Imagine you’re an adult Bible study teacher in a local church, a layperson without access to personal theological library. Imagine it’s a Saturday afternoon and you’re working on a lesson and need help, so you turn to the largest library…
Acts 29 leader explains who they are, what they’re doing in church planting and where the money is coming from
When the Acts 29 Network recently announced it would offer up to $50,000 over two years to church planters, a common response among traditional pastors and lay leaders was, “What’s Acts 29?” And even among those who were aware of…
Acts 29 ups the ante by offering church planters $50,000 apiece
In yet another sign of how church networks are replacing denominational identity, the Acts 29 network announced Jan. 11 that it will provide up to $50,000 apiece for new churches started through its sponsorship. Leaders of Acts 29 insist it…
Vocal critic of SBC leadership leaves denomination over social justice agenda and Litton
One of the most conservative public voices within the Southern Baptist Convention announced Jan. 4 that his Georgia church has left the SBC. Josh Buice is pastor of Pray’s Mill Baptist Church in Douglasville, Ga., and founder of an online…
BNG column sparks Thanksgiving Twitter war of words between complementarians and two female scholars
When David Gushee wrote his article “The Deconstruction of American Evangelicalism” for Baptist News Global, he kicked off what would become the focus of the next stage in the debate between conservative evangelical complementarians and their egalitarian counterparts. That debate took…
The five pillars of conservative evangelical Calvinism that are incompatible with love
The majority of my adult life has been spent within the conservative evangelical Calvinistic world of Desiring God, Grace to You, Ligonier and The Gospel Coalition. Having grown up in the rules-focused world of the independent, fundamental Baptists, these ministries…
A short history of the roots of colonialism, racism and whiteness in ‘Christian worldview’
The state of the conversation around race in many corners of America, including too many churches, is a mess. And before we get too far down the road, I want to register my hesitation about trying to abridge what I…
Is the future of evangelicalism with the Christianity Today ‘elite’ or with the firebrand neo-Calvinists?
Mark Galli is best known in the United States as the former editor in chief of Christianity Today who took on Donald Trump as being morally unfit for the presidency. Late last week, he lit another fire, this time not…
It’s an easy dismissal of an idea you disagree with, but what does it actually mean for something to be ‘antithetical to the gospel’?
The phrase “antithetical to the gospel” has become a favorite way to shut down ideas with which Christians disagree. Don’t like someone else’s theology or politics or social views? Just declare those views “antithetical to the gospel,” and that’s that….
Knocking down the straw man of theological liberalism
One of the growing frustrations many deconstructing Christians, ex-evangelicals, liberationist and liberal theologians share is how conservative organizations like The Gospel Coalition constantly misrepresent us through “straw man” fallacies. In the field of logic, a “straw man” is when somebody…
I lived in the culture of ‘The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill,’ and there’s one part of the story that’s wrong
The more people talked about Christianity Today’s new podcast, The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, the more I knew I eventually would need to listen to it. In 2004, my wife and I left our families and friends behind to…
Have you heard the one about empathy being a sin?
Empathy is in the news, and not in a good way. With recent controversial statements by John Piper and resignations of multiple staff at the church he put on the map and the seminary he led, attention has fallen to…