Issue
Growing in Grace: A Defense of Piety
Vol. 11, No. 4 • Jul/Aug 2002
Many of us were reared in pious evangelical homes and churches where “Christianity” and “Churchianity” were regularly contrasted. Christianity involved having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ whereas Churchianity involved an attachment to mere externals. This contrast could also appear in terms of the informal versus the formal, real versus nominal, born-again versus dead religion-or […]
All Articles (13)
Reformation Piety
Many of us were reared in pious evangelical homes and churches where “Christianity” and “Churchianity” were regularly contrasted. Christianity involved having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ whereas Churchianity involved an attachment to mere externals. This contrast could also appear in terms of the informal versus the formal, real versus nominal, born-again versus dead religion-or […]
What is Pietism?
Pietism is a recurring tendency within Christian history to emphasize Christian practice over theology and church order. Its own historians identify four general traits in this tendency: (1) it is experientialpietists are people of the heart for whom Christian living is a fundamental concern; (2) it is biblicalpietists are, to echo John Wesley, people of […]
“Homosexuality: The Use of Scientific Research in the Church’s Moral Debate” by Stanton L. Jones & Mark A. Yarhouse
This very important book will strengthen the hand of all who seek to witness within the churches to a traditional ethic concerning homosexuality. It will also blunt the edge on the use of science-or, rather, pseudo-science-to intimidate proponents of the traditional view. This work reveals the face-behind-the-mask of the assault on the classical viewpoint that […]
By These Means Necessary
f Lutheran theologian Paul Raabe, in A Confessing Theology for Postmodern Times (Crossway 2000), is right, then an examination of any cultural group’s practice of Christianity must be rooted in the religion and God of Israel: “The only hope for Hispanics or Chinese or Germans or Americans is to come to Zion and worship the […]
Reconsidering Our Accounting
In September of 1994, I became the pastor of a local congregation in Washington, D.C., composed of about 500 individual members. As good Baptists, we counted individuals, not families. Computing the number of members that way reflects the strong Baptist tradition of the necessity of individual profession of faith for Church membership. Membership cannot be […]
Convinced but Confused?
1Study the biblical passages relevant to the practice of church discipline. Consider getting copies of Jay Adams, Handbook of Church Discipline (Zondervan, 1986), or the volume I edited, Polity (Center for Church Reform, 2001). Although the first is written by a Presbyterian, I as a Baptist think it is very helpful, and though the second […]
