Barring illness or travel you will find me in the same place the first Wednesday of every month at noon; a corner table in a local Mexican restaurant having lunch with a group of local pastors (and one semi-retired missions worker), having fellowship and talking through some of the difficult issues of ministry. We meet together because we are like minded. We share core beliefs about the authority of scripture, the exclusivity of Christ, gospel urgency and the sovereignty of God in salvation. We have tremendous unity.

But the group is not uniform. There is a pastor of a “capital R” Reformed church (you can tell who he is by the Banner of Truth shirt and beard he sports), there is a GARB pastor (The General Association of Regular Baptists tend to focus more on eschatology than I would, and a little closer to Fundamentalism than I am), a couple of TMS grads (who have some differences too), and of course the semi-retired missions worker who is decidedly non-concerned about non-essential issues (and he might define that a little more broadly than I would).… Continue reading