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Topic Archives: Church & Ministry

The following address, published in Knowing the Times: Addresses Delivered on Various Occasions, 1942–1977, was given at a conference of leaders of the Crusaders’ Union, Sion College, London, on 7 February, 1942. The presentation of the gospel is a subject which is always important. It is always important because of the eternal consequences that depend […]

Category Book Excerpts
Date March 6, 2024
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The following article first appeared in The Founders Journal, Issue 74 (Fall 2008) and was featured on the Banner website in January 2010. By ‘posture’ I do not refer to the alignment of one’s body when standing. Good posture, of course, is advisable, for one breathes better, projects his voice better and shows respect for […]

Category Articles
Date January 10, 2024
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Maggie Paton’s letters ought to be read alongside Paton’s autobiography. James Paton wrote that he was eager to publish these letters because ‘they present another picture of mission life and experiences in the New Hebrides’ from that portrayed in the now famous Autobiography of her husband.  The story of John Gibson Paton (1824-1907), Scottish Presbyterian […]

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Category Book Reviews
Date September 15, 2023
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The following extract is taken from Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, pages 249–273.  Note to the reader: before this section, Baxter spends time considering how a minister may winsomely prevail upon his people to submit to being catechised. With this treated of, he proceeds to outline how a shepherd of God’s flock can best carry […]

Category Book Excerpts
Date September 10, 2023
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In the recovery of biblical exposition that has marked the church in our own time, it has not always been recognized that in addition to such exposition the Reformers and Puritans placed great stress on catechizing. We tend to think of this as children learning catechetical questions and answers by rote. But what the Puritans […]

Category Book Excerpts
Date September 8, 2023
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The following extract is taken from Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, pages 168–177. The Duty of Personal Catechizing and Instructing the Flock Particularly Recommended Having disclosed and lamented our miscarriages and neglects, our duty for the future lies plain before us. God forbid that we should now go on in the sins which we have […]

Category Book Excerpts
Date September 7, 2023
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In the last few months, the church I serve has been working through ‌the updated version of Eshcol, John Owen’s little treatment on church life now entitled Duties of Christian Fellowship: A Manual for Church Members. The volume is divided into two main sections. The first contains seven ‘Rules for walking in fellowship with respect […]

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Category Articles
Date June 1, 2023
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It seems as if a lot of people are heading to Asbury. I have not been to Asbury. At this point, I do not anticipate going to Asbury. Why are they going to Asbury? It is because, in the last few days, something has taken place in the chapel of Asbury University. If the reports […]

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Category Articles
Date February 21, 2023
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I often make the same pastoral mistake. It is not deliberate, it is often well-intentioned, sometimes it is even hopeful. It is this: to presume upon the biblical knowledge of the people to whom I speak. I do not at all mean by this to deliver a backhanded insult, appearing to confess a shortcoming of […]

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Category Articles
Date January 19, 2023
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This review of The Pastor: His Call, Character, and Work first appeared in Ordained Servant: A Journal for Church Officers (2022 edition) published by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The Pastor: His Call, Character, and Work, by Faculty and Friends of ‘Old’ Princeton. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2020, x + 272 pages, $20.00. From time […]

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Date November 3, 2022
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It is rather audacious to claim that we are reformed. It can also be misleading when we call ourselves Reformed Churches. For this might imply that we believe that our denominations are truly reformed; or, even worse, that at some point in the past we were or became reformed and that the task of reform […]

Category Articles
Date October 31, 2022
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The following sermon, on the Remembrance of Christ, was delivered on Sabbath evening, January 7th, 1855, by the Rev. C.H. Spurgeon, at New Park Street Chapel, Southwark. ‘This do in remembrance of me.’—1 Cor. 11:24. IT seems, then, that Christians may forget Christ. The text implies the possibility of forgetfulness concerning him whom gratitude and […]

Category Sermons
Date October 11, 2022
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Jim Elliff reviews Banner’s biography of Asahel Nettleton, an evangelist whose integrity and zeal marked him out during the Second Great Awakening. The author of The Life and Labours of Asahel Nettleton, Bennet Tyler, was a pastor for many years in South Britain, Connecticut, where he knew Asahel Nettleton (1783-1844) intimately. He eventually became the […]

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Date September 30, 2022
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In Exodus 18 Moses spends a whole chapter on his father-in-law Jethro. I think it’s safe to assume that Moses didn’t promise to give him a prominent spot in his book in order to win brownie points with the in-laws! So why then is this chapter here? One of its main purposes is to do […]

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Category Articles
Date June 10, 2022
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This review was first published in the 2022 edition of the New Horizons magazine and has been shared with permission. * * * The Lord Jesus once said, ‘every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old’ (Matt. 13:52). The treasures from […]

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Category Book Reviews
Date June 3, 2022
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Why Baxter? His theology was not entirely sound. His desire to promote church unity sometimes betrayed him into seeking common cause with those who were far removed from the biblical faith. Although an able controversialist, he confesses: ‘I am too much inclined to such words in controversial writings which are too keen, and apt to […]

Category Articles
Date February 11, 2022
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Later in 2022, the Banner will be re-issuing the Memoir of Alexander Moody Stuart by his son, Kenneth Moody Stuart. Principal John Macleod, in his Scottish Theology, commented that there were ‘few ministerial biographies that are better worth reading.’ Join the waitlist to be informed of when this inspiring title is released. This article is […]

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Category Articles
Date February 4, 2022
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In the video below, join a pastor, a ruling elder, an intern, and a seminary student as they travel from Greenville, SC to a Banner Ministers’ Conference in Elizabethtown, PA. The US Ministers’ Conference is an annual event in Elizabethtown, PA, where men gather from a variety of ministerial vocations to worship God and sit […]

Category Articles
Date January 1, 2022
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To help us in the dealings of our lives we should have such a conception of God as not to limit him in our thoughts. When we are in extremity we must not tie him to this thing or to that thing. He can make matter out of nothing. Why should we limit the unlimited […]

Category Articles
Date October 15, 2021
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Why bother coming to the prayer meeting? In the pecking order of many congregations, it is somewhere below the much-lamented evening service. In the priorities of too many Christians, it seems to have little value. It’s the one we can afford to miss. It’s the one to which we don’t, or maybe wouldn’t, take our […]

Category Articles
Date September 3, 2021
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If you would strengthen your faith to suffer great and hard things, study much the book of the Revelation, which is a standing cordial for the relief of the saints, in anti-christian times; and study and read and commend to your children, the Book of Martyrs, where you have examples to the life of the […]

Category Articles
Date August 6, 2021
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The Psalmist sang, ‘All the ends of the world shall re­member and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee’ (Psalm 22:27). Another Messianic psalm foretold, ‘He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth: They that dwell […]

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Category Articles
Date June 25, 2021
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There are several instances in Scripture when people make the wrong calculations or use the wrong measures. Samuel is in danger of doing so when he looks at David’s older brother, Eliab, while searching for the Lord’s anointed. He looks at his appearance and his stature, and is tempted to conclude that he has found […]

Category Articles
Date May 14, 2021
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We can be creatures of extremes. Sometimes our reading of church history pushes us toward one or the other end of a certain spectrum. We absolutise the light or the darkness. It was never, to paraphrase Dickens, the best of times and the worst of times. To us, it was either the best or the […]

Category Articles
Date April 30, 2021
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Charles Haddon Spurgeon was born in Kelvedon, a village in the county of Essex in the east of England, on 19 June, 1834. He went to be with Christ from Mentone, France, on the evening of Sunday 31 January, 1892. During his lifetime he became perhaps the greatest preacher in the English-speaking world, of his […]

Category Articles
Date December 15, 2020
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