Elders

Error message

Warning isn't easy...

We think we don't need warnings, but we do. Just like the Christians pastored by the Apostle Paul in the decadent Roman Empire, we need our pastors warning us house to house, day and night, with tears.

But we have no patience for it. Transfer us to Ephesus under the pastoral care of the Apostle Paul and listen to us whine. "Why does he want to meet with me? I don't need to meet with him. If he has something to say, he can text me. Has my wife been talking to his wife? Why can't she keep her big mouth shut?"

We want a reputation for authentic spirituality and deep theological insight, so we update and tweet spiritual-sounding quotes that make it seem as if...


Stone Gate Ministries: pastoral care for sinners...

Harry Schaumburg and Brian Bunn invited a group of pastors and elders up to Port Washington, Wisconsin, this past week. Harry is the author of two classic books written to help Christians on the road of repentance for sexual sin. The books titled False Intimacy and Undefiled are an extension of the one-week Biblical intensive counselling program Harry provides...


The good father: a church with Biblical discipline...

We've been saying that a father does nothing more important for his children than choosing a church. But our culture presses us into the mold of individualism, so Christians have come to think of religion as "just me and Jesus" with the church a sort of religious social club. But get this: across history, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, and Protestants have all been in agreement that the Church is essential for salvation.

This is typical of what Roman Catholics say. It's from their 1997 Catechism:

All salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body.

Reformed baptists and presbyterians say the same. This is from our most loved doctrinal standard... 


Fatherhood, authority, and longevity in one church...

Growing up, the Baylys had only three churches and the Taylors simply one. Soon after they were married, my parents moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts where they made Boston’s Park Street Church their home. Some years later when they moved to Philly and made Blue Church their home. Fifteen or so years later they moved to Chicago and made College Church their home. It was College Church where Mary Lee and I met. From the forties when Dad and Mom Taylor moved to Wheaton, College Church has always been the Taylors home—right up to this present day. At ninety-nine years old, Mom and her two children who live in Wheaton faithfully attend worship there each Lord’s Day. (Also a number of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.)

In other words, neither the Baylys nor the Taylors ever changed churches unless a move required it. Think about that for a second. How long have you submitted to your present church?

You’re a bit surprised I put the question that way, aren’t you? “Submit” to a church? Few of us think in these terms...


You blew it...

We had our largest attendance at a pastors conference yet, this year. Over a hundred and it was a joy to be together, although the work was hard. So this post doesn't come out of disappointment in our numbers.

Sometimes a pastor needs to say to his people, "you blew it."

So, permit me to say to those of you who should have been here for the conference on child abuse and incest, you blew it. And I'll go further than that: it's my conviction that some of you didn't attend, not because you thought the conference wouldn't be helpful, but because you knew it would be. You're a pastor, elder, elder's wife, or women's ministry director and you simply didn't want to spend time thinking about how best to discover and minister to those children in your congregation who are being raped by their father, uncle, brother, or molested by their sister. 

It's easier not to know, isn't it?

Well, you can take a mulligan...


Sexual Abuse in the Church: conference audio available...

Here's the audio from our 2016 Shepherds Conference, "The Enemy Within: A Conference on Sexual Abuse in the Church." I'd particularly recommend "Recognizing Sexual Abuse" and "Shepherding the Sexually Abused."

Please let us know any criticisms or suggestions you have for us. We'll be doing a similar conference next year on the church's ministry to those suffering the gay/lesbian/transexual/BruceJenner/bisexual temptations. Here's the conference title and dates:

Not Ashamed: Gospel ministry in a post-Obergefell world

February, 15-17, 2017

Here then are the audio files for this year's conference on the sexual abuse of the church's children...


Why women are being encouraged to attend The Enemy Within: Sexual Abuse in the Church...

This year we hope women will attend our February 17-19, 2016 conference, The Enemy Within: Sexual Abuse in the Church. Previous years we called this conference a "Pastors Conference" or "Church Officers Conference," and only men attended—men who are officers and men who aspire to holding office in the Church.

This year, though, our subject demands the most intense work and wisdom on the part of pastors, elders, and deacons, and that work cannot be done and that wisdom cannot be gained without the help of wise women of the church, including officers' wives. So we've opened up registration, not just to the wives of pastors, elders, and deacons, but also to women, single or married, who obey the command of God given in Titus 2:3-5, to serve the church by "teaching what is good."

My wife Mary Lee and I will be talking about the necessity and helpfulness of church officers working with Titus 2 women in the protection of children of the church. If elders and pastors don't have...


The Enemy Within: Are you registered, yet?

Conference information.

Conference registration.

How many souls are suffering incest, child molestation, and other forms of sexual violence in your own family and church without you realizing it or helping them?

In our culture of sexual wickedness, we are missing opportunities to show the love of Jesus Christ to the least of these burdened with shame, tormented by fear, and distrustful of authority. When they suffered, no one in their church knew the signs of incest. No one heard their cries for help. No one protected them.

Your church has men and women, boys and girls who are suffering because of present and past incest and child abuse.

Do you know who they are? Do you know...


Child abuse: I'm for grace!

...each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.”  - 1Corinthians 1:12, 13

So, apparently, the sin of some in the Corinthian church was saying "I am of Christ."

A year and a half ago, I was talking with a Presbyterian counselor who was counseling an older single man who had physically and sexually abused several young men under his authority. Despite this predator's pastor and several of his elders a decade ago knowing of the specifics of his abuse of one victim, they had allowed the man to keep his job on the staff of their Presbyterian church where he continued to have young men under his authority. When his corruption of his first victim ten years ago became known, his pastor and several of his elders had refused to ask other young men under this man's leadership if he had abused them, also; nor had they warned them.

Now, the church's pastor and elders were finally having their noses shoved into the sins they and their predecessors had worked hard to avoid. They were finding out their church staff worker had abused more than the one man who had been known. Two more victims had come forward and were calling the church's session to acknowledge their past failures and bring this ministry leader under discipline and I was hoping to get the counselor to help with that process.

In our initial conversation, this counselor said he was...


Concerning the open letter of the session of Christ Church, Moscow: a retraction...

Two days ago, with my wife I posted a statement titled "Christ Church's open letter is pastorally wise..." in support of an open letter issued by the pastors and elders of Christ Church, Moscow, in connection with a member of their congregation named Steven Sitler. Since posting our statement, though, Mary Lee and I have learned more details which have led us to conclude our prior statement was precipitous and should not have been published. We apologize and have removed the statement from Baylyblog...


Trial by celebrity...

Paul Tripp just made a public pronouncement that Pastor Tullian Tchividjian "has filed for divorce." Paul goes on to say he agrees it is time for Tully to "move on."

A short time ago Paul made a public pronouncement about Pastor Mark Driscoll, Acts 29, and Mars Hill Church. A little later he made a public pronouncement about Pastor Tullian Tchividjian and Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church. Now he makes a public pronouncement about Pastor Tchividjian filing for divorce and the breakup of the Tchividjian family. Here is Paul in his role as the sole proprietor of what he promotes as "Paul Tripp Ministries, Inc." making judgments without any reference to the courts of Christ's Church.

Such things should never happen. They are a reflection of the displacement of the Church by religious corporations and the celebrities who own them. For the record, here is a screenshot of Paul's corporate web site and the pronouncement he published there...


Brian Prentiss has not actually been hidden in a closet...

Under the post, "Intown's Brian Prentiss comes out of the closet...," one reader asked, "How long before the PCA ends up in the same slough of despond, and heaven knows what else, that has claimed most of the PCUSA?"

Since the PCA is a largely southern denomination, her failures will always lag behind other denominations, and her wealth will give it a better face than most. But she'll have to stop giving northern liberal churches/pastors a pass despite knowing disciplining them won't get good press. At this time the PCA's failures aren't even in the same ballpark as the PC(USA). At this time.

The troubling thing is that the PCA is following the same path the PC(USA) and her predecessor denominations followed in trusting famous men of wealth and influence rather than following little boys named "David" with just a slingshot who are determined to slay the giant using "only" the means of grace: discipline, from the least formal private discussion and exhortation all the way to heresy trials.

In this context of Intown, Pastor Prentiss has been giving signs of heterodoxy for years and I'm guessing nothing has been done by anyone on any faithful personal level. That's the norm within PCA presbyteries. We don't want to deal with men individually through private remonstrance and exhortation and rebuke, and that for a whole host of reasons including...


The Church is responsible for Obergefell v. Hodges, and now we must get it right...

With our Clearnote Fellowship Conference a few hours away, I won't have much time the next few days to engage with this issue, but I've had some nagging thoughts as I've read the debates going on among church officers in the wake of Obergefell v. Hodges.

Any stand Christians take in opposition to the enforcement of Obergefell v. Hodges across the nation must be in light of God's Creation Order in its entirety. If we single out sodomy as the place we draw the line of civil disobedience concerning sexuality, we must ask ourselves why there? Is it really because sodomy has taken our culture to a whole new level of rebellion against God? Yes, but also no...


A judge judges righteously and is judged for it...

Here in Toledo, Municipal Court Judge C. Allen McConnell seeks to perform his duties in accord with his Christian faith...and he says so, forthrightly in the midst of a ruckus caused by his declining to "marry" a lesbian couple. 

As can be expected, many are incensed by his nonconformity:

Although the initial motivation for McConnell's refusal was vague, his subsequent statement not only makes clear the religious motivation for his abdication of duty, but also indicates that he plans to continue seeking some sort of "religious exemption" from performing the duties required by his title.

Please keep Judge McConnell in your prayers. He is not only a professing Christian he is an elder within what appears to be a Bible-believing church...


Holy Living, Holy Dying...

CNF_Site-Banner_PastConf2015-2.jpg

Brothers, when the subject was chosen for this year's church officers and pastors' conference, we knew it would be a hard-sell. If American culture hides death, why would we pastors be any different? We don't want to go to a conference on death and dying. We look at Jeremy Taylor's Holy Dying1 and wonder who on earth came up with that title? Surely not the marketing department!

And if I tell you the book was published back in the late sixteen-hundreds and is one of the all-time best-sellers of Christian devotional works, we smack your foreheads and exclaim, "Well that explains it! Lots of people died back then. What was their life expectancy—like thirty-five years? They had to talk about death and dying, but today we live in a happier time and pastors conferences shouldn't depress me. I need encouragement! Life is hard! Serving a church is hard!"

So why did the Puritan pastor, Jeremy Taylor, title his classic Holy Dying?

Because Puritan pastors used to spend themselves...


A warning for teachers...

[In Adam's] body there was no defect, wherefore he was wholly free from death. ...Death, therefore, is now a terror to us; first, because there is a kind of annihilation, as it respects the body; then, because the soul feels the curse of God. We must also see what is the cause of death, namely alienation from God. Thence it follows, that under the name of death is comprehended all those miseries in which Adam involved himself by his defection; for as soon as he revolted from God, the fountain of life, he was cast down from his former state, in order that he might perceive the life of man without God to be wretched and lost, and therefore differing nothing from death. Hence the condition of man after his sin is not improperly called both the privation of life, and death. - Calvin on Genesis 2:16, 17

Death is a terror. Whether physical or spiritual, death is evil.

It is almost incomprehensible that a post making the case that death is evil would need to be written, but as long as there are teachers who claim that God would have used death prior to the Fall as population control, and as long as there are blog comments such as “There was death and decay in creation and in the garden of Eden prior to the fall. The biblical and scientific evidences are sufficient to know there is an appointed day for all things to die,” then an answer needs to be given.

Is physical death a normal part of God’s good creation from the beginning?


The blood is on our hands...

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, I'm a Republican. - Joe Sobran

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me a thousand times, I'm a pastor. - Soe Jobran

The news today from the national level is that the men and women of the Republican Party in Congress have backed down on their late-term abortion bill because they don't want to alienate female voters. The news today from our own Indiana state level is that a certain bill written to protect the unborn children of Indiana from being murdered by their parents is being treated with diffidence by the committee chairman because he and other Republicans don't want the wrath of Planned Parenthood to descend on them.

Now listen, these men and women—the Republicans, that is—are mostly publicly confessing Christians and therefore have pastors, elders, deacons, and older Titus 2 women who are called by God to admonish and rebuke and exhort and encourage them. But you and I know that their pastors, let alone elders, deacons, and Titus 2 women, will say nothing to them about their cowardice—about their selling out unborn children in order to stay in office. If the Church of Jesus Christ in these United States of America desired to stop the mass slaughter of unborn children; if we desired to see the bloodshed of little ones by their mothers end; if we feared God's judgement on our nation...


Homosexuality and effeminacy: Roman Catholics vs. Presbyterians...

The man at the top of the Roman Catholic Church calls himself "Francis," and since he assumed the Papal throne he's done everything possible to show himself a man of the people, a populist. Soon after his election he was questioned about a mafia of gay priests in his castle, the Vatican,1 and he responded, "Who am I to judge?" Perfect pitch among the postmoderns.

Francis's predecessor, Benedict, spoke very differently about lesbianism and sodomy. It wasn't his thing to ingratiate himself and pander to the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah, but rather to love them; to pastor them, calling them to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Prior to being elected Pope and changing his name to Benedict XVI, Joseph Ratzinger was the cardinal presiding over the Vatican's Congregation for the Sacred Doctrine of the Faith. In that capacity he issued the very helpful Christian witness concerning homosexuality...


My bad: on making theological retractions

“My bad,” is a pretty common expression when playing pick-up basketball. If you make an errant pass or let your man drive around you or lose the ball off the dribble, the standard way to acknowledge your error is simply to say to your teammates, “my bad.”

Contrary to Erich Segal, marriage means always having to say you’re sorry. Segal wrote this inanity because, as Sir Elton John puts it, "'sorry seems to be the hardest word." To say "my bad" to my wife is hard, but repentance is the privilege of the Christian and God has set things up so that "my bad" and "sorry" are a necessary part of the grease that keeps a marriage running smoothly.

In marriage, "sorry” can cover a whole multitude of issues, all the way from putting the wrong piece of clothing in the dryer to dropping a plate to an angry outburst.  But … How does a pastor or theologian say "sorry" or "I was wrong?" And if you’re a published author, it gets even more complicated.

I remember one time hearing a pastor …