Culture
We Should Expect Non-Christians to Share Our Morals
A common reaction among evangelicals to the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage has been deflection from controversy. This laissez-faire approach has been most commonly expressed by closely connected beliefs about Christianity and morality: We should not expect non-Christians to think and live like Christians. So why all the fuss among Christians over the legalization…
Read MoreSBC Resolution on Human Dignity
I was grateful to see the messengers of the Southern Baptist Convention pass a strong resolution on human dignity. More than ever, Christians need to reclaim this biblical view and apply it to the way we see ourselves and our neighbors. I’ve included it below: WHEREAS, In the beginning, the Triune God chose to create…
Read MoreHere is the Church, but Where is the Steeple?
Several years ago, a church I pastored went through a massive remodeling effort, updating a tired, ‘90s-era look with more modern, chic, 21st-century décor. Peeling wallpaper was replaced with fresh paint. Hideous brown siding was covered over with a beautiful new stone treatment. A landscaper transformed some tired and unkempt bushes into a beautiful garden…
Read MoreFuneral for a Stranger
I sat in my office late on a Thursday afternoon after a week of meetings, study, and a thousand other crises big and small. By that point in the week I was thinking about what I would do on Friday: lock myself in my office, take no phone calls, and crank out the final draft of…
Read MoreWho Exactly Am I Preaching To?
“Um, so, did someone tell you about Dave’s job?” an anxious member told me, as she shook my hand on the way out of the auditorium one Sunday morning. “Because it seemed like you were talking to us.” I told her this was the first I had heard of their fragile employment situation. The sermon…
Read MoreThe Church’s Next 10,000 Years
It was a slick PowerPoint—presented by a (self-described) cutting-edge ministry practitioner—that sent me over the edge. Carefully presenting cherry-picked research, this ministry leader offered a doomsday scenario for the American church: heresy is rising. Millennials are fleeing. Culture is changing. Of course, this inevitable slouch toward Gomorrah could be prevented, we were told, if we…
Read MoreThe glory we don’t see: Looking harder for glimpses of God at work around us
Every week I met with a drug dealer, a shady business-man, and a serial gambler. Only you wouldn’t know it, because sitting in the pew next to me, they looked just like church people. Middle class. Put together. Churchy. But here they were, trophies of grace, evidence of some strange and mysterious redemption. Glimpses of…
Read MoreThe Tension of Influence and Humility
In his book Playing God, Andy Crouch writes of an incident with a well-known megachurch pastor. In the pastor’s study, Andy quizzed the leader about how he managed his power. “We are all servant leaders here!” he said. “We don’t care about power.” Then the two left and walked into an office space where church staff…
Read MoreSo you want to make disciples
What does it mean to be on mission for God? Evangelicals are asking this question more often in a culture that seems increasingly inhospitable to Christian witness. So words like missional and incarnational are all the rage, driving people to think holistically (another buzz word) about their presence in a particular local community. These discussions…
Read MoreNo, you can’t have it all now: How we preach a prosperity gospel without even knowing it
If you were to ask most Christians, you’d find many consider the prosperity gospel to be an unbiblical teaching offered by religious hucksters. But there’s a subtle way in which a similar message creeps into our theologically sound churches—a back-door heresy perhaps more damaging than the promise of a bigger house or fatter bank account.…
Read MoreLoving Jesus means you’re commanded to love fellow believers–all of them
I’m not a big bumper sticker guy, but I couldn’t help noticing the one proudly displayed on my new neighbor’s car. When I first saw it, I was excited because it said, “JESUS LOVES YOU” in large capital letters. Great! I thought. A Christian has moved in next to me. I imagined early morning Bible…
Read MoreBook of Wishes: The reason we long for more
It arrived every November, wrapped in cellophane, its pages filled with new possibilities. On the cover, a dreamy holiday image, pulling your heart into the season and beckoning you to indulge in hours of wish making. It’s hard to overestimate the sheer joy the Sears Wish Book brought to my young heart. Before Amazon and…
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