Pharaoh’s law commanded midwives were to kill all baby boys born to the Hebrew slaves. The midwives disobeyed and would not kill the babies.  Saving the babies was good, but illegal.  A thing can be good and illegal at the same time.If a teenage son has a bad temper that is always getting him into trouble, the father who always rescues his son from the consequences has good intentions but his acti...  Read More

When you insist that VBS songs have too many hand motions coming too rapidly for normal human being to learn—and then you see the entire row of early elementary school girls in front of you performing the motions with ease—you know it is no longer “your day”. People detest prophets because they warn of danger when everything seems to be going rather well. I’ve learned from umpiring baseball tha...  Read More

To allow coffee in the church service, or not to allow coffee in the church service—that was the question!  I chose not to prevent people from bringing beverages into our services. Here’s why.First, there are no divine commands prohibiting beverages in a service in a church building—in large part because there are few instructions about church services and none about church buildings.Some may clai...  Read More

Over my years of ministry, I have often found myself between two groups of sincere, committed Christians—one wanting to change a church practice that the other wants preserved.  Everything from paint colors to pulpit or no pulpit, from how to run VBS to whether or not beverages should be permitted in the sanctuary.I have found that the greatest obstacle to effectively navigating these questions is...  Read More

The biblical prescriptions for Israelite worship and community life are numerous and detailed.  By contrast, the New Testament directions for operating Christian churches are vague and sparse.We are to meet regularly (Hebrews 10.25), to observe baptism (Matthew 28.19) and the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11.23-26), to proclaim the Word (2 Timothy 4.2), to be generous and giving, and that elders an...  Read More

I’m a dyed-in-the-wool conservative but I’ve also lived through being the one to lead in bringing about change.  Some of my readers have encouraged me to elaborate my thoughts on these things, traditions and change, so let’s survey the components of tradition and change in religious matters.  (Secular matters are a slightly different concern.)I believe in a God who doesn’t change.  What He likes, ...  Read More

Giovanni Orseolo, a prince of Venice in the early 11th century, married Maria Argyropoulina, a Byzantine princess who brought with her a fascinating little piece of technology that the Venetians had never seen: a two-pronged golden fork.  She shocked everyone by using it to eat her meals.  Peter Damian, a fiery monk, denounced the fork as a sinful luxury.  As the story is told by some, Damian insi...  Read More

I converted to evangelicalism as a teenager convinced I was leaving error for truth. I left Catholicism because so many practices seemed unbiblical and its traditions of repetitious liturgy seemed to lack life.  Evangelicalism, I was sure, would be different.  Evangelicals trusted the Bible, the Word of God rather than the traditions of men.  How could evangelicalism go wrong with that foundation?...  Read More

As a pastor, I have often been put in a difficult place by people I love.  They claim that something I have taught or that our church stands for has hurt them.  “If you were teaching truth,” they say, “I wouldn’t feel hurt.  And if you really love me you will apologize, recant what you’ve said, and change your teaching.”  Every time a pastor experiences this—and all pastors experience it—he is pla...  Read More

The mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, recently proposed “free” (i.e. taxpayer-funded) dental care for the city’s crystal meth addicts because “you can’t succeed without teeth!”  This proposal is compassionate, and showing compassion is good.Those who support the proposal are compassionate, support a good thing, and are therefore good people.Opponents of the proposal must lack compassion and must t...  Read More

I've noticed a pattern in how people respond when they bring me hard questions.  Sometimes they leave satisfied. But sometimes — maybe more often than not — they leave with more questions than they came with. People come hoping for a clear answer and instead find me saying something like it depends or there's more than one thing true here or I'm not sure that's quite the right question.I want to e...  Read More

We seem to be living at a time when “the centre cannot hold” for much longer.  The nation is polarized.  Politicians and the media call for unity but they can’t unite around ideology or practice.  They perpetuate the division.  Social media extends the battlefield to the citizenry.  We heatedly re-argue the points put out by the media without any resolution.  We on the right see the world falling ...  Read More