Tag: Church
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Cast Away the Works of Darkness
Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his…
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Why Advent?
Today is the first Sunday of Advent, and I think more than any other year I remember, I welcome this season of the church. It is first week of a new year in the Christian calendar. I know not all my friends keep advent, so I suppose I should explain why it’s so important and…
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Unless Worship Is for Us, We Cannot Worship with Our Whole Heart—part 2
Our worship is almost always not biblical. By that I mean if you look at the psalms, a model of worship songs, the songs we pick often don’t line up. The reason for this is that the psalms are not an abstract regurgitation of God’s character and blessings. They are not only outwards towards God…
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Worship is about us-Part 1
For those who grew up singing Hillsong and Tomlin, we can be often reminded that worship is not about us. For example, in his song, “Jesus, Lover of My Soul” Paul Oakley writes that “all this [worship] is for you, for your glory and your name. It’s not about me.” Similarly Tomlin writes “It’s not…
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A Word to New Students
Fall is just around the corner and school has started. Six years ago, I started university and since then I like to think I’ve learned quite a bit (and yet the more I learn, the more I realize just how little I actually know). Both in my faith, and in my knowledge of the world…
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Do we really have a “Relationship” with Jesus?
As Evangelicals, as Christians in the modern West, we very much have a view of the Christian life that equates faith to relationship. However, this relationship itself is poorly defined and at best, when pressed about it, all we can say is that it amounts to “knowing God and not just about him.” Fundamentally though, I think…
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The beauty of catholicity
As a protestant, the word “catholic” is not the first word I’d use to describe myself. Indeed, for many of us who do consider ourselves to be fairly conservative protestants, holders of the gospel of salvation by grace through faith alone (with some measure of asterisks around the word “alone”), the very word “catholic” might…
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Driscoll and a Broken Church
Mark Driscoll has been an Evangelical Superstar for the last several years with his polarizing take on human sexuality and specifically manhood. And while I don’t agree with much of what he says, the current struggles of the leadership of Mars Hill Churches in Seattle have reached national prominence with coverage in major papers like…
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5 things we look for in new churches
Many of us have at one point had the opportunity to look for a church to attend and from the many churches it is difficult to choose one to attend. So considering the difficulty, how can we tell which church is the church that we should commit ourselves to? Here are five things that Christians commonly…
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A Letter to the Church
Dear Evangelical Church, I wanted to write to you because of my mixed feelings about you. I must admit that I find myself so often really, really not liking you. And though you claim to be the source of joy by virtue of a membership in the Body of Christ, I find that euphoria I…
Defined Faith 