Introduction: The Problem of Processed Food This week, I walked into a local grocery store and saw a brochure on the stand next to the sliding doors. The brochure had three medals on the front and one in the middle engraved with “USDA ORGANIC.” The flyer read, “You can feel better about buying… we don’t take these designations lightly.” This grocery store wants to put its customers at ease by using a trustworthy stamp of approval. The food they are selling is real, healthy food – authentically organic. There has been a massive shift in the food industry. Nearly every other week, there is a news headline warning consumers. I’ve seen warnings just this year concerning everything from pre-made lunch boxes to certain kinds of baby food. Yesterday, I found my favorite juice drink from childhood....

.embedtool {position: relative;height: 0;padding-top: 56%;overflow: hidden;max-width: 100%;} .embedtool iframe, .embedtool object, .embedtool embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } .embedtool .fluid-vids {position: initial !important} I’ve never met Mike Law or even had a conversation with him, but I do support his amendment to the constitution of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) that messengers will consider at our meeting in Indianapolis this June. There are three reasons why I hope Southern Baptists will approve this amendment. 1. There Has Been Confusion on This Issue Some very faithful pastors in our convention have wondered whether this is necessary because our convention voted in New Orleans to remove several churches with female pastors, including...

  Hope is powerful; so powerful it can radically alter the course of life, just like it did for Steven.[1] Currently in his sixties, Steven lived with anxiety and depression ever since his teen years. Over the decades, he has interacted with numerous doctors who prescribed him numerous medications that seemed to work for a little while, but he soon found himself battling the same feelings of sadness and worry. Although Steven claimed to be a believer, church was not much of a priority for him, and he rarely read his Bible. One of the issues that caused his anxiety to increase dramatically is the fact that he was hiding a significant sinful lifestyle from his wife for years. She thought his bouts with depression and anxiety were due to his mental illness and an imbalance with his medication....

A Gracious Invitation In 1909, The First Baptist Church of Jacksonville founded Riverside Baptist Church as one of dozens of churches it was planting around the city. A lot has changed in those 115 years. For starters, the church is now called Riverside Church at Park and King. More significantly, the church now openly affirms every manifestation of the LGBTQ+ lifestyle. The gay-affirming stance of Riverside Church places it at odds with the traditional understanding of biblical sexual ethics held by churches like First Baptist. That much is obvious. Also obvious is that most of the time, when these disagreements are revealed, people get angry and hostile. It was out of concern for those issues, that the church’s current pastor, Adam Gray, graciously invited me to his church to have a conversation...

  Movements and Misunderstandings Steve sat in my office spewing accusations like sparks from a flame. He was furious as he charged that his wife, Lisa, didn’t love him, was unhappy in their marriage, and was in love with another man. As she listened to the barrage of accusations, Lisa broke down in tears. Through sobs, she was adamant that none of it was true, she loved her husband, her home, their kids, and their life together. She could not grasp why she was so misunderstood by the man she loved and to whom she was devoting her entire life. It was clear that a poisonous environment of misunderstanding existed in their marriage. There was no hope for improvement in the marriage without an appreciation of the other person’s point of view. Counselors can struggle with this problem...

What Would David Powlison Do? Since releasing my essay, Priests in the Garden, Zombies in the Wilderness, and Prophets on the Wall: The Current State of the Contemporary Biblical Counseling Movement, I’ve had some conversations about the nature of the legacy of David Powlison. It will be obvious to most that no essay I would write, no analogy I could deploy, and no story I have shared could ever represent the legacy of a man as remarkable as David. I made this clear at the beginning of my essay, “The competing claims about David’s legacy will require a comprehensive appraisal of his teaching, but I am engaging in no such undertaking here. At the beginning of this essay, I only want to share a personal story about my dear friend.” Unpacking David’s legacy is going to require careful work...

In light of the strong response to my essay, Priests in the Garden, Zombies in the Wilderness, and Prophets on the Wall: The Current State of the Contemporary Biblical Counseling Movement, I want to share a few observations about what I am thinking, what I intend, and where we go from here. Peeling Back the Metaphor My essay makes a very clear argument that I develop in four stages. I express my concern that the biblical counseling movement has been infiltrated by people who are syncretizing secular therapy with biblical wisdom. After diagnosing that problem of compromise, I provide three ways to recognize the existence of these compromised individuals. The bulk of the essay is a serious and sustained theological argument where I engage several misunderstandings and misapplications of the...

David Powlison, Counter-Conversion, and The Biblical Counseling Movement The contemporary biblical counseling movement is in a significant state of transition. After a half-century of development and growth, most of the established leaders are gone, and newer ones are seeking to influence the contemporary conversation. At this very moment, our movement is discerning whose voices will be dominant and which institutions and organizations will have future influence. The voices in this transition are not neutral. One side is urging us to use this time of transition to rediscover our past and be faithful to the principles that have defined our movement since its founding. Another side would have us move away from our past convictions and embrace beliefs very different from the ones espoused by...

In recent years, corporal punishment has received a resounding rejection from most Americans. The “Gentle Parenting” movement has erupted in reaction to wrongful uses of spanking, and it has caused many to forsake spanking altogether. Large organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations have released statements condemning “any punishment in which physical force is used and intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort, however light.” The American Psychological Association (APA) has stated that “Physical discipline is harmful and ineffective” and “a new APA resolution cites evidence that physical punishment can cause lasting harm for children.” The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued a statement citing “new evidence” which “suggests that it...

When we read God’s Word, we see that the grace we need for all of these days, whether we’re in our early adult years or farther along in our life here on earth, is a gift from God. God is the giver of grace (James 5:6). There is an old hymn that I love very much. It is named “He Giveth Again.” I want to tell you a little of the story of the hymn writer of this hymn, Annie Johnson Flint. Annie had been born on Christmas Eve, 1866, in Vineland, N.J., to parents Eldon and Jean Johnson, and they looked at her as their greatest earthly gift. Three years later, little Annie would lose her mother, who died as she gave birth to her baby sister. Her only remembrance of her mother’s face was after the birth of her sister; she saw her Mom lovingly holding her new child before her death. Mr. Johnson,...