All Blog Posts (87)

In October of 2004 I (Jim) attended my first Glorious Church Conference. I had been discussing, reading and studying biblical eldership but needed a little more information and to see where others were at in this process.

Process? Yes, the process of going from being a solo/single pastor to becoming an elder led assembly. After leaving the Conference I went home and shared with the other men what I learned, and we started Elder Training in January of 2005.

The…

Part of my prayer this morning was probably like most christians: there was a desire to become more like Jesus. While praying this, the thought occurred to me, just what am I asking for? Then I took some time to meditate on what could the answer of this prayer entail.



It is a common theme today for many individuals to write, blog and preach about how the…

For a recent conference, I was asked to be one of the members of a panel discussion, our topic was: The Church in the 21st Century. A lofty theme for a two-hour dialogue.

In preparation, I spent much time ruminating on what has been written about the current church situation and what is seen as biblical models of a New Testament church. The following is a few thoughts I jotted down. Now they are not a complete dissertation, but I think, they are…

So I have finished the makeover on this house and we now have it on the market. To help make the sale, a key step is to stage the house. The idea of staging is to place furniture, pictures and decorations in key places to give the prospective buyer an idea of how they could arrange the house. When done correctly, you find they will begin to discuss how their furniture would fit in the particular room.



One of the components of staging is the outside, particularly the front door:…

This post is a response to the entry for Acts 2:38 in The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, Revised and Expanded, edited by Jerome H. Smith (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1992, pp. 1234-1235). 

Smith writes,

The English text does not adequately convey the grammar of this verse.  When the grammar is understood, the verse no longer can be used to support any view of baptismal regeneration or baptismal remission of sin.  The phrase "every one of you" is mistakenly…

The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it. ~James Bryce

The following is a list of the books that significantly impacted me in 2010. To reach this list, these books changed, clarified or reinforced my (new way of) thinking. Obviously, I do not agree with every word, but enough to recommend them.

Total Church – Chester & Timmis

What impacted me most regarding this book was their grasp on the holistic…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLmjVDQMQUs

We’ve just completed a weekend with Bro. Martin Schmaltz teaching on Apostolic Authority. I must say it has been very beneficial for our assembly. (We also had him in our home-group meeting on Sat. which was an additional blessing for all involved.) The teaching was outstanding and the Sunday night meeting brought some pleasant happenings as well. While there were quite a few that claimed…