Today is a conversation that John and I wanted to have because we look around at the Christian landscape broadly.

We even consider members of our own churches. And it seems that many of us operate out of fear and are so concerned with going in aberrant directions theologically that it's possible that we hinder our ability to partner with other sincere, well-meaning Christians to promote the gospel. And it's possible that we hinder our ability to partner with other sincere, well-meaning Christians

to promote the gospel.

And it's possible that we even stunt our growth and our ability to learn from others who might

be outside our tradition who have said some really good things about a lot of topics in the

Christian life.

So this is two pastors processing things in real time. And we hope this conversation

is helpful, freeing, comforting for you. Stay tuned. If you're new to theocast, you may not have

heard of this word. It's called pietism. You ever felt like the Christian life is a heavy burden

versus rest and joy, that you wake up worrying about how well you're going

to perform instead of thinking about what Christ has done for you. It's dread versus joy,

really. That's pietism. Piatism causes Christians to look in on themselves and find their hope,

not in what Christ has done, but what they're doing.

And we have a little book for you. It's free. We want you to download it, and we're going to

explain the difference between pietism and what we call confessionalism. Reform theology,

really, how it is that we walk by faith, seeing the joy of Christ, and when Jesus says,

come to me and I will give you rest, what does that look like?

You can download it on our website. Just go to Theocast.org.

Welcome to Theocast, encouraging weary pilgrims to rest in Christ.

Conversations about the Christian life from a reformed perspective.

Your host today are Justin Purdue, pastor of Covenant Baptist Church in Asheville,

and North Carolina.

...