Articles
When Churches Close, Who’s to Blame
America is experiencing a religious transformation, a de-Christianizing of the nation. The result is foreseeable. Thousands upon thousands of churches will close this year and next. This sad reality is affecting an ever-increasing population of Christians as they...
8 Skills to Help Your Kids Spend Wisely
How do we teach our kids to spend smart? It starts with taking them with us when we shop in stores or sitting them down with us when we shop online and talking them through what we’re doing to spend wisely. There are various ways to help your kids spend wisely. The...
Sound Doctrine & Modern Day Deliverance/Healing
The New Taboo in Christianity?
We Christians have always had our taboos; there are things we just don’t discuss. As a member of Generation X, I remember bans on drinking, dancing, and tattoos since each of these would absolutely lead to other things that would terminate your relationship with God....
Three Reasons to Help Churches Die
Researchers agree the American Church is shrinking rapidly. People are leaving the church in droves. There are few exceptions to this cultural phenomenon impacting every aspect of the Christian life. The tsunami of change is decimating institutions, including...
The Ultimate Source of Recovery: The Bible
In 1977 I began working with alcoholics, drug addicts and those with psychiatric problems. Being a Christ follower in secular settings with worldly theories and practices was not easy. In 1988 I founded NewLife Treatment Centers and we operated 32 Christian NewLife...
What Do You As a Christ Follower Smell Like?
I was what you might call a liquid nitrogen convert to Christianity. If you have ever bumped into anyone who has “seen the light,” you know what I am talking about—very excited, very passionate, tons of energy, and fully committed at the start. That was me—all jacked...
Negative News, Growing Churches
Pastors, If you’re listening to the mainstream media and their negative news, you’d never know that churches across America are growing at such an encouraging rate. Unless... ...You noticed the parking lots on the way to your own church — they’re packed! (Even my own...
How to Improve Accessibility for Seniors at Your Church
Even though religious entities are exempt from ADA rules, you want your church to be inclusive to all individuals. Making your church accessible to seniors may be a costly investment upfront, but it will be well worth it to the elderly members of your congregation. We...
Bible Or Theology: Which Is Infallible?
Infallibility. Does the word feel dense and tired and kind of irrelevant to you, like a library book that’s sat on the shelf too long? It does to me. But it speaks of that which cannot fail us. Literally, it means “the inability to fail.” It speaks of that which can...
Sanctify Your Achilles’ Heel
One of the mightiest heroes of Ancient Greece was the famed Achilles. According to legend his mother, Thetis, held him by his heel and dipped him into the river Styx in an attempt to make him invincible. Unfortunately for Achilles, the heel by which his mother held...
The Gift of Pastoral Leadership
Recently I was in Quebec, ministering among French Canadian baptists. I was stunned to learn that in a denomination of roughly 100 churches, almost three dozen are without a pastor. What a different context than many of us are familiar with! In a place where the...
Revival happening now!
"As revival closes in on the one-week mark at Asbury University, reports are circulating of other colleges and universities where revival fires have ignited. As of Tuesday, groups of students from at least 22 higher education institutions..." Read the full article...
Moving from Spiritual Insecurity to Spiritual Confidence
Spiritual Confidence Plenty of experts teach strategies to become confident in our bodies, confident in dating, confident in professional environments, confident in social settings, and more. However, few people teach us how to become spiritually confident. Since our...
How The Gospel Enables and Empowers Sexual Purity
Growing up in a churchgoing family, Kate had been taught that maintaining her sexual purity for marriage was of “utmost importance.” She had been taught many rules and regulations, but without being given any reasons for them. Having sex outside of marriage was a sin,...
The Bible’s Investment Plan
The Bible contains more than 2,300 verses that deal with money. Jesus talks about money in eleven of his thirty-nine parables. This topic matters to God. What he says in the Bible is what we’re called to live by. Invest in God’s Word first. Invest in God’s work...
Liturgical Renewal
In the aftermath of the recent fragmentation and decline of the church, a growing number of evangelicals in the United States are seeking to find identity and spiritual renewal in the retrieval of ancient church tradition for contemporary faith, especially in the area...
Doubt Your Doubts
When we are seeking to understand something as big as God, it’s normal to have doubts along the way. We don’t typically have much choice in whether we struggle with some doubts in this process, but we do make choices in how to deal with the doubt. My claim is that...
This I Believe
In every generation, we face the danger of longing for the past while fearing the future. And this mix of nostalgia and fear leads us into a state of complacency—a mission-less faith. We file in and out of the sanctuary week after week, content to recite the same...
Being and Becoming
I love the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. I realize that we live in an age where fewer are making that statement. However, I love the church. I am painfully aware that those who don’t love the church, who wish the church would disappear forever, feel that way in...
