Reformation21

Christian conferences differ in such significant ways that one would be foolish to make sweeping statements about their usefulness or lack thereof. I’ve had the pleasure and privilege of speaking at conferences, of varying sizes, in many countries. By and large, they were spiritually rewarding...

In Part 1 , I narrated a process in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), which will continue at the 52nd General Assembly in June. The Committee on Discipleship Ministries (CDM) and Mission to the World (MTW) will report on Sarah Young’s book Jesus Calling . I thought my 2024 overture was...

Editor's Note: The views expressed by the author are not necessarily the views expressed by Ref21 or the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. After 25 years serving the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), a rather scruffy, nobody pastor is watching what the PCA will do in June at the 52nd General...

Like many preachers, one of my favorite things to read are sermons from the past. Whether it's Martyn Lloyd-Jones or the golden-mouthed John Chrysostom, I’m always intrigued by how faithful men throughout the ages have communicated God's Word to their hearers. But also, like many of you, I find...

The world has about eight billion people distributed over its surface in remote villages and massive congested cities. Estimates vary but it is believed there are about four thousand recognized religions in the world with Christianity first with 2.5 billion adherents, Islam comes in second with 1.9...

Paul Harvey, the beloved radio broadcaster who chronicled mysterious “rest of the stories” for America with his nationally syndicated program, shared this sad but true account of “Sparky”: WHEN HE WAS a little boy the other children called him, “Sparky,” after a comic-strip horse named Sparkplug...

Editor's Note: Christian Focus has graciously supplied us with a chapter from Rob Ventura's forthcoming book Equipped to Evangelize: A Biblical Foundation. Ref21 will publish portions of chapter one along with endorsements over the next several months in anticipation of its September release date...

A (Brief) Theology of the Sabbath By Dale Ralph Davis From ‘Is Reformation Really Possible? Or: The Ongoing Perils of the Church (Nehemiah 13:4-31) in Ezra & Nehemiah: The Quest for Restoration , Focus on the Bible (Fearn: Christian Focus, 2025), pp 195-97. A bit about the background and...

Fundamentally (an interesting choice of opening word given its vexed history in Protestantism; here I mean by it “essentially” but in the sense of “foundationally,” what is at base rather than merely what is at the core or essence of a thing), the church in Western culture is facing a trilogy of...

In college, I lived with seven of my best friends in apartment Nu 8, “The Ocho.” Our living room was placarded with posters displaying our various passions: a Pulp Fiction scene with John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson pointing pistols at a hapless victim, an atomic mushroom cloud, the album art of...