Fellowship | TLG Christian News

False Start: Christian Faith on the Altar of Football

02/02/2017 0 Comment

If confession is good for the soul, then writing this post should be like spring cleaning for my heart. Hi, my name’s David and I have a football problem.
I’m a loyal, 3rd-Generation Miami Dolphin fan (don’t laugh… “it’s root-root-root for the home team. If they don’t win, it’s a shame”). I’ve rooted for them since I was little and Dan “The Man” Marino was lighting up the record books. I rooted for them when they went 1-16, with their only win coming off a last-second field goal against a strugg..

5 Confessions of a “Failed” Church Planter

02/02/2017 0 Comment

I’ve planted several churches and I know how hard it can be. I’ve never “closed” a plant, but I’ve sat with several others that have. It is painful– but sometimes it is helpful.

I think that doing an “autopsy” is a helpful part of the learning experience, and something which is not done often enough. Here is one such reflection from John Thomas, a former planter.

As an aside, one of the more fascinating documents we references in Viral Churches was an autopsy report by Todd Hunter. At the time..

A La Carte (February 2)

02/02/2017 0 Comment

Today’s Kindle deals include a couple of family devotional books, as well as one by John MacArthur.

Did Old Testament Men Treat Their Wives Like Property?
Amy Hall: “Every once in a while, I’ll hear someone throw out the idea that men in the Old Testament treated their wives like property as if it’s an obvious, accepted fact. I’m not convinced it’s true.”

To Be A Diaper Changer
Nick Batzig engages an important idea: “One doesn’t have to look far these days to see how ready the better part of y..

What Should You Look For In A Church?

01/02/2017 0 Comment

What characteristics should you look for in a biblically solid church?
Expositional PreachingIf you are at a church that does not preach from the Word of God, then you are at nothing more than a social gathering like a country club, because if they are not preaching the Word, they are not feeding the flock, and they are being disobedient to Christ’s commands to feed His sheep (John 21:17). The Apostle Paul tells Timothy to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, ..

The Scandal of the Evangelical Soul

01/02/2017 0 Comment

Both conservative evangelicals and progressive evangelicals lost their soul in the last two years. For two years Christians have ramped up their verbal engagement in a presidential election, and it seems to me that European evangelicals have engaged the same. Everywhere we have traveled in the last two years, especially in the last nine months, the conversation is about Trump, Hillary, and the president. Mostly about Trump.
Serious Christian conversations about other topics have been brushed asi..

Thought for the evening of Wed February 1, 2017

01/02/2017 0 Comment

Verse”Thy love to me was wonderful.” — 2sa 1:26
ThoughtCome, dear readers, let each one of us speak for himself of the wonderful love, not of Jonathan, but of Jesus. We will not relate what we have been told, but the things which we have tasted and handled-of the love of Christ. Thy love to me, O Jesus, was wonderful when I was a stranger wandering far from thee, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Thy love restrained me from committing the sin which is unto death, and withheld ..

When Confessional P & R Congregations Do Not Exist Or Disappoint

30/01/2017 0 Comment

We live in a fallen world and there are no perfect churches this side of heaven. In every congregation there is going to be something or someone who disappoints. We must prioritize. If a minister is not preaching the law and gospel purely or should he be corrupting the administration of the holy sacraments, those are very serious problems. In such a case, the session/consistory needs to act to preserve the ministry of the church. If they are failing, then the presbytery/classis needs to interven..

Newbigin: a visible fellowship

30/01/2017 0 Comment

Monday, January 30, 2017
Commemoration of Lesslie Newbigin, Bishop, Missionary, Teacher, 1998
Meditation:
[Jesus:] “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
—Matthew 18:20 (ESV)
Quotation:
We can all call to mind movements which have begun as pure upsurges of fresh spiritual vitality, breaking through and revolting against the hardened structure of the older body, and claiming, in the name of the Spirit, liberty from outward forms and institutions. And we have ..

Putting the Brilliant, Tormented, Flawed Martin Luther on Trial – One More Time

28/01/2017 0 Comment

Certainly, a “big idea” of this play – one of many cultural events worldwide marking the Reformation’s 500th anniversary – is that “not all heroes are infallible. Not only that, they are not heroic all the time,” said Cragin-Day (who is one of my faculty colleagues at The King’s College in New York).

The drama unfolds in a Gothic sanctuary in a limbo zone between heaven and hell.

In this new Off-Broadway play – “Martin Luther On Trial” – Lucifer requests new proceedings against the Catholic mo..

Your Pastor is Broken (and It’s Okay)

26/01/2017 0 Comment

An old friend, Richard, recently called me. He used to live in town and attend my church. For the past seven years or so, he’s been a member of a large church in Phoenix.

We were catching up and reminiscing about old friends when he said to me, “I had coffee with my current men’s pastor yesterday, and he told me some honest things about his marriage and about something stupid he said to his wife.”

I chimed in, “That’s cool!”

He awkwardly paused, and then said with a confused tone, “How is tha..