Category Reformation21

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Sermon Prep: Not How Long, But Where?

Many have strong opinions on the amount of time a pastor should take to prepare his weekly sermon, with many affirming that roughly 20 hrs is not just normal but advisable. We’ve probably seen pastors piling up their commentaries on…

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Discipleship in the Reformed World

When I was a Southern Baptist pastor, all I heard about was discipleship. It was their “thing,” almost to a fault. When I moved into the Reformed world, I never heard anything about discipleship. Perhaps my experience is an anomaly…

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Lonely in a Crowd

The weight of loneliness hit me really hard a few weeks ago. I couldn’t explain why. I live on the same property as my family and see them daily. Our small, flourishing church plant provides plenty of weekly fellowship and…

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The Ministry of Presence

Chaplain Mike Gilson in the Spiritual Care Service unit of San Diego’s Kaiser Permanente Zion Medical Center shared about his visits with a Vietnamese patient and husband who both spoke little English.  The wife had terminal cancer, but later on…

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My favorite Books of 2024

My Favorite Books of 2024   Daily Doctrine by Kevin DeYoung  This is my pick for the Book of the Year. DeYoung has taken a rather unique and refreshing approach to a volume of systematic theology. It is composed as…

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Hospitality: The Forgotten Qualification

When considering the qualifications for elders, “able to teach” is often recognized as the one qualification uniquely required for the office (1 Tim. 3:2, Tit. 1:9). Certainly, the unique role of elders centers on “the ministry of the word” (Acts…