Articles
Why Young Adults Are Calling for a Public Church
Young adults believe in a public God, and they are not willing to wait for the church to become public. They are choosing to become deeply engaged in working for the common good in a variety of ways. Kristina Frugé, director of Congregational and Community Initiatives...
Young But Useful: Why Young Believers Matter
Spiritual Maturity Matters More Than Age In 1 Corinthians 13:11 Paul declared, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.” Notice Paul did not say, “When I...
Living With Kingdom Influence
You are a kingdom disciple living as a kingdom servant while making a kingdom impact that will resonate throughout all time. And you do this through what we read in 1 Peter, which says we are to “proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into...
Understanding the Emptiness Crisis
For two decades Americans have become more unhappy, more discontented, and more depressed than ever before. This is not just empty rhetoric; the research is clear. Suicide has gone up every year in nearly every state for the last two decades (“Suicide Rates on the...
Living with Restoration Rhythms
Sustainable Activism Includes Rest I’ve come to recognize I am an exponentially more kind, patient, and attentive person after I have had a good night’s sleep. With every thirty minutes of uninterrupted shuteye, I become a better listener and more attuned to the...
Try God Breakthrough in Ministry
As I write this, our local church has been experiencing massive growth. Throughout this process, I’ve been asking and seeking God for a larger gathering place. On one particular blessed Sunday, as I noticed people walking down the street and being shuttled back and...
Walking in Freedom Through the Holy Spirit
Once, I went to an escape room with my mom and sisters. Oh, man, my blood was pumping the whole time! I felt anxious—the pressure to figure out the way to freedom while the clock was ticking. And sadly, we didn’t succeed. Why not? We didn’t ask for help. We were told...
Faith Foundation Guide for Parents
Work began on the bell tower, the final structure of a cathedral complex in Tuscany, in 1173. This eight-story tower would stand two hundred feet tall and be made of marble. But by the time the third story was complete, a problem was apparent: the tower was leaning....
Promise of Heaven
Finding Peace in Life’s Storms
In the mid-1970s Steven Spielberg produced a movie called Jaws, the fictional story of a monster shark that made a meal out of the swimmers off the New England coastline. One iconic scene involves a crusty boat captain, the police chief, and a scientist. They set off...
Jesus Exalted King and the Meaning of the Ascension
What Does the Ascension Tell Us About Jesus? Jesus is exalted as the true King of the world, worthy of ultimate allegiance. He intercedes for us before the Father and is present with us by the Spirit. EVERYONE WANTS TO ASCEND. Think about the metaphors we often...
Surrendering My Way to God
In the book of Judges, we see the outworking of those who kept choosing what they felt was right. There, you see wars, conflicts, death, and endless cycles of sin, repentance, then sin again. These words are haunting: “In those days Israel had no king; all the people...
Crushing Chaos Begins with God’s Order
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Genesis 1:2 (NIV) The main emphasis [of creation] is not on a process from nothing to something, from nonexistence to existence, but on...
Poisoned Profit and Christian Integrity
Generosity is a virtue. It is widely held that Christians with resources have a moral obligation to give away some portion of their bounty, but our moral obligation also extends to how we make our money. We should be concerned with the giving we can do with our money...
The Roundabout Way of God’s Leadership Formation
When God Leads Us the Roundabout Way In an American dream paradigm, the graph of formation and leadership follows a line up and to the right, where our maturity and sphere of influence only keep increasing. I have seen a lot of young leaders stumble because of this...
God Who Knows You: Embraced by Divine Affection
What It Means That God Knows Yo In the middle of the Bible, near the end of Psalms, we find the answers to our questions about God’s love for us. Truthfully, the entirety of God’s Word is a declaration of undeserved love. I’ve wrestled with my poor understanding of...
Unambitious Ambition: What Jesus Teaches Us About True Greatness
Answering this question can get us a ways toward where we want to go. But it’s not nearly so straightforward as it might seem. For as we should have come to expect, the Son of God is not easily cornered. Understanding Jesus’ Unambitious Ambition Let’s start with his...
Teaching with The Chosen: How Drama Shapes Disciples
Why Teaching with The Chosen is Powerful The Chosen is a television drama series that portrays the life of Jesus through a multiseason, episodic format. Created, directed, and cowritten by Dallas Jenkins, the show presents the story of Jesus in a unique way by deeply...
Choosing Courage: Freedom Begins with Honesty
When Fear Chokes the Soul The pressure of reality was closing in from all sides. It was as if the air was being sucked out of the room. As I sat there on the edge of my hotel bed, I felt like I was drowning in a sea of confusion, and the only part of my body left...
Sermon Exegesis: Cooling the Air with Insight
Why Sermon Exegesis Matters Deeply Here’s another thing I’ve heard Tom Long say: “Come sum- mer time, everyone wants to feel the cool of an air condi- tioner, but no one wants to hear the HVAC rumbling right beside their ear.” I think of this advice nearly every time...
