Dr Paul Allen

IF YOU LIVE A COMMITTED CHRISTIAN LIFE BUT NEVER SHARE THE GOSPEL VERBALLY, THEN HOW DOES YOUR NON-CHRISTIAN NEIGHBOUR KNOW THE SOURCE OF YOUR HOPE? CONVERSELY, IF YOU COMMUNICATE THE GOSPEL VERBALLY BUT ARE A COMPLETE JERK IN THE PROCESS, THEN THOSE WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE MAY WELL FALL ON DEAF EARS. By Timothy K. Beougher Bible-believing Christians know they are called to be Christ’s witnesses (Acts 1:8) and to commit their lives to making disciples of all nations (Matt 28:18–20). But some Christians have never begun the exciting adventure of sharing their faith, while others may witness it sporadically but not consistently. How can believers cultivate a Great Commission lifestyle? In this article, I share advice for cultivating and maintaining evangelism as a way of life. The Importance of Verbal Proclamation Evangelism is not “mere presence.” We often hear that faulty perspective expressed today. Individuals declare, “I’m just going to witness with my life and let my life do the talk...

In which a crusty old curmudgeon rants a little about annoying song leader banter. Don’t take this too seriously , except maybe do. 10. Are we ready to have fun this morning? The answer is, “Probably not.” When this is your welcome at the start of the music time, it tells me where your head’s at. Nobody goes to church to have a bad time, of course, and I’m sure plenty of people go to “have fun,” but is this the point of worship? Is “having fun” where you want hearts directed as you lead people to exalt God? No, it’s where you want hearts directed when you’re just trying to “crush your set” or “rock it out for Jesus” [see #5]. “Are we ready to have fun?” is just slightly worse than this next common opener: 9. How’s everybody feeling? If I wanted to stretch to justify this statement, I could say that what you’re asking the congregation to do is self-reflect on their spiritual condition and present their real, whole selves honestly and submissively to the glory of Christ as you lead them ...

If you’ve seen the classic 1987 movie The Princess Bride, you can’t fail to remember the word inconceivable. The brainy Sicilian, Vizzini, overuses the word as he, Fezzik, and Inigo Montoya, stealing away with Princess Buttercup, find themselves pursued by a mysterious Man in Black.  Time and again, the Man in Black overcomes obstacles to close the distance, and each time Vizzini exclaims to himself, “Inconceivable!” Eventually, Inigo Montoya objects in his heavy accent: “You keep on using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” I worry that the same could be said of the present generation of Christians who use three altogether different words—to glorify God. “To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever,” answers the child, the class, or the congregation, reciting the answer to the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism. “ This ministry exists to glorify God,” writes a group of founders crafting their mission statement. “I just wanted to glorify God,” ...

Do you believe empathy can be spiritually dangerous? I do, and I have tried to explain why and how. And as I have, I have received some criticism (some of it quite fierce). The criticism is not surprising. Most of us have categories for the way that certain passions (such as fear or anger) can become sinful; articles about “the sin of anger” or “the sin of fear” make sense to us. But in the modern world, empathy is viewed as an almost unalloyed good, and therefore the notion that it could be dangerous, and even sinful, may be shocking. Nevertheless, the interactions and criticisms have been both illuminating and instructive. For instance, one group of responses sounds like this: How can you call empathy a sin? Empathy is Christlike care for suffering people that seeks to deeply enter into their pain in order to help them. By criticizing empathy, you must be advocating for an aloof, uncaring, and unchristian response to suffering people. At a basic level, this criticism of my argument i...

 What if men in the church are more immature and less equipped because we’ve been expecting too little of them? What if we have simply failed to call them to more than sexual purity online and basic spiritual disciplines? I want to be a part of raising up men who, instead of merely avoiding this or that sin, become a force for good — better, a force for God. And I want to be that kind of man, the kind of man my son should imitate. When the apostle Paul wrote to a younger man, casting vision for what he might become in Christ, he charged him, “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12). In a previous article, I began recovering this simple but challenging framework as a paradigm for becoming a man of God. In this article, I want to narrow in on speech. What does it mean, more practically, to set an example in what a man says (or doesn’t say)? What about our words sets us apart from oth...

Ministering to the Sick Ministering to the ill allows us to love our neighbours during their moments of deep suffering and, in so doing, to reflect God’s mercy ( Mark 12:31 ; James 5:13–15 ). Despite all its modern trappings, hospital ministry hearkens back to Jesus’s walks among wayward multitudes, when his touch and prayers healed lifelong afflictions ( Matthew 8:2–3 , 14–15 ; 9:20–25 ; 14:35–36 ; Luke 4:40 ; 6:18–19 ). When practised with grace, such visits offer beautiful opportunities for Christian discipleship. Unfortunately, too often awkwardness subverts our efforts to help the sick. To see someone we love struggling shakes our composure. Medical gadgetry seems foreign, and glimpses of mortality unnerve us. In our unease, and in desperation to fix the situation, we may fill the silence with advice or platitudes that discourage those whom we seek to uplift. As both a physician and a friend, I’ve failed miserably in this arena, often saying the wrong thing and witnessing the ...