Editor’s Note: Introverts in the Church, (InterVarsity) has apparently struck a nerve. The book is in its eighth printing (as of 3/22/2012) and is giving our ‘extrovert-dominant’ church culture much to ponder, especially about long-standing assumptions on spiritual maturity and the qualities we think leaders ought to possess. I caught up with Adam McHugh via email and telephone to discuss this sorely neglected topic. His answers are both thoughtful and thought-provoking—particularly on the gospel and how it can be applied to the issues raised in the book. Alex Crain Editor, Christianity.com   Why did you decide to write a resource for introverts? It started as a personal quest. I knew that I was (1) Called to be a leader in the church. I had gifts of...

As the title says, these are thoughts on worship and culture. I don’t cover all that needs to be said, nor (I suspect) will every reader agree with each point. But I pray that this will lead to more thoughtful heart preparation for times of corporate worship through music. My aim is to promote God-honoring, Christ-exalting, Holy Spirit-filled praise from the lips and hearts of God’s people.  1. There is very little in the New Testament about the forms and style and content of corporate worship. Following Old Testament forms too closely contradicts the obsolescence of the wineskins. God must mean to leave the matter of form and style and content to the judgment of our spiritual wisdom—not to our whim or our tradition, but to prayerful, thoughtful, culturally alert, self-cri...

Most Christians seem to still agree that preaching is important. We download podcasts and attend conferences that center around preaching, and it remains a primary reason many choose a new church. However, one of the most neglected forms of preaching is also one of the most powerful–preaching to ourselves.  By “preaching to ourselves” I mean the discipline of intense Biblical meditation; reading, dwelling on, and applying the truths of Scripture to our own lives that leads to a deepening love of God, hatred of sin, and faith in Jesus Christ.  The idea of preaching to ourselves is popular today, though my experience suggests that it is under-practiced. Perhaps the reason for this is that we aren’t clear what it is or how it should take form. But I believe t...

How can Christians respond positively to the acceptance of homosexuality and gay marriage in mainstream culture? Consider: ABC’s hit comedy Modern Family – prominently featuring a same-sex couple – won the Emmy for outstanding comedy series. The US Senate passed a repeal of the 17-year-old ban known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” allowing gays to serve openly in the military. The Southern Poverty Law Center classified several Christian organizations that have taken stances against the acceptance of gay marriage, or who have simply gone public with the stance against homosexuality as a morally acceptable lifestyle, as “hate groups.” Facebook has added civil unions and domestic partnerships to the list of relationships that its users can pic...

 I like coffee. I’m drinking it right now. Hot and steaming, black and strong. Perfect. I have one very important rule for my coffee: don’t put anything in it! A good cup of coffee needs no help. Leave it alone. But, what if, unknown to me, someone had polluted my coffee with vile sugar. Reaching over to take a drink, I wouldn’t see the danger. It looks and smells just the same. Outwardly, everything is fine. But, the nature of the coffee, it’s very essence, has been changed…corrupted. Heresy. If you had asked me what I thought heresy was when I started writing this series, I probably would have given you an answer that sounded a lot like sugar in my coffee. The “coffee” is the essence of Christianity, it’s core beliefs and ideas about Jesus a...

The most important thing you can do for a child is to teach him or her the good news about how to be right with God, how to be forgiven of sin through the person and work of Christ. Over the years, many have asked me, “How can I explain the gospel to children in terms they understand without toning down the hard demands of Christ? Must a child understand Jesus’s lordship to be saved?”  Certainly children are limited in their ability to understand spiritual truth, but so are adults. Very few people intellectually understand all the gospel truth at the moment of salvation. Fortunately, the essential truths are basic enough that even a child can understand. Jesus Himself characterized saving faith as childlikeness (Mark 10:15). True belief is not a functi...

We have to have it. We are commanded to give it. Forgiveness. But do we ever pause to come to terms with what the word, the concept, means in God’s Word? What do you really know about forgiveness? There are many places in the Bible to learn more. Let me select one scriptural verse that I have spoken publicly at least once per month for the last three decades. 4 Healing Truths about Forgiveness from the Lord’s Supper “For this is My blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:28 NKJV). When a believer comes forward to receive Holy Communion (the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper), the words of the institution recalibrate us back to the shed blood of Jesus. In fact, that is why this is not a one-time sacrament, like baptism. This is a continuing sacram...

You know music has power when it has you shivering while running in hundred-degree heat. Güngör’s Ghosts Upon the Earth is like that, though. From the opening track, the album screams its willingness to be and do something terribly different from most Christian music of the last quarter century. For one thing, this is an album, not just a collection of songs. For another, the musical skill on display here combines with a willingness to forge a new sound, rather than retread the same old pop-rock milieu one more time. Musical and lyrical unity in an album is a rarity today in any genre, but this album tells a story. Indeed, it tells the story. But back to those shivers. “Let There Be” is the first and only time to date that any piece of art in any ...

As a pastor I have the opportunity to see many people work through the pain, frustration, sorrow, and fear that comes with affliction. Some suffer from their own folly, some endure the hardship of disease, and others are hurt by the evil actions of wicked men. And in it all we are looking for some kind of answer, direction, or purpose. As I have been preaching through Habakkuk at redeemer we have been confronted with the same truth the prophet was hit with: our God is truly and completely sovereign, even over the sinful actions of wicked men. God tells the prophet that he is raising up, empowering, a wicked nation to do what they do best: conquer. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation,  who march through the breadth of the earth, t...

“The law was added so that the trespass might increase.  But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” Romans 5:20. How many Christians (never mind people who are not yet Christians) do you suppose misunderstand grace?  Surely there are tons. One problem, as I’ve heard it put, is that law is our native language.  We speak law fluently.  There exists a native tendency toward self-righteousness, toward punitive justice, toward dead external works.  Though the law should condemn us-and condemn us good!-we unwittingly believe ourselves able to rise up to the demands of the law.  Of course, we wo...

All these years later, and we can all probably still remember exactly where we were when we heard the tragic news of the terrorist attack of 9/11. Ironically, I sat in a speech class at Samford University. One minute we were discussing the components of an effective speech, the next minute we all found ourselves speechless. Sept. 11, 2001 will live in infamy; but many other days will keep it company. Infamy is, of course, the same word Franklin D. Roosevelt used in his presidential address to Congress on Dec. 8, 1941, one day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Dec. 7, he said, would live in infamy. I’m adding Sept. 11, 2001, to the list; and my assumption is that if we live long enough, we will see many other days make this list, as well. Sept. 11 was not the first tragic day in ...