DiscipleshipA Devotional Reflection on George Herbert’s Poem, Love III
Through all the ups and downs of his own faith journey, this saving love of God has been the truest and deepest thing he has known about God, and about himself.
Articles
Discipleship
Discipleship
DiscipleshipLiving East of Eden – Pastoral Reflections on How Theology Matters
“The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the church.” We heard this theme––the theme of this conference–– brilliantly proclaimed last night in worship. And we heard the text of Matthew 16 and the supremely important question that Jesus asks of his disciples: “Who do you say that I am?”
DiscipleshipThe Foundation of Our Calling
Studying theology can be hard––hard on us psychologically and spiritually, personally as well as interpersonally. We can find out more about ourselves than we ever wanted to know. Yet we can learn more about God than we could ever dream.
DiscipleshipEncouragement for the Journey
The work of parish ministry is one of the most daring and demanding journeys that one can take. It is not without profound meaning, but it also tests an individual in every dimension of experience. It provides great opportunity for friendship, but it also requires maturity and poise in the face of life’s most devastating…
DiscipleshipSpiritual Friendship – The Evangelical Brotherhood in Colonial America
On October 22, 1746, Acting Governor John Hamilton of New Jersey granted a charter for the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) to seven petitioners: four Presbyterian clergy: Jonathan Dickinson, Aaron Burr, Ebenezer Pemberton, and John Pierson, and three laymen, William Smith, Peter Van Brugh Livingston, and William Peartree Smith.[1] The following spring, those…
Discipleship“That’s The Spirit!” Or, What Exactly Does Spiritual Formation Form?
Introduction: A Working Hypothesis “That’s the spirit!” is a common rather than a Christian idiom, something you might say in order to encourage someone to persevere in some endeavor. Generally speaking, people are much more comfortable using such expressions than explaining what spirit actually means, or in specifying that to which it actually refers. Pastors…
DiscipleshipAn Invitation to Combat
This essay is part of the address Dr. Ray delivered on Oct. 6, 2021, at the second conference sponsored by Theology Matters at Providence Presbyterian Church, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
DiscipleshipSix Observations about Presbyterian Theological Education: The View from My Window
This address was delivered on Oct. 6, 2021, at the second theology conference sponsored by Theology Matters at Providence Presbyterian Church, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
DiscipleshipTheological Mystery of Words
Once upon a time, when I was only fifteen years old, I boarded a weather-beaten old passenger liner and sailed out from the New York harbor. I was on my way, by a very roundabout route, to a little city in the Austrian mountains. The ship was registered, I suppose, in some place around Argentina.…
DiscipleshipIs Theology Practical?
This address was delivered at Theology Matters’ first conference on Hilton Head Island, Feb. 19, 2020. I made an off-hand comment to Richard Burnett one day, about three months into pastoral ministry, that my theology courses in seminary were proving to be far more practical than the so-called “practical theology” courses I had taken. His…
DiscipleshipEarl Palmer on Expository Preaching
On May 21, 2019, Theology Matters’ Managing Editor, Richard Burnett, interviewed Earl F. Palmer at University Presbyterian Church, Seattle, Washington, where he was ordained in 1956.
DiscipleshipCalvin’s Theology of Pastoral Care
Christ likens the Church to a sheepfold in which God assembles his people, and compares himself to the door, since he is the only entrance way into the Church.