Tomorrow will mark the 40th anniversary of my ordination to the Christian ministry. I’m grateful and repentant and amazed and tired and exhilarated. * I’m grateful to God for calling me – and I recall it very clearly when I was a small boy at tiny Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Kokomo, Indiana. Pastor Youngdale was preaching on the dangers of neo-orthodoxy and the need for fidelity to the Gospel. I was ten, and I heard Jesus say, ‘You will contend for and preach the Gospel too.’ I was not surprised or shocked. It seemed as natural as anything. I’d... Read this post

Time for some College Football Predictions as the season kicks off this weekend. The first thing to remember about all preseason college football predictions is to know the ‘Three Key Words’: “No One Knows”. Last season I bought into the preseason hype over Wisconsin – and they were awful. Washington was supposed to be good. Wasn’t. No team could stop Bama. Well, actually… Clemson did and in style at that. The second thing to remember: whatever happens in week one doesn’t tell you much. Texas lost to Maryland (Maryland!) in week one last year – and finished by beating Georgia... Read this post

“If I were to switch sides and  become a Christian, I wouldn’t be Gay anymore. But that is who I am and always will be. It’s who I AM, not something I do.” That was a response from a friend who was telling me why he could not begin to even think of becoming a Christian. He added more reasons, but this objection was primary. His identity was tethered to his sexual desires and he saw no way around that. That’s not surprising. His view is also at the core of many conversations within the Christian community about the issue... Read this post

I flew into London last Saturday for a week of ministry and drove right into the largest Gay Pride Parade in history (or so the organizers claimed). Traffic was snarled, cab drivers riled, business owners thankful, and the Pride participants thrilled. Some 1.5 million people gathered from around the world for the event, and thirty-five thousand people marched. Number Ten Downing Street was festooned with a rainbow arc, and virtually every business and all government buildings in sight displayed signs and flags supporting the marchers and ‘Pride’. The rainbow was ubiquitous. The newspapers carried glowing stories of the events with... Read this post

Silence for a season is a gift God gives us to help us listen more attentively to the voice of his love and mercy. It is impossible to hear God while we are doing the talking, a lesson Peter painfully learned on the Mount of Transfiguration. Overcome by the splendor of the scene, he spoke out passionately, but also imprudently. God silenced Peter, interrupting with an admonishing but merciful rebuke: ‘This is my Beloved Son! Listen to him!’ (Mark 9:7). The prophets also knew that their first priority was listening in silence rather than speaking in the Temple. Isaiah wrote,... Read this post

Mark’s Gospel contains a terrifying account of an attempt by dark powers to destroy a covenant child by throwing him into fire and water. His father brought him to Jesus for deliverance. ‘It has often cast him into fire and water seeking to destroy him…” – Mark 9 This is how a desperate father described to Jesus the destructive actions of a dark entity that was afflicting his young son. “It has been like this since childhood”, he says. The boy in question is not a small child but more like a mid to late teen. He’d grown up in... Read this post

My Austin, Texas friend Kevin Lance Lawhon is a celibate believer who lives with persistent SSA, is a PCA member, and SUPPORTS the Nashville Statement. Kevin commented on one of my Nashville Statment articles and I asked for and received his permission to post his comments as an addendum to the blogs I’d written already. I especially appreciate his remarks on identity – something those here who know of the talks on Clarity and Charity that I’m preparing will have heard me say many times. PLEASE read his excellent contribution to this discussion. Thank you! And ‘Thanks’ especially to Kevin!... Read this post

This is the final blog post I will write on why I could not sign the Nashville Statement or vote in favor of commending it during the recent PCA General Assembly. It may be hard for some to imagine or understand that a person could be in agreement with 95% of a doctrinal statement on a matter and still be unable to sign it; no statement, after all, is perfect. I do agree with the vast majority of what the Statement proclaims, but my reservations are enough to make me pause. My objections outlined in the two previous posts have... Read this post

This is from the General Assembly message, last Thursday. What a generation we live in – a generation of great opportunity! 42% of the world’s population is under 25, half in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The median age of the global population is 28. The average Christian in the world is not male but female, not white but brown or black, third-world, not first-world…and far more Pentecostal than Presbyterian. The “average” Christian in the world today is a 22-year old brown female. She has not been to a Passion conference; she has not read CS Lewis or Christianity Today;... Read this post

When I first opened the Nashville Statement almost three years ago I did so with hopeful expectation. Given the lofty reputation of many of the document’s original signers, I was confident that a comprehensive Statement would be offered, proving helpful to many. While much of what I read was very good, I was shocked by the Statement’s silence. I immediately looked for a note of humility, acknowledging the church’s failure to lovingly make Christ known in its ministry to LGBTQ people, often engaging personally and as congregations in behaviors that were demeaning. Beginning with repentance for the log in one’s... Read this post