It's rare for me to even think about recommending a book that I haven't yet read.  There are probably 4 living authors that I would do that for, and D.A. Carson is one of them.  This new book by D.A. Carson (which we will be stocking shortly in our bookstore) promises to be among the most accessible of Carson's works, as it is a collection of 5 messages that Carson gave at a recent conference on Jesus' death and resurrection, titled, "Scandalous."  This would be a fantastic book to go through as individuals or families to prepare our hearts for the glory of Easter.

Here are the chapter titles and Scripture references:

1. The Ironies of the Cross: Matthew 27:27-51a

2. The Center of the Whole Bible: Romans 3:21-26  read more »

After 3 painful consecutive cancellations of our Sunday meetings I'm so grateful that there is no expectation of snow this weekend!  Thanks so much to the church for how you have gathered with us on the past two Monday nights to worship together.  What wonderful times we have had meeting together in the beautiful auditorium of Our Savior's Way Lutheran Church the past two weeks!   read more »

As a church without our own building, we have at various times over our 8-year history had our Sunday morning meetings cancelled by Loudoun County Public Schools due to inclement weather.  On the Saturday before those occasions this is what you would typically find at the Donohue house: My older three children digging through the coat closest, looking for their winter gear so they can romp around in the snow with their neighborhood friends, while their dad is closely monitoring weather.com and entertaining thoughts like, “I wonder if a meteor could rip through the ozone and allow enough ultra violet radiation to melt everything by the morning?”  read more »

Here's a blog from John Piper on how to be discerning even with our favorite authors and preachers, and in this case a critique of some uncareful statements CS Lewis made on doctrine.  

"I encourage you to measure your favorite authors and your favorite quotes by what the Bible teaches and what the Bible includes."

Read the whole thing here.

Whenever there is a natural disaster, Pat Robertson can always be counted on to say something particularly cringeworthy and embarrassing to his fellow evangelicals, and the tragic events in Haiti yesterday, unfortunately were no different.

Robertson, the Pentecostal televangelist who founded Regent University and the 700 Club, today proclaimed that the earthquake that struck Haiti yesterday, leaving tens, if not hundreds, of thousands dead, was the result of God's judgment on an alleged pact that the founders of the nation made with Satan to free them from French control.  It's a claim based on Haitian folklore, not in any historical accounts.  So the truthfulness of the claim is very much in doubt to begin with.  read more »

It seems that every month, I read another article or hear of another book proclaiming the impending death of evangelicalism.  read more »

You may be aware from media accounts last Fall about a document that was signed by a
number of Evangelical authors along with Roman Catholic and Orthodox Church
leaders called the Manhattan Declaration, and our pastoral team has received
some questions regarding our position on the document.  You can read the document here.   read more »

Isn't it refreshing to see the gospel proclaimed in a place
you don't expect it?  One regular
occurrence of this has been seeing Tim Tebow proclaim his faith in numerous
places, whether Bible verses he wears on game day, or talking about Christ in
the media (and while I'm glad as a University of South Carolina fan he will no
longer be at Florida, he is one of the most genuine Christian athletes I know
of).  Last night we saw another
wonderful example of this as Texas quarterback Colt McCoy, sidelined in the
first quarter by an injury proclaim his trust in God's sovereignty.

   read more »

One of my New Year's resolutions (especially since it's part
of my job description) is to blog more frequently.  Thanks for your patience in this blog's relative silence
recently, but I resolve here to blog 1-2 times per week.  So feel free, all of you, to harass me
if I fail in this!

On that note, if you have some things that you think would
be helpful for me to blog about, either theological questions or really
anything, please forward those thoughts on to me at kirk [at] gracecommunity [dot] ws .  Our goal with this blog is to serve the
men and women of our church, so that's my hope as I re-engage with this
format. 

Thanks for reading last year, and here's to many more posts
this year!  read more »

What a blessing to have so many folks turn out on Sunday night for our first Sunday night theology class: over 100!  And that with a Redskins game going on!  If you missed last week but hope to be a regular part, try to listen to the Introduction that I began on week one -- you can download the audio and the outline here -- Thanks to Steve Truesdale for getting that webpage set up so quickly and to Matt Kramer and Ray Coulter for making sure we captured the audio. 

We are still finalizing details about the location of this Sunday's class -- stay tuned, and hope to see you then!