Baptism and the Spirit In the New Testament, we recognize the word “baptism” is not only used to...
local church
The Work of Elders and Deacons (Benjamin Keach)
Consider the words of 17th century Baptist, Benjamin Keach (1640-1740), on Elders and Deacons: The...
An Open Letter to Unbelieving Parents
Dear Unbelieving Mom, Dad, or Grandparent, Perhaps you are a flat-out denier of the truth of...
Who Invented “Church Membership” anyway?
Is church membership a manmade idea or is it really biblical? In this short post, we'll consider just one text. Peter told pastors in his first epistle to “shepherd the flock of God that is *among you*.” (1 Peter 5:2) There is a lot there we could unpack but let me...
5 Ways the Holy Spirit Builds Christian Fortitude
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines fortitude as “a quality of character combining courage and staying power.” In Ephesians 3:16 Paul prays that God would strengthen His people with power through the Holy Spirit. We might say, then, that it is biblical to pray for...
5 Reasons Baptist Churches Should Associate
I may write a follow-up post on the nature of associations, but in today's post, I just want to lay out 5 reasons that churches ought to cooperate. Dr. Gregg Allison says this: [C]hurches are to establish and promote strong associations with other churches for the...
Should Small Churches Unite?
I'm working on my master's thesis with Grace Bible Theological Seminary and came across some things I thought our readers might find interesting. In 1689 the General Assembly of Particular Baptist Churches convened. One of the things the General Assembly did was give...
Encouraging the Church After the Violence in Washington DC
The following is what I told my church on January 10, 2021. Click here for the audio. Our commitment at CBC is verse by verse and expositional preaching. By exegeting scripture and applying its wisdom every week, we think the saints are most edified and prepared to...
What Does my Son Think of Church?
Last Wednesday my wife had a bit of a toothache from a recent filling and so I offered to take our 3-year-old to Wednesday night Bible study. Now, we are just now transitioning back into in-person services so I knew our attendance would be low as we also continue to...
A Book of Numbers: What the 2019 SBC Annual Church Profile Data Tells us About the Southern Baptist Convention
The 2019 annual church profile for the Southern Baptist Convention came out recently and the numbers aren’t great. While many people will bemoan the Baptism numbers, something else caught my eye. For those of who you are not Southern Baptists, the reporting works like...
False Conversion, Quarantine, and Apathy
I recently conversed with a young lady about why she left Christianity. More often than not, when I evangelize to someone in America, they have some sort of Christian background. This benefits me because the door slams open to discuss the gospel. And I asked her a...
Why Spontaneous Baptism Sunday is Not a Good Idea
Here I am, a Baptist writing a post against baptism. That might be like Michael writing a post dogging the Big 10 or something. But actually, this post isn't actually against baptism. Rather, it’s because I love baptism so much that I write today’s post. Now...
Do You Have to Go to Church Every Sunday?
A familiar ding of the phone went off. (That's right, I still walk around with my cellular device on loud). The text message read: “So you think you have to go to church every Sunday?” The reason for this message was because I had reached out to some church members...
Worship Me
Older generations like to make fun of all the selfies millennials take, and to an extent, that’s warranted. However, the selfie generation in America was here much earlier than the 1980s. The god of self didn’t come along with the iPhone. The iPhone is a fruit of idol worship, not the root of it.
The key attribute of the god of self is autonomy. Essentially autonomony means that “I get to do what I want because I am me. There is no one more important than me. In fact, you can’t spell awesome without ME” (I know, Taylor Swift song reference).
Partnering with Future Churches
What a travesty when local churches are reckless with their doctrinal commitments, soteriological practices, commitment to the Scriptures, worship practices, and church leadership structure all because things are seemingly going “good.” Too many churches take confidence in current worship attendance numbers, weekly offerings, or baptism rates in order to justify practices that are setting up future generations to be taken captive by Babylon, thinking “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?”
When You Miss, You’re Missed
A Parable Once upon a time, there was a mother with 7 sons. She loved her boys very much and they loved her. She and her husband were committed to the family meal and their evenings were often filled with laughter. And if you have boys then you know that those...
Why I Need A Church that Judges Me
If you're not a careful reader of Scripture you may have never noticed what Paul says to the church in Corinth: "For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?" 1 Corinthians 5:12 We are a society so enamored...
The Necessity (or Lack Thereof) of Seminary
Some no-longer-recent Twitter discussion on at least two different threads centered around the necessity or usefulness of seminary. As one who has gone through an entire Th.M. program without a call to ministry, let alone ever being employed by a ministry, I thought I...
5 People Not to Be During Someone Else’s Trial
We recently began a journey through the book of James at Perryville Second Baptist. As I studied through James 1:2-12, I thought about some of the unhelpful people I’ve encountered during a personal trial, or a trial that someone else was going through. In today’s...
Strategies for Successful Churches
The age of technology is a beautiful time to be alive. Social media has connected us, and there are resources available to churches like never before at the click of a mouse. I am grateful to live in the digital age. And then again, the age of technology can also be...
The Problem with Identifying as a “Non-Denominational” Church
There is a trend that’s been around a few decades now about having a “non-denominational” church. I think I first consciously remember the terminology when I had a friend in 9th grade tell me he went to a “NonDom” church. I was not savvy to the jargon and he had to...
8 Practical Thoughts on Corporate Singing
Pastoral duties, coaching little league baseball, and working to finish both the From Death to Life book and small group study guide have kept me from writing as much as I would like to as of late. Today, however, I was reading Psalm 100 and had some thoughts about...
Make Sunday Less Spectacular
The ushers were friendlier than I expected as we came through the front door. We weren't exactly sure where to go after that, but we sort of just followed the crowd until we found our seats. We chit-chatted with those around us as we waited for everything to start. I...