How does being Presbyterian shape our life as a church and our lives as individual Christians? In what ways does it distinguish us from other Bible-believing Christians?

There is a lot of risk in starting a business, mainly because it is hard to see how profitable a business will be until you actually do it. But buying a business means acquiring a business you already know is profitable. As it turns out, roughly 10,000 boomers are retiring every day in our country, and many of them built successful businesses.

One of the great challenges around this issue is that Christians are people of compassion. We read multiple times in the gospels that our Lord saw people and had compassion on them. We hear about adolescents who are depressed or even suicidal, experiencing gender dysphoria, and our hearts go out to them

Is it a sin for one to be a Christian and to be gay? Should a person with same-sex attraction be single, or is it okay to be in a committed relationship?

What I am arguing is that the essential unique calling of a man is to be a guardian, and the essential unique calling for a woman is to be a helper. Both of these callings are focused on the flourishing of other people.

What is unique about being a man? The unique purpose entrusted to the man in this joint endeavor is to guard. Women, children, and communities depend on him to do this wisely. When a man fails to play this role, he compromises his manhood and the whole community suffers.

As a church, we must think deeply about the question of gender and form a sound and biblical anthropology in response. It is not just a question for pastors and counselors and cultural theorists; this question will touch every life and likely already has. And we must be prepared to think through it biblically.

So if men and women are both made in God’s image and share all these commands from God—how are they different? Is it just their anatomy?

The default position of the Christian is to be a law-abiding citizen. But we recognize that there are limits to our obedience, specifically when the magistrate’s commands become unlawful

What adolescents need more than anything is Christ. If there is one time of our lives where we need the grace of Jesus telling us “This is who you are!”—high school is it.

The Sermon on the Mount was not given as the ethic of an individual but the ethic of a new city that Jesus is building.

Families shouldn’t be making funeral plans for their 9-year-old children. Children shouldn’t be burying their mothers and fathers. What do we do with all of this? What do we do about the evil? What do we do with our fear, especially when our fear is warranted?

The desire and default for all Christian parents should be to provide a gospel-centered education for their children.

Western Christians need to acknowledge is that our therapeutic mindset…is a problem almost unique to a wealthy, self-satisfied, and self-centered culture.

I was planning to tell you in this article how to Christian-ize your New Year's resolutions. But then I remembered a conversation I recently had with a congregant.

Christmas is touching something below our rationality, below our clearest sensibilities, below even our awareness—traditions comfort us and assure us of who we are at a visceral level. 

What principles do we as a church need to internalize so that we are ready for the next challenge that will face our community?

I was largely able to avoid politics in my preaching for the first eleven years of my ministry. Yet, I always felt uncomfortable with that. How could such an important part of human life be left untouched by the gospel?

The following statement was made before the sermon during worship at Christ Church Bellingham on July 10th, 2022. You can hear the recording of it on our church’s podcast.

A position paper from the session of Christ Church Bellingham on the issue of cannabis consumption amongst our church members.