Interpreting Parables: The Chief Subject of Parables

For an earlier post on common mistakes when interpreting parables, click here. The more I've studied New Testament parables, the more I am convinced of one thing: they are all about the same subject. That's right: parables in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are all about a singular subject. Every. Single. One. In fact, I'm so convinced of this that if I find a parable that is not about this subject, then I'm convinced I'm not reading a parable at all. Sadly, I spent many [...]

By |2020-11-17T23:14:08-06:00November 17th, 2020|Categories: Publisher's Perspective|Tags: |1 Comment

Interpreting Parables: Common Mistakes

A parable is a story or that could be true but the truth of the story is not the point. A parable has a truth about the work of God that is hidden from view and requires interpretation. The Bible is filled with parables. When we think of them, we mostly think of the parables of Jesus. However, Ezekiel was instructed to tell or display parables many times, and they are also found throughout the Bible. Nathan's story of the pet lamb [...]

By |2020-11-15T07:16:10-06:00November 17th, 2020|Categories: Publisher's Perspective|Tags: |3 Comments

The Pastor Dressed for Ministry

This blog is in our Ministry Monday series. Read more articles for ministry by clicking here. Check back each Monday for more! How a pastor dresses for ministry is something that has certainly changed, and drastically so, in the almost three decades that I have served as a local church pastor. In those early days, I would not have thought of wearing anything other than business attire to the office, and would have always had a suit when I was behind the pulpit. [...]

By |2020-11-15T21:31:49-06:00November 15th, 2020|Categories: Publisher's Perspective|Tags: |3 Comments

Take Your Children to Church

Note: This is the third of a planned series of blogs on the family. Follow the Family Fridays tag in the future for more articles. In my pastoral experience, taking your children to church is a huge parenting advantage. The belief that children cannot benefit from "big church" has been harmful to children and their families. Here are a few things both you and your children gain when you take your children to church. Children learn to sit quietly The best way to [...]

By |2020-11-13T20:49:30-06:00November 13th, 2020|Categories: Publisher's Perspective|Tags: |0 Comments

Is a Confessional Statement a necessity?

In most denominational circles a confessional statement or a creed (with their marginal differences) are sacred holy cows, not to be questioned. Their presence saves the denomination from doctrinal drift and error, or so the parrots tell us. But is this the case? A little Baptist History I have a Baptist background, so I know Baptist history better than other groups. However, I suspect that the Baptist dealings with confessional statements is true of most in the free-church movement (a free-church is [...]

By |2020-11-12T10:52:52-06:00November 12th, 2020|Categories: Publisher's Perspective|Tags: |0 Comments

What Killed the Church?

The church is not dead, but it sure is on its death-bed. Oh, I am fully aware that it will not die before the rapture, but I am also fully aware that a departure from the faith has happened in western civilization. Find any community in America that existed 25 years ago, and in that community overall church attendance has declined, often precipitously. This is true in the west as well as the east, in the north as well as the south. In every established [...]

By |2020-11-09T23:51:10-06:00November 9th, 2020|Categories: Publisher's Perspective|Tags: |2 Comments

Children and the King James Bible

Note: This is the second of a planned series of blogs on the family. Follow the Family Fridays tag in the future for more articles. I did not grow up using a King James Bible. Born in 1965, a KJV was never far from reach in my Christian family, but we were (at that time) solidly Southern Baptist, and that meant we used the version that most suited our needs or the one that "felt right." Most of my teenage years I used [...]

By |2020-11-06T01:15:44-06:00November 6th, 2020|Categories: Publisher's Perspective|Tags: |0 Comments

The Danger of Being Over-Prepared

Every preacher has had the frustrating experience of coming home on Sunday afternoon, upset with themselves because of their presentation. Having preached multiple times almost every week since November, 1992, I know this frustration. I suppose I have delivered somewhere between 3,500 - 5,000 sermons over these 28 years. From this journey, I want to encourage preachers not to be over-prepared. Here is where preachers over-prepare In my experience, younger (or newer) preachers over-prepare in the area of presentation. They prepare pristine outlines. They prepare [...]

By |2020-11-02T10:50:05-06:00November 2nd, 2020|Categories: Publisher's Perspective|Tags: |1 Comment

The Importance of Talking to Children

Note: This is the first of a planned series of blogs on the family. Follow the Family Fridays tag in the future for more articles. Talking is teaching. That is a plain and simple fact. What a parent often fails to realize, however, is that teaching does not have to be planned activity or spontaneous "teachable moments," but that it takes place every time the parent opens his or her mouth. Because of this, parents should make it a habit to talk, talk some more, [...]

By |2020-10-30T13:02:42-06:00October 30th, 2020|Categories: Publisher's Perspective|Tags: |2 Comments

We Are Giving Up Too Much (and we may never get it back)

Your local church, outside of a few stragglers, sits empty all but an hour a week. During that hour,  it sits a third full (looking much like a Joe Biden rally). Your local theater (the movie kind or the play kind or the opera kind or the symphony kind or the lecture kind) hasn't had more than a maintenance man in it since April. Your local restaurant has blocked off half its dinning (or more). Your local library hasn't had a book [...]

By |2020-10-29T12:18:10-06:00October 29th, 2020|Categories: Publisher's Perspective|Tags: |5 Comments

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