Resources from 2024
In the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18–19), Jesus draws an intimate connection between making disciples and baptizing. Many of us think of baptism as the entrance into discipleship. As an Anglican, how do you relate the Bible’s teaching about discipleship, and the Christian experience of being a disciple of Jesus, to baptism? [...]
Dear Christian, does your heart with sorrow ache?
Do woes and worries plague your plodding hours?
And do your smiles fade like fragile flowers?
Does every breath seem more than you can take? [...]
Every year Hannah wove a little robe.
A gift for the gift she gave back to God,
a blanket of love, for the prayed for babe,
warmth for the baby boy who she once nursed. [...]
In this essay, I want to make the case that disciple-making belongs exclusively to the church, because disciples are made by God alone through the liturgy—the ministry of word and sacrament in gathered worship. Liturgy is discipleship; discipleship is liturgical. [...]
Bright light eternal in fractal falls
O’er the sphere casting all upon all
To bright morning all evening succumbs
At last, O Church, your Beloved comes [...]
I doubt there will be a sudden run on “What Would Mary Do?” bracelets after this essay is published, but I’m going to make the claim anyway: The Mother of our Lord is a wonderful yet far too often underappreciated model of discipleship among today’s heirs of the Reformation. [...]
In 1523, Martin Luther translated the baptismal form out of Latin and into German. He presented the product of his labor, the Baptismal Booklet (or Taufbüchlein), for use in the church. Suddenly, Reformation liturgy became intelligible. [...]
Jesus came and said to [the eleven], “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” [...]
"Birthing Revival: Women and Mission in Nineteenth-Century France," by Michèle Miller Sigg: A Review
Anyone interested in the history of the Protestant church—particularly in the history of women—will be delighted by this book by Michèle Miller Sigg, Executive Director of the Dictionary of African Christian Biography (DACB.org) and Editor of the Journal of African Christian Biography. [...]
"Praying with Jesus: Getting to the Heart of the Lord’s Prayer," by Adriel Sanchez: A Review
Martin Luther called the Lord’s Prayer “the greatest martyr on earth. For everyone tortures and abuses it; few joyfully use it correctly for comfort." In Praying with Jesus: Getting to the Heart of the Lord’s Prayer, pastor and Core Christianity radio host Adriel Sanchez seeks to rescue the beleaguered prayer by showing Christians how to find “not only the gospel, but the entirety of heavenly doctrine” in its petitions (2). [...]
The literal meaning of enthusiasmos in Greek is “god-within-ism.” According to the ancients, the highest state of the soul’s enlightenment lies beyond sense experience and even reason. This achievement of unspoken union with the divine within is called gnosis, unmediated knowledge. [...]
Were the world of my own making,
could my will enact its voice,
I should surely sculpt a chaos,
pain parading as a choice. [...]
In our essay in this issue (see “The Framing of a Movement” on page 32), we provided a broad framework for identifying and evaluating the New Apostolic Reformation. The following resources will be helpful if you desire to learn more about how the movement understands itself and how to understand it from a truly biblical perspective. [...]
This issue of Modern Reformation exposes some of the doctrinal and practical dangers of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement. I trust that the great majority of MR readers are already convinced not to attend an NAR church or follow their teachings. But another question likely looms in the minds of many of us: What about their music? [...]
Beneath the shifting skies where I once walked,
bloodwine and burning light bring sober sight.
If you go, maybe you’ll leave, and you’ll talk
like me, with holy limp and heart alight. [...]
