For the past several months I have been working my way through a stack of pastoral theology books. Recently, I finished Charles Bridges’ “The Christian Ministry—with An Inquiry into the Causes of its Inefficiency.” First published in 1830, the work has managed to remain surprising relevant for all who wish to consider the task of […]
Author: Tom Schmidt
Christian, husband of Rach, Church Planter,musician,
This Friday July 5th from 6-8 PM at Kimmer’s Ice Cream in Downtown St. Charles (1 W Illinois St), I’ll be playing an acoustic show with my friend Dan Alcanatra. Dan is an excellent song-writer and it will be a real joy not only to share the stage with him, but also to play some […]
Must I Have a Dramatic Conversion Experience To Know That I Am Saved? The church is not a mere building, but the people of God who are redeemed by Christ. Yet not everyone who attends worship services or even claims to be a Christian actually is a Christian; the terrifying reality is that on the […]
A Mental and Emotional Wellness that Endures Ice cream, relationships, Stanley Cup victories, a job promotion, financial security, the reassurance of a friend–all things which bring us mental and emotional joy and wellness. While wonderful as these things may be, there is a greater mental and emotional wellness that our hearts were made for: being […]
Ed Clowney’s “The Church” is a thoroughly helpful, biblical, theological portrait of the Christian church. The book helps you understand questions like, ‘What is the Church? Why is it relevant today? What is the mission of the church? What is the relation of the church to Israel?’ Although written nearly twenty years ago (1995), the […]
I wrote a new song this past month called “Why are you downcast O my soul?” based on Ps 42-43. Here it is: [youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtIfVfK9yWk[/youtube] Why Are You Downcast O My Soul? (Ps 42-3) All of your waves and your breakers wash over me, Deep calls to deep, at the roar of your waterfalls. […]
The other day I was tasked with preaching Eph 2:11-22 at Christian Fellowship Church in Chicago (My sermon can be found here and was entitled “How To Get Along“). To help me preach the tone and content of the text, I completed a sentence diagram. Once again, diagramming the text truly helped me understand the […]
PRACTICAL APPLICATION VERSUS HEAVY DOCTRINE Many sermons you hear these are divided into two camps: heavy on practical application (how to live out the Bible in your daily life) or heavy on doctrine (what does this text teach us about God). Those who are heavy on application tend to tell a lot of personal stories […]
WILLIAM PERKINS SUMMARY OF THE BIBLE This past weekend some guys from my church and I spent two hours discussing William Perkin’s ‘The Art of Prophesying.’ We had different guys take turns presenting summaries of the chapters (my friend Dan’s summary can be found here) and helped each other think through the content and application […]
“Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate. The more clearly we learn to recognize that the ground and strength and promise of all our fellowship is in Jesus Christ alone, the more serenely shall we think of […]
