Posts by Liberty Church of Christ
We Ought to Be a Most Thankful People
It has become my own Thanksgiving tradition to print historical Thanksgiving Proclamations in this space. The American Presidency Project at the University of California-Santa Barbara has collected all of them for anyone to read; if this sort of thing interests you, I encourage you to check them out. I find historical Thanksgiving Proclamations to be interesting with the insights they provide into the times in which they were issued. While perusing that database, I cam across this lesser-known example from…
A Note from the South Pacific
We were privileged to have our brother Rod Kyle, the missionary we support in New Zealand, report to us on Wednesday evening. Many of you were unable to be here for that, so I thought it might be good to include an excerpt from the latest email he sent us from earlier in the summer right before he left on his tour of the US to report. Barbara emails these to everyone when they come in, but it could be…
Fear-Based Discipleship in the Churches of Christ
I have written and preached on this topic more than once since I have been here. But this article by Jack Wilkie, published this week, was so on point I wanted you to read it too. It’s length barely allows it to fit here, but it is worth your attention. As always, I encourage you to check out his substack, “Church Reset.” -BP “ I just hope I’ve done enough to get in to heaven.” Every time I hear an…
Once More Upon a Pew
I published this in the bulletin here before, a little over 3 years ago. But in thinking about our call for Bible class teachers (and Bible class attendance!), it came to my mind again. Of course, it goes beyond just Bible class—with restarting our Wednesday evening services this summer, our new Sunday night routine, and numerous other opportunities for service as we try to reengage after an unusual last 18 months, there are constant announcements made and items in the…
9 Excuses People Make for Not Going to Church
I didn’t really know what I wanted to say this week here. I almost left it blank just to see who noticed. But then I stumbled upon this article by Wes McAdams that touches on some things I’ve been thinking about more directly (read: less passive-aggressively). Think about it. -BP I don’t like the phrase, “Going to church.” It makes people think “church” is simply an event to attend, rather than who we are every day of the week. That…
Disciples Aren’t Made on Sunday
This is another article recently published by Jack Wilke. It is actually an excerpt from his book, “Church Reset,” which we used in a Bible class here a few years ago. I wanted to print it in this space because it goes hand in hand with our current sermon series on building real community in the church. If you missed that class, consider buying the book and reading it for yourself—it has some excellent insights. -BP There’s a reason Jesus…
Are You Christian, or Christian-ish?
I read this new article on Jack Wilkie’s “Church Reset” substack a couple of weeks ago and knew immediately I wanted to share it here (and would have then if I did not already have something written). It neatly encapsulates some of the very same concerns that I have talked about before. As always, I encourage you to check out his page for more excellent content. -BP Are you Christian, or Christian-ish? What’s the difference? The Christian-ish is a phenomenon…
The Church of Christ and World-Powers
We celebrated Independence Day earlier this week. While we often reflect on the Founding Fathers of our nation at this time, I also think it is valuable for us to occasionally contemplate what our spiritual forebears might teach us.. David Lipscomb was the editor of the Gospel Advocate for more than 50 years in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Fittingly, we have for your consideration his views on the relationship between Christians and the civil government, a topic…
Proverbs 22:6 Re-Examined
In light of Father’s Day being celebrated this Sunday, I thought it might be beneficial to publish this excellent post from Wes McAdams on a passage that a lot of people seem to struggle with. When we interpret it rightly, I think there is great insight for all parents and other influential figures in a child’s life here. This is part of a whole series of posts reexamining well known Scriptures; I encourage you to check it out along with…
How to Know if Your Love of Sports Has Become Idolatry
For most of my life it’s been rare to meet someone who is a bigger sports fan than me. As a kid, I played what must have been thousands of hours of hockey and joined in basketball, football, and baseball games every chance I got. Once I outgrew the competing phase of my life, the consuming phase took up an even bigger portion of my time. I’m one of those guys who could recount decades of Super Bowl, World Series,…
The Dead Will Be Raised
Consider this article on where the resurrection of the dead fits into the gospel from Wes McAdams’ blog “Radically Christian.” As always, I recommend you go check out the entire site. -BP When modern Christians teach people the Gospel, we typically begin by trying to convince them they have a problem about which they are blissfully unaware. We try to teach them that their biggest problem is, “God is angry with you and will soon punish you forever.” In reality,…
Rebaptism?
This week, Focus Press’s podcast, “Think Deeper,” tackled the issue of when someone is ready to be baptized and ancillary topics. Among those was the subject of rebaptism. That got me thinking about this area; we just published an article in this space a few weeks ago dealing with what a person needs to know prior to baptism, so it seemed good to deal with rebaptism in particular. Many of you have heard me speak about this over the years,…