Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 1130. Dispensational hermeneutics gets accused, fairly often and rather confidently, of playing a shell game with the biblical text: reading the Old Testament literally when it suits the argument and switching to symbol whenever a plain reading becomes awkward. I have heard the charge from the pulpit of churches that hold to a very…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 4090. People are sometimes genuinely surprised that the gift of administration appears in the Bible at all, as though spreadsheets and rotas and Spirit-given gifts belonged to two entirely different worlds. But there it plainly is in Paul’s list, and the gift of administration is a Spirit-given ability to steer, organise and steward the…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 4088. I have a real and settled fondness for the gift of helps, because it is the gift that the church most takes for granted and could least possibly do without. The gift of helps is a Spirit-given ability and gladness in practical, hands-on service, the quiet support of others that frees them for…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 4085. When people ask me about the gift of pastoring, I always start with the picture buried right inside the word itself, because the word pastor simply means shepherd. The gift of pastoring is a Spirit-given heart and ability to shepherd the people of God, to feed them, to lead them, to guard them…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 4064. Of all the gifts I could be asked about, the gift of teaching is one I hold especially dear, because it is the gift God has largely given to me, and I have watched it feed and steady His people over many years. The gift of teaching is a Spirit-given ability to take…
Reading Time: 9 minutesQuestion 0028. Knowing which doctrines to divide over is one of the most important and most difficult judgements a believer ever has to make. Get it wrong in one direction and you will fracture fellowship over matters that should never have separated you. Get it wrong in the other and you will keep company with…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 0027. Few questions expose the fault lines in the modern church as quickly as whether unity can exist without doctrinal agreement. On one side stand those who say doctrine divides while love unites, so we should keep doctrine to a minimum for the sake of getting along. On the other stand those who treat…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 9. Doctrinal disagreement is not the end of fellowship, and I want to say that clearly at the outset because so many believers fear that it is. They imagine that to stay in true fellowship everyone must think identically about everything, and so they either paper over real differences or break off from anyone…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 11106 In a culture that often treats marriage as the expected norm and singleness as a problem to be solved, the Bible offers a surprisingly different perspective. Singleness is not a deficiency, not a waiting room, and not a lesser state of Christian existence. Scripture speaks of it with genuine honour and presents it…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 11025 Christians often use the words “preaching” and “teaching” interchangeably, as though they describe the same activity. In everyday conversation, the distinction may not matter much. But in Scripture, these are recognisably different gifts and functions, and understanding the difference has practical consequences for how the church organises its ministry and how its leaders…