Jonathan Threlfall

Thoughts on Christian theology and pastoring

  • How God Sees His Church

    I long for Christians to see the church as God sees the church. If we did, I believe, we would value it as he values it and find a greater and more joyful confidence in what he is doing in and through the church.

  • The Goodness of Creation

    An extended meditation on the goodness of God’s creation, based on a sermon I preached on January 22, 2023.

  • The God Who Forms and Fills

    A sermon on Genesis 1:2

  • “All Things Are More Ours by Becoming His”

    My freshman year of college I memorized a poem by a 17th century pastor, George Herbert. I’ve since learned that Herbert died at age 39 as a pastor of a small country church, with never more than 100 people in his congregation. But before he became a pastor, he was a rising star in academia […]

  • On a Pastor’s Duty to Protect

    This is a sermon manuscript of the second in a two-part series on the role of pastors in the church. The first part dealt with three duties of a pastor: to teach, model, and nurture. This second part deals with a fourth duty of a pastor, which is to protect the flock. When my family […]

  • Take Heed to the Flock

    The following is the manuscript from a message on Acts 20:17-35 which I delivered on Sunday, June 5, 2022 as part of sermon series on the book of Acts. In light of (1) the crisis of pastoral credibility, (2) reports of churches’ and denominations horrific mishandling of and complicity in sexual abuse, and (3) the downsizing of ministerial training institutions, I’m especially burdened that pastors and churches alike are clear on what pastors are supposed to be doing, and what their character qualifications are to be.

  • Bavinck’s Christian Worldview

    It wasn’t until I started reading Herman Bavinck’s The Wonderful Works of God (I already owned his four-volume Reformed Dogmatics but had only dabbled in it) that I decided I wanted to read everything that Bavinck had written. That decision prompted me, in 2020, to purchase his recently-translated (2019) Christian Worldview which I wish I […]

  • The Magic of Writing

    In the month of November, my wife and I decided that we would spent thirty minutes writing every weekday evening of the month. We didn’t quite reach that goal, but we wrote a lot more than we would have if we had made no goal at all. Because I spend a lot of my workday […]

  • Jonathan Edwards’ Method of Study

    Did Jonathan Edwards have a particular method that allowed him to think through a topic with such rigor and clarity?

  • Two Resources for Preaching

    When it comes to preaching—and, for that matter, many areas in life—my motto is always learning. Once you stop learning, you not only stagnate: you revert. Still, it is helpful to have a tried-and-true method for accomplishing a task, especially when you are called to accomplish that task, again and again—with excellence. Over the course […]