by ernie | Sep 5, 2019 | Standfast Cast
Ultimately, discipleship always points people to something beyond themselves AND even beyond the person doing the discipling. Throughout the New Testament, Paul repeatedly said, “Follow me, as I follow Christ.” That is, “Look at me, yes. I’ll...
by ernie | Aug 26, 2019 | Standfast Blog
The great Scottish pastor, social reformer, educator, author, and scientist Thomas Chalmers was born on March 17, 1780 at Anstruther on the Fife coast. His father was a prosperous businessman in the town and Thomas grew up as the sixth in a large family of fourteen...
by ernie | Jul 15, 2019 | Standfast Blog
My Dear Twaddle-Tweeze: Good intentions! I’ll never cease to remind you that the road to Perdition lined with these. I realize that ambitious amateur tempters would rather conspire spectacular scandals. But particularly when it comes to...
by ernie | Jul 1, 2019 | Standfast Blog
Like modern art, or an avant garde poem, or the latest haute fashions, secularism has always been hard to define. Though often pronounced with algebraic lucidity, its topsy-turvy logic is often as unintelligible as the dog-Latin of monkish hexameters. In...
by ernie | Jun 10, 2019 | Standfast Blog
If Charles Haddon Spurgeon is justly known as the “Prince of Preachers,” then with equal justice Richard Baxter ought to be considered the “Prince of Pastors.” According to J.I. Packer, Baxter was “incomparable” in his zeal...
by ernie | May 27, 2019 | Standfast Blog
Bethel is the symbol of communion with God; Ai is the symbol of the world. Abraham pitched his tent between the two.” My Utmost, January 6 It was nearly half a century ago that I began to make my way through the classic, My Utmost for His Highest. It was the...
by ernie | May 20, 2019 | Standfast Blog
By the thirteenth century, the West’s idealistic wars against a fearsome Islamic threat had failed ignobly; its stagnating economy had cast a pall of depression across the once prosperous and thriving land; its national and political leaders reveled in pomp,...
by ernie | Apr 22, 2019 | Standfast Blog
There is nothing quite as effective in ministry as fellowship around the table. In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, nurturing genuine covenant community is no easy task. Missional and relational rootedness requires deliberateness and intentionality. ...
by ernie | Mar 25, 2019 | Standfast Blog
The heroine of My Fair Lady, Eliza Doolittle, captured the sentiment of most of us when she complained: “Words, words, words—I am so sick of words. I get words all day through, first from him, now from you. Is that all you blighters can...
by ernie | Feb 21, 2019 | Standfast Cast
In this episode we outline six things your church can do to end poverty. 1. Develop a robust deacons ministry Elders work with words, deacons work with their hands. We need to keep the two unconfused, and make sure we do both. Notably, this ministry should begin on a...
by ernie | Feb 14, 2019 | Standfast Cast
We continue our conversation on the poor and needy among us with a quote from In The Shadow of Plenty: “The church has largely failed her widows her orphans, her elderly, and her ill and informed. The church has largely failed to disciple young men to live lives...
by ernie | Dec 10, 2018 | Standfast Blog
When I was in seminary, the “Church Growth Movement” was just getting its sea legs. So, of course, it was all the rage in the hallowed halls of academia—if not amongst the profs, most assuredly amongst their charges. Filled with...