It was J. I. Packer who made an Anglican out of me. Although I had attended a student-led Anglican service when I first became a seminarian at Regent College, it wasn’t until I moved to the Anglican church that Dr. Packer attended (and at which he sometimes led liturgy) that I was struck by the…
Not “Just” a Deacon
Handshakes and metal plates I grew up around deacons. In my Southern Baptist upbringing, deacons were most commonly observed at the doors of the church offering handshakes and smiles. Otherwise, they were found in their other natural habitat: at the end of a pew passing or taking a metal plate. Often, this was an offertory…
Finding a Place for Lament in the Anglican Church
Born a little on the melancholy side, I was always attracted to the bleaker parts of Scripture. You know, the parts where a prophet would cry out to God for help, or where God would lament the betrayal of His bride. Or the psalms of lament where the psalmist feels desperate and horrifically abandoned. These…
A Tale of Two Weddings: How Far Should We Stretch the Liturgy?
Ah, Spain. A beautiful country where, every now and then, non-Catholics who are Christians get married. Or a Roman Catholic gets married to a non-Catholic, which often means no Catholic wedding. And sometimes these folks come to us Anglicans. Just how much can the Anglican liturgy be modified? In this article, I want to share…
How to Become a Subversive Church
Bowing to Baal I recently heard someone on the radio say that we (Americans) live in a “post-religion” nation. The radio personality went on to describe how America has become a land void of virtue, no longer giving spiritual matters much thought. In other words, America has become increasingly secular. This is, in my opinion,…
John 17 Really Bugs Me: Church Unity and the Lack Thereof
Slightly edited from a sermon I recently preached at Church of the Savior in Wheaton, IL. There are just some passages of the Bible that you can’t get away from. Sometimes it’s because a passage is particularly inspiring, encouraging, or comforting. Think Psalm 23. Other times, it’s because the passage really bugs you. And I’ll…
Learning to Love the Whole Church: Why I Decided to Join the Anglican Church in North America
If someone had told me ten years ago that today I would be an Anglican priest, I would not have responded with joy or even disappointment; I simply would have been confused. Raised in a squarely evangelical culture, I grew up without conscious knowledge of liturgical denominations—and probably a degree of suspicion toward them. I…
Are Anglican Churches Biblical, “Bible Churches”?
For many years, I attended a church that called itself a “Bible church.” I really loved it and am thankful for everything I received there. But many years later I started to reflect on what exactly that name means. What does it mean to claim that your church is biblical, a “Bible church”? First of…
4 Reasons Why I Now Celebrate Communion Facing The Altar, Not the People
Editor’s note: Here at Anglican Compass, we feature content from low church to high church, as long as it’s written with both clarity and charity. Even if you would never consider an “ad orientem” Holy Communion in your own church, I invite you to read about how and why Fr. Ben Jefferies has made the…
Pastor, Let the Children Preach: Why You Should Let the Youth Group Invade Your Pulpit
For the last two years, I’ve been teaching Scripture, theology, and ethics at a small Christian high school that shares space with a local church. It took me a year and a half to realize that, on one of my classroom walls, half-hidden behind a filing cabinet and obscured beneath a coat of paint, was…
