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The Bible, the Whole Bible, and Nothing but the Bible: An Interview with Eric J. Alexander
Tabletalk: Describe how God first called you to ministry. Eric Alexander: From as early as I can remember, if anyone had asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would not have hesitated to answer, “I …Read More
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God-Centered Preaching
“People are starving for the greatness of God,” observes John Piper, “but most of them would not give this diagnosis of their troubled lives. The majesty of God is an unknown cure. There are far more popular prescriptions on the …Read More
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Beauty and the Princeton Piety
The Princeton Theology was an attempt to maintain Reformed theology and experience in America during the nineteenth and the opening decades of the twentieth centuries. The men at Princeton staunchly defended the objective elements in the Christian faith against the …Read More
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It’s Not About You
After a particularly difficult marriage counseling session early in my first year of ministry, I called a mentor to debrief and decompress. He patiently heard me out and then offered a convicting assessment: “It sounds as if you’re more …Read More
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From Pastor to President: An Interview with Philip Graham Ryken
Tabletalk: How did you make the difficult decision to leave the pastorate and enter the academy as president of Wheaton College? Philip Graham Ryken: When the time finally came, making the decision was unexpectedly easy. Eventually God’s will became …Read More
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The Pastor and the Funeral
The subject I have been asked to write about was one of my greatest fears upon entrance into pastoral ministry. But today I consider it one of my greatest privileges. Why? Because of the historicity and glorious message of the …Read More
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Happy Pastors
As the star of the television series Dirty Jobs, Mike Rowe suits up and labors in some of the most dirty and dangerous work environments possible. To date, he hasn’t tried pastoring. But pastoring qualifies as a dirty job …Read More
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Apostolic Anxiety
Second Corinthians 11:28 always seemed like a strange verse to me — until I became a pastor. Here’s Paul, rattling off all the ways he’s been beat up for Jesus — imprisonments, lashes, rods, stonings, shipwrecks, drifting at sea …Read More
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Don’t Waste Your Cancer: An Interview with Matt Chandler
Tabletalk: By way of offering a brief introduction of yourself and your family, when was God’s call to serve His people confirmed for you? Matt Chandler: I think my story is a bit strange in that my awareness of …Read More
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An Outpost of Jesus’ Kingdom: An Interview with Mark Driscoll
Tabletalk: What do you believe is the ultimate purpose of the church? Mark Driscoll: The biblical marks of the church universally and its expressions locally are many (for example, the Word, sacraments, discipline, discipleship, mission/evangelism, love), but their overarching …Read More
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Ministering by the Life-Giving Spirit
Following a 1970s Jesus Movement conversion, I served in youth ministry, where I subjected poor students to nearly every fad imaginable — all, I told myself, to have young people come to Christ. I then served as a pastor, an office …Read More
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Self-Centered Sermons
Our Son in the Unfaith, We see that you are making progress with your charge. We applaud you for that. The enemy has enough minions preaching His infernal Word faithfully; to see this one begin to totter and swerve from …Read More
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Anti-Shepherds
Our Dear Asag, Remember: our abysmal sublimity does not so much want to tear down “godly” ways as to build up his own. From the apex of temptation in the garden to the present, his conspiratorial plot has always been …Read More
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Unregrettable, Hard Words
2 Corinthians 7:8–9 “For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. As it …Read More
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Congregational Counseling
Premarital counseling can be an entertaining exercise for an older couple offering guidance to a younger couple. Across from them sit two individuals eager to wed. Apart from occasional disagreements about planning the ceremony, the soon-to-be-newlyweds are prone to think …Read More