ORDINARY PASTORS

Ordinary Pastors

I have in hand another invitation to a big name conference with a big name speaker. I could go and hang out around the coffee pot with ordinary pastors, but I am told that the important stuff comes from the important people.

My brother Steve and I have spoken from time to time on how glad we are to be part of the Evangelical Free Church of America. One of the reasons is that there is no single awe-inspiring individual with whom the Free Church is identified. It is not a movement of personalities. We had looked at other church planting groups who were led by powerful, ‘successful,’ personalities, yet we chose the Free Church as a movement of ordinary pastors led by ordinary men who are seeking to be faithful to the work and Word of God.

Some time ago I read Don Carson’s book Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: the Life and Reflections of Tom Carson in which he told the story of the faithful work of his father laboring in small churches in Quebec. The Reformed Reader summarizes the book aptly: Continue reading “ORDINARY PASTORS”

Gospel-Centered Tier One Christian Fellowship

True Christian fellowship is based on Tier One commitments to the Gospel and to Biblical Moral Essentials (summarized in the Great Commandments). These Biblical Moral Essentials provide growing evidence of one’s genuine experience of the Gospel. Tiers 2-4 should not constitute a basis for Christian fellowship.

The Gospel creates spiritual union with Christ and union with other believers. Biblical Moral Essentials give outward evidence of the reality of that union with Christ.

We should not grant Christian fellowship to those who lay claim to the gospel, yet deny perspicuous biblical morality.

 

 

 

Personal Beliefs/Opinions

 

Denominational Distinctives

 

Theological Systems

 

Doctrine Essential to the Gospel

 

 

 

 

 

Personal Convictions

 

Debatable issues

 

Cultural applications of biblical morality

 

Perspicuous Biblical Morality