Articles

Browse select Tabletalk articles and columns exploring themes and topics across a spectrum of relevant issues.

Topics

  • Submit to One Another by Owen Strachan

    Our world has a strange relationship with authority. We saw this in the “Occupy” movement of a few years ago. Formally, everyone had the same role, but inevitably, “leading voices” popped up and made sure the countercultural drum circles beat …Read More

  • Let Me Be a Woman by Elisabeth Elliot

    The first woman was made specifically for the first man, a helper, to meet, respond to, surrender to, and complement him. God made her from the man, out of his very bone, and then He brought her to the man. …Read More

  • A Woman’s Mandate by Elisabeth Elliot

    When speaking to a group of pastors’ wives I learned that 80 percent of them were working full time outside of the home. I was shocked. Is it wrong for a pastor’s wife—or any other wife—to have a job? There …Read More

  • Maturity in Ministry by Kent Hughes

    When the New Testament addresses spiritual maturity, it uses the common Greek word teleios, which means “perfect” or “complete.” When it is applied to Christian growth, it indicates spiritual maturity in contrast to childlike immaturity as, for example, in this …Read More

  • The Head of the Church by Guy Waters

    What comes to mind when you hear the phrase the head of the church? Some may think of the pope in Rome. Others may think of an influential pastor or a board of elders. Still others may think of denominational …Read More

  • The Members of the Church by Julius J. Kim

    According to one dictionary, an oxymoron is defined as “a combination of contradictory or incongruous words,” such as “cruel kindness” or “sweet sorrow.” Is “churchless Christian” an oxymoron? Though the Bible does not have one specific verse that states unequivocally …Read More

  • The Offices of the Church by Tezar Putra

    I cannot think of another conversation topic that has been greeted with more silent sighs than the topic of church polity. Discussion of this matter is often cast aside as petty and fascinating only to the hypercritical theologian or irrelevant …Read More

  • Leading an Institution: An Interview with Ligon Duncan by Ligon Duncan

    Tabletalk: How did growing up in a Presbyterian home shape your faith? Ligon Duncan: It is almost impossible to calculate the wonderful influences I received at home and in my church growing up. My father (an eighth-generation Presbyterian ruling elder) …Read More

  • Ministering to the Abused and the Abusers by Sean Michael Lucas

    It is a nightmare scenario for all involved: a man calls his pastor in tears and demands a meeting as quickly as possible. Thirty minutes later, he is in the pastor’s office, confessing that his wife caught him touching their …Read More

  • Bible-Believing, Bible-Obeying by Burk Parsons

    As a pastor, I spend much of my time out in the community, and I meet new people every week. When people inquire what I do for a living, I tell them I am a pastor. At that point I …Read More

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