Editors note: Dan Dumas has written a new book, Live Smart: Preparing for the Future God Wants for You (Bethany House). SBTS Blog editor Jeff Robinson corresponded with him on how he hopes to minister to the local church through his new work. In Live Smart, you trace out 14 principles from Scripture that…
My daughter, Laurelen, graduated from a small, classical Christian high school. The school enjoys a commencement tradition in which the parents hand the diploma to their child, but only after speaking a few words of encouragement (usually accompanied with some nostalgia) to him or her. The graduate responds with some brief, prepared remarks of his…
Editors’ note: Part I of this article was published earlier this week. Be fun to live with “Joy” is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). If your Christianity makes you dreary and dull, you don’t understand the ministry of the Holy Spirit nor what Christ has done. If pastors would reflect the joy of…
“They made me keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept” (Song of Songs 1:6). The PBS documentary “Carrier” is a fascinating look at life on board the USS Nimitz, the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that bestowed its name on an entire class of ships. More than five thousand sailors and marines…
How can your ministry equip parents with the resources they need? In the first place, help parents to see that if they are believers in Jesus Christ, God has already equipped them with his Spirit, his Word and the community of faith (John 16:12–14; Eph 4:11–16; 2 Tim 3:16–17; Heb. 13:21). Through these gifts from…
If marriage is a picture of Christ and his love for his church, then much more is at stake than my happiness.
If we want our family ministries to be effective, we need to involve parents.
This is the third post in a series from A Guide to Biblical Manhood. Download the whole guidebook as a free PDF here. Lay your life down for your wife Regardless of any examples or influences you may see around you of marriages that seek to be 50/50 and fully equal, it’s your…
“I cannot believe that you would do that!” That incredulous assertion is an all too familiar response from parents (including myself) who discover a child has sinned. But for Christian parents, such an assertion is anti-Christ because it constitutes speaking as if the gospel is not true. It represents the response for a parent…
Human parenting, and especially human fathering, points and shows something of what it means to know God and who God is.
In Part 1, I discussed two of the five categories that I think of when answering young ministers about how to balance their family and ministry. This part discusses the rest of those five principles that, while not hard and fast rules, have been helpful for my family and ministry. 3. Unique Situations Beyond…
Over the last several weeks I have been pulled aside by several young pastors asking me for advice. They want to know how to balance the demands of ministry and the demands of their family. These are younger guys in their 20s and 30s and they are stressed out. They’re feeling the pull to produce and be…
To have a biblical worldview is to interpret every aspect of our lives — including our relationships with children — within the framework of God’s story. At the center of God’s story stands this singular act: in Jesus Christ, God personally intersected human history and redeemed humanity at a particular time in a particular place.…
I saw something beautiful one day while walking down Breckenridge Lane. In a front yard not far from my home, a young mother was removing a layer of leftover leaves from the fall in preparation for planting spring flowers — an ordinary activity in the middle of an ordinary day. What was extraordinary about…
