Topic

10 challenges you’ll face in ministry

Leading God’s people is unlike any other task in the world — which is why it requires a calling of the Spirit, and not merely training for a job.

Pastor in progress: Four marks of a faithful servant

If you find that you are not a perfect pastor, do not be surprised or dismayed. Recalibrate your expectations and be grateful for the progress God is making in your own heart and soul.

5 surprising lessons from revitalizing a dying congregation

Church revitalization is hard work, and many of the lessons I’ve learned have been not just unexpected, but difficult and painful.

How to deal with addictions: Kill them

Addictions do not die in one decisive action. They die over a long period of time.

Go to church — even when you don’t feel like it

In the good times, we don’t need covenants, because we can get by on feelings alone. But covenant communities hold us up when we’re faltering.

5 myths about seminary

Seminary can by no means teach everything you need to know, but it puts strong tools in your box to set you up for a lifetime of matriculating in the school of Christ.

Don’t unhitch from preaching and teaching fullness of the OT

By including the Old Testament in our teaching, we actively find ways to connect the ancient roots of our faith to the stories about Jesus, bringing together one coherent, metanarrative.

3 things you may not know about the Sermon on the Mount

The sermon is wisdom from the Father, inviting us through faith to re-orient our values, vision, and habits from the ways of external righteousness to whole-heartedness toward God.

Is Christianity a religion of doctrine or of love? Yes.

Christianity does not begin by telling us to love other people. It begins with the great biblical doctrines of God, man, Christ, and the gospel.

3 reasons your church shouldn’t be all about numbers

The people of your city are not prospective church attendees, they are sheep without a shepherd.

3 reasons your church should be all about numbers

I would argue that the number of people who come to Christ and join your church should be of great concern. I believe you should care how many people are on your membership list — down to the very last one.

What does Paul mean when he says ‘let a woman learn quietly?’

God intends a certain order in the husband-wife relationship. The order of creation establishes the husband as leader in the first marriage and in all marriages to follow.

Seven things we often mistake for evangelism

We have not obeyed the calling to evangelize until we talk specifically about the person and work of Jesus Christ and the necessity to believe in him.