Parchment & Pen Blog

Here is one of the breakdown of the Mega churches in America. Once again, complements of Jeff Young, RMM board member. Click on image to enlarge

Jeff Young, a Reclaiming the Mind/Credo House Ministries board member created these as part of his research for our ministry. I thought they were too good not to share. I will share the one on Mega-Churches next. This first one shows denominations according to a breakdown. click on image to enlarge

I have always been a fan of Evangelicalism, although I have not always known how to define it. I remember having a discussion about this when I was in my early twenties. I was already well into what I felt was my calling to teach the Bible. It was at one of these studies (if [...]

We talk a lot about this: essentials and non-essentials. In fact, at the Credo House of Theology (our headquarters), right when you walk in the front door you will see written on the wall in Latin the words in necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas. Translated into English, this means, “In essentials, unity; [...]

See updated version here. Protestantism is not perfect. No informed Protestant would claim such. Evangelicalism has major problems. This is nothing new. But Protestants have always thought the strengths of Protestantism outweigh the weaknesses. Otherwise, we would not be Protestant! While I often write about the weaknesses of our system, sometimes complaining about Evangelical shames, [...]

The fifth argument against sola Scriptura: Without the infallible authority of the Church, the Church would be hopelessly divided on matters of doctrine and morals. This would not be the Church that Christ started. The idea here is that when doctrine is left to the “private interpretation” of the individual, this leads to doctrinal anarchy. [...]

I am an Evangelical . . . a “Historic Evangelical.” Meaningless, I know. But let me respond to many of you by taking the next step in putting some flesh on this proposed new name for an old tradition. Reason for the Change: 1. Evangelicalism has lost its meaning in most circles today. “Evangelicalism” means both everything and [...]

It would seem that every so often designations lose their value. I have talked about this much in this blog as I have lamented the demise of evangelicalism. I have watched the roots of evangelicalism rot, splinter, dry out, and die. I am was an evangelical. I find that it is hard to call myself such without dying [...]

My best friend while I was at seminary, Chris Woodall, has recently converted to Anglicanism. He wrote about this in his blog recently. It is worth a read. Give him some trouble—he always does me! Here is a nice statement made by Chris: The spiritual-life advertised by evangelicals all my life did not work for [...]

What is the “True” church? #5 What is the definition of a true church? Here we will continue our discussion of what a legitimate church.

A man was walking along San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge when he saw a woman about to jump off. He ran up to her, trying to dissuade her from committing suicide. He told her simply that God loved her. A tear came to her eye. He then asked her, “Are you a Christian, a Jew, [...]