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I’ll let you in on a little secret, something that goes on behind the scenes at Ligonier Ministries. We are all too painfully aware that, though it is never our intention, we sometimes confuse you. As you know, we have a magazine called Tabletalk. We also have a radio program called “Renewing Your Mind.” And we have a president and chairman who is more widely known than Tabletalk, the radio program, or the ministry itself. And then there’s “Ligonier” itself. Most of you probably are still wondering, “What’s a Ligonier?” That’s a lot of names to keep track of.
The names, however, are not the fruit of perpetual changes in ministry goals. Neither are we seeking to confuse you on purpose. All that we do at Ligonier seeks to serve the purpose of renewing your mind. We hope this magazine engenders table talk that will help you renew your mind. And Ligonier is the town in western Pennsylvania in which we first set about, more than 30 years ago, to help people renew their minds.
Why is it that we strive for the renewing of your minds, and our own as well? It is that we would not be conformed to the image of this world. We are the people of God, called to be set apart, distinct, and holy. Because we are not holy, we tend to err in one of two directions. On the one hand, we face a temptation to avoid being conformed to the image of this world by fleeing from it. We can become retreatist, monastic, gnostic. We try to get our thinking straight, and then hide in a bunker until Jesus comes back. Meanwhile, our salt loses its savor. That temptation, however, is not what tugs at us most powerfully in our age. We tend to err in the other direction, to become like the world around us. We not only live in the world, we live like the world.
Abraham Kuyper managed to fall off neither side of the horse. When he became involved in politics, he did not then become political, that is, given to compromising biblical convictions in order to make his way in the world. When he became a journalist, he refused to mute his biblical message such that it might be more palatable to his potential audience. He refused to accommodate the spirit of the age. When he founded the Free University of Amsterdam, he determined that the school would be free from the state but bound to the lordship of Jesus Christ. And in so doing he trained up future generations.
To build the kingdom of God, it is not necessary that we not be confused by the plethora of names associated with Ligonier Ministries. But it is necessary that we not be confused about our calling by Him who has received the name which is above every name, Lord. May we all serve Him with renewed minds, in accordance with the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.