It is sometimes difficult to know how to follow Jesus. It is sometimes difficult to encounter a situation, look to Scripture, and know how to live in a distinctly Christian way. Often it seems there are two options before us that appear to stand opposite one another. Do we respond by expressing truth or by expressing love? Should we speak straight or speak with tenderness? Should we display courage or meekness? Or should we perhaps pursue some kind of a mushy middle?

Both/And Ministry

Gary Millar has thought a lot about questions like these and answers them in his new book Both/And Ministry. He concludes that living a Christian life often involves embracing two practices that may seem (but are not actually) paradigmatic. In other words, instead of choosing one option, God means for us to embrace both. “This book aims to help you avoid the danger of settling for less than what God offers. It’s written to help you spot where you have made bad choices, excused yourself and opted out of an authentically gospel-shaped life. It’s an encouragement to pursue the beautiful, Christ-like, Spirit-empowered life of repentance and faith that God has called you to—a life that isn’t complicated but is hard. A life that is marked by contrasts and paradoxes that reflect the glorious richness of our God and Saviour.”

Millar begins by showing some examples of both/and theology. Thus God is both immanent and transcendent, sitting above all things in this world yet being intricately involved in them. The Son is both God and man, the eternal God who took on human flesh. The salvation Christ offers is both a matter of divine election and human responsibility and we cannot understand it without accounting for both. We live our Christian lives as citizens of a Kingdom that is both now and not yet. Hence we are accustomed to these both/ands.

Having established that God and his works involve both/and, Millar shows how the Christian life does as well. Our identity, for example, depends upon knowing that we are both righteous and sinful, that we are both mortal and immortal, and that we are both complete in Christ even as we are also works in progress.

This is true also in our relationships, in our various forms of ministry, and in our leadership. In our relationships, we must speak and listen, we must point out sin in others and own it in ourselves. In ministry, we must depend upon God even while we exert the greatest effort and must use the gifts God has given us even while we remain open to any avenue of service. In leadership, we must be godly and effective rather than choose between them and we must be both servants and leaders rather than only one or the other. In so many ways and so many situations God calls us not to either/or but to both/and.

It would, of course, be easier to live by the either/or approach to life. We would choose the attitudes that come most naturally and pursue those at the neglect of the other. But that would be an incomplete and immature way to live. It is only by acknowledging and embracing the both/and that we emulate Jesus and most become full-formed followers of him. Hence, I commend the book to you and trust it will help you better understand how to live a life that’s fully pleasing to our God.

This week at Westminster Books you can score a big discount on a new Easter devotional.

Today’s Kindle deals include a couple of biographies and some other books as well.

Lois writes about the heavy seasons of life and what it is that makes them so weighty.

It is not unusual today to hear people who insist we can or should refer to God as “mother.” Dr. Kyle Claunch responds.

There is no one like our God. Encountering His holiness leaves us forever changed, bringing new awareness of our sin and need for His grace. R.C. Sproul’s classic book, The Holiness of God, invites readers deeper into the truth of Scripture, that we may marvel at the Lord’s greatness and the wonder of His salvation through Jesus Christ. You can request the 40-anniversary edition of this celebrated book today with your donation to Ligonier Ministries. (Sponsored)

“The building is stuffy and reeks of urine and lethargy as the elderly lie bedridden beneath crumpled sheets. Nonetheless, like moths to a flame, we happily return.”

Stephen says, “The truth is, if anything is a higher priority to us than our faithfulness to Jesus, there is almost no sin we won’t tolerate in order to get it.” This means we need to think carefully about what may be more important to us than faithfulness.

Dan Cruver reflects on the doctrine of adoption. “This wonderful gospel reality—or, I should say, this breathtaking adoption reality—forever changes everything, including how we relate to God, our fellow human beings, and creation itself as God’s good stewards.”

“Paul is encouraging us to go against the grain of the culture, to not follow the patterns of this world, to not fit in with society. Indeed, we must be outcasts as Christians. We are the anomalies; we are the sojourners; we are the weird ones.”

We all know what it is to try to relate to people who are distracted by a phone. And we all know how much better it is to be undistracted. The challenge, of course, is in living that out.

We can’t teach kids kitty-cat theology and expect them to have lion-like resolve.
—Sam Luce & Hunter Williams

May the Lord be with you and bless you on this fine day.

Today’s Kindle deals include a collection of good picks from a few different publishers.

(Yesterday on the blog: Building Churches Out of Other Churches)

This is a helpful article for understanding and guiding young men. “Modern culture paints masculinity in extremes. On one side, masculinity is toxic—something to be suppressed, softened, or erased. On the other, masculinity is brutal, aggressive, and dominant—something to be weaponized. The result? A generation of men is confused about what they’re supposed to be.”

“Celebrities 10, 15, and even 20 years my senior still flash the same edgy fashion of their youth. In many cases their skin looks as taut as the young. I remember watching the teaser for a reunion show of a 90s sitcom, and I saw time etch itself into every male cast member’s face. Then the female star walked in, and I received the message loud and clear: Women dare not age past a certain threshold.”

There is no one like our God. Encountering His holiness leaves us forever changed, bringing new awareness of our sin and need for His grace. R.C. Sproul’s classic book, The Holiness of God, invites readers deeper into the truth of Scripture, that we may marvel at the Lord’s greatness and the wonder of His salvation through Jesus Christ. You can request the 40-anniversary edition of this celebrated book today with your donation to Ligonier Ministries. (Sponsored)

Abigail reminds older women that younger women are eager for their attention and mentorship.

I’ve been enjoying the new “A Storm in the Desert” podcast from 9Marks which tells how the Lord began a great work in the Middle East. You can find it wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Seth shares a cheeky poem about perspicuity.

This is a good question for all of us to consider: “How many more headlines will it take before we take our own vulnerabilities seriously?”

Our God is most present just when he is most needed—ever ready and ever eager to offer his sweet comfort. His compassion—his wondrous fatherly compassion—draws him near to us when we so desperately need his help.

The right manner of growth is to grow less in one’s own eyes.
—Thomas Watson

What is your church really made of? Or perhaps better said, who is your church really made of? This is something we all do well to ponder from time to time, for there are good ways and bad ways, better ways and worse ways to fill a church.

The best way to fill a church is by seeing the lost get saved. This involves the children of church members growing up and putting their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and it involves evangelizing the community so unsaved people hear the gospel and become believers. Wonderful.

The worst way to fill a church is to undermine and destroy other healthy churches and compel the Christians within them to come to yours instead. In the end, one church has died and another has grown fat by plundering it. Evil.

But there is a middle ground as well. It is not necessarily the worst way to fill a church but it is also not the best. It has been my experience and observation that many churches see their most substantial growth not by salvations but by transfers—by slowly drawing people from a variety of other nearby congregations. This was certainly and demonstrably true of the church growth movement but I fear it may also be true of Reformed churches.

We need to acknowledge that there are often very good reasons for transfer growth. Perhaps a family has moved from one city to another or perhaps a church they attended nearby has decided to close its doors. Perhaps they were true believers who realized they were in a false church and for the sake of their souls needed to move on. Or perhaps a core theological conviction changed and they decided they needed to politely slip away. Well and good.

More often, though, Christians move from church to church on the basis of matters that are less significant. They move because their previous church lacks a certain amenity or ministry. They move because they prefer the preaching or the music. They move because of relatively minor points of doctrine. They move on the basis of preference more than necessity.

I am not saying this is necessarily wrong. It’s possible that most of us have at one time or another left a church not because it was false or heretical but because another one seemed like it would better serve us or better align with our convictions. So I am not saying transfer growth is intrinsically evil.

But what I am saying is that it can be deceptive and can mimic a sign of health. Therefore, a church should check itself from time to time to consider the nature of its growth. That’s because a church can gain size and, therefore, have an appearance of health even when it is evangelistically lazy and disobedient. It can be a church that grows and thrives at the expense of other churches rather than a church that grows by saving the lost.

God’s Kingdom doesn’t grow when we transfer members from that church to this one. We wouldn’t think much of the farmer who boasted of the size of his flock if we knew he had been hauling them over the top of the neighbor’s fence. We wouldn’t honor the angler who catches fish from a stocked pond when he claims he has been catching them from wild rivers.

We wouldn’t think much of the farmer who boasted of the size of his flock if we knew he had been hauling them over the top of the neighbor’s fence.Share

What I fear we like to do in Reformed churches is cast our line into other church’s ponds. We cast it this way to draw a Presbyterian, cast it that way to draw a Baptist, and cast it a third way to lure someone who is Anglican, Brethren, or Dutch Reformed. We save people from the clutches of Arminius as much as the clutches of Satan and deliver them from the wrong position on the millennium more than from unbelief. We lure them with our worship or ministries or theological distinctions rather than the gospel. We entice them based on our adherence to whatever is popular in a Christian subculture at any given time—hymnody, liturgy, expository preaching, gospel-centeredness, and so on. We build our churches out of other churches.

Again, this is not necessarily wrong. A person who comes to embrace the Five Points should probably make their way to a Reformed church. A person who embraces cessationism will probably need to leave a church that is committed to prophecy. And then there is depth to the Reformed faith that is often lacking in other traditions and therefore attractive to those who have begun to grow in their faith. We understand this. But the church receiving such new members should be aware that they have not delivered souls from death but merely helped existing Christians mature.

The fact is, growing through transfers can mimic growing through evangelism. And if the Reformed tradition already struggles with faithfully sharing the gospel compared to many others—and I think it does—we need to doubly guard ourselves against being content to add members without baptisms, to add seats without salvations, to grow without evangelism.

The Apostle Paul refused to build on another person’s foundation, but we sometimes delight to. We take it as a mark of a healthy church that people want to join it and that may be true. But we cannot be truly healthy unless we are fulfilling the Great Commission which is not a call to go to the churches but to the nations and not a call to glean among the sheaves but to glean in the farthest of fields.

Good morning from Kansas City. This is a good time of year to escape the cold and snow of Toronto, but sadly it’s not much better here!

If you’re wondering what new books are coming out, Westminster Books has deals on pre-orders for some of the best of them.

Today’s Kindle deals include books on marriage, politics, Revelation, and more.

“As parents we’re always in the business of striking a balance between permission and caution. We want to be wise in the things that we allow our children to experience in life because, let’s face it, the world can be a scary place.” Yet it’s important you don’t allow your fears to hold your kids back.

I think what Trevin writes here is extremely important. “Here’s one of the the under-discussed realities behind the infighting and controversies we see in churches, denominations, and networks today: we’ve yet to learn how to coexist and do ministry together in a digital age.”

You’ll enjoy reading about “full-circle prayers.” Be sure to look for them in your own life!

Mitch writes about Deuteronomy 29:29 and those things that God keeps secret.

David explains some of what he has learned about building habits that last. He says, “If there’s anything I’ve learned about building habits over the years, it’s this: frequency is more important than length.”

Wyatt Graham takes a deep look at John Mark Comer’s view of God and expresses some key concerns. “Comer himself writes and teaches without tying himself to any specific tradition. As he says in Practicing the Way, a Jesuit priest functions as his spiritual life director. Thus, it’s no surprise he regularly cites a potpourri of Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant or evangelical sources to explain God. Yet he does so without demonstrating a keen understanding of the doctrine of God each of those traditions presents. The result is a doctrine that feels as eclectic as his citations do.”

I have learned that I should pursue friendships out of love for my family. I am a better husband to my wife and a better father to my children when I have meaningful friendships with others.

Regardless of what we think or feel, there is no authentic worship of God without a right knowledge of God.
—Bob Kauflin

I am off to Kansas City today—a very brief visit to speak at MBTS. I hope to meet some of you there!

There was a huge list of Kindle deals yesterday and there is another good one today. Have at it!

I love the videos from the John 10:10 project. The latest one looks at penguins.

And speaking of birds, here’s at why Jesus spoke about birds when he told us how to combat anxiety. “Imagine waking up each morning with a constant knot in your stomach, worrying about what the day will bring—will you have a job, will you have enough, will you measure up, or will things fall apart? For many, the imagination is not necessary; this is your reality. Well, you’re not alone in this.”

Rachel considers her experience as a schoolteacher in relation to Jesus’ love for children. “Hugs galore. The other day I was curious, wondering how many hugs I get from my 2nd graders on average. I was thinking maybe ten or fifteen, but I was wrong. Aim a little higher and you will hit the target of 20-30 hugs per day.”

I enjoyed this look at the bread motif we find throughout the Bible. “I feel like this is a biblical theme—along with its counterpart of wine—which is not considered often enough. There are few ‘biblical theologies’ which consider hospitality as one of the primary threads of the Bible. Fewer which chart bread and wine as key signs, symbols, metaphors, and ‘meanings you can eat’ throughout the Bible’s story. We should probably publish some more.”

“What about the ordinary and mundane tasks of the homemaker? Can they possibly be more than they are? the making of breakfasts, of lunches and dinners, the folding of laundry, wiping of counters, changing of diapers, the picking up, and the dropping off. Can these have meaning beyond the day after day ‘sameness?’”

Kendra Kammer explains some of what she has learned about leading a women’s ministry.

‘I cannot come’ is the alleged reason, but ‘I will not come’ is the real one; for when the heart is true the duties of the farm never interfere with the privileges of the feast, nor is it ever found that there is any necessary antagonism between family joys and the joy of the Lord.

The best way of manifesting our affection to our friends is by praying and giving thanks for them.
—Matthew Henry

Good morning. Grace and peace to you.

It’s a holiday here in Canada (as well as in the US, as I understand it). So I’m taking it easy by posting only A La Carte today instead of also posting a new article.

Today’s Kindle deals include a lot of different books that range across many different publishers, authors, and topics.

Mark Vance offers some guidance for those whose dating relationship has begun online. “Whether the couples first ‘meet’ each other on Instagram or pursue a relationship through a dating app, our digital world is reshaping how we date and whom we marry. As I counsel those seeking to wisely navigate online dating, I offer a few principles to guide them.”

“I have worshiped a bag of chips. I have also worshiped a bowl of yogurt with the right number of macros. I have worshiped an hour of uninterrupted sleep. I have worshiped a number on the scale.  I have worshiped a number in my bank account. … And on and on the list goes.”

What a tragic and misguided statistic! “For every American who believes they’re going to Hell, there are 120 who believe they’re going to Heaven.”

“Unconfessed sin causes more damage inside us than simple regret or guilt. No matter how staunchly defended or tightly guarded, it poisons our thoughts and skews our perspective.”

We are accustomed to saying that face-to-face communication is necessarily superior to the alternatives, but Mikey Lynch offers a few cases in which that may not be true. Church leaders should take note.

Dan writes about a few of the sins we may be tempted to ignore or justify.

Where are you tempted to lower your guard? Where are you allowing the world just a crack into your heart and your mind? This may be the means through which you are being conformed to the world.

Unless God is rightly taught and highly honored, our ministries are nothing more than glorified babysitting services.
—Sam Luce & Hunter Williams

People of all faiths pray. Some pray to gods, some to ancestors, some to nature, and some to the universe, but all speak out words, all utter desires, all hope to be heard. But Christians pray differently and Christians pray confidently, for we pray to a Father. We alone “have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15). Jesus taught us to begin our prayers with the precious words “Our Father.”

This changes everything about the way we pray, for we are not appealing to an impersonal universe or a powerless rock. We are not appealing to an ancestor who has already lived and died and returned to the dust. We are not appealing to a deity who is cold and indifferent to us. We are not appealing to a god who has no interest and no time. Rather, we are spending quality time with a Father—a gracious Father who “in love… predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace” (Ephesians 1:4-6).

As H.B. Charles reminds us, “Prayer is not a scheduled appointment with a busy executive. It is quality time with a loving Father.”

I’m grateful to B&H for sponsoring the blog this week to tell you about their new Church History Handbook. It’s a beautiful and informative book so be sure to give it a look!

Today’s Kindle deals include a few commentaries and other good books.

(Yesterday on the blog: Keep Calm and Stay Friends)

Even one bitter thought can have great power. “A weed starts off very small, just like any other plant. It may seem harmless in the beginning but if a weed is never properly dealt with, it has potential to destroy a whole garden. A bitter thought starts the same.”

The Gettys and Sandra McCracken have just released a rewritten and lengthened adaptation of “Here Is Love, Vast as the Ocean.” I think you’ll enjoy it!

I really appreciate what Kyle Borg says here about polemics. “One of the most embarrassing moments of my life happened when I was a new seminary student. I had scheduled lunch with one of my professors, excited to talk theology and ask about preaching. As I got into his car and was buckling up, he said in his strong Scottish accent, ‘Kyle, I’ve seen how you interact on social media. If there were a degree for being argumentative, you’d be at the top of the class.’ I wanted to run, but the car was already moving, and I was stuck.”

“Suffering disrupts the normal. We feel disruption even in the small things like taking care of your children becoming taking care of their gravesite. The route toward their grave replaces the once familiar route to their school or sports field. Seeing their friends and the ones they are close to swaps with passing by the names of the other headstones that are now the ones close to your kiddo.”

Leonardo De Chirico has written an e-book on the Roman Catholic year of Jubilee. It is available as a free download from Gospel-Centered Discipleship. I was glad to write a brief foreword for it.

Casey shares “two insights that have helped me immensely in my own battle with temptation.” They are helpful insights.

…on those hard days when I face a list of many tasks, or on those days when I know I have to accomplish my least-favorite tasks, I challenge myself to simply love. To do is to love, to procrastinate is to fail to love.

The gospel is not wishful thinking. It’s not just optimistic or sentimental uplift. It’s the announcement of a fact.
—Michael Horton

This weeks giveaway is sponsored by B&H Publishing. They are giving away 3 sets of the Holman Handbook Series. Each set will include the Old Testament Handbook, New Testament Handbook, and the forthcoming Church History Handbook.

Why is history important? Most people rarely pause to consider this. Perhaps without realizing it, some have been conditioned to esteem the study of history as legitimate for reasons they cannot identify. Maybe it’s for the sake of preserving the human legacy for posterity. Maybe it’s because of a sense of patriotism and heritage for a given country or culture. Or maybe it’s mainly for the sake of meeting societal standards of what it means to be an educated and well-rounded individual. Many, however, will cite the famous George Santayana quote: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  

While there is some validity to these reasons, we as Christians should approach the study of the past with an even more reverent mindset. If God is the Creator and Sustainer of the world, then he is also Lord of history, the one who declares “the end from the beginning and from long ago what is not yet done” and who says, “My plan will take place, and I will do all my will” (Isa 46:10). In short, history is coherent and meaningful because of God.  

The history of the church is both the history of God’s faithfulness and the history of our waywardness, much like the history of Israel that we find in the OT. Though beyond the book of Acts we do not possess a supernaturally inspired record of the church’s “warts and all” experiences and contributions, we nonetheless can learn from the records we have by measuring them according to Scripture. We will make mistakes like those who came before us, but the same God who preserved His people in the past will continue to preserve His people into the future.  

Accordingly, the contents of the Church History Handbook are intended to serve as a means to the end that is the Great Commission, namely, the preservation and empowerment of God’s people for their God-given mission of proclaiming the truth of the gospel to the world. By equipping the church in the present to learn from her past, we set her up to remain faithful into the future. As we study church history, may God be glorified in the church throughout all generations.  

“Now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us—to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Eph 3:20–21).  

To celebrate the release of the Church History Handbook, we would like to give away three sets of the Holman Handbook Series. Enter for your chance to win a 3-volume set of the Holman Handbook Series including the Old Testament, New Testament, and Church History Handbooks. The three winners will receive their copies once the Church History Handbook becomes available for shipping (after 4/15/25). Entries are limited to North America.