What do you picture when you think of church?
What do you picture when you think of church?
Editor's Note: This article was originally published in 2017, but is being found by readers in advance of the April 8, 2024 solar eclipse, such that it has made it into our Most Popular articles on CrosswalkHeadlines.
Some shout from the rooftops that they are in marriage counseling and, because of their good experience, encourage all married couples to follow suit. Others take a more private approach and prefer to keep their season of counseling to themselves. Wherever you fall on that spectrum, please be assured that seeking and receiving biblical marriage counseling is nothing to be ashamed of or embarrassed about.
The Episcopal Church was established after the American Revolution when it became independent from the Church of England. The Episcopal Church characterizes itself as "Protestant, yet Catholic".
Often capturing public fascination, Mormonism can actually refer to several different groups. The most well-known group of Mormons is the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, which was founded in the early 1800s.
Tarot cards have been debated for centuries, with Christians calling them everything from witchcraft to family games. As Sarah Pulliam Bailey noted in an article for the Washington Post, they’ve even become popular as a Christian additive to other spiritual activities.
The transgender debate is becoming all-encompassing. Issues such as education, law, government, entertainment all fall in the crosshairs of the transgender debate, and our culture moves with such speed that working out how to respond seems overwhelming, if not impossible.
Some people walk away from religions because of bad experiences, emotional pain, or even severe abuse. This occurs in every faith on earth, including cults, polytheistic religions, and the Abrahamic religions. The Christian Church is certainly not immune from inflicting negative experience on people.
“To be human is to worship.” Those are the opening words of Daniel Block’s excellent new book on worship, For the Glory of God. Men and women are inveterate worshippers. Paul makes this clear in Romans 1. Even those who reject the plain knowledge of God which can be perceived within the created order do not cease worshiping. Rather they simply begin worshipping created things instead of the Creator (Rom 1:18ff). Given that we all worship and that our hearts tend to be deceptive, it is vital that our worship be shaped by what God has made clear in His Word rather than by personal opinions, past experiences, or intuitions.