biblical fidelity

When I was a Southern Baptist pastor, all I heard about was discipleship. It was their "thing," almost to a fault. When I moved into the Reformed world, I never heard anything about discipleship. Perhaps my experience is an anomaly but gauging from some conversations I’ve had with a variety of...

My Favorite Books of 2024 Daily Doctrine by Kevin DeYoung This is my pick for the Book of the Year. DeYoung has taken a rather unique and refreshing approach to a volume of systematic theology. It is composed as a year of daily readings (5 per week). And in terms of categories he does not skimp...

When considering the qualifications for elders, “able to teach” is often recognized as the one qualification uniquely required for the office (1 Tim. 3:2, Tit. 1:9). Certainly, the unique role of elders centers on “the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4). But another qualification is often missed or...

‘After the hymn, the minister will ascend the stairs into the pulpit for the Scripture reading, pastoral prayer, and sermon.’ What role does the physical pulpit have in a local church? For most of my life, I attended churches where the pulpit was moved around, wheeled in, carried out, or was a...

Imagine a young man meets a woman on a dating website. He sees her picture and is infatuated, but upon meeting her things don’t go well. She says she doesn’t like baseball, but the man does, so he insists that she does too. She says she prefers nights in, but the man is convinced that she actually...

I shouted over the many voices crammed into the Twin Lakes cafeteria, “I went to Covenant!” The man was likely the same age as me and looked very confused by this answer. “How did you end up here?” I am sure he meant well. I know exactly why he was confused. The seminary/denominational tribalism...

The prayers of a Sunday morning service offer a perfect context to encourage both gratitude for the Sabbath and renewed ambitions for the Lord’s day. If you are a pastor or elder seeking to encourage thoughtfulness about the fourth commandment, perhaps consider a sampling from these suggestions –...

‘And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “ Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “ My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”’ (Mark 15:34). What exactly was happening on the cross when Jesus spoke these words? Was the Trinity torn asunder in this moment, Father turning has face...

Steve Lawson has been removed from ministry at Trinity Bible Church of Dallas due to an inappropriate relationship with a woman who is not his wife. Other places he is affiliated with have acted swiftly to remove him from his duties (e.g., Ligonier, The Masters Seminary, OnePassion Ministries)...

I am encouraged by the amount of interest my article on hyper-cessationism has received. It has reinforced my suspicion that the Reformed world is hungry for warmer expressions of orthodoxy, and that our spark has been waiting for us all along in the original material of the 16 th and 17 th...