God’s service is the best service

Wednesdays with Watson is a weekly reading taken from my favorite Puritan writer, Thomas Watson. This week’s selection is from The Godly Man’s Picture. God’s service is the best service. There are six privileges in God’s service: (i) Freedom. Though the saints are bound to God’s service, yet they serve him freely. God’s Spirit, who […]

Sermon: It’s About People

“It’s About People: the Priority of Relationships” Selected Scriptures May 31, 2015 Someone called this maze of relationships, “the theory of relativity:” …consider the marriage mayhem created when 76-year-old Bill Baker of London recently wed Edna Harvey. She happened to be his granddaughter’s husband’s mother. That’s where the confusion began, according to Baker’s granddaughter, Lynn. […]

Sermon: What Believers Do When Suffering

What Believers Do When Suffering 1 Peter 4:12-19 December 7, 2014 Over the past couple of months Keith and I have been preaching about some basics of church ministry — church membership, corrective discipleship (church discipline), the roles of elders, deacons, and members, and then last Sunday the nature of marriage and gender. There are […]

Sermon: What Members Do

What Members Do 1 Peter 4:7-11 November 23, 2014 One hundred and two years ago, the Titanic sank quickly and unexpectedly in the Atlantic Ocean. But it took about nine decades to determine the reason why the Titanic sank: Recent in-depth research into the sinking of the Titanic has discovered that faulty rivets may have […]

Church membership — it’s more than a nametag

After this morning’s sermon on church membership, someone shook my hand and quipped, “so I guess [church membership] is more than wearing a name tag.” Yes, it is indeed. My friend was obviously being facetious. Yet his point was obvious. Church membership is a priority for every believer, and being a church member has implications […]

Sermon: A Biblical Perspective on Church Membership

A Biblical Perspective on Church Membership Selected Scriptures October 19, 2014 A few days ago, I went though a file in one of my cabinets and I found an old copy of the “Grace Bible Church Membership Qualification Examination.” As I read it, I thought, “maybe this is why some people have delayed joining GBC…” […]

A theology of ministry…pictured

This morning the sermon dealt with the theology that undergirds GBC’s philosophy of ministry. The statement, “Shepherding God’s people by God’s grace for God’s glory,” is shaped by 13 theological truths. Here is a diagram that illustrates what we mean by shepherding God’s people, and how those theological truths relate to our philosophy of ministry.

Sermon: A Theology of Ministry

A Theology of Ministry — Thirteen Core Values that Undergird GBC’s Ministry Selected Scriptures October 12, 2014 Over the next six weeks, we want to think with you about what church ministry looks like. There are two motives behind this: It is good to regularly remind ourselves of the purpose and foundation of ministry — […]

Let’s do good to one another

“So then, as occasion and opportunity open up to us, let us do good [morally] to all people [not only being useful or profitable to them, but also doing what is for their spiritual good and advantage]. Be mindful to be a blessing, especially to those of the household of faith [those who belong to […]

Praise the Lord

Indicators of skewed priorities in churches abound. Yet this morning’s newspaper contains a statement from a pastor of a “sound,” “evangelical” church that pinpoints the problems in too many contemporary American churches: “We’re really building a community center, more than we are a worship center.” It’s rare to read or hear such an open acknowledgement […]

An unusual commendation?

We all like to be complimented. We identify with the boy who said to his father, “Dad, let’s play darts. I’ll throw. And you say, ‘great shot!’” We want people to say we’ve done a job well, that we look good for our age, that it looks like we’ve lost a few pounds, that our […]

Remember Jesus

I am afraid it is true. I have done some time in jail. I was young. Very young. And by the grace of God, the time I did was short. I did five minutes as a six-year-old first-grader. We had gone on a field trip to the county jail, and to give us a sense […]

Kindle afresh the gift of God

In a story that echoes the adage, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” U.S. News & World Report related the following story a few years ago: For most of the last decade, Chicagoans who worked in the Loop, the booming downtown business district, could easily ignore the city’s budget crisis; Washington’s […]

Free eBook: What is the Mission of the Church?

Each month Christian Audio makes one book recording available for free. The selection this month is Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert’s recent book, What is the Mission of the Church? Making Sense of Social Justice, Shalom and the Great Commission. This is an excellent book and worth your listen.

Who’s who in the early church

The apostle Paul’s letters often conclude with lists of greetings from or encouragements to particular people. The list of generally obscure names in Colossians 4 is typical and reveals the kinds of people God uses to accomplish his purposes. Consider Aristarchus, a captive man. He was from Thessalonica and went with Paul and Tychicus to […]