Articles
How to Shop Like a Christian on Black Friday
It has been said that the USA is the only place where people express gratitude on Thanksgiving for all the stuff they have and spend the next day shoving people over to get the stuff they don’t. Sadly, Black Friday is only the beginning. Maybe we won’t fight with...
Surviving the Most Difficult Circumstances in Marriage: Justin and Trisha Davis
Justin and Trisha Davis know all too well the dangers of settling for an ordinary marriage. As bloggers, authors, speakers and founders of RefineUs Ministries, they allow their story of pain and redemption to be a story of hope for other families and marriages....
Keeping Younger Church Members Engaged
Getting younger people to join and stick to a church full of senior citizens can be a challenge. The desire to add younger members must be shared by the entire church. If this is your vision as the pastor, and the older folks don’t share it, you are probably fighting...
Five Activities for Better Holiday Season Mental Health
God never sleeps, but you have to. Our mission here on earth never runs out, but you run out of energy and motivation to keep on the mission. Your congregants will never say, “We have no more problems, questions, or concerns,” but you run out of answers and ways to...
When People Try to Undermine the Pastor’s Authority
This subject is difficult for me because the very thought of it makes me ill. If you have experienced, or are now experiencing, a situation where a congregant or a group of congregants try to undermine your authority as a pastor, you are not alone. I would imagine it...
Donald Trump To Take The Whitehouse: What It Means For The Church
Concerned citizens cast their ballots yesterday, and let their voices be heard, and America spoke. When the results came in during the wee hours of the morning it was clear: history had been made. Now that the confetti has fallen, the concession calls have been...
Hey, Pastor. Who’s Looking Out for YOUR Marriage?
As a pastor, it could be said that your job boils down to one simple word: relationships. First and foremost, the personal relationships that those in your church and community have with Jesus. The relationships built between the individual members of your church...
Be the Multiethnic Church Your Community Needs
More than likely, when you were young there was something you really wanted to be when you grew up. Maybe a professional athlete, a police officer, a movie star, or the always popular fireman. Now, there are any number of reasons why that one-time dream of yours...
Experiencing Joy in Ministry
In September, God gave me the privilege of traveling to Nepal where I provided Bible teaching at two conferences for rural church leaders and pastors. My husband and I ministered there with the United Mission to Nepal (UMN) from 1982-85, so I felt like I’d returned...
Get Your Congregation Involved
If your church is like most, your volunteer base reflects something close to the 20/80 rule: 20% of the people are doing about 80% of the work. My guess is those same 20% of the people are doing 100% of the complaining about why the others 80% aren’t stepping up and...
Battling Low Church Attendance
Chances are strong you are already quite familiar with the term “seeker-sensitive church,” which typically describes the type of church that strives to have a weekly worship service that appeals to both the churched and unchurched, making everyone comfortable no...
Clinton vs. Trump: The Church Leader’s 2016 Election Survival Guide
Is it just me or are you tired of all the political ads, robotic phone calls and social media posts bashing the two candidates? With all the mud slinging, name- calling and character bashing the two main candidates have stooped to over the past year, I need a serious...
Through A Child’s Eyes: What Makes a Christian
I remember as a boy seeing a man from our church having a beer at a restaurant. My immediate thought was something along the lines of, Wow! I thought he was a Christian. Later as a teenager in the youth group, I had a conversation with who I had thought were the kind...
Latest Issue Cover: Do Not Change
5 Ways to Help Others Choose a Translation
My husband and I are asked at times what Bible translation is best. If you visit a Christian bookstore, the selection of translations and bindings is overwhelming, so people may ask the pastor for his preference. Friends and family who do not attend your church may...
It’s Time to Eject Your Mixtape
I want to talk now about mixtapes. They were the 1980s version of a playlist, but instead of living in iTunes, they lived on good old-fashioned plastic cassettes. When a cassette broke, you didn’t take it to the Apple Genius bar. You took a number-2 yellow pencil,...
Pastor John Iskat on Living Through a Church Split
Often Christians step down from a calling before seeing God accomplish his will, as the pain and suffering that usually come first are too much to bear. Facing a church split and several years of turmoil and ministry stress, Pastor John Iskat of Faith Baptist Church...
Counseling Not Your Thing? You Got This.
Often, one of the toughest jobs a pastor has to do is counsel others. Preaching? It’s in the bag. But counseling . . . “Um . . . I’ll pass,” you say. Why is that? Oh, kindhearted pastors would probably offer a variety of reasons, but let’s be real: With preaching, you...
Curing the Messiah Complex
Hannah Anderson A few years ago, I found myself going through a period of intense anxiety and stress. From the outside, my life looked fine. Besides serving in my local church, God was opening up more and more opportunities to serve through writing and speaking. I...
Am I Equipped to Minister to the Dying?
The local church is confronted with death and the resultant grief on a consistent basis. There are approximately two million funerals in America per year or about 5,479 funerals that take place per day. What does the God and church leaders have to say to those who are...
