Politics, the Church, and Getting Our Story Straight

Boniface lived a remarkable life (accomplishing much for the gospel) and died a triumphant martyr’s death. It would fall to later generations to convert the heathen peoples of Germany, but the memory of Boniface inspired those efforts. We might say his principal work was reformation and revitalization. He was constantly enmeshed in organizational questions and issues of power-politics. Nevertheless, Boniface bore witness to Christ wherever he could—even at the cost of his life.In the end, for as much as Boniface is chiefly remembered for his axe, it was the many decades of sharing the gospel, discipling Christians, building monasteries and bishoprics, cultivating personal holiness, navigating conflict, and keeping his hand to the plow that made Boniface successful. That is the option Boniface chose for his life and ministry, and that is the option open to all of us.

Until the last few decades of human history, it was understood by virtually everyone everywhere that each of us is born wholly and irrevocably as a “he” or as a “she.” Maleness and femaleness are identities that we do not choose and cannot change.

In this season of political relevance, Kevin outlines key attributes from scripture that individuals in leadership positions should have.

I know that the impulse to attend a gay wedding, or to allow that others may do so, is often borne out of a good and sincere desire to love our family and friends. There are few things more painful than making a decision that we know our child or grandchild will interpret as rejection. But we simply cannot bless, even by our mere presence, what we know to be a lie—a lie that Scripture calls an abomination and that according to 1 Corinthians 6 will destroy eternally the souls of those who continue in it.

“Man can have no other standard and signpost than things as they are and the truth which makes manifest things as they are; and there can be no higher standard than the God who is and His truth” (40). If Jesus is right, and surely he is, that we are sanctified by the truth (John 17:19), then there is no path to faithful Christian obedience and faithful cultural witness that does not begin in praise of prudence. In Praise of Prudence: What the Cardinal Virtues Can Teach Us About the Splintering of Evangelicalism

The unsatisfying answer to the title of this post is that we don’t know as much as we would like. We know that a bishop named Nicholas existed, that he had a great influence on his homeland, and that he probably died on December 6. While we should be careful to separate fact from fiction, there are elements of the Nicholas story we can know—and what can be known is worth retelling.

One of the first things we learn about God is that he is good. “God is great, God is good, let us thank him for our food.” Many of us grew up hearing this prayer at the dinner table. It’s good theology—simple and true.It also highlights an attribute of God that is surprisingly hard to define. We think we know what it means for God to be good, until we try to explain it. Then we usually start listing other attributes (God is loving, God is gracious, God is kind) or resort to platitudes (God helps us). It takes some reflection to understand all that we mean—or should mean—when we confess that God is good.

Let us walk in the light as God is in the light (1 John 1:7). It’s true, sex before marriage is a sin, but if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).In this episode of the Clearly Reformed Podcast, Kevin discusses society's and the Bible's stance on sex before marriage and the implications for Christians.

Good preaching should be trinitarian in content and in character. I’ve tried to reflect that emphasis in these three points—the word of the Father, the gospel of the Son, and the power of the Holy Spirit. Good preaching is not one thing, but many things. It instructs and it heralds; it comforts and corrects. This is the preaching God has always used, and it is still the preaching we need to hear from preachers today. In this episode of the Clearly Reformed Podcast, Kevin reads from his recent article written for Clearly Reformed critical components of effective preaching.

The Kingdom story we are telling is not the story of Christ saving His people so they can transform a culture or reclaim a nation. Instead the story is of Christ so ruling over the nations of the world that the church might be built up.In this first episode of the Clearly Reformed Podcast, Kevin reads from his recent article written for Clearly Reformed about the nature of politics in the church.