Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared at Is Not Satire, and is being reposted here with permission. Andy Stanley’s North Point Community Church attempted a reboot of the British Invasion during their official worship service on Sunday. They described it as a Beatles medley on their Facebook page. They sang segments of Beatles classics, ending … Read more
Five days after Donald Trump announced that, despite the “I was born with this anatomy” gender clues, people should be free to use the bathroom of their choice, Perry Noble tacitly endorsed him. At a minimum, Noble lauds “the Donald” as a worthy leadership example. In Four Reasons Why I Believe Donald Trump Will … Read more
You will recognize them by their fruits. – ( Matthew 7:16a) Complacency plagues the professing church, especially in America. The vast majority of professing Christians are living comfortably, lavishly, and without any sense of urgency in their mission. The church, molested by the likes of Joel Osteen’s prosperity propaganda, or Andy Stanley’s moralizing “follow Jesus, … Read more
“Where there is no vision, the people perish” Proverbs 29:18 There are two kinds of people in the Southern Baptist Convention. This will be evident to you, if you are a Southern Baptist and if you’re paying any attention to the accelerating pace of our modern downgrade. These two groups aren’t the sheep and the … Read more
…and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. (Matthew 14:11 ESV) The crime of John the Baptist was opposing King Herod on account of his adultery. Herod’s response, prompted by his mistress’ daughter, was to cut off John’s head. The first century Christian political … Read more
I’m so tired. I’m tired of discernment. I’m tired of polemics. I’m tired of watching the other guys who produce material for Pulpit & Pen report on yet another obvious departure from orthodoxy. I’m tired of seeing the articles and news stories and screenshots and tweets and YouTube videos posted in the infamous Pulpit Bunker. The … Read more
“For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you.” Titus 1:5 I am a student at a Southern Baptist seminary that is located hundreds of miles from the city in which I reside. Thankfully, distance learning options are … Read more
Dear Members of North Point Ministries Churches, In the past few days, I have read four open letters written to Andy Stanley; one from Jonathan Aigner, one from Hardin Crowder, and one from Dave Richmond. These letters were written in response to Stanley’s recent derisive comments about small churches. You’ve likely never heard of any … Read more
Just when you think there might be a glimmer of hope in the SBC, just when we are finally nearing the end of Ronnie Floyd’s doctrinally-undiscerning domain of its presidency, the Baptist Press reports the news that multi-site, mega-church, Reformed charismatic pastor, J.D. Greear, will be seeking the helm of the convention. The announcement (Baptist … Read more
Back in the old days of Christendom, we had our local church. Megachurches were nearly unheard of, and when they did exist, it was in the vicinity of a large metropolis with a large population. We had the traveling crusades of Billy Graham and Co., and a few smaller traveling ministries that most people from … Read more
This post should not be confused with the Top Ten SBC Stories of 2015. That post covered the top ten stories, in my subjective opinion, that were conveniently overlooked by the Baptist Press and the amen corner of the blogosphere. This post recalls the top ten posts at Pulpit & Pen in 2015, by views. … Read more
On Karen Swallow Prior If you’re like me, you are very likely to be found, on any given Sunday afternoon, sprawled out upon your mother’s or grandmother’s couch, half-awake, stuffed full of meat-and-three, and flipping through the Sunday paper or watching Yankee football (also known as NFL football ). This was the position in which I … Read more
Hey, y’all. I wanted to explain to all of you guys in the Bunker (and those who are still outside the Bunker for some reason) some of my favorite, essential stuff. I’ll try to remember to do this every summer. Think of this as Oprah’s Favorite Things, except with kind of an anti-Oprah vibe. These … Read more
I woke up and saw in my Feedly feed this morning, a post from Mike Bergman at SBC Voices entitled, Christians and the Law: A Friendly Response to Tim Keller’s ‘Making Sense of Scripture’s Inconsistency.‘ Like Douglas Wilson, who we’ve quoted and linked several times at Pulpit & Pen, Keller is admirable on several counts, … Read more
In a roundtable discussion sponsored by Lifeway’s Gospel Project curriculum discussed the upsides and downsides of expository, verse-by-verse preaching. The SBC-owned propaganda wing, the Baptist Press – in a story entitled Preaching through Bible has Risks, Pastors Say – reports… Many pastors believe tackling Scripture verse by verse from the pulpit is the only acceptable approach, … Read more
