In October 2003, Tiffany and I went on a tour of the Holy Land led by my father. During our time in Jerusalem, we visited the Upper Room, a site which commemorates the Last Supper and Day of Pentecost. (It is not the original Upper Room, however; it only dates from the twelfth century.) As the tour group crowded into this room, my dad made an interesting comment: “This was the last place the entire church was able to fit into one room.” Acts narrates the story of a great revival, beginning in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost and spiraling progressively outward to Asia Minor and Europe. Acts 1:15 tells us that there were 120 believers prior to the Day of Pentecost. On the … [Link]

I am doing some research about the American Flag and came across this letter. O, how I wish this could be said with certainty today.

Letter from a Navy Pilot -
Battle of Midway Anonymous The Fates have been kind to me. When you hear people saying harsh things about American youth, you will know how wrong they all are. So many times that now they have become commonplace, I've seen incidents that make me know that we were never soft, never weak.

Many of my friends are now dead. To a man, each died with a nonchalance that each would have denied was courage, but simply called a lack of fear and forgot the triumph. If anything great or good has been born of this …

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For those of you who were watching the news reports the last several months about the FLDS (Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints) controversy in Texas and envying their clothing style, you need envy no mo'.

Now, everyone and their brother/sister/daughter/wife/wife/w~ can purchase FLDS clothing for themselves. Maybe it's something to give your daughter on her 12th birthday. Then again, maybe not. Check it out here. [Link]

Cerulean Sanctum exists as a help for Christians who are seeking to experience the 1st century Church in 21st century America. From its inception in September of 2003, this blog has provided thousands of readers with support for their walk with Christ, comforting words in tough times, challenging essays on issues facing the American Church, and answers to difficult questions few are willing to ask. The number of Christian blogs today is an order of magnitude larger than when Cerulean Sanctum began, yet many blog readers continue to come here to find content rarely discussed elsewhere.

One of the unique aspects of Cerulean Sanctum is the readership. People from nearly every denomination in Christendom read this blog. Because the readers demand more than easy answers and …

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I joined facebook a week ago. Loving the connections and reconnections. Still trying to find my way around, but I just created a facebook group for anyone who has read In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day.

Trying to create a place to hear from readers and share lion chasing stories!

Lion Chasers Group. [Link]

As we drew to the close of the first segment of my interview with John Lanferman yesterday we began to speak about reformed charismatic churches. Today I begin by asking him if he believes there is a hunger for such churches in the USA. You can also download the audio of this interview.

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Adrian
Yeah, that’s so important, isn’t it? So as you look out over the nation, do you feel that there is a hunger in the US for these kind of churches, a desire to see them?

John
Absolutely. I think especially an emerging generation, the 20’s and 30’s generation, pretty much in the US left the church. But we’re seeing a lot of these people coming back into the church. In our own church, that … [Link]

Tonight people had come into the sanctuary and church was about to start and about 5 minutes before the start of service, it started hail storming like mad! It was crazy! Everyone ran outside to see it, in awe and wonder — and some were bringing pieces of hail back into the sanctuary. Yep, we're a different kind of church, I know. :-)

So I allowed about 5 extra minutes for this craziness hail watching and then started the service. Part of the issue with starting on time was the hailstorm was so loud it was hard to hear even with the volume up on the sound system. But it was fine. Made for another interesting night at Northside.

All of the worship songs were focused on …

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The Sonics will get to move to Oklahoma City for next year after paying a $45 million ransom for buying out the last two years on their lease and a extra $30m "in 2013 if the state Legislature in Washington authorizes at least $75 million in public funding to renovate KeyArena by the end of 2009 and Seattle doesn't obtain an NBA franchise of its own within the next five years."

Also, the SuperSonics name and logos stay in Seattle, much as the Cleveland Browns name and logos stayed in Cleveland when the old Browns became the Baltimore Ravens; unlike the Browns, it appears that the franchise records will move to Oklahoma, so that Kevin Durant doesn't become the career scoring leader of the Oklahoma City …

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We had our first salvation at our second preview service. I have this theory that every person represents a people group.  If you touch a person with the Gospel, it is possible to touch their whole realm of influence.  So when someone gets saved, we encourage them to immediately begin to work out their testimony and […] [Link]

Eight years, $400 million dollars. No, Baron Davis had to settle for 5 and $65 mil with the Clippers. Rush Limbaugh's the one getting the real bongo bucks for re-uping with Clear Channel.

Earnings now pace him ahead of the annual salaries for network news anchors: Katie Couric, Brian Williams, Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer — combined!

One thing that comes to mind with that big figure is that he is on the air for three hours a day as opposed to a half-hour a day with the network anchors. Not only does he draw people in, he draws them in for big chunks of time.

I’m not sure how much of a factor this is, but people who follow Rush will have one of …

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Melinda At Starbucks § 2.6.6 Coming back with my beverage and scone, I sat down. And while Melinda and I were talking, a man, grim-grinning and wearing a long black trench coat, hurried through the entrance. As he did, he passed through the corner of my vision. Then I heard some of the customers waiting in line making a noise of protest, and I glanced over to see what was happening. Melinda [Link]

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Here is an amazing article by Thomas Sowell that traces the significant reaction of France after WWI as it relates to the ideas of patriotism and pacifism. History is so critical to remember, lest we repeat its worst episodes! From the article:
“In France, after the First World War, the teachers’ unions launched a systematic purge of textbooks, in order to promote internationalism and pacifism.

Books that depicted the courage and self-sacrifice of soldiers who had defended France against the German invaders were called “bellicose†books to be banished from the schools.

Textbook publishers caved in to the power of the teachers’ unions, rather than lose a large market for their books. History books were sharply revised to conform to internationalism and pacifism.
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In Britain, Winston Churchill warned … [Link]

Here's an informed opinion and a great speech (3.5 minutes):

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The Lakeland Outpouring is hot. Not only is that obvious by the tens of thousands who’ve trekked to Florida from near and far, it’s just as evident by the heated responses you can get online these days by simply including words like Lakeland, Todd Bentley, outpouring, healing and revival in a blog. As meetings hit the three-month mark today, people are still asking the same question: “Is it really revival?†(For an answer to that, check out the upcoming issue of Ministry Today in September, which includes an array of opinions from seasoned revivalists and respected leaders.)

Yet equally as pronounced—and fascinating, in my opinion—are the virtual tongue-lashings you’re bound to get nowadays no matter how balanced (or unbalanced) you try to be with your comments … [Link]

My commenter Daron Medway has brought up the parable of the wheat and the weeds in Matthew 13 and how it relates to the issues concerning The Donatists, GAFCON, and the Todd Bentley critics. I refuse to use the traditional name “the wheat and the tares” for this parable because I have never heard the word “tares” used in any other context. Anyway, my preferred title “wheat and weeds” is not only alliterative but, by a happy chance of the modern English language, illustrates within itself one of the main points of the parable, that “wheat” and “weed” are indistinguishable except at the end, and even then only slightly distinct.

I was a bit reluctant to apply this parable to the situation in question because …

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If I recall correctly, college-age youth of the leisure class used to take a grand tour of Europe before heading off to college or careers. We may start to see 18 year old basketball phenoms do that as well.

Now that the NBA requires players to be a year out of high school before heading for the major-league hardwood, the norm for last two seasons was that the hot-shots that would have come straight out in years past get a year of college ball in before heading to the draft. So, last year, we saw Greg Odom take Ohio State to the title game rather than taking his game straight to the pros. This year,we got to see Michael Beasley, Derrick Rose and OJ Mayo get …

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Thoughts From Pastors Across America, Part 1 I felt it was time to put together a list of all the comments I have written down over the last seven or eight years that I have had the pleasure and honor of talking with pastors from across America and Canada. Mostly I wanted to do this to try to bring them all into one file, rather then a whole bunch of different files on my computer, but then the idea hit me that I should publish these great comments, as many of them are just way to good to leave only on my computer and in my own mind. Because of the type of conversations that I have with pastors, and the fact that pastors I speak …

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This may be more "pipe dream" than anything else, but I believe that the "lack of civility" in these United States is a serious national issue.

I can't remember a time in my short life (46+ years) when people have been more ugly, more rude, and less well-mannered than in current times.

I’d like to blame it on "global warming"–but that can't possibly be the reason.

I’d like to blame it on "poverty" and the "plight of the poor"–but that can't be it either. I was raised WAAAAY below the poverty line, and I have almost impeccable manners—or at least I think so.

Where did all the name-calling, blame-gaming, and obnoxious behavior (all of which we tend to tolerate under the mantle of "free expression") come from anyway? Who … [Link]

Happy birthday to Ken - the love of my life!

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When I was in college (Bethany Bible College), one of my mentors was a teacher by the name of Rick Howard. Rick prompted a group of us to get serious about our faith. To really focus on the kingdom. To think outside the box.

It made a profound impact upon me.

From Bethany, I transferred to Central Bible College from which I graduated. I took with me some of the ideas that Rick coached us on to the "Holy City," where I made new friends, friends who were being taught in the traditional atmosphere that CBC offers.

Ideas such as "koinoina", the church as a fellowship rather than a denomination and plurality of leadership were key points at that time.

Out of the group that I was in at … [Link]

Last Tuesday night I was going to sleep and was praying beforehand. Suddenly in the midst of my prayers, I sensed a voice say some really harsh things to me. The things were all about my personal relationship with God. It was very specific and left me feeling like I'd been punched in the stomach. Rehearsing shortcomings in our relationship was the point of the exchange and I went to sleep feeling filled with shame even though I repented. No, not shame as in shame for having done anything colossally (is that a word?) sinful lately, but just general shame for not being more diligent in my personal walk with the Lord.

Suffice it to say, I took a few deep breaths, stared into the darkness …

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…and it's not good for the most famous guest of the Hanoi Hilton-

While many are still deciding who should be president, by 52 percent to 45 percent they would prefer having Obama than McCain to their summer cookout, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll released Wednesday.

Men are about evenly divided between the two while women prefer Obama by 11 percentage points. Whites prefer McCain, minorities Obama. And Obama is a more popular guest with younger voters while McCain does best with the oldest.

In the last two elections, Dubya had that BBQ factor won over both Gore and Kerry and Bill Clinton had both Bush pere and Bob Dole beat for the favored party guest; Nixon was probably the last President …

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Mommy and Daddy and Trinity at a Rendezvous! Is the headband cute or what? We will be going to see them at the end of the week. A rural woman pastor ponders life and growth and purpose. [Link]

IMG Potluck, originally uploaded by Inner Metro Green.

We held our Tuesday night potluck last night, complete with Creme Brulee and blowtorches. That’s what happens when a chef from Philly (who lives in Lancaster City) joins your church! Thank you, Mark! You are awesome, bro.

IMG Potluck, originally uploaded by Inner Metro Green.
IMG Potluck, originally uploaded by Inner Metro Green.
IMG Potluck, originally uploaded by Inner Metro Green. [Link]

Interesting news from yesterday; Starbucks is slated to shutter 600 stores, just under 10% of its total 7100 stores. Starbucks may well have over-expanded, as many growing retailers will sometimes grow too fast and have to retrench.

However, $4/gallon gas makes $3.50/cup lattes problematic in people's budgets. The econ prof keeps screaming that Starbucks' joe is a luxury good that people with reduced buying power will look to do without. The rise in gas prices has put a modest squeeze on budgets, a previous post posited that a 31% rise in gas prices would make buying power go down 1.6%. Methinks that the average Starbucks denizen would be even more sensitive than average, being in their cars more (I have no good data on that, but …

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Neglect, Decay: Diligence, Glory!
The meeting was at an office building that was attractively designed and well built. The facade was a classy brick. The floors were a polished stone. The architect's design used large expanses of glass to bring light to the interior. But… close up, it became apparent that the owner either didn't have the money to maintain the building or the manager just didn't care about the upkeep. The landscaping was not trimmed, the grass grew uncut at the curbs. Inside, hand-lettered signs were stuck to the walls with tape. In the Men's room, a divider was attached to a marble wall with a plain galvanized bracket and ordinary screws. The towel dispenser was empty, a replacement roll carelessly set on the … [Link]

Today on the Studies page, I've consolidated two earlier blog posts regarding divine election in the Old Testament. When election is discussed, it is often not acknowledged that the concept originated in the Old Testament, and that Paul carried over this Old Testament understanding into his New Testament writings. I've covered divine election as it applies to Abraham (Paul's poster child for justification by faith) and the nation of Israel (elect as a group, able to drop out as individuals).

Check it out. [Link]

On Tuesday, November 4, 2008, Americans will elect a new president. He—perhaps one day, she—will take up residence in the White House on Tuesday, January 20, 2009, after Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. administers the oath of office. During the anticlimactic 77 days between election and inauguration, he will appoint staff and devise strategy so that he is adequately prepared to lead from the moment he ends his oath with George Washington’s words, “So help me, God!” The 40-day period between Jesus’ resurrection and ascension was only half as long as the election-inauguration period but infinitely more important. Jesus did not become the Commander in Chief of America for four years. He became Lord of the universe for eternity. But according to Darrell Bock, … [Link]

Of course, I'm speaking of our spiritual family–our brothers and sisters in Iraq. How are they doing? Why does the Christian media rarely tell us how they are doing, and merely focus on the actions of the American troops, the vast majority of which, of course, are unbelievers?

Well, thanks to the secular media, we know a little bit. Here is a NYTimes article that tells us that Christians are having to pay for their lives. Also, here is a report from 60 Minutes.

Please pray for them. Our tax dollars and love of empire has made their lives a living hell. [Link]

Any military commander worth his salad will tell you the key to battle is to neutralize threats. Whether  by outright attack, supply line disruption, or distracting threats so they turn their attention elsewhere, systematically taking out each threatening unit wins the war.

Last time I checked, we Christians were at war. Do we realize how ardently the Devil and his minions hate us? To them, we are the enemy as much as they are ours. Just as we have been given weapons of war to wage battle against the chthonic, so the legions of hell marshal their power against us. And their tactic is the classic one: neutralize threats.

Here’s the worst thing that anyone can say about you or me as Christians: “You’re no threat …

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Uhaul packed up and ready to roll out of Owasso on the way to Frisco. A normal 4 hr. drive probably becomes a 5 hr. drive with the Uhaul pulling my car, but it will be over quick. The iPod is ready and I got some phone calls to make on the road. It won't be bad.

So ready to get everything unpacked and get settled in.

Pray for us to have no more issues with anything. I also have an interview on Thursday. Everything is finally coming together. [Link]

Here is a picture of the first lady of Iran. Does something seem wrong with this picture ? I'm jes' sayin' [Link]

Next week the main Newfrontiers International conference of the year starts. To whet your appetite, I thought I'd share the transcript of an interview I did at Together On A Mission 2007 with John Lanferman. The audio for this interview is also available here.

John oversees a team of leaders who serve the churches in the Newfrontiers—USA family. His primary focus is leadership training, church planting, and supporting churches in the States. John and his wife, Linda, are a part of Jubilee Church in St. Louis, Missouri. His blog is at http://johnlanferman.blogspot.com/.

If you can't make it to this year's TOAM conference, I will once again be live-blogging it right here. It's still not too late to arrange to listen to one of Mark Driscoll's other speaking engagements … [Link]

Jonathan Edwards preached his famous ‘Great Awakening’ sermon- “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God", on July 8, 1741 at Enfield, Mass. (later Connecticut). When I studied "Sinners…" in seminary it was presented as a bad example of ‘hell fire’ sermons that no modern minister would or should ever dare to preach. In Church History class, it seemed like no one could figure out why it became so famous.

Obviously, you had to of been there and the Holy Spirit had to of shown up in an amazing way, and from all accounts that certainly was the case. According to reports of the occasion, Edwards quietly read the sermon with very little flare, but when he started talking about natural un-regenerated people being …

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Check out this picture that a customer dropped off the other day. There was an amazing double rainbow. Sure seems like God is smiling on Ebenezers Coffeehouse!

Almost looks like a painting, but it's a scanned picture.

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I was sitting in church on Sunday and read this:
“The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." Romans 16:20Isn't that a shocking statement? How can He be called the God of PEACE if he will "crush" anything. Violence is contradictory to peace, is it not? Or is it? If we look forward in the Biblical timeline, we will see that Christ will reign for 1000 years on Earth. This will be an unparalleled time of peace. BUT, this will happen only as he violently takes captive the enemy of our souls.

God IS a god of peace, AND he will use war to secure it. [Link]

Here is an encouraging article I found related to the continual need to remember the gospel. In part:
“It is a false gospel which says that you are ok and God just wants to improve you. No, God wants to remove all the false foundations and beams you have erected in your house and replace them entirely with new ones. The gospel is not about moral improvement but about making a new man. Our inability to grasp this means that we have a serious gap in our apprehension of the gospel. Our identity as Christians is subverted when the holes in our lives are filled with anything other than Christ. Our relationship to God and others suffer as a result.

I want you to take a …

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Whew oh me oh my. I'm still re-cooping from wee-hour-of-the-morning talk-fest with Pastor T and Misty the other night. :-) But it was worth it. I just love them to pieces. This was two nights ago but I guess I am just slower to bounce back in the mornings these days. I did get a ton of work done today…it's just that I am slower getting started and it takes me longer to finish.

Sunday night was newcomer's and a late night as forementioned. Then yesterday I worked from home but met the staff for lunch. We were all absolutely exhausted but agreed it had been a great weekend. In the midst of my day Joy called and said she and Keith wanted to do dinner. …

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In honor of my friend Dan and all the other inhabitants of the land up North, Happy Canada Day!

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You can measure distance by time.
“How far away is that place?"
“About 20 minutes"

But it doesn't work the other way.
“When do you get off work?"
“Around 3 miles"

- Jerry Seinfeld -
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In a previous post I mentioned how the GAFCON process seemed to be straying into the error of Donatism. Meanwhile it is somewhat ironic to find that another group of conservative Anglicans, this time only in the Church of England, are falling into the error of the opponents of Donatism, Caesaropapism, the teaching that the secular authorities have authority over the church.

One of the first historical examples of Caesaropapism was when the emperor Constantine banished the Donatists in Carthage. But actually, if this account is accurate, it was the Donatists who first appealed to the imperial commissioners to overrule the decision of the church council, only to have the emperor also find against them and enforce his findings.

Ruth Gledhill writes today, in The Times …

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I blogged about our Protege Program last week. We've now got an application, overview, and FAQ available. We're only accepting a few proteges the first time around. But we're believing that this is a way that we can raise up hundreds of church planters, innovators, and leaders within the church. I also think it'll be our farm system for hiring staff.

We’ll launch in September. If you're interested, email protege@theaterchurch.com.
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Getting ready for our Fall Semester of Groups, I read through Nelson Searcy’s book, Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups. It’s a great read…one of the best practical ministry books I’ve read.

We’ve been working Nelson’s system for small groups at Life Pointe for one year now. We started last fall. The highest we’ve gotten our small group registrations to is 92% of our Sunday attendance. The best we had done prior to his small group system was just under 60%. Nelson has the mind and possibly, the heart of an engineer which makes him a great, direct talking coach to a lot of pastors.

Here are my Top 10 takeaways from his book:

1. Think larger, not smaller. Larger groups minimize the weirdo …

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There are two features of the gift list in 1 Corinthians 12:28 that are particularly worthy of notice and dissection. Even though I've talked about one of them before here and here, the truth always bears repeating, so here I go again…

This list presents the gifts in an extending or telescoping fashion. The ordinals modifying the list are not rankings of gifts per se, but a demonstration of how they arise in time during the development of a church. The counsel in v. 29 may seem to indicate that a qualitative discrimination is intended, but I don't think it fits the context. Would Paul have spent all that effort to illustrate gifts with the body analogy– pointing out how needed each gift was, how much … [Link]

My wonderful friend, John L Borling (Major General, United States Air Force, retired) mentioned this whole concept about seven years ago, when I last had dinner with he and his wonderful wife, Myrna.

General Borling is one of the greatest military heroes I've ever known. He was a POW in Vietnam for almost 6 years. He has served his country and his God all over this world.

He emphasized the concept of "service before Self"–even though not many people bought into the idea.

Maybe it's because too many of us want "self BEFORE service."

Both Presidential candidates are talking about change, and service, and how we can make this land that we so dearly love a better place for all the inhabitants.

I’m convinced the only way we can be … [Link]

As was stated at the information and business meeting that we had as a church to release a parcel of land in advance, the ideal, process and actual relocation of our church to 183rd street is becoming a reality.

It’s been and up and down road since the church voted to sell our land and move in May, 2004.

For some, it's going to be an exciting time.

For others, it will be a stretch. I understand that.

Let me give you a few reasons why.

First, relocation can threaten the sentimental attachment to a building that people have. I can remember when they tore down old Bowie hall (the women's dorm) at CBC. It needed to go. Yet, it was a little bit difficult because my mother and my … [Link]

e.e. cummings wrote: "Always the beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question.†I found a blog by a young man identified as Pat. He states:

Are you a question answerer by nature? I have come to believe with all of my heart that it is a profound and highly successful ministry that learns how to ask beautiful questions . . . . (Geography of Grace).

He is dealing specifically with ministry to at risk youth, but I think his insight is meaningful to us all. In “science†we spend much time answering questions. As a Pastor my response to questions from my parishioners is to try to authoritatively answer all questions related to Scripture, after all I have a M.Div. and a D.Min. and if I … [Link]

Here’s a Canada Day shoutout to our friends north of the 49th.

I wound up taking a North American history exam from the Globe and Mail, and made 10-10 on both Canadian and American sections. There were a couple where I knew the answers by process of elimination; it wasn't that I knew the right answer, but that I knew the other three answers were wrong. For instance, I knew that Harriet Beecher Stowe was American and that Jane Austin and Cherie Blair (I don't recall her being an author, but she's British either way; she's Tony Blair's wife) were British, thus leaving the unknown-to-me Suzanne Moodie as the Canadian author.

___

On to a more meaty topic. Drudge linked to this study, where Canadians were …

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I really hate Internet Explorer.

Why does anyone use it?

They’re called STANDARDS for a REASON, Microsoft.

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I recently posted what I trust will be a series which will be about sermons that have changed my life. It is way too early for me to claim that this past Sunday's talk by my pastor and dear friend, Tope Koleoso, will be one of those. But I could do a lot worse than allow myself to be shaped by a talk like this. I have previously shared a list of talks Tope has given that are available online, but much as I loved those talks, I believe this may be the best sermon I have ever heard him preach.

I don't want to give too much away because I want to encourage you to listen to this talk. He weaved such well-remembered verses as … [Link]

Yesterday, I mentioned the E-word: evangelism.

That’s not a fun word in a lot of American Christian circles. In the secular world, the fear of speaking in front of a crowd of people scares the willies out of more people than anything else. Obviously, no one is polling Christians on fear of evangelism or else you’d see 90 percent of believers’ knees knocking together at the mere mention of the word.

In America at least, I see the issue of our lousy attitude toward evangelism breaking down into two camps, the Haves and Have Nots.

If you are a Have, then life treats you well. You applied your nose to the grindstone and not only came away with your nose intact, but a two-car garage full …

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have you ever just wanted to choke the life out of someone? has someone really ticked you off to the point you wished they no longer resided on planet earth? if we’re honest with ourselves, the answer would be a resounding “yes” to both questions. there are even situations that happen in our lives(things that we […] [Link]

i am the type of guy that really hates boundaries. as a kid, if there was an “off limits” sign posted, i would make it a challenge to prove it wrong.  i remember as a teen, we would ignore the “danger” signs that were posted on electrical towers, and would try to climb those things. […] [Link]

Did you see the headlines today? Barack Obama announced that he will not only embrace the Faith Based Programs, but he will expand them. The story on the Fox News website says:
Reaching out to evangelical voters, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is announcing plans to expand President Bush’s program steering federal social service dollars to religious groups and — in a move sure to cause controversy — support some ability to hire and fire based on faith.

Obama was unveiling his approach to getting religious charities more involved in government anti-poverty programs during a tour and remarks Tuesday in Zanesville, Ohio, at Eastside Community Ministry, which provides food, clothes, youth ministry and other services.

“The challenges we face today … are simply too big for government …

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John Richardson, the Ugley Vicar, is live blogging from All Souls Langham Place, in London, where a day conference is in session with some of the leaders who were recently at the GAFCON conference, also with J.I. Packer. John has already posted summaries of talks by Archbishop Hebry Orombi of Uganda and Archbishop Greg Venables of the Southern Cone, followed by a summary of an interview with Rev Dr Packer. This summary ends as follows:

Interviewer: What would be your wisdom about carrying on the GAFCON process in England?

JP: At the heart of the Statement is the Jerusalem Declaration. I would like to see PCCs and, where possible, Diocesan Synod, or even central bodies, committing themselves to this as their own guiding star. I would …

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The Donatists were a schismatic group in the early church, mainly in North Africa, who, to put things simply, broke away from the mainstream church because they rejected the authority of leaders, such as bishops, who had sinned. The specific problem was with Christian leaders who had compromised during a period of persecution:

The Donatists refused to accept the sacraments and spiritual authority of the priests and bishops who had fallen away from the faith during the persecution.

They refused to accept the repentance of these traditors and held that sacraments performed by them were invalid.

This is known as: ex opere operantis — Latin for from the work of the one doing the working, that is, that the validity of the sacrament depends upon …

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I’m in Ohio this week preaching the evening services at The Great Family Adventure (formerly known as family camp). The atmosphere in the first two services has been charged with faith, and God has already been changing people. My dad is teaching in the morning services, so we're creating a great memory by being able to tag-team minister this week.

Thanks to everyone back home in our church who have been praying for me this week. God is providing concrete answers to your prayers. Please keep them coming. I can't wait to share the wins with you when I get home.
The only downside is that I am in Buckeye territory. Everyone seems to be an Ohio State fan, which means I need to spend more time in …
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