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 live godly lives. We also recognize that there … Read more

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 live stream for those unable … Read more

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 this. Our church, Perryville Second Baptist, is a member of a … Read more

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 question that I ask every false convert: How … Read more

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 originally, this post was a response to J.D. Greear … Read more

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 who had missed quite a … Read more

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 evenings were filled with … Read more

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 with autonomy that we … Read more

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 post, I’d like to caution us to not be one … Read more

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 quite a frustrating time … Read more