Phil Steiger
Pastors face pressure all the time from people both within and from without their congregation. Christians have varying sets of expectations of pastors, and people with no particular religious affiliation also believe they know what pastors should be doing. In a twist of very-like-a-human irony, people who hate the idea of God also think they... Continue Reading →
Every Christian needs to be informed of the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. A theologian and pastor, he also enters the historical record as a spy, a cultural prophet, and eventually a martyr. He pastored and led during the rise of Nazi Germany, through World War II, and lost his life in a concentration camp hours... Continue Reading →
Jonathan Edwards on self-love, selfishness, and Christian Charity (love): “Sin, like some powerful astringent, contracted his soul to the very small dimensions of selfishness; and God was forsaken, and fellow-creatures forsaken, and man retired within himself, and became totally governed by narrow and selfish principles and feelings. Self-love became absolute master of his soul, and... Continue Reading →
A little while ago I wrote about what I thought were some of the critical frontiers in Christian apologetics. None of them are new as in sui generous, but they are new in the sense that we have not paid much attention to them in the American culture for a while. I still believe all... Continue Reading →
A lot of school districts are making the decision to return to online education, at least for part of the fall 2020 semester. I have heard from some who work in the tech industry in Silicon Valley that they expect to work from home until well into 2021. A lot of businesses that make use... Continue Reading →
As we approach the time of the year when schools normally reopen, some teachers and teachers’ unions are making their views abundantly clear. Some are staging body bags in front of their district buildings while others are signing their wills and leaving them on the steps of city hall. Not only is this melodramatic, rivaling... Continue Reading →
Jude vs. 17-19 "But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit." Jude is concerned that a church is being... Continue Reading →
The pulpit is a clarifying moment for me. The week is full of schedules, conflicts, personalities, requests, expectations, successes, failures, budgets, attendance records, politics…you get the idea. Preparing for standing behind the pulpit is a regular exercise of focusing everything through the lens of God’s Word and truth. But don’t get me wrong – I... Continue Reading →
I worry sometimes about the lack of intellectual and moral leadership from behind the pulpit. I’m not necessarily pining for days of former glory when sermons were published in the local newspaper; I worry for the present and our near future. The people in our pews live in a high-speed hyper-information age where ideas come... Continue Reading →
Karl Vaters has written a wonderful, almost poetic, reflection on the resilient power of small churches. I have spent a lot of time recently thinking about the importance of what are called “mediating institutions” in our culture, and what he says rings true. A mediating institution is a social organization that stands between... Continue Reading →
Every Thought Captive 