Beggars at the Gate

Our church recently voted to bring Darren Colwell on full time as a paid pastor/elder. Join us as we discuss what led our church to this, how we went through the process, and what our confession says about it. We also discuss the responsibilities of a pastor and whether or not being paid full-time affects those. How should we think about a full-time pastor compared to a bi-vocational one?

What does it mean for man to be created in the image of God? Why did God command Adam and Eve to not eat of the Tree? We discuss this and more as we look at what we believe about the creation of man and our hope in the true and better Second Adam.

Matthew Barrett, an author & theologian we've learned much from, just announced he's leaving the SBC and becoming Anglican as well as teaching at one of their seminaries. We thought this would be a good opportunity to discuss some of our distinctives as Reformed Baptists, such as our church government (Congregationalism), the regulative principle of worship, and why we're firmly credobaptists and...

How important is the doctrine of creation? There have been many debates over this doctrine, so what should we believe about it? We talk about this and more, including how the doctrine of creation relates to the doctrine of God and what we can learn from creation.

We cover the final three paragraphs of chapter 3 in the 1689, Of God's Decree. God's people are predestined to life, through means, for our comfort, assurance, and worship of God. This doctrine is a high mystery but of immense comfort for the believer.

Maybe a little late to do a recap of the conference as it happened a month ago but we thought it would be helpful and enjoyable discussion looking back at a fantastic time gathering with our fellow network churches. For more information on GRN go to gracereformednetwork.com **We apologize for the recording cutting off at the end. We ran into some computer issues. Thankfully we only lost a few minu...

We continue looking at God's decree as we work through chapter 3 of the 1689. In this episode we look at the doctrine of predestination, and, particularly, double predestination.

What is God's decree? How is it different from God's providence? This doctrine is a deep and difficult one at times involving questions about God's will, our will, and the problem of evil. We attempt some biblical answers as we look at our confession's statement on the decree of God.

Jesus and the apostles talk a lot about the unity of the church and how important that is. But sin is pervasive and seeks to destroy what God has created. With that in mind we look at the sin of division. We'll look at 13 causes of division written by Benjamin Keach in his excellent book, The Glory of a True Church, add a couple modern examples, and then look at what the Bible says about unity.

Perhaps you've heard the question asked "how do we keep the next generation in church?" There are a number of studies that look at how many of our young people leave the church after they graduate high school. How should the church address this?

We finish our discussion of the doctrine of the Trinity by looking at what is called the eternal relations of origin and how we have communion with this God.

The doctrine of the Trinity is at the heart of our faith and is often the subject of attack. What does the Bible say about it and what should we believe? How does this doctrine affect us as believers? We discuss this and more as we begin our discussion of this great doctrine of our faith.

We finish paragraph 2 of chapter 2 in the 1689 by discussing God in relation to creation. Our God is sovereign and good and does good, even when we don't understand it all.

We made it to the second paragraph of Chapter 2 of the Second London Confession of Faith! We spend time discussing God's glory in himself and our delight in our most blessed God as his people.

Here's part 2 of our interview with our sending pastor, Matt Emadi. We dive into discipleship and pastoral visits in this part. We're so thankful for Matt Emadi's faithful service and willingness to discuss the church with us.

We interview Pastor Matt Emadi from our sending church, Crossroads Church in Sandy, Utah. We discuss preaching, membership, and what makes a healthy church. We apologize that Matt was a little hard to hear in this interview. We're still trying to perfect our audio set up for a third person.

We finish the first paragraph of chapter 2 on God and the Trinity by discussing the attributes God has gracious shared with us and his disposition to save his people.

We continue our dive into the depths of theology, the being and essence of God, as we press on into the first paragraph of chapter 2 of the 1689. We discuss God's eternality, immutability, and other attributes of God that we know by "negative analogy." Join us as we marvel at who our God is and worship him in truth.

We dive into Chapter 2 of the 1689, Of The Holy Trinity. We make it part way through the first paragraph and discuss who the Bible reveals God to be and why he is, and can only be, the only true God.

Is the practice of church membership a biblical one? At CGC we believe that it is. So where do we find it? What is membership? And what are some of the ways it can be and has been abused?

We finish chapter 1 of the 1689 confession by looking at the use of Scripture in interpretation and controversies. We discuss the use & limitation of the historical-grammatical method of interpretation, how we should read and understand the Bible, as well as where creeds and confession stand in relation to the Bible.

We take a week off of the 1689 to discuss David's song of confession and repentance in Psalm 51. In this devotional episode we discuss the nature of sin and the glory of God's forgiveness.

We discuss the clarity of Scripture (or its perspicuity) and why that's so important as well as the languages it was written in and why we need translations.

Can we add to Scripture? What does it mean "necessarily contained" and why did the Particular Baptists change this from the Westminster? What governs our worship and why? We discuss this and more as we continue moving through the 1689.

We continue our discussion of the Bible's authority in the church and the internal witnesses to the Bible as the Word of God.