Bedhead Theology

  Evangelism must be tethered to the gospel, and the gospel message proclaimed must be doctrinally clear and biblically grounded. Without a gospel message, we cannot win souls. The gospel’s central essence is the person and work of Christ. The gospel is not about me; it is about Him. The gospel is for His Glory! Our ultimate need is to enthrone Him upon our hearts. R. C. Sproul declared, “We need Christ. We need a real Christ. A Christ born of empty speculation or created to squeeze into the philosopher’s pattern simply won’t do. A recycled Christ, a Christ of compromise, can redeem no one. A Christ watered down, stripped of power, debased of glory, reduced to a symbol, or made impotent by scholarly surgery is not Christ but Antichrist.” [1] We must speak clearly to honor Christ as willing ambassadors for Christ’s cause. Therefore, the gospel stands upon these four objective truths: the gospel reveals that God is Holy, it declares that the whole of mankind has fallen under God’s...

  The Long Defeat I recently learned of J. R. R. Tolkien’s concept called “the long defeat.” I have been researching this concept for a couple of weeks. I am, by no means, proficient in the study of philosophy. I often read philosophy and scratch my head, saying, “Those certainly are words.” But the long defeat struck a chord with me. It just made sense. The long defeat stands as a philosophical thought that captures Tolkien’s view of history: a slow, inevitable decline in which evil continually re-emerges, beauty fades, and human efforts inside worldly history ultimately end in loss. However, this view is far from a message of despair; the long defeat underpins the philosophy of heroic duty, perseverance, and hope. The question arises: in the face of inevitable defeat, we must decide why we fight. We do not fight for immediate victory; we fight for what is good, true, and holy. We stand as bulwarks against the evil of this age, knowing that we may very well be scarred by the b...

A quarter of a century sounds like a long time, and in fact, for the limited time we have on this planet, it is a significant milestone. Yet, as I reflect on everything that has transpired since that fateful day in 2001, I can see a world that is topsy-turvy. In some respects, our culture has advanced in leaps and bounds. The technological differences between 2001 and today show a fundamental transition. Society went from localized, physical, and highly fragmented devices to hyper-connected, cloud-based, and AI-driven platforms. Never before have people had access to the world’s wealth of information together, at the same time. On the other hand, we have lost some important aspects of our collective “soul.” As we remember the tragedy of 9/11, we must also recognize the tragedy that befalls us today—the death of civil discourse, the celebration of murder on the premise of ideology, the rabid acceleration of the death machine we call Planned Parenthood, and so much more. Given our cult...

  The church is in desperate need of gospel clarity. Rampant on every social media platform is a barrage of claims about Christianity rife with compromise. Gospel clarity must be anchored in biblical and theological consistency. Ultimately, that clarity must begin in the pulpit. An old preaching adage I first heard in my expositional preaching class asserts, “If there is a mist in the pulpit, then there will be a fog in the pew.” [1] The lack of gospel clarity among Christians stems from a lack of clarity within the local churches’ leadership. A church devoid of conversions is, plainly speaking, a dying church. A church with no gospel conviction—no evangelistic vision, passion for reaching the lost, nor any fervor for the Great Commission—has succumbed to apathy and complacency. Too often, local churches look to secular business models for church growth tactics and lose sight of their missional mandate—make disciples. Business models become transfixed on numerical growth that ...

John of Antioch (349–407), often referred to as Chrysostom (meaning the “golden-mouthed”), stands as a bulwark in early Christian preaching. Larsen declared him “unquestionably the greatest preacher of the early church.” [1] His dedication to biblical exposition characterized his preaching. Chrysostom would take a passage of Scripture and provide an exegetical address with application. He had a keen ability to take the text’s literal meaning and apply it pastorally to his congregation’s needs. [2] Chrysostom’s preaching demonstrated his position as an astute student of rhetoric. His rhetoric demonstrated animated expressions as he traversed from exposition to appeal. Thus, he established that the sermon began with exegesis and concluded with its exhortation. Rhetorically trained by Libanius, Chrysostom was prolific in his oratory ability, and his rhetorical approach was grounded in his conviction toward holiness ( ethos ), his exegetical work ( logos ), and culminated in the exhortati...

The gospel is everything! This statement, as simple as it is, speaks to the very heart of preaching. Looking across the culture around us, we find that Faithful preaching must speak the truth with grace to move hearts toward Christ. Haddon Robinson declared, “When we concentrate on ideas, with the desire to make listeners understand and accept them, strong delivery comes naturally.”  Erasmus argued that the purpose “in persuasion is to have the hearer want to embrace the honorable and the useful.”  Thus, the goal is to move the heart. However, in this goal, it is imperative to note the impact of delivery. Francis Bacon understood delivery when he compared logic to a fist and rhetoric to an open palm.  He asserted that logic handles reason in absolute truth, whereas rhetoric handles reason through the lens of popular opinions. Essentially, a logical argument can affirm the truth but possibly in a heavy-handed manner. Conversely, a rhetorical approach can present the truth ...

As we approach the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America, I have found myself reflecting on the concept of freedom. All around us, we find ourselves inundated with rhetoric that permeates every aspect of our lives. From a political perspective, we can see the dire message of existential threat surrounding us today. What seems odd to me, especially as I have studied rhetoric and persuasion, is how readily our society latches onto ideas and concepts that are not well-vetted. We grasp at ideas we think bring freedom, but in turn they drive us further from it. I seek to honor my nation by expressing the truth of freedom. True freedom is found only in Christ. Freedom in Christ is one of those truths that sounds simple on the surface. Yet, it should reshape everything we hold dear once you let it sink in. Paul’s declaration in Galatians 5:1, “It is for freedom that Christ has set you free,” is not a political slogan, nor is it a catchphrase for a motivational post...

  One of the greatest tragedies of the last century, in my opinion, in the church was the seeming professionalization of evangelism. The devastating lack of vision for congregational evangelism. The lack of conviction that holds that evangelism is not for the paid staff but the call of every believer. The misunderstanding that evangelism is not a spiritual gift or spiritual fruit; it is a command. If we love Him, we must obey His commands. Nevertheless, as I have conversations with my pastor friends, I am encouraged by the resurgence of intentional congregational evangelism. More and more leaders are communicating the church's irreplaceable role in God’s mission, bridging the gap and connecting the lost to Christ. But when we talk about congregational evangelism, what exactly do I mean? Evangelism, at its most basic, is best summarized in the words of D. T. Niles, “Evangelism is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.” So, how does this translate to the congre...