2013 is the year the Episcopal Church, well, The Diocese of New Jersey anyway, has discovered reading the Bible. I was thrilled to hear the presentation in our minister’s meeting of last September because the reading and particularly the hearing of the Bible preached is God’s primary means of grace. The cycle of local ministry… Read More Robert M. McCheyne and The B-I-B, L-E
About six years ago we started to record my sermons to include in our homebound ministry, “HomeTouch” so that our members who could no longer make it to church were never cut off from church family life and gospel preaching. It was about three years later that we started to think about uploading the recordings to… Read More New name, new addition
In 1538 John Calvin wrote in a letter to Henrich Bullinger, explaining his early difficulties in Geneva, that “…Geneva want preachers and teachers, but not pastors…” As a rector who understands his call to pastor his congregation, I know exactly what Calvin meant. In most congregations, the clergy perform the sacraments, visit the sick, teach… Read More Pastor as Lens
On this 350th anniversary of the Great Ejection, when the Puritans were ejected from the Church of England, I pulled down a volume of Thomas Manton, the ejected rector of St. Paul’s, Covent Garden. Of his influence, the First Bishop of Liverpool J.C. Ryle wrote, “If ever there was an English divine who must be classed… Read More Black Bartholomew’s Day
A vacation joy of mine is getting to read the BIG books. Those are the larger books in my library that really need blocks of time for a long, deep dive into a subject. The best of this summer’s stack was a book I’ve wanted to read for a long time, The Elizabethan Puritan Movement… Read More He said, she said…
I was asked the last week if would consider returning to the congregational development committee of our diocese which has left me thinking quite a bit if I would be able to serve the Lord there faithfully. What I have learned in my years off the committee is that a reformation of doctrine, a return… Read More Turning Around the Mainline
Before the deluge of preparation for Holy Week and Easter an online offer from my seminary bookstore of Don Carson’s latest book The Intolerance of Tolerance caught my eye. It could not be more timely. It’s an important book written in Carson’s brisk style and a fast read. Try a PDF of the first 30 pages of… Read More That New Time Religion?
With one of the liturgical seasons coming to a close and with a big Sunday on the horizon — we’re not talking Epiphany and Super Bowl but Lent and chocolate bunnies or eggs — a brief comment on the time of the year just passing may be in order. Peter Leithart has been blogging about… Read More Puzzling over Lent
While on a return with the hearse driver the other day, I was asked a question about my day ahead. When I told him my next task that Saturday was a revision toward greater clarity of my Sunday sermon, he wanted to know what that meant. I explained to him the pattern of setting a… Read More More Power to You
This past week George Conger wrote in The Church of England Newspaper on the recent report by the statisticians of The Episcopal Church to our Executive Council. You can read the article here. The report catalogues a 10 year decline in all quantifiable areas. I want you to take note of how “These speak to… Read More “The Doctor” is in
The Vicar's Garden 