Articles
Answering the Entrepreneurial Call
The word calling has dominated Christian circles in recent years, and it has taken on a mysterious power that no one seems to have nailed down. Does God call people into certain jobs and professions? Is calling a special spiritual experience? Are some people called...
Love Your Enemy
When we read what Jesus says about loving our enemies, it can be tempting to soften his words. Can we take this another way? Maybe he didn’t mean it! Unfortunately, he’s pretty clear. In Matthew 5:43-48, Jesus says to love our enemies and to pray for those who...
Basic Beliefs Matter
BASIC BELIEFS OF SECULAR HUMANISM There is no God There is no devil The Bible is full of myths The universe is self-caused There is no such thing as sin There is no after-life judgment Gender is what you want it to be Heaven and hell are make-believe There is no such...
Are You Praying Like an Adulterer?
“Unanswered” prayer always stings, but when we consider what God might be up to in his supposed silence, it can lessen some of that sting. Corrie ten Boom, who survived a Nazi concentration camp, said that any suffering becomes bearable when you know its purpose! God...
The Warrenton Declaration on Medical Mandates, Biblical Ethics, & Authority
“The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.” –Psalm 103:19 Preamble With the rise of COVID-19 and all of the attendant ramifications, it has been incumbent upon the church to come to terms with what it believes related to the...
Why “Influencer Culture” Is Putting Your Child in Danger
Emily scrolled through her Instagram feed entranced. Friends. Acquaintances. People she’d never met. All of them posting their latest grasp for approval, represented by that all-so-important number . . . likes. A guy named Ethan just posted a picture of himself posing...
Everyone…Called
Without a doubt, being a child of God means being unique. Without a doubt, God made you for a purpose, and He wants to use your unique self to impact this world. How, then, can it be that every follower of Christ is called to the same thing? If we are all unique with...
Innovation Takes Courage
What if there was an explosion of innovation in the church today? Imagine the effects of innovation on discipleship, community, racial reconciliation, hospitality, and giving! These are just some of the giants waiting for ministry leaders to tackle. These are outward...
First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament
LONG AGO, IN THE TIME BEFORE ALL DAYS, before the beginning of all things, the Great Spirit created the spirit-world above and the earth below. At that time our mother earth was an empty wasteland with no form or beauty, and great darkness was over the face of the...
God’s Call to Welcome and Embrace The Addicted
Drug addiction is killing people just like you and me: fellow image bearers of God who are moms dads, uncles aunts daughters and sons From February 2018 to February 2019 alone, 69,000 people died of drug overdoses. This problem has grown markedly worse during the...
Superheroes Needed!
It’s Them! Superheros Like an intense, action-packed Marvel movie, the stage is set, and the head-to-head battle between Light and Darkness is coming to a head. It’s taken decades to get here with the last six months progressing at warp speed. Many of God’s people are...
The Difference Between Giving Up and Letting Go
All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware. Martin Buber In many situations in life, our instinct is to fight it, fix it, and seize control. But very often, the Lord is asking us to do the opposite. He’s asking us to let go. Surrender is...
The Outsized Power of Shared Purpose
In 1992, seven years into my company, I was a relatively new corporate officer and by now a keen student of teams. This was during the period of my father’s death, when Debbie and I joined what turned out to be a booming church. As I described earlier, we saw a...
You can’t say that!
Those words are becoming more and more common these days. Not only are people, usually people on the more conservative side, being told they can’t say certain things, it is now creeping into the arena of our thoughts. Who would have ever thought that a sitting...
Rest and Refresh
We need rest. Scripture teaches that we are dust (Gen. 3:19). Unlike God, we tire. We are finite creatures. We need sleep and refreshment. John Piper reminds us: “Sleep is a daily reminder from God that we are not God….Once a day God sense us to bed like patients with...
How to Care for the Seniors in Your Church
In essence, church communities are a type of chosen family. When you share a faith experience with someone, week in and week out, you come to know them on a personal level. One of the ways church members are called to do their part is to care for older churchgoers....
Reclaiming Sunday Morning as the Church’s Primary Formative Event
One of the unique values of corporate spiritual practices —those experienced regularly on Sunday mornings —is that they shape and direct our desire for God in ways that private disciplines fail to replicate. Over time, habits and rituals, combined with pertinent...
Has Jesus left the building?
As we sit in the back pew and look around, we notice the dearth of people and wonder: Has Jesus left the building? COVID-19 has been foremost in many minds for over a year. We’ve all had our lives restricted, have had to follow orders in our personal lives from the...
Can You Read the Bible Like A Child?
Sometimes a fresh look at the obvious yields a bombshell. At age 20, my life was crushed and rebuilt by one small challenge. Could it change yours as well? For fifteen years as I speak and travel talking to people about my conversion to Christianity. I have been...
How to Stop Feeding Your Victim Mentality
Born of trauma, loss, chaos, and injustice, the Victim mentality often feels like a strange form of justice or protection. It can cause you to become so self-focused and defensive that you incrementally push others away. The Victim Identity continually seeks attention...
