There have been two recent articles lamenting deficiencies in evangelical communion practice. The first is from James B. Jordan (republished from 1993) where he suggests that since the sacrament is a meal it is best served at a table. In the second, Brad East argues that (fermented) wine is the appropriate drink for the sacrament, not (unfermented) grape juice. I am sympathetic to both of their arguments and generally agree with the larger exegetical and theological work in their pieces. However, I think the conclusions that biblical consistency and obedience require sitting at a table and drinking real wine aren’t necessary, even if those practices might be most fitting.
First, every Christian agrees that if Jesus tells his church to do something then we are to do it. And every church that partakes of the Lord’s Supper agrees that Jesus’ establishment of the sacrament on the night of his betrayal is normative to some degree. What from that evening is required for the sacrament to be legitimate?…
Keeping Kids Christian: Recovering a Biblical Vision for Lifelong Discipleship comes out in just under a month. You find it for pre-order for 40% off with free shipping at BakerBookHouse.com; on pre-order and discounted on Amazon and Westminster Books; and at Barnes & Noble and Christianbook.com.
There is a decent time-lapse between writing a book and its publication. In this case, I submitted my manuscript in mid-January 2025 and it’s officially out 13 months later. One of the inevitabilities that occurs in that gap is the publication of something relevant that would have been really helpful to engage.
In August 2025, a group of researchers published “The three stages of religious decline around the world” in Nature Communications. The secularization transition hypothesis is that countries become less religious and more secular over a 200-year span. As nations become more industrialized and modern, the importance of religious symbols and rituals to bind the country together and present solutions to life’s problems fades, and the people gradually become less religious. This hypothesis has been criticized as being overly focused on Western, traditionally Christian nations, and the researchers sought to establish whether it could extend to non-Western, non-Christian nations.
The researchers “propose that secularization follows a consistent sequence: first, participation in public rituals declines; second, importance of religion drops, and third, people shed their formal belonging. We refer to this as the Participation–Importance–Belonging (P-I-B) sequence…
Keeping Kids Christian: Recovering a Biblical Vision for Lifelong Discipleship comes out in a month. I’m excited about my first book, which is being published by Baker Books. You find it for pre-order for 40% off with free shipping at BakerBookHouse.com, and also on pre-order and discounted on Amazon and Westminster Books.
Ryan Burge has a good article examining weekly religious service attendance based on birth cohort — how frequently people born in a five year period (e.g. 1950-1954) attended religious services at different stages of life. He tests a common theory called the “life cycle effect”, which says that kids are raised religious, drift away from religion in their chaotic young adult years, return to church when they have their own kids, and then once their kids move out either stick with church or walk away from it.
Most pastors have seen the latter possibility play out time and time again. I know I have. When parents are in church for the sake of their kids they leave once their kids are “done”. In most of these cases I’ve observed that both children and parents subsequently walk away from the faith…
I have a new page on my site, which is dedicated to my upcoming book, Keeping Kids Christian!
“This book is a must-read for parents, pastors, and congregations who need help with what it takes to intentionally partner with God’s Spirit to create in children and their families a discipleship that lasts a lifetime. Keeping Kids Christian offers a robust corrective to the viral dechurching of twenty-somethings walking out of the sanctuary and never returning.”
-Robbie Castleman, author of Parenting in the Pew and Story-Shaped Worship
Announcing Keeping Kids Christian: Recovering a Biblical Vision for Lifelong Discipleship! You find it for pre-order for 40% off with free shipping at BakerBookHouse.com, and also on pre-order and discounted on Amazon and Westminster Books.
The aim of the book is to provide the church with tools to help end the mass departure of our children from the faith. The rate of deconversions, dechurching, and the rise of the Nones has been significant, and my hope is that Keeping Kids Christians will speak to both the theological and practical aspects of preserving our children in a sincere and living faith.
While I wrote the book from a self-consciously Reformed perspective, it is intended and crafted to be useful to Christians of all denominational traditions. It marries the best of my theological heritage with both the best insights from the most recent sociological research on faith retention and practical experience as a minister and dad. It comes out February 24th; pre-order it today!…
“The mere fact that a particular doctrine was held by an individual Westminster divine during the assembly’s debates does not automatically mean that doctrine was considered within the bounds of confessional orthodoxy by the assembly. Not everything in the WCF is a compromise.”
This is a quote from Keith Mathison, professor of systematic theology at Reformation Bible College. It’s been making the rounds, but I think it says less than Mathison hoped. There is a kind of person who will cite members of the Assembly as cover for their idiosyncratic views (e.g. hypothetical universalism and Edmund Calamy’s alleged support of it) and my guess is that Mathison is aiming at them. However, the framing in his statement needs further development in order to be helpful.
First, is there a difference between a view being excluded from the Westminster Standards and being ruled outside the bounds of confessional orthodoxy? Is it possible to hold doctrinal views excluded by the Assembly and still be within the bounds of confessional orthodoxy? How is that even evaluated? I’m thinking here of Erastianism, which was held by a small number of the divines and was very much rejected in the Westminster Confession. Are Erastians outside the bounds of confessional orthodoxy?…
