Last year, I was having a conversation about our service with a member, and I realized the two of us were talking past each other. It began to dawn on me when the terms “singing service” and “preaching service” entered the discussion: the disconnect was an effect of twentieth century revivalism. Big tent revivals of the…
Charles II once asked one of the most learned scholars that he knew why any intelligent person should waste time listening to the sermons of an uneducated tinker and Baptist preacher by the name of John Bunyan. “Could I possess the tinker’s abilities for preaching, please your majesty,” replied the scholar, “I would gladly relinquish…
Even in the late stages of a brutal and physically exhausting disease, Robert Konemann was always there. At Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night services at his home church, Fisherville Baptist, at both Boyce and Southern Seminary graduations, in the lives of his wife and children. Konemann, who served as project manager at Southern Seminary starting in 2012, passed away…
EDITOR’S NOTE: In what follows, SBTS President R. Albert Mohler Jr. discusses the 2016-17 academic year with Towers editor S. Craig Sanders. CS: Going into the 24th year of your presidency, what are you most thankful for? RAM: I’m most thankful that as we look across the landscape of theological education and even Christian…
Near Christmas 1857, John A. Broadus received a letter from a man inquiring about the nature of Christian salvation. Due to his travel schedule and bouts of ill health, Broadus was unable to respond to the letter until Jan. 26, 1858. His response was a thorough, heartfelt description of the biblical plan of salvation in…
EDITOR’S NOTE: Below, David E. Prince, assistant professor of Christian preaching and pastor of Ashland Avenue Baptist Church, discusses his book In the Arena with Towers editor S. Craig Sanders. CS: What about the book and its message is important to communicate? DP: The book is essentially about Jesus, the church, family, and sports. I…
In the Arena: The Promise of Sports for Christian Discipleship (B&H 2016, $16.99), David E. Prince My sports career flamed out in freshman year of high school, but playing football, basketball, and baseball as a teenager instilled a work ethic and discipline I may not have learned anywhere else. Playing sports also helped me deal with…
Biblical Church Revitalization: Solutions For Dying & Divided Churches Brian Croft Review by Sean W. Corser With over 1,000 Southern Baptist churches closing their doors each year, many aspiring pastors will undoubtedly find themselves in some form of church revitalization. Louisville pastor Brian Croft, who is senior fellow of the SBTS Mathena Center on Church…
The awkward silence and uncomfortable feelings you have when trying to visit your folks in your church is not a justifiable reason to stop and neglect them.
Theology is about God, and that’s precisely what Calvin intended to write about.
By speaking the Word of God to us, sharing insights we haven’t been given, the right heroes will protect us from far more error than they may give us.
A pastor should first come in, love them where they are, earn their trust, then break the news to them of their current state.
One of the most frustrating parts of living overseas was placing an order at a fast food restaurant. Virtually every time I would have to elbow my way to the counter, mentally rehearse the order for a family of five in another language, and then hope that I could communicate without being misunderstood or worse,…
The church is not a platform to serve a pastor’s visionary ideals, social stature, or emotional well-being. The church is the blood-bought property of God. For a pastor to treat the people as his platform is an act of treasonous theft, stealing for himself that which Christ our great high priest has purchased at the cost of his own blood.
In his classic book, Lectures To My Students, Charles Spurgeon wrote, “Scarcely one man in a dozen in the pulpit talks like a man.” This is a problem all too common today. Some preachers feel inclined to take certain routes in their sermon preparation, leaving them to be very unnatural in their delivery, as if…
What is it like to read your Bible and pray on the International Space Station (ISS)? Implied in the question is the notion that Bible reading and prayer are somehow enhanced given the vantage point. There certainly is an acute awareness and appreciation of God’s creative and providential work given the literal “worldview,” and…
Christ’s disciples always need the Word of God and they need faithful teachers to help them understand what it means and how it applies.
The church should never stray far from its historical faith. Still, between sermon prep, home visits, weddings, and other commitments, the average pastor often struggles to find time to read church history. Following are three reasons pastors should do so—for the good of their churches and their own souls.
