Christians will need to think deeply about how to respond as our culture shifts, from a time of information choice and overload to information control, and especially the crisis of trust that it brings. It certainly will require of us a level of discernment. This, in turn, requires a solid grounding in truth, specifically the truth about reality and the truth about the human person.  

As the brilliant philosopher Newman once said to Jerry in an episode of Seinfeld, “[Y]ou remember this. When you control the mail, you control … information!” Of course, no one would suggest that the U.S. Postal Service has that sort of power today, having been duly replaced and far exceeded by digital gatekeepers. A recent case in point was something noted by several people who searched online about the recent assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump.  
The Heritage Foundation shared a screenshot on X of their Google search. Having typed “assassination attempt on t,” the search engine auto filled “Truman,” “Teddy Roosevelt,” and “the Pope.” James Lindsey asked Meta AI, “tell me about the assassination attempt on Trump,” and the reply was, “I can’t assist with that.” The same program did, however, offer a thorough (and positive) run-down of the Kamala Harris campaign when asked. Others reported that searching Google for “Trump Rally” returned results of a Kamala Harris rally, as did searching for “Kamala Harris rally.” Media giants quickly chalked up these incidents, as well as a few others, to the accidental quirks of AI algorithms, but not everyone believed that explanation. 
Historians love to name periods of time. Students of history will recognize descriptors such as the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, or the Gilded Age. When future historians write about our age, they will find it is already named. We live in the Information Age, a time in which information shapes life in unprecedented ways, and in which the sheer amount of information is overwhelming.  
Information, even at the present scale, is rarely neutral. Information contains, argues, assumes, and otherwise delivers ideas. Thus, the Information Age might also be called the Age of Competing Ideas. 
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In God’s providence, John Knox led one of the most interesting lives of the Reformers. He was a preacher, a pastor, a galley-slave on a ship, a Bible translator, commentator, and a Reformer. It was during these years that he lived in various countries and served alongside some impressive figures—such as John Calvin in Geneva. John Knox’s preaching gift continued to be sharpened into a powerful voice for the glory of God. As he labored in the pulpit as a pastor he would remark, “The public preaching of the word of God is the chief ordinary means of salvation.”

When you survey history, there are certain men who are clearly marked out by God for the purpose of accomplishing great things and monumentous tasks. There is no doubt about it—John Knox is one such figure. Knox was born in Haddington in 1514 to humble beginnings. Although he was a man of shorter stature physically, it’s safe to say that John Knox would become one of the most towering figures of church history. He was a man on a mission, as he famously stated, “Give me Scotland, or I die.”
Knox would be raised up by God to lead the Scottish Reformation. Sometimes God will take a nobody and use him to shake the world. The power of God on a person’s life is not based on the approval of man nor the paper certificates of seminaries and educational institutions. Although Knox was a scholar and author, at the heart of his ministry was the pulpit.
The Era of the Preacher
There is no question about it, the times of his life often mark a man. However, by the end of Knox’s life, it could be well said that he marked his times. When Patrick Hamilton was burned at the stake in St. Andrews, John Knox was about 14 years of age. Knox would eventually be educated at St. Andrews and to this day on the sidewalk in front of St. Salvador’s Chapel remains a large “PH” which is a constant reminder that walking in the footsteps of Jesus is not always safe. Knox learned the story of Patrick Hamilton—”the heretic.”
John Knox was raised in an era where the Roman Catholic Church held a strangle hold on the Bible. It was the time in history when taking a different position than the Roman Catholic Church could result in your public burning. Although Knox was only seven years of age when Luther took his famous stand in the city of Worms, Germany—the writing of Luther would eventually reach the shore of Scotland where he would be influenced by the German Reformer.
John Knox was ordained to the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church and returned home after his education where he would serve as a tutor and a notary, which was an important role in interpreting documents.
We are not given specific information or details about Knox’s conversion to faith. He was influenced by one preacher who first gave him a taste of truth. He stated later that it was John 17 where, “I first cast my anchor.” By 1543, Knox was a Christian and his journey of faith erupted into action. He would be directly influenced by a fiery preacher named George Wishart as he would, interestingly enough, serve as a bodyguard for the Scottish herald.
He wasn’t merely there as a guard, Knox was a student of Wishart—a disciple. He learned a model of boldness, a Reformed perspective of doctrine, and he would later learn what it means to die for your faith as Wishart was arrested, condemned as a heretic by Cardinal David Beaton (uncle to the deceased Archbishop James Beaton, who presided over the martyrdom of Patrick Hamilton) and burned at the stake in 1546.
The Power of Knox’s Preaching
In God’s providence, John Knox led one of the most interesting lives of the Reformers. He was a preacher, a pastor, a galley-slave on a ship, a Bible translator, commentator, and a Reformer. It was during these years that he lived in various countries and served alongside some impressive figures—such as John Calvin in Geneva. John Knox’s preaching gift continued to be sharpened into a powerful voice for the glory of God.
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As dark as Spurgeon’s suffering was, the Lord used it. Spurgeon was able to empathize with fellow sufferers in his preaching, teaching, and writing and point them to God. Spurgeon said, “I would go into the deeps a hundred times to cheer a downcast spirit. It is good for me to have been afflicted, that I might know how to speak a word in season to one that is weary.”

Of the numerous nicknames aptly attributed to Charles Hadden Spurgeon, perhaps the most incisive and comprehensive description would be the title of his well-known work The Soul Winner.
“I would rather be the means of saving a soul from death than be the greatest orator on earth,” Spurgeon said.[1] “Soul-winning is the chief business of the Christian minister” . . . “the main pursuit of every true believer.”[2]
Not only did he consistently preach from this conviction, but Spurgeon also modeled soul-winning in his personal life and leadership of Metropolitan Tabernacle. One historian reports that during Spurgeon’s 38-year pastorate, 14,692 people were baptized and joined the Metropolitan Tabernacle.[3] For Spurgeon, that staggering number was not merely a statistic, but souls to disciple.[4]
“We do not consider soul-winning to be accomplished by hurriedly inscribing more names upon our church-roll, in order to show a good increase at the end of the year,” Spurgeon said. “It is a part of our work to teach them to observe all things whatsoever Christ has commanded them.”[5]
Soul-Winning Is Soul Care
Unlike most of his contemporaries, Spurgeon viewed soul-winning holistically, not merely as conversion, but about making converts into disciples in the local church. Spurgeon once said,
Christian labors, disconnected from the church, are like sowing and reaping without having any barn in which to store fruits of the harvest; they are useful, but incomplete. . . . We can rejoice in converts, but without membership in the local church, those converts remain hidden, undiscipled, and in disobedience to Christ’s commands.[6]
Geoff Chang’s recent research shows, amidst all the Spurgeon scholarship, his ecclesiology remains largely unaddressed. Without a doubt, Spurgeon’s biblical convictions about the church made his ministry of soul-winning a robust and well-rounded ministry of soul care, but so also did his own personal suffering.
Spurgeon’s Soul Struggles
Long before the modern biblical counseling movement existed, Spurgeon was keen on the ministry of soul care. He was deeply familiar with suffering and well-acquainted with God’s grace for sufferers.
Experts have detailed Spurgeon’s numerous trials: physical ailments including smallpox, gout, rheumatism, obesity, and a burning kidney inflammation called Bright’s disease; mental illness including severe depression and anxiety; and ongoing spiritual warfare that included slander, the weight of preaching, and suicidal thoughts. One psychiatrist noted that if he lived today, Spurgeon would be diagnosed with bipolar disorder and treated with medicine.[7]
Spurgeon’s difficult circumstances shaped him into an exemplary model of suffering, which led to his commitment to soul care.
Spurgeon’s Trauma
One significant misfortune early in his pastorate transpired on the evening of October 19, 1856. During a sermon at Surrey Hall, malicious pranksters falsely shouted about a fire. Among the thousands gathered, panic ensued. Seven people died and 28 were seriously injured.
Spurgeon was twenty-two years old and newly married. He was carried from the pulpit in a state of shock and depression, which was probably exacerbated by the recent birth of his twin boys and the pressures of moving into a new home. “The senseless tragedy and the public accusation of the press nearly broke Charles’s mind,” one author observed, “not only in those early moments but also with lasting effects.”[8]
In sermons, Spurgeon frequently verbalized his condition, “I am quite out of order for addressing you tonight. I feel extremely unwell, excessively heavy, and exceedingly depressed.”[9]
Spurgeon’s Suicidal Ideation
Spurgeon’s struggle with depression and anxiety was so immense and persistent that he spoke of his desire to die in his writings to his congregation. In modern language, Spurgeon contemplated suicide. Spurgeon’s pain would be so great, he often found biblical language to express his suicidal desires. Spurgeon once preached, “I too could say with Job, ‘My soul chooseth strangling rather than life. . . . I could readily enough have laid violent hands upon myself, to escape from my misery.”[10]
In another sermon, referring to Elijah’s prayer to die in 1 Kings 19:4, Spurgeon said of himself, “I know one who, in the bitterness of his soul, has often prayed it.”[11] In a sermon on Psalm 88, he commented, “Worse than physical death has cast its dreadful shadow over us . . . death would be welcomed as a relief, by those whose depressed spirits make their existence a living death.”[12]
As dark as Spurgeon’s suffering was, the Lord used it. Spurgeon was able to empathize with fellow sufferers in his preaching, teaching, and writing and point them to God.

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The sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit should be evident in a person’s morally transformed character before he should be considered for the position of elder. His godliness should be evident to all, because an elder must not only lead by what he says; he should also be an example to the church about how a Christian should live in obedience to God.

As part of larger series of articles exploring church leadership according to the New Testament, this article considers the requirements or qualifications for church elders. Already we’ve considered the role of elders, as authoritative leadership and preaching that is always accountable to others. Put another way, the New Testament doesn’t suggest that any one elder is set apart from or above other elders. So an eldership or plurality of elders should lead a local church, rather than one man. Now let’s look at who qualifies.
The Bible insists that churches should be led by godly pastors and elders. This is what Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 3:1–7. He gave similar instructions to Titus in Titus 1:5–9. Notice from these qualifications or requirements that there are three areas in which a person must qualify in order to be an elder in the church.
1. Personal Godliness
In both of the lists of qualifications given to Timothy and Titus, Paul emphasised that the person being considered for the office of elder must be truly godly.
To Timothy he said, “An overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money” (1 Timothy 3:2–3). To Titus he wrote, “An overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self- controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined” (Titus 1:7–8).
The sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit should be evident in a person’s morally transformed character before he should be considered for the position of elder. His godliness should be evident to all, because an elder must not only lead by what he says; he should also be an example to the church about how a Christian should live in obedience to God.
2. Domestic Management
In both lists of requirements for the office of elder, Paul also mentioned the need for a person to prove himself through the way in which he manages his own family.
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Church membership touches virtually every department of the church’s life and ministry. Just as importantly, church membership touches on the Christian’s life and ministry. Christ has His disciples mature not in isolation but in the formal bonds of relationship with fellow believers. We grow and serve alongside our fellow believers in the bonds of Christian love, commitment, and affection. Seen in that light, church membership is not only a command of Christ; it is a mark of the compassion and care of Christ for His people. 

For the longest time, it was assumed that being a Christian meant being a member of a Christian church. What was once assumed must now be defended. Why is this? One reason is that a growing number of churches do not have formal church membership. One may attend services, give financially, and participate in Bible studies sponsored by a particular congregation, but one cannot become a member of that church. Another reason is that there is no explicit command in the New Testament requiring church membership of Christians—“Thou shalt be a member of a local church.” The lack of such a command does not mean that the Bible does not require church membership. It does mean, however, that we must look for that requirement along other lines.

Before we think about Scripture’s testimony to church membership, we must first come to some understanding of what church membership is. Most of us are familiar with the basic idea of membership. We are members of Costco, Amazon Prime, and the local gym. But membership in the local church is not the same as membership in a business that provides goods and services. How should we think about church membership?
As a friend of mine has put it, church membership is “an acknowledged relationship with privileges and obligations.” We belong to a particular congregation (and not another), and we have been formally recognized as belonging to this body of Christians. That relationship carries with it certain privileges. For instance, a church member who has professed his faith in Christ is admitted to the Lord’s Table and is able to vote in church elections. That relationship also carries obligations. Often church members commit themselves to support the church by regular attendance at public worship and by regular giving to support the work of the church.
If this is what membership is, then how and where do we find it in the New Testament? We have already seen that we will not find in Scripture an explicit command to join a local church. What we see, rather, is this understanding of church membership both assumed and reflected in a number of places in Scripture. We may look at five interrelated lines of biblical teaching that show church membership to be a requirement of biblical discipleship.

First, the book of Acts shows us a pattern surfacing in the ministry of the Apostles that assumes the existence of membership in the church. The gospel is preached, and people respond in repentance and faith. These new believers are never sent out to live the Christian faith by themselves. They are gathered into existing communities of professing Christians. This ingathering takes place when the gospel is preached in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost (see Acts 2:37–47, especially v. 41) and throughout the rest of Acts.

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Most importantly, we need awards for political leaders who exercise their proper dominion to rule in such a way that nature might continue to exist as it awaits its ultimate perfection by grace, not eradicated by techne. Only by honoring courage will we free future generations to live as Christians in freedom and abundance, built upon the solid foundation stone of Christ.

Friday, July 26th, I, along with hundreds of millions of Christians around the world, sat down to watch the 2024 Olympic Opening Ceremonies. We hoped to experience something that would express the beauty of historic French culture and the spirit of international competition.. Instead, what we experienced was a grotesquerie of beheaded monarchs, bearded drag-queen stripteases, and an alphabet person recreation of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper. One of Western Christianity’s most well known and beloved pieces of religious art, inspired not only by the holy moment of institution, but by the Christian civilization that sprung up and took dominion over the European continent.
To top it off, a blue man with curly blonde beard, supposedly representing Bacchus or Dionysus, lying within a human sized cloche, the subject of the “feast” took up a microphone and quipped, gamboled and paraded before the international television audience. Dionysus was the “Christ Figure,” and as the openly lesbian DJ Barbara Butch’s stated on her Instagram story, it was an attempt at “recreation.” They had apparently not heard that, “The great god Pan is dead.”  Where once bread and wine were transformed by yeast into food and food into the presence of God through Christ, we ourselves are transformed into yeast through the incarnate presence of debauchery. It was a fitting tribute to the new sacred religion of the Negative World. We in the West now feast upon debauchery itself.
I immediately texted my wife to make sure our children would not watch this Opening Ceremony, and followed that up with similar messages and images to family and friends. I reflected on what the Christian response should be to this obvious blasphemy and degeneracy. Christians have faced these things before. Art exhibits displaying heresy, “Pride” parades putting degeneracy in the public face, Satanic transgender nuns subverting America’s pastime by being honored during Dodger’s Games. Television and cinema that Christians have felt compelled to avoid. But this seemed different. This was an attempt by satanic and nefarious actors to seize public space, proliferation of a “new” good news.
Nature abhors a vacuum and in the attempt to create a naked public square devoid of religious expression, we have supplanted the old Christian moral order founded on the rule of Christ and the resurrection of the dead with a new moral order that promises a different kind of transcendence. A replacement of nature’s restrictions with an eternal hope grounded in technology (surgery and surrogacy with a view to artificial wombs) and medicine (hormone blockers and antiretrovirals).
And this was done on the world’s largest stage before the world’s largest audience. Billions of dollars and some of the largest human institutions back this event. What am I, the lone Christian to do? As always, I believe we can turn to scripture for the answers we so desperately seek.
In the penultimate passage from the Sermon on the Mount, we read one of the most terrifying pieces of scripture in the New Testament. After expanding the law to include acts of the eyes and thoughts of the mind and warning the people against falseness of both their hearts and the hearts of others, Jesus brings a warning that many who claim Him, who name him, and even do work in His name will be cast away from Him and banished to that place of external suffering where there is “darkness and gnashing of teeth.” A potentially terrifying thought to anyone who has spent a lifetime as a Christian attempting to live out the faith.

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? 

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Written by John G. West |
Wednesday, August 14, 2024
Some critics seem intent on taking down Basham’s book at all costs. Whether the book is truly inaccurate seems a secondary matter for them. They just want to stop others from reading it…It is hard to ignore the feeling that much of the brouhaha raised against Basham’s book reflects insecurity and even fear.

If you want to better understand what’s going on inside American evangelicalism’s elite, Shepherds for Sale (2024) by Megan Basham is a great place to start. And if you are a member of the evangelical elite yourself, you should read her book to understand what is going on among rank-and-file evangelicals.
A journalist with The Daily Wire, Basham has spent the past several years chronicling the growing chasm between many evangelical leaders and those they are supposed to shepherd. Her reporting has defied the standard narrative. Most journalists who cover evangelicals obsess over pastors and ministry leaders who they think have sold their souls to right-wing populism. That’s a legitimate concern and worth reporting on. However, this way of framing coverage of evangelicals provides—at best—only a partial picture of reality.
Most notably, it ignores the evangelical leaders who are being co-opted by various movements on the political and cultural left.
By turning the spotlight on evangelical elites she thinks have been comprised by progressivism, Basham has done the evangelical community a significant service. Some have criticized her for not also covering unholy alliances among some evangelicals on the right. But given the pervasiveness of the standard narrative, I think that criticism falls flat. If you are a well-read evangelical, you can’t avoid hearing (non-stop) about the corruption (or supposed corruption) on the right.
What Basham is doing is investigating the side of the story you don’t typically hear from the establishment media.
As a result, she has provoked the ire of many in the evangelical leadership class and its “old boy network.” The full-court press to silence her book even before it came out provides evidence of the anger—and perhaps the insecurities—of her detractors.
I’d like to make a plea to those in the evangelical leadership class: I know you might be tempted to denounce or dismiss or ignore Basham’s book without reading it or without fairly considering its main points. Please don’t. Basham vocalizes the concerns of a large and growing number of American evangelicals. Perhaps you think these evangelicals are stupid and self-destructive. But you aren’t going to have any hope of reaching or finding common ground with them if you ignore or demonize them. Try to read Basham’s book carefully and non-defensively. It may help you understand the views of people outside your own echo chamber.
Giving Voice to the Marginalized
Some of the most powerful parts of Basham’s book, which I didn’t expect, were her profiles of ordinary Christians and their experiences. She writes about a wife recruited by fellow church members to join a “Women’s March” for abortion, climate change, and LGTBQ rights. She tells of a husband who joined a racial reconciliation group at his church only to be “told that new white members weren’t allowed to speak for the first six months.” She recounts the experiences of a grieving mother whose son was killed by an illegal alien. She interviews a friend who was taken aback when her church’s advent devotional focused on the climate crisis rather than Jesus. She tells about the nurse who has devoted her life to helping women avoid abortion who is disheartened by the seeming disparagement of pro-life efforts by some leading evangelicals. Finally, Basham reveals her own painful journey of transformation. She tells how she was delivered from a life of substance abuse by hearing the sort of hard truths of traditional Christianity that so many leading evangelicals seem afraid to talk about.
These personal narratives counter the stereotypes of conservative evangelicals that even some evangelical leaders help perpetuate. They make Shepherds for Sale worth reading for anyone who wants to understand the views and challenges of ordinary evangelicals. For evangelical leaders disconnected from those they serve, the stories will be a helpful guide to the concerns of parishioners they may have marginalized.
Of course, the book offers much else as well. But before getting to some of those other takeaways, let me address a couple of flashpoints involving the book.
Is the Book Really about Trump?
Warren Cole Smith has published a lengthy critique of Basham’s book that bears the subtitle: “A new book about evangelicalism is really about Trump.” Smith claims: “Shepherds For Sale has many villains, but it has only one true hero: Donald J. Trump. He is mentioned more than 30 times in the book, all positively or defensively.”
Smith published his critique in the pervasively anti-Trump publication The Dispatch, which I suppose has an interest in trying to make everything about Trump. Except in this case the charge isn’t true. Basham’s book is not focused on Trump, and it spends very few of its 320 pages discussing him. The book’s chapters focus on abortion, LGTBQ issues, immigration, climate change, the me-too movement, critical race theory, and COVID-19 policies. To reduce Basham’s book to a pro-Trump polemic is both unfair and inaccurate. Having said that, Basham’s reporting does raise an important issue connected to Trump: Are certain evangelical leaders so blinded by their opposition to him that they are abandoning or at least downplaying some of their previous commitments? That’s a serious question worth exploring. Of course, I also think it’s a serious question to ask whether some evangelical leaders have compromised their beliefs in support of Trump. But that latter question gets asked a lot. Basham’s book broaches a question that you typically won’t find covered, say, in either The Dispatch or Christianity Today.
Are Evangelical Leaders Really for Sale?
Another flashpoint over the book has been its title. The title seems to suggest that there are a lot of evangelical leaders who have apostatized because they’ve received money from left-wing funders. Let me be clear: I don’t think that’s true. There are exceptions, but in my experience pastors, professors, and ministry leaders don’t change their views primarily because of funding. Instead, they take the funding because they’ve already changed their views. They are what I’ve called “Stockholm Syndrome Christians.” Held hostage by the secular elites, they end up identifying more with the cultural oppressors of Christianity than with their fellow Christians. (Full disclosure: I have a book coming out on this topic early next year.)
Despite my disclaimer about the title, the preoccupation of some critics with the title strikes me as unjust. In the book itself Basham makes abundantly clear she is not arguing that every evangelical leader is for sale. She explicitly acknowledges that “motives may be complex and sometimes unclear,” and there are “different degrees of error.” She admits that Christians can have sincere differences of opinion on many issues. So just because someone is named in her book doesn’t mean she thinks they are a “shepherd for sale.”
Even so, it is true that one of the book’s most damning indictments involves money.
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When church discipline is done properly, the holiness and good of the church are promoted. The negative outcomes of discipline are never desired but are a grace from God for the blessing of His church.

When I first started attending a Reformed church, I remember an announcement that was made about a former member who had been excommunicated for the sin of contumacy. I had grown up in a mainline denomination where formal discipline was never spoken of, much less practiced. I was wholly unfamiliar with the process. I had never even heard of the word contumacy. When I looked it up after the service, I learned that contumacy is a stubborn refusal to submit to authority. I knew the elders to be kind, gracious, and faithful men. Even though I didn’t quite understand what was happening, it confirmed to me that this was a church that took seriously the commands of the Bible.
This episode was perhaps my first encounter with negative church discipline, which concerns the correction of church members and the administration of censures. To understand negative church discipline and how it works, we can look at one obligation, two guides, three goals, and four outcomes.
The one obligation of the church toward its members is the command of Jesus to shepherd the sheep. The prophet Ezekiel warned of bad shepherds who cared nothing for the sheep. These bad shepherds abused, neglected, used, and even devoured the sheep (Ezek. 34). By contrast, Jesus proclaimed that He is the Good Shepherd of the sheep. He would love, care for, and protect them. The Good Shepherd would lay down His life for the sheep (John 10). He would be the Good Shepherd pictured in Psalm 23, whose rod and staff would comfort the sheep. The elders of the church are the undershepherds of Christ in how they lead the congregation (1 Peter 5:1–5). This pastoral care and comfort include discipline to keep and guide the sheep.
As Ezekiel warned, shepherds can be harsh, overbearing, and abusive. We can see this in some churches even today. Scripture therefore provides two guidelines to steer church discipline away from abuse. Discipline must be guided by decency and order (1 Cor. 14:40). Formal discipline must follow the process given in Scripture. Matthew 18 gives a decent and orderly process whereby if a brother sins against you, you are to confront him privately. If he does not repent, then you are to take along one or two brothers as witnesses. If he still does not repent, then you are to take it to the church. This is done in a decent and orderly manner by giving the offender an opportunity to fairly state his case before the elders of the church. He ought to have a chance to defend himself against the charges against him. The deliberate nature of the process often takes time. Those in the midst of the process may see that as a problem, but it is a feature of the system, not a bug. We do not want such important decisions rendered hastily. Decency and order require thoughtful, patient, and measured responses. If, however, a person is found to be in sin—and especially if he is unrepentant—he is to be disciplined, possibly to the extent of excommunication.
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Written by Jonathan M. Threlfall |
Wednesday, August 14, 2024
Here we are—on the other side of the world and 2,000 years removed from the place and time of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. And on any given Sunday, untold millions gather to worship Christ and hear his teachings. Truly, this is Christ’s church. He is building it. And nothing will prevail against it!

This past July, my church graciously gave my family and me a month-long sabbatical. For four consecutive Sundays, I had the opportunity to visit four different churches from three different regions of the U.S.
I had one main criteria for deciding which church to attend: the church must take the Bible seriously.
With a little poking around on the internet, this was fairly easy to discover. Did the church’s website emphasize the timeless relevance of God’s Word or did it reflect current social trends? Was the most recent sermon an explanation and application of a Scriptural text or theme, or was it more of a self-help, motivational talk?
A church’s serious approach to the Bible was my one conscious criteria, but after visiting these churches, I discovered that four additional aspects of a church’s Sunday gathering mattered more to me than I initially realized.
1. Congregational Singing
First, I wanted a church where my family and I could participate in the worship by singing with the congregation.
The earliest Christians made singing an essential part of their worship gatherings. Writing to the Colossians in the middle of the first century, the Apostle Paul urged them to “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” (Colossians 3:16).
Non-Christians took notice of this as well. The Roman official Pliny the Younger, in a letter to emperor Trajan, reported that Christians “were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god.” It is true that other religions incorporate music into their liturgies; but in Christianity, music enjoys a uniquely place for unique reasons. Christians (normally) gather to sing together because of our belief that each Christian—not just an elite priesthood—has the privilege and responsibility of praising God in song.
All the churches we visited included musical worship, and I was happy to sing praise to God every time. But it is worth mentioning that in some gatherings, certain factors conspired to dampen congregational singing, despite the efforts of the worship leaders.
At times I was confused about whether the song was just for the worship leaders or for everyone. In one service, the stage arrangement and levels of lighting approximated a concert setting in which we were spectators rather than active participants. Some songs had melodies and rhythms that were just difficult to follow. And in still other cases, the lyrics had such a tenuous connection to Biblical doctrine that left me puzzled about what we were celebrating.
In most churches, however, the music was a highlight. The songs were carefully chosen to facilitate congregational singing, with lyrics that honored Christ and melodies that were both beautiful and easy to sing.
I want to be clear here that I’m not talking about a “traditional” versus a “contemporary” worship service, or for old hymns versus new songs. In fact, it hardly mattered at all whether there was a drum or organ, guitar or piano, old new songs or old songs. (In a couple services, I appreciated how the drums bolstered the energy of the congregational singing.) What mattered was whether the instruments—drum or organ, contemporary chorus or classic hymn, piano or guitar—melody, and lyrics were put to the service of congregational singing.
2. Worshipful Preaching
I’m an avid student of public speaking, and I know in theory that a person’s character (ethos) is often more persuasive than their content (logos). But I was surprised by how much I found myself saying silently to the preacher, “And who are you? Do you believe this? Does it matter to you?”
During one sermon, the pastor played a video clip of S. M. Lockridge’s well-known sermon “That’s My King.” I love that clip: the climactic cadence of the words, the resonance of Lockridge’s voice, and the passion of his delivery. “That’s my king!” Lockridge thunders, then earnestly asks, “Well, I wonder, do you know Him? Do you know Him?”
The audience applauded when the clip ended, and the pastor humbly remarked that Lockridge put it better than he himself could have. That was probably true, but I couldn’t help silently asking, “But do you feel the same way about King Jesus? I wonder, do you know Him?” As moving as Lockridge’s delivery was, how much better would it be for the pastor—in his unique but heartfelt way—to exalt Jesus as his king?
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God tells us, essentially, “Don’t set up your own judgment seat, because I know the motives of the heart that you don’t.” We lack a few important qualifications for being judges: not only holiness, but also a little thing called omniscience! These words of our Lord are worth repeating: “But I tell you that men will have to give account on the Day of Judgment for every careless word they have spoken” (Matthew 12:36).

Proverbs 6:16-19 says there are six things God hates, seven things detestable to the Lord. “Hands that shed innocent blood” would apply to abortion. “A heart that devises wicked schemes and feet that are quick to rush into evil” could apply to both homosexual and heterosexual sin. But let’s not stop there. The passage also includes a “false witness” and one “who stirs up dissension among brothers.”
Wouldn’t we all like to think that WE couldn’t be guilty of any of the seven things God hates? I would. But if we say that, then we have “haughty eyes” and “lying tongues,” which covers the remaining deadly sins. None of us is innocent, are we?
Those who hold to the authority of Scripture typically agree that things such as adultery, pornography, homosexual relations, lying, and stealing are sins. But so is gossip. So is bearing false witness against your brother. So is pride and arrogance and sowing seeds of disunity.
Jesus said, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” We’re told, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Romans 12:18). “Strive for peace with everyone” (Hebrews 12:14). Jesus also said, “Blessed are the peacemakers.”
God has indeed called us to battle “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). This takes boldness and courage.
But do not mistake expressions of slander, cruelty, and verbal mob behavior as doing spiritual battle. Humility, grace, and peacemaking are often God’s greatest tools in the battle for righteousness and justice. (It’s all too easy to mistake each other as the enemy!)
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