Question:
In this era of instant media and social networking, do I even need a local church?

Answer:
If you can find the absolute, life changing satisfaction and joy that Jesus Christ provides by living "out there" rather than "in here", go for it!  But Matthew 16:18 just doesn't bode well when you read it to say "I will let you build your own social network, and maintain it on your own terms, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it."  Life lived that way is a train wreck waiting to happen!

While there is no question that the local church suffers from a plethora of criticisms - many of them justifiable - it still has no equals.  The community that Christ alone communicates far surpasses any imagination or machination of men.  Always has, always will.
 
Question:
What version of the Bible do you use?

Answer:
Debates about the preservation of texts occur in almost every corner of Christendom, including other sites here on the internet.  The venom which often accompanies such preferences hasn't served God well.  While I adore the King's English, I generally use the New American Standard Version.

Related Note: I think we have grown very accustomed to labels in our society.  Fact is, no two people look at labels in quite the same way.  I once thought of Volvos as the longest lasting, most dependable vehicle ever manufactured.  When my son went away to college and needed a car, I bought him one - one of the worst decisions I ever made.  In fact, I'll probably never look twice at a Volvo again.  Now I'm sure that the people who make Volvos didn't deliberately manufacture a bad vehicle.  In fact, if they wanted to assure themselves of a future market for their vehicles, they would have made every effort to supercede other car manufacturers' products.  Despite their best efforts at problem resolution, however, my greatest satisfaction came when they finally admitted "We're sorry, but nobody's perfect."

Let's face it.  Labeling allows us to very quickly categorize things - even people - based upon our own very subjective personal knowledge.  The luxury of never having to fully engage the people who are behind those labels, while judging them according to our own individual experiences, often leads us to such sins as "Answering a matter before we hear it."  Quite honestly, as a pastor, I'm much more concerned about the response to ANY answer to a question, and its accompanying attitude, than I am about the answer itself.


Question:
Are you a Calvinist?

Answer:
Calvin and his successors in Geneva were very harsh in their treatment of those who did not agree with them.  In fact they were actually quite cruel.  On the other side of the coin, however, are the Pelagianists (more recently known as Arminians), who have also been just as cruel.  This alone is sufficient reason for disdaining such a label.

Restatement of the Question:
Calvin taught that the atonement of Christ was limited to the elect - do you believe in limited atonement?

Answer:
I have read Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, as well as his commentaries and other writings.  A dissertation I submitted for academic examination, which was overwhelmingly accepted and approved, focused on Calvin's teachings.  I can say with some authority that Calvin never taught limited atonement.  When followers of Jacobus Arminius summarized their beliefs to oppose Calvin's teaching, some well meaning individuals actually added limited atonement in their defense of Calvin.  That resulted in the formation of a very famous acrostic "TULIP", commonly (but quite mistakenly) identified as "Calvinism."  Calvin never called them to task for their assertion.  He couldn't - he was dead at the time.

Calvin did draw attention to a very crucial problem in popular theology.  The Bible declares God is all powerful.  At the same time it appears to assert that He is not willing that any should perish.  Yet scripture clearly indicates that some men go to Hell.  Calvin's argument, in essence, was that either God isn't as powerful as the Bible declares Him to be, or else He purposed from the very beginning to only save certain individuals.  As Calvin examined the greater context of scripture and painstakingly examined each incidence that seemed to suggest man has the ability to overpower or circumvent God's will, he methodically eliminated that possibility.  So do I.