A couple of years ago, I reorganized my blogging schedule to be more intentional about how, when, and why I publish articles on my blog. As a pastor, I want to use this blog to benefit to the church I serve, and I want to use the blog to address issues within the evangelical church as a whole. As the year comes to a close, I enjoy looking back at the last 12-months to see what articles were the most read and perhaps why they were the most read articles of the year. In some cases, it’s obvious. In other cases, it reveals problems or praises or patterns that may be present within the church culture today.
I would like to thank each of you who take time to read and interact through this blog. You can expect to see some minor adjustments in the upcoming days to the blog, and I hope that it will benefit you as you read and utilize the material here at Delivered By Grace.
#10 – “The Shack” and What It Says about Evangelicalism — Coming up in the next few months, a movie version of William Young’s book The Shack will be released. This article seeks to explain why this is important and why we should be concerned.
#9 – Stop Excommunicating Yourself from the Lord’s Supper — Have you ever known someone who just lived in a perpetual state of self accusation? There might be a time to refrain from observing the Lord’s Supper, but it’s extremely rare and certainly should not be largely disconnected from the leadership of the pastors of the church.
#8 – Yes Christian, You Need the Church — In this article, I tried to remind the readers of this blog that we need the church. To think that we can “do Christianity” without the church is a trap that many people fall into.
#7 – Why I Will Not Be Preaching the Longer Ending of Mark — Although this is a very complicated issue, as I came to the end of our series through Mark’s gospel, I wanted to provide information to the church I serve as to why I was making a decision to end Mark before the text ends in many English translations of the Bible.
#6 – Why I’m Trying to Preach Shorter Sermons — Over time, I’ve noticed that my preaching has become much longer. In many ways, I trust this is just the natural progression as any preacher becomes more skilled and informed. However, there is a point to which even the mature congregation can become restless. In this article, I tried to explain why I’m purposely attempting to preach shorter sermons.
#5 – Calvinism Is Not Hyper-Calvinism — One of the most common errors in theology is the false assumption that Calvinism is synonymous with hyper-Calvinism. That’s like saying that every Baptist church is exactly like Westboro Baptist. One is heretical and the other isn’t. We must define our terms properly.
#4 – When Should I Leave My Church? — I’ve heard stories and witnessed families leave their church prematurely and without proper biblical warrant. There is a time to leave your church, but in many cases, it would be wise and most biblical to stay and work through the issues that may be causing you to consider leaving.
#3 – 6 Reasons Why the Church Is Not Singing — In this article, I try to explain why many churches are no longer singing (or singing loudly).
#2 – Andy Stanley’s Problem with the Bible — During 2016, Andy Stanley has rocked the boat in the world of theology. At times, before one problematic statement from Stanley’s preaching calms down, another one surfaces. In this article, I point out that Andy Stanley has demonstrated a pattern of biblical inconsistency and rebellion over the last several years.
#1 – Why Your Pastor Should Say “No More to Beth Moore” — Not only was this the most read article in 2016, but it surpassed all other articles in the history of my blog. What was intended to be an honest critique of Beth Moore’s teaching ministry resulted in a firestorm of comments, letters, phone calls, and open rebuke for my article. How nasty was it? Let’s say it stopped just short of death threats, but I learned one important lesson—emotionalism has far surpassed theological accuracy in the evangelical church.
Once again, thank you for taking time to read the articles published here on the DBG website. I trust the Lord has encouraged you and enriched your spiritual growth for the glory of God.
I trust that 2017 will be a profitable year as we all seek to grow in the knowledge of the Lord.
