Deus Misereatur

  (This is from my letter to my congregation today) As you know, life at Heritage is about truth, worship, and Christian love to equip us in making disciples who will belong and believe with us as we grow in truth, worship, and Christian love. We are interested in being disciple makers. Last week I wrote about parents being on the front line of disciple making . Today, we widen our circle to consider the role we all have in making disciples.   Since disciple making is not a program or a project, but a person-to-person lifestyle, then disciple making calls for relationships. That seems very obvious, but is easily slipped past. As Marshall and Payne note, “The relational nature of training means that the best training will often occur by osmosis rather than formal instruction. It will be caught as much as it is taught” (Colin Marshall and Tony Payne, “The Trellis and Vine,” pg. 76). This is what is behind Kevin DeYoung’s point, when he writes: “If you walk with God and walk ...

 (From my letter to my congregation today, 18 March 2026) Life at Heritage is about truth, worship, and Christian love to equip us in making disciples who will belong and believe with us as we grow in truth, worship, and Christian love. We are rightly concerned about being disciple makers. It goes along with what our Lord told us in Matthew 28:18-20.   As I said last Sunday, disciple making is not a program or a project, but a person-to-person lifestyle. That’s what Kevin DeYoung tapped into when he wrote, “If you walk with God and walk with people, you’ll reach the next generation” (“The (Not-So-Secret) Secret to Reaching the Next Generation,” pg. 4). Before you complain about another age group, ask yourself, “Am I walking with God and walking with people?” In our present time in history, walking with people, face-to-face and not online or at a distance, as you walk with God is becoming extremely valuable.   And it’s important to see that Christian parents with child...

Hearers and Doers: A Pastor's Guide to Growing Disciples Through Scripture and Doctrine by Kevin J. Vanhoozer My rating: 5 of 5 stars At 58, I still love physical fitness. I run 4 miles three times a week, lift weights, and keep up with my Tae Kwon Do. Though it doesn't come easy, it did come early, and it came with loads of guidance and instruction. In my Junior High and High School years I received instruction and coaching on various aspects of running and lifting. I also received years of training from three martial arts instructors patiently guiding me through routines, sparring and weapons drills. These experiences and my present pleasure in physical conditioning has attuned my ears to the analogies in Scripture that picture discipleship as something of an aerobic fitness program. Kevin Vanhoozer, research professor of systematic theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, picks up this work out theme in his new 296 page hardback, "Hearers and Doers: A Pastor...

This morning my youngest son and I participated in a 10 kilometer run. The pain in my joints, the inclines, the declines, the turns, and the inflexible pavement got me thinking about how running is used as a visualization of Christian discipleship in the New Testament. For example: “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14).  “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cr...

Theology as Discipleship by Keith L. Johnson My rating: 5 of 5 stars Somewhere, somehow, doctrine and deportment, creed and conduct had a falling out and then took different routes. Though they will occasionally cross paths at a fellowship meal or in the church foyer, their meeting is often tense and strained. Onlookers will notice the forced smiles between the two parties as they try to play nice, but it’s clear to all that the relationship has significant stress-fractures. Yet, just as obvious is that the two belong together like a key and a lock. Keith L. Johnson, associate professor of theology at Wheaton College, has recently published a new 192 page paperback showing how the two belong together and never should have been separated. “Theology as Discipleship” is written with young undergraduates and non-technical readers in mind, demonstrating how “the discipline of theology and a life of discipleship” are “integrally related” in our “participation in the life of God” (12). Joh...