Who Does Gospel Ministry?

Cameron Shaffer
Dec 24, 2020
What is gospel ministry? It’s a deceptively simple question. So much of modern church life is described as a ministry of some sort , but biblically speaking there is rather narrow meaning to the idea. The equivalent of the English word “ministry” is absent from both biblical Hebrew and Greek. In...

My Top Books of 2020

Todd Pruitt
Dec 23, 2020
The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self by Carl Trueman This is the most important book of the year. How did we come to the place where it is conceivable to say, “I am a woman trapped in a man’s body”? That is the question that Trueman seeks to answer in this weighty book. This is no angry screed...

Semper Reformanda, Gospel Reformation Network

Mortification of Spin
Dec 23, 2020
Keeping track of the beautiful cities in South Carolina is not an easy task, but Todd finally gets it right as he introduces today’s guest. Jon Payne is the pastor of Christ Church Presbyterian in Charleston, SC, and serves as the executive coordinator of the Gospel Reformation Network (GRN). Jon...
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Mortification of Spin

A Workman Not Ashamed

Brian Najapfour
Dec 23, 2020
A Workman Not Ashamed: Essays in Honor of Albert N. Martin . Edited by David Charles and Rob Ventura. Conway, AR: Free Grace Press, 2021. Before I present my review, I want to thank David Charles and Rob Ventura, who out of their love and esteem, took the time to coedit a festschrift for Albert...

A Tale of Two Advents

Harry Reeder
Dec 23, 2020
Early in my pastoral ministry, a thoughtful young man came with an interesting question while our congregation was in the midst of celebrating the Advent season. The question arose from a hymn sung during a Lord's Day worship service: the Isaac Watts classic, "Joy to the World." The question was, "...

A Distinct Church

Ben Franks
Dec 22, 2020
Note: To read the previous entry in this series, click here. Christianity did not emerge in a vacuum. It was established in the face of opposition on all sides. [1] The religions of the Roman world stood in stark contrast to the doctrine and life of the early Christians. Indeed, Christianity...

On "Selfish" Church Attendance

Adam Parker
Dec 18, 2020
One of the current charges leveled against Christians (largely on social media) is that Christians are being selfish by insisting on worshiping even in the midst of a worldwide pandemic. One could put the argument like this: Participating in unecessary social activities that risk perpetuating the...

God's Gift in Troubled Times

Simonetta Carr
Dec 16, 2020
It’s been a tough year. After a long battle against an unpredictable virus, a violent summer, and a contested Presidential election, there is a general feeling of weariness with 2020 and a relief that it’s almost over, as if January 1 could dispel all our problems. In reality, we know that a turn...
God's Bible Timeline

God's Bible Timeline for Everyone

Mortification of Spin
Dec 16, 2020
Our intrepid (and never tepid) co-hosts welcome good friend Linda Finlayson to the mix. She’s a well-known writer of children’s books, who—for the second time—risks her reputation by sitting down with Carl and Todd to talk about her latest release. God’s Bible Timeline: The Big Book of Biblical...
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Mortification of Spin
Shenandoah National Park, Virginia (by Tatiana Rodriguez)

Thoughts on My Anxiety (Part One)

Todd Pruitt
Dec 14, 2020
The term “mental illness” causes most people to squirm. We think of people medicated into a stupor or committed to a hard-to-access floor of the hospital. But mental illness covers a broad variety of problems from anxiety to schizophrenia; from bi-polar disorder to various phobias. I have...