking about the problems that accompany the funding of missions. A very common model in evangelical circles is for a church to support a hundred missionaries at $25 a month. They have lots of names on the bulletin board, and …
Actually Count the Shekels
Fourth in a series on ministerial compensation . . . One of the things we have done for men who have completed their studies at Greyfriars Hall, and who have been called by a church, is have some men negotiate a salary on their behalf. This is because certain things need to be said which …
Shortchanging for Jesus
Third in a series on ministerial compensation . . . Given the fact that “many” in the ministry are guilty of milking the ministry for all it is worth, it should therefore not be surprising that many who are responsible for budgets are on guard against this kind of thing. But the warnings against avarice …
Shepherds Who Feed Only Themselves
Second in a series on ministerial compensation . . . Having said this, mercenary ministers have hardly been a rarity in the history of the Church. We get our word simony from the ill-fated attempt by Simon Magus to buy the Holy Spirit, presumably because he saw an opportunity to flip it for a profit …
Double Honor
The first in a series on ministerial compensation . . . We need to begin with the honor. When God tells us to do something, we should do it, and we should try to solve any problems that have resulted from our obedience after the fact. We must not try to anticipate any such problems …