Church Life
5 Ways to Pray for Your Community
Last week Dan commented on my post: Nice post. Good points. But one that needs to be added is that church members pray to be burdened for the lost. That is the one thing I have found most lacking in the 2 established churches where I have served. Dan is right on the money. I…
Read MoreFriday Five: Jim Rodgers
Perhaps nothing challenges church leadership more than the use of their facilities, specifically knowing how, when, and where to allocate resources toward expansion. That is why I appreciate so greatly the ministry of my friend, Jim Rodgers. Jim is an “architectural pastor”, consulting churches on the use, expansion, and renovation of their facilities. He spent…
Read More5 Ways to Pray for Your Church
A couple weeks ago I wrote a blog, How to Help Your Church. It was one of the most popular posts of this year so far, perhaps because it struck a chord with pastors and church leaders working hard to serve God’s people. Interestingly, I wrote a similar post a few years ago. However it…
Read MoreFriday Five: Calvin Miller
Calvin Miller is a best-selling author with nearly four million books in print. He is one of the most poetic and gifted writers in the evangelical world. He is also a long-time pastor. Miller speaks all over the world and is professor of preaching and pastoral ministry at Samford University’s Beeson Divinity School. His latest…
Read More5 Ways You Can Help Your Church
So, yes, your church is imperfect. After a few weeks there you have realized this, I hope. You’re pastor is either a bit boring or too over the top. You wish for a bit more depth in his messages or perhaps a bit more practical application. The music has too much drum or too much…
Read MoreA Better Way to Discern
I come from a very conservative theological background and I maintain many of those same convictions. But one thing that has changed in my heart over the years is my attitude toward people from different ministry contexts and denominations. I used to think that if their bullet points didn’t line up with mine, then I…
Read MoreFriday Five: Ed Welch
Edward T. Welch, M.Div., Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist and faculty member at the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation (CCEF). He has counseled for over twenty-five years and is the best-selling author of some of the best, gospel-centric counceling books, including When People Are Big and God Is Small; Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave; Running Scared:…
Read MorePastors, Love the Ones You’re With – The Gospel Coalition Blog
The Gospel Coalition graciously posted another of my articles. This one is about a new lesson I learned from a familiar passage: I’ve read 1 Peter 5:1 many times. As a young pastor, I’m paying more attention to its straightforward directives for my calling as a shepherd. But it wasn’t until a few weeks ago…
Read MoreCreativity is Cool, but So is Maturity
By now you’ve read some of the dust-up online about two prominent pastors and their presentations of intimacy and marriage. Mark Driscoll and his wife Grace have written what seems to be a very raw, personal book, Real Marriage. Ed Young, Jr is launching a new preaching series/book/media blitz in which he and his wife…
Read MoreFriday Five: Matthew Lee Anderson
Matthew Lee Anderson is the founder of the popular blog Mere Orthodoxy as well as the author of Earthen Vessels, Why Our Body Matters to Our Faith He was featured in Christianity Today’s Who’s Next column in December of 2009. Matthew sits on the editorial board of The City, and has been quoted on FoxNews.com, in the Wall…
Read MoreEd Stetzer – How Should We Talk About Sex?
I wanted to write a post about this, but couldn’t find the words. Thankfully Ed Stetzer, a wiser man than me by far, wrote what I consider a terrific and wise post on how evangelicals might approach the delicate, but necessary subject of sex. I especially liked this paragraph: Third, when talking about sex, hype…
Read MoreEvangelicalism’s Changing Heart on Immigration – Patheos Column
Today Patheos is featuring a my column, cowritten with my friend Matthew Soerens of World Relief on the changing attitudes toward immigration among evangelicals: The conventional wisdom among pundits and journalists holds that immigration is a key to winning over the evangelicals who dominate the Republican presidential nominating process in the early states. This is…
Read More