Despite its focus on repentance, Lent is no exception to the gracious focus of all Scripture—Jesus Christ himself. Scripture is always about redemption. How should we read Scripture in Lent? Before we look at that question, we have to lift a few burdens. First, not all of us are expert Bible scholars, and that’s okay. As the Church Father Tertullian [...]
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 beauty and majesty of Anglican [...]
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 all, it (at least implicitly) [...]
Anglicans love liturgy. This has always been true, but in the past couple of decades, I’ve seen more and more young clergy who are especially enamored with the formational impact of rightly ordered worship. I would imagine this phenomenon is due mostly to a generation of young priests drawn to the Anglican way from a low church evangelical tradition. Finding [...]
In just a few weeks, the registration for the November Holy Land trip (November 12-21) will begin to close. Register quickly! If you have been thinking and praying about it…it is time to act. In the closing weeks of registration, I want to reiterate what makes this trip unique. Here are ten great reasons to join us: 1. Customization All [...]
LeaderWorks was the power engine behind The Gift of Lent program that has made its way around the ACNA. We conceived the idea and, by God’s grace, were able to build the website and get the links set up. Many thanks (almost ALL thanks) to Kolby Kerr for his work. One of the cornerstones of the project was the daily [...]
UPDATE: The ACNA has released a new (January 2018) Daily Office Lectionary. CLICK HERE to access the new version. In the interests of making the ACNA Daily Office Liturgies and Lectionary more accessible, I've been creating Rookie Anglican Daily Office Booklets for just over a year. As I prepare to release the next Daily Office Booklet (for Christmastide through Pentecost, [...]
Here's another sneak peek at my new book, Giving Up: How Giving to God Renews Hearts, Changes Minds, and Empowers Ministry, available now. This excerpt is from the second chapter, titled "The Hidden Virtue of the Early Church." I want to give the church corrective lenses to see that the ministry of Jesus, Paul, and the very first Christians was inextricably tied [...]
Every week or so, we will post about one of the sites on our upcoming Israel tours for pastors and everyone. The stories of these people and places in the Bible have the power to form us, first as humans made in the image of God, but also as servant leaders who have been called to join the work of [...]
Every week or so, we'll highlight one of the sites we'll visit on our upcoming Israel tours for pastors or for everyone. The stories of these people and places in the Bible have the power to form us, first as humans made in the image of God, but also as servant leaders who have been called to join the work [...]
For me, it is much easier to understand what Anglicanism is by first understanding what it is not. I am convinced of this helpful principle because my own personal journey into Anglicanism is an illustration of it. Catholic and Protestant: Neither, but Both Let’s be honest, most people think one of two things—perhaps even both!— whenever they hear “Anglicanism”: How [...]
NOTE: Access the latest version of the Rookie Anglican Daily Office Booklet here. This post is a part of Rookie Anglican, a blog dedicated to Making Anglicanism Accessible. The season of Lent is almost upon us. It begins on Ash Wednesday, March 01, 2017. In the interests of making the Anglican Church in North America's Daily Office Lectionary, Morning Prayer, and [...]
It is likely that you’ll hear a variation of the following words at an Anglican Church on Sunday morning, “Please be seated to be instructed from the Word of God.” It’s clear that the Bible is going to be read aloud for the purpose of teaching and formation, but who assigns the lessons? Is it left up to the whims [...]
Recently we were told that the Christian Church in America "hemorrhaging members" and that the church is shrinking. It is true that the number of Americans who claim to be Christian is shrinking. But as usual, Ed Stetzer provides some real clarity in his interpretation of statistics. Turns out that people are not so much "leaving church" as they are "leaving the mainline" and rejecting [...]
The early Christians tell us that St John, disciple of Jesus who wrote the Gospel, lived to be about 100 years old, and was living in Ephesus at the time of his death. We are told that as he became a very old man, he had to be carried into church. The people would plead with him to say a [...]
