I introduced a new series of articles on the marks of a healthy church. Notice healthy. The Belgic Confession already defines the marks of a true church as the following: the pure preaching of the gospel, the faithful administration of the sacraments, and the exercise of church discipline. Our churches can't be healthy if they're not true. But my concern in these articles is not to distinguish the difference between true churches and false churches, or even true churches from less faithful churches.

This month our deadly sin is what socialists have termed tribalism. A quick Google search defines it this way: the behavior and attitudes that stem from strong loyalty to one's own tribe or social group. The first form of tribalism alive in our circles is what I'd call ethnic tribalism.

Together we've been looking at what I believe to be some of the more glaring weaknesses of conservative Reformed and Presbyterian circles. Perhaps we might look at these as our seven deadly sins. A quick dictionary glance defines it as "the attitude of being resigned to abandonment of an original goal or the means of attaining it." Another puts it this way: "A word describing the cowardly compulsion to flee."

Hyper-Calvinism is not what we call people who are really passionate about being Reformed. Those are what we called "cage phase" people in seminary: new to the Reformed faith from a wilderness of theological and ecclesiastical confusion, often fundamentalism or Arminianism. The kind of folks whose newfound purpose was not only to show why they're right, but also why everyone else is wrong. Yet that is not what we mean by hyper-Calvinism.

This article is about the second worship service, discussing the importance of regular spiritual food and fellowship with other believers.

This article urges young people to find a mentor to support them in their path with the Lord.