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Looking and Longing in the Advent Season
Advent Jared Lawson Advent Jared Lawson

Looking and Longing in the Advent Season

As Christians, we live between Christ’s first and second comings. We continue to be a people who long and look for the arrival of our Savior. But as we wait in hope for His second advent, we live now in the joy of His first. Whatever worldly griefs we encounter, whatever difficulties we face, we have – now and forever – an unshakable confidence because our Savior has come, and He is coming again.

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How to Destroy Community
Jared Lawson Jared Lawson

How to Destroy Community

Twenty-first century Americans tend to approach the local church in the same way they would a country club. Do they offer what I want to consume? Do I like the vibe? Do I click with the people? Do they have the right programs for my kids? All of these questions have a common thread: I am at the center. I start with what I want and then look for a church community that meets those preferences.

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Three Biblical Motivations for Evangelism
Lee Nankervis Lee Nankervis

Three Biblical Motivations for Evangelism

Evangelism is kind of crazy. There’s no other way to say it. Evangelism involves announcing the most radical message in the history of the cosmos. It means telling someone that (1) they are utterly dependent on the God who made them, (2) they are thoroughly in rebellion against that God, (3) they are desperately hopeless apart from the atoning death of God’s Son, and (4) they must respond by trusting in Christ and submitting themselves to him. If all goes well, the person’s life will be completely turned upside down. So it’s at least a little crazy.

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Pastoral Prayers at Parkway
Lee Nankervis Lee Nankervis

Pastoral Prayers at Parkway

We’ve recently begun to include a “Pastoral Prayer” during our Sunday worship gathering at The Parkway Church. Since this is a new element to our service, we thought it would be helpful to provide  a brief explanation of the nature of a Pastoral Prayer, its importance for Christian worship, and the role of the congregation in such a prayer.

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Elder Qualifications (3 of 3): His Children are Believers
Lee Nankervis Lee Nankervis

Elder Qualifications (3 of 3): His Children are Believers

In Titus 1:6-7, the ESV reads as follows, …if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach.

This leads us to an important question in the evaluation of a man’s fitness for eldership: do his kids have to be Christians?

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Jesus, Santa, and Saint Nicholas
Christmas Jared Lawson Christmas Jared Lawson

Jesus, Santa, and Saint Nicholas

Many of us may not know that the jolly old legend of Santa Claus is based on the 4th-century bishop from Myra, Saint Nicholas. Christmas season begs us to ask: who was Saint Nicholas? How did we get from a 4th century bishop from Turkey to a fat man in the North Pole? And how is Saint Nicholas relevant to our celebration of Christmas today?

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The Eucatastrophe of Emmanuel
Lee Nankervis Lee Nankervis

The Eucatastrophe of Emmanuel

What makes the baby in the manger and the shepherds and wise men and the star and everything about Christmas so wonderful is the dyscatastrophe–the grief and ruin–that preceded it. The incarnation did not happen in a vacuum–it came as the stunning twist to a long story, full of heartbreak and frustration.

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What does the Bible teach about homosexuality?
The Parkway Church The Parkway Church

What does the Bible teach about homosexuality?

This article will explain what the Bible says about homosexuality. In an attempt to keep this article brief (on a complex and controversial issue), the answers have been provided in a short Q&A format. This article seeks to be as honest and concise as possible. We hope that you receive this as our attempt to give clear and helpful answers on a complex topic that has become convoluted…

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Should I Spank My Kids?
The Parkway Church The Parkway Church

Should I Spank My Kids?

Few words are as misunderstood and unappreciated in 21st century American church culture as "discipline." Whether it’s "church discipline" or disciplining our children, many of us cringe at the thought. This blog is intended to help clarify not only that discipline is necessary, but also that it is good, loving, and gracious. In fact, as we’ll see, failing to discipline is profoundly unloving.

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Can We Trust That The New Testament Hasn't Been Corrupted?
The Parkway Church The Parkway Church

Can We Trust That The New Testament Hasn't Been Corrupted?

“The Bible was written over thousands of years by dozens of authors. Along the way, errors crept into the text. A little bit at a time, slowly and slightly, the word of God was diluted by the words of men.” That is the story that the world is telling; a gripping conspiracy full of intrigue, subterfuge, secret councils and villains, and told in official-sounding documentaries by official-sounding professors. It’s a fascinating story. Fiction often is.

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Forgiving Someone Who Hurt You Deeply
The Parkway Church The Parkway Church

Forgiving Someone Who Hurt You Deeply

We’ve all been hurt by others—in a myriad of ways, and in varying degrees. But some of us have been unimaginably hurt by others. Some of us have been so scarred by what others have done to us that we think no one can ever understand our pain. Some of us have been so deeply wounded that we can’t even think about what happened without feeling sick to our stomach. When we’ve been wounded in these ways, we often try to deal with the situation in one of three ways…

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Can Christians Sue Other Christians?
The Parkway Church The Parkway Church

Can Christians Sue Other Christians?

Can Christians ever sue other Christians? Can we ever go to court against one another? You may be tempted to say “no.” After all, the Bible seems to be pretty straightforward on this. But are the commands from Luke and 1 Corinthians really telling Christians to not go to court with another Christian, without exception?

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"Only God Can Judge Me"
The Parkway Church The Parkway Church

"Only God Can Judge Me"

“Judge not, that you be not judged.” (Matthew 7:1). Even those who couldn’t pick John 3:16 out of a lineup could probably still (mis)quote this well known yet rarely understood passage of the Bible. With just seven short words, the ultimate trump card is played, and any sin or shortcoming is magically justified. But do these words mean what we think they mean? Is Jesus intending to condemn any and all judgment?

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A Theology of Lying
The Parkway Church The Parkway Church

A Theology of Lying

Ron Swanson, the manly-libertarian from the hit show, Parks and Rec says, “There's only one thing I hate more than lying: skim milk, which is water that's lying about being milk.” But what exactly is “lying?” Now, that may sound like a silly question; you might be thinking, “Who doesn’t know what lying is?” But as we’ll see, this topic is a bit more complex than you’d expect.

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Are Christians Commanded to Give to a Local Church?
The Parkway Church The Parkway Church

Are Christians Commanded to Give to a Local Church?

Some churches love talking about money. Some churches (if you even want to call them that) even go as far as to teach a perverted “gospel” in which God's blessing can be purchased in four easy payments of $19.99. The error of these kinds of churches is obvious. But there is another way churches can err when talking about money; it’s much more subtle, and at first glance might even sound like a good way to deal with the topic. Instead of talking about money all the time, some swing the pendulum too far and neglect the topic altogether. Here’s why that’s a problem: we cannot avoid talking…

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Should We Use Wine or Juice for Communion?
The Parkway Church The Parkway Church

Should We Use Wine or Juice for Communion?

Prior to the invention of the pasteurization process, communion was universally partaken with wine rather than grape juice. But with the influence of the Prohibition Era, and the innovation offered by Dr. Welch, there are many Christians in America who would be uncomfortable with taking communion with wine instead of the grape juice they’re used to. But here is the question we’d like to explore in this blog: is grape juice actually  an acceptable substitute for wine? Or, to ask it in another way, is serving grape juice in communion the most faithful option for churches today?

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Am I Suffering Just to Learn a Lesson?
The Parkway Church The Parkway Church

Am I Suffering Just to Learn a Lesson?

We suffer for many reasons: we live in a broken world, God uses suffering to discipline those he loves when we walk in disobedience, God uses suffering to grow us in our faith, suffering is a way to imitate Christ, etc. But the purpose of this blog is not to give a full theology of suffering. Instead, this blog is aimed at addressing a common misconception many Christians have when it comes to righteous suffering. It goes something like this: “When we suffer it is because God wants us to come to a cognitive knowledge of some fact and, once we have learned that fact, he will take away the suffering.”

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