Discipleship | TLG Christian News

The Biggest Challenge for Theological Educators

05/01/2017 0 Comment

Theological education, even on a good day, is a hard job. It always has been. Today, however, theological educators in Western cultures are facing a new challenge. Deep biblical knowledge and interpretation are not widely seen—even by pastors—as having a transformative effect on the way people live. This popular disconnect between knowing your Bible and the way you live your life is leading us toward a crisis in theological education.

Christians in Western cultures mostly think that to “know yo..

How to Honor Your Maker with Your Wallet

05/01/2017 0 Comment

Discussing money can be awkward, especially among Christians. Some assume God’s Word has little to say about the topic. Others are afraid of being judged for how they spend money, or for their debt; they believe how much they give their church is no one’s business. Still others view money as distraction from the truly important things of life.

To help gain perspective on this subject, I corresponded with Ron Blue, the author of more than 20 books on biblical financial planning, including the ne..

Why Christian Discipleship Needs Reformed Theology

04/01/2017 0 Comment

What is essential to the Christian life? What beliefs and practices do believers in all stages of growth need to be called to again and again throughout their lives?

In two recent works, Rowan Williams—former Archbishop of Canterbury (2002–2012)—distills the Christian life into a few basics. In Being Christian, Williams focuses on baptism, the Bible, Eucharist, and prayer. In Being Disciples, he offers brief comments on the triad of faith, hope, and love as well as forgiveness, holiness, engagi..

Sometimes Saying “No” Is The Right Thing To Do

04/01/2017 0 Comment

Ask God. This seems obvious, but too often it is easiest to simply act on instinct before we ask God what He would have for us. Different seasons of life bring different opportunities, and believe it or not, God wants us to make the most of our time for our It brings Him pleasure and glory when we invite Him into the details of our decision making.

Saying no is hard.

A couple weeks ago I felt that familiar pang when I was asked to do something. I had the evening free, and I could definitely fi..

Mars Hill Baptist Church: A Purpose Driven Church Story

04/01/2017 0 Comment

Pastor Clarence Stowers, Jr. is passionate about helping his congregation connect the dots of life so they can live abundantly. Succeeding his father, Dr. Clarence E. Stowers, Sr. in 1999, Stowers was 33-years-old when he was installed as pastor of Mars Hill Baptist Church in Chicago. As is so often the case, opportunity came disguised as a seemingly insurmountable obstacle when he inherited a traditional baptist church that had plateaued.

Stowers says that, based on almost every metric availab..

Borrowed Conviction

03/01/2017 0 Comment

“The convictions that would bring you into membership in some of the congregations to which those men belong, or in which they find their home, would necessarily exclude you from membership in the congregation in which another serves. You could ask them questions, and in some cases you would get contradictory answers.”

It has happened a few times before. It happened again recently. Someone without a good church gets in touch, referred by a mutual friend. Or someone drops an email asking for adv..

Designing Women’s Ministry

02/01/2017 0 Comment

By Michelle Van Loon at www.MomentsAndDays.org and www.MichelleVanLoon.com
The new women’s ministry director invited all adult women to a brainstorming meeting. “We want to help you become the women God is calling you to be,” she explained as she passed out sheets of paper with each phrase of Proverbs 31:10-31 on a separate line. She read the passage, then did a bit of contextualizing to help us re-imagine the language of the Ancient Near East in our suburban experience. For example, the directo..

The Top 10 Testimonies of 2016

28/12/2016 0 Comment

Here are the Christian conversion stories that CT readers shared most.

CT has devoted a premium slot in its print magazine—the back page—to a compelling story of Christian conversion. Dozens have shared their tales of how God brought them to himself. In case you missed the most-read CT testimonies from 2016, here's a roundup of the top 10.

10. Joanna Reed Shelton: My Missionary Great-Grandfather Led Me to Christ
But only after I went to Japan in search of his life story.

9. Marcus Doe: W..

Job and Jesus (RJS)

27/12/2016 0 Comment

We’ve been looking at How to Read Job by John Walton and Tremper Longman III. The first three sections of the book focus on Job in its ancient Near Eastern audience. As Old Testament scholars, both Longman and Walton agree that a meaning detached from the ancient context will necessarily go awry. As Christians, however, we believe that there is more to the text than the ancient audience realized.
After all, now Job appears in a broader context – the canon – and we need to read the book in light ..

What to Do When Legalists Hold Back the Mission

26/12/2016 0 Comment

Every great movement of God invites a challenge from sinful people. I wrote about this recently in a post entitled How to Stop a Church from Growing, and Pastor Titus S. Olorunnisola, who is planting Bethel Gospel Centre near Melbourne, Australia, asked the magic question – how, then, do we handle the legalists?

In the case of the early Jerusalem church, the problem was complex. Non-Jewish people all over the region were coming to know Christ, but some very legalistic Jews known as the Judaizer..