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Topic Archives: Church Life

AN OPEN LETTER TO REFORMED BAPTIST PASTORS AND CHURCHES by Ted Christman [The following letter was sent out to pastors and churches who have been primarily involved with the independent, Reformed Baptist movement in the United States. Its sad occasion was the serious moral failure of a very visible and deeply respected leader of that […]

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Date March 8, 2002
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GOD-CENTRED WORSHIP Where worship is focused upon the eternal God, and not man and his fading fashions, the numbers drawn to participate tend to remain relatively small The topic of contemporary worship continues to arise for discussion, if not debate, amongst pastors and people. One finds articles and books being written now in defence of […]

Category Articles
Date February 25, 2002
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FEEDING SHEEP OR AMUSING GOATS The mission of amusement fails to effect the end desired. An evil resides in the professed camp of the Lord so gross in its impudence that the most shortsighted can hardly fail to notice it. During the past few years it has developed at an abnormal rate evil for evil. […]

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Date February 12, 2002
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IS WORSHIP BORING? I believe God’s people will find worship nourishing, and rarely boring In December 2000 I was asked by a writer of “Word and Way” (the newspaper of the Missouri Baptist Convention) to contribute to a multi-page, special section on the subject of “Is Church Boring?” My input was requested because in my […]

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Date December 27, 2001
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WINDOWS ON SIBERIA ALCOHOLISM AND DRUG ABUSE HAVE REACHED EPIDEMIC PROPORTIONS During September I visited Siberia again and attended the official opening of the big church in Tobolsk. I give below the latest news from the churches we are seeking to support. TOBOLSK a) During the past three months nine people were baptised and fifteen […]

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Date November 16, 2001
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The Willow Creek Church is in a suburb of Chicago, one of the ten most wealthy and powerful cities in the world. It is a booming educational, medical, cultural, legal and economic centre with a hinterland of 6 million people. It is the ‘Bible button’ of the Mid-West, the city of Moody Bible College, Wheaton […]

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Date December 1, 2000
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One of the off-the-shelf suggestions for church growth is to ‘open the front door and close the back door’ meaning that welcoming and retaining new people will fill the pews. The subheads under that strategy include meeting people’s needs, providing the music they like, activities for children, etc. But Dr Mark Dever, a pastor and […]

Category Articles
Date October 1, 2000
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During June this year I was able with God’s help to make a fortnight’s visit to TIUMEN, ONOKINO, TOBOLSK, NIAGAN and PRIOBYE. In all places there is steady progress, much fervent prayer and faithful robust evangelistic preaching of God’s gospel with souls being added to the church. Nowhere did I find any spirit of complacency, […]

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Date August 15, 2000
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This year’s annual evangelical ministry assembly organised by the Proclamation Trust at St Helen’s, Bishopsgate, London, at the end of June was well attended with nearly a thousand present. Visiting speakers included Tim Keller and Don Carson from the USA and Phillip Jensen from Australia. The main theme was church planting. One always appreciates the […]

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Date August 10, 2000
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By Iain Murray An edited extract from Mr Murray’s new book Evangelicalism Divided (Banner of Truth) In his book on Evangelicalism, James Davison Hunter wrote: ‘A dynamic would appear to be operating [in Evangelicalism] that strikes at the very heart of Evangelical self-identity’. What is this ‘dynamic’? I believe that all the evidence points in […]

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Date July 15, 2000
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The modern evangelical church does everything to music. Even the sermon ends with soft chords and melodies from the organ. Music taps into an emotion a congregation is already feeling, and then manipulates it powerfully. City stores know the power of music to loosen the purse strings and open credit card wallets. Psychologists are united […]

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Date March 1, 2000
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[The local pastor often wonders what is happening in the other churches of his community. David Marshall is the pastor of Hamilton Reformed Baptist Church in New Zealand. Recently he needed to take a break from the rigours of pastoral ministry and so was granted a month’s leave. It was not convenient to go away […]

Category Articles
Date March 1, 2000
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The British law known as Section 28 prevents public money from being spent on the promotion of homosexuality in schools and elsewhere. It has curbed the excesses of many local authorities, but taxpayers’ money is also being funnelled into pro-gay schemes through Health Authorities, whose actions are not subject to Section 28. The government is […]

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Date February 1, 2000
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The Times (Monday January 24, 2000) printed an extract from Monica Furlong’s critical biography of George Carey, the Archbishop of Canterbury (“C of E. The State It’s In,” by Monica Furlong, to be published by Hodder and Stoughton on February 17, £18.99). At 17 years of age Londoner Carey professed conversion in an Anglican church. […]

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Date January 1, 2000
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Mark Pickett of Brighton was a student in Aberystwyth twenty years ago and for many years he, his wife and three children have been living, studying and working in Nepal. He has just written a simple commentary on Genesis in one of the Indian languages, actually their first commentary on Genesis. I recently heard a […]

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Date January 1, 2000
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In the current Westminster Theological Journal (Vol 61 No 2, Fall 1999) Bob Letham, formerly of England but now a pastor with the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Delaware, reviews Alister McGrath’s “J.I.Packer: A Biography” (Baker in the USA; Hodder and Stoughton in Great Britain). He makes many good points. He begins, “After Basil Hall’s ruthless […]

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Date January 1, 2000
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