I link, therefore I am. (Heh heh).
The following links stem from and elaborate the previous post.
Ordinary: Christianity For the Rest of Us
Ordinary Christians and a Great Commission
Archives for 2013
Every Member Ministry?
Is the believer who works in “full time Christian service” more “sold out for Jesus” than the believer who works in a secular job, or as a stay-at-home mom, etc.?
When a Christian is involved in secular work, does he/she need to somehow ‘Christianize’ it (for example, by ‘witnessing’ to co-workers, having a Bible on his desk, putting Christian slogans on his/her locker, etc.)?
Does every Christian have a “ministry”? Is every Christian a “minister”?
Or, does God give every Christian a calling (“vocation”), and thus a responsibility to pursue his/her calling as unto the Lord?
Scott Clark has written a helpful article on the popular evangelical notion of “every member ministry.”
According to Dr. Clark:
“The uniqueness and centrality of the official preaching of the Word is diminished when we equivocate between the official, public, ordained administration of the Word and the unofficial witness to the gospel by the laity. The tendency among evangelicals is to describe all those acts as ‘preaching.’ This move is part of the democratic, populist spirit of modern evangelicalism. When I say I ‘modern’ I don’t mean last week. Nathan Hatch has shown that, in American evangelicalism, this has been the dominant pattern since the 1820s.” KEEP READING
How Many Points?
How Many Points? — by Richard A. Muller
I once met a minister who introduced himself to me as a “five-point Calvinist.” I later learned that, in addition to being a self-confessed five-point Calvinist, he was also an anti-paedobaptist who assumed that the church was a voluntary association of adult believers, that the sacraments were not means of grace but were merely “ordinances” of the church, that there was more than one covenant offering salvation in the time between the Fall and the eschaton, and that the church could expect a thousand-year reign on earth after Christ’s Second Coming but before the ultimate end of the world. He recognized no creeds or confessions of the church as binding in any way. I also found out that he regularly preached the “five points” in such a way as to [keep reading]
To Prepare for 9 June 2013 Worship
Lord’s Day AM Worship — 9 June 2013 — 10 AM
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Sermon Text |
Judges 13–16 |
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Sermon |
“Strength and Weakness” (Lessons from Samson) |
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Hymns |
TH 94 — “How Firm a Foundation”(Tune: Foundation)
TH 308 — “Jesus Paid It All” TH 95 — “Though Troubles Assail Us” |
Lord’s Day PM Worship — 9 June 2013 — 3 PM
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Sermon Text |
John 3:1–8 |
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Shorter Catechism |
30 How does the Holy Spirit apply to us the redemption that Christ purchased?The Holy Spirit applies to us the redemption that Christ purchased by producing faith in us, and in this way uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling.31 What is effectual calling?Effectual calling is the Holy Spirit’s work by which he convinces us of our sin and misery, enlightens our minds in the knowledge of Christ, renews our wills, and so persuades and enables us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel. |
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Sermon |
“An Offer You Can’t Refuse” |
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Hymns |
TH 455 — “And Can It Be?”TH 662 — Psalm 42
TH 705 — “I Know Whom I Have Believed” |