The Center for Church Planting @RTSCharlotte: Some Exciting Upcoming Events
Back in Fall of 2016, RTS Charlotte launched the Center for Church Planting (CCP) and it has been exciting to see how God has blessed and grown it since. You can read original press release here.
The purpose of the CCP is to become a national and international resource for the planting of Reformed churches committed to the authority of Scripture, the centrality of preaching, and the great commission. It specializes in training future pastors for the unique challenges, complexities, and opportunities that church planters face.
The CCP offers a Master of Divinity emphasis in church planting, specialized internships, mentoring by seasoned church planters, and generous scholarship support. In … Continue reading...
Did Jesus Promise to Return within the Lifetime of his Disciples?
For critics of early Christianity, one of the stock objections is that Jesus predicted he would return in the lifetime of his disciples. And since he clearly didn’t return, then he cannot be believed.
Indeed, it is this belief that has spurred many other theories among scholars, most notably Hans Conzelmann’s thesis that Luke’s Gospel was written to explain the delay of the second coming.
But, is it really true that Jesus predicted that he would return in the lifetime of his disciples? Here’s a recent video where I briefly address this question:
As for whether the imminent coming of Jesus affected the development of the NT canon, see my … Continue reading...
Interested in Getting a Biblical Counseling Degree without Moving? Now You Can Do It @RTSCharlotte
A number of years ago, RTS Charlotte launched a two-year Master of Arts in Christian Counseling degree (MACC) and it has been wonderful to see how it has grown. We believe that solid, Christ-centered, biblical counseling is critical to the health of the church.
This week we are announcing that we are now offering the MACC degree in an exciting new Summer/Winter format. This means that students can now get the MACC degree over the course of four years without having to relocate.
We are rolling out this new structure because we know there are many people who want to benefit from the MACC program, but are not able to … Continue reading...
Five Reasons to Include Women on Your Church Staff
A couple of weeks ago, here at the RTS Charlotte campus, my wife Melissa (see her blog here) and I gave a lunchtime presentation on the topic of “Why Churches Should Hire More Women on Staff.”
The desire to talk about this issue was motivated by several things. For one, Melissa has served in a paid staff position (part-time) in women’s ministry for about a decade. And so, part of the discussion was her reflections on serving on a church staff and how that has shaped her thinking on this issue.
The second reason for discussing this topic is because of what is happening here at the Charlotte campus. … Continue reading...
Spurgeon: Ministers, You are the Public Clock of Our World
Every couple of years, I try to re-read two books that have been very formative for my thinking on life in the ministry. One is Richard Baxters’ The Reformed Pastor, perhaps the most convicting book ever written (other than the Bible). Each year, after reading it, I am tempted to draw up my resignation, drop out of the ministry, and go sell carpet or something.
The other book, is Spurgeon’s Lectures to My Students, a veritable goldmine of advice and instruction for those of us in ministry (or heading there). Spurgeon covers a wide range of issue from the call to the ministry all the way to pulpit … Continue reading...