By Tim Cantrell December 2023 ‘Pastor, can we sing this new Christmas song, "O Come All You Unfaithful" (see lyrics)?’ Answering this question lately has proved to be a good pastoral and theological exercise for some of our leaders and music team, and perhaps could be for yours too. This popular new...
By Martin Sitefane Shepherds’ Seminary Graduate Johannesburg November 2023 The Bible defines what constitutes a church, a biblical ekklesia. Every gathering that classifies itself as a “church” must be tested against the grid of Scripture to determine whether it is truly what it puts itself out to be. This...
By the Faculty of Shepherds’ Seminary 16 November 2023 Johannesburg, South Africa Given both the perennial conflict in the Middle East, and the church’s relationship to biblical Israel, we believe the following statement is urgently needed for theological clarity, correct moral judgment, and Christian discernment of current affairs so...
By Tim Cantrell – 26 October 2023 For our regular public reading of Scripture, our church has been going through the Psalms. Last Sunday was Psalm 98 – a very timely and hope-filled song in light of the war in the Middle East and rising tensions globally. Here it...
By David De Bruyn (excerpts from his sermon at New Covenant Baptist on Sunday, 15 October 2023) The Middle East is always a tinder box, but what happened last week is unique in my lifetime. The murder of 1300 Jewish Israelis is the greatest slaughter of Jewish people since the...
By Tim Cantrell Praise God for great seminaries and academic institutions that have been bastions of biblical orthodoxy. But in many fields of service, such institutions are unavailable (or have gone liberal), so local churches are having to rediscover their God-given role in pastoral training. From passing the buck to...
By Tim Cantrell The early church faced a world blanketed by paganism. Christianity was birthed in a small, insignificant Roman outpost at the time (Israel). Yet within three centuries, this so-called ‘new’ religion had spread across the Mediterranean and would soon conquer the Roman empire itself. The spread of Christianity...
In a world where male-headship is challenged from all sides and the role of men and women confused, it is necessary to emphasise the importance of family worship in the Christian home. We must bring back godly, faithful, family Bible studies, lest they dwindle away. We must fight to bring...
How should we respond to Uganda's latest laws against homosexuality, as one of some 30 African countries that still have such laws? (https://www.news24.com/news24/africa/news/uganda-passes-bill-banning-identifying-as-lgbtiqa-20230321) Some of our church members have been asking, so here are a few thoughts (with help also from my friend, Mark Christopher; and from Grudem’s textbooks on...