This week, I would like to share a few thoughts about how I believe Jesus wants his people to relate to one another on matters that are important, but that are also non-essential. Unlike the essentials which are best summarized in ancient consensus statements like the Apostles and Nicene Creeds, and which also include those things […]

When I was preparing to become a pastor, I was offered an internship at a local church. The pastor in charge asked me what area of ministry interested me most. I told him I would do pretty much anything—teaching, adult discipleship, student ministry, missional living, worship and liturgy, or polishing the pastor’s shoes and being […]

Once in a sermon, the great Baptist preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, spoke strongly against owning slaves. In that sermon, he said about the emancipator William Wilberforce: “Not so very long ago our nation tolerated slavery in our colonies. Philanthropists endeavored to destroy slavery; but when was it utterly abolished? It was when Wilberforce roused the […]

I couldn’t be more proud of our team at Christ Presbyterian Church for how they have rallied around the concerns of Nashville’s most vulnerable in this season of social distancing. Nashville has had a bit of a double-whammy, starting with tornadoes that created wreckage in so many of our local communities, including some of the poorest. […]

For many, a time of global crisis becomes an opportunity to do personal inventory, allowing nonessential priorities to be shaken away to make room for the essential ones. A crisis like this one is something we would not wish on ourselves or others. And yet, much like Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” from 2 Corinthians […]