Articles
Be You Do Good
Overview of the BE YOU DO GOOD initiative from Jonathan D. Golden. You were created on purpose. Now have the guts to pursue your purpose. Are you looking for purpose in your life? Trying to find a career that is a calling? Each day you can make a difference by being...
One Fine Tuesday by Rice Bowls
Learn more about Rice Bowls at http://www.ricebowls.org/oft Rice Bowls is a nonprofit dedicated to orphan care. We partner with 54 children's homes in 8 different countries and provide 100% of their food budget. By taking care of this financial burden, we help the...
God’s Glory Bible on Fox and Friends
God's Glory Bible is printed and bound in the U.S.A. from the finest, highest-quality materials. It is God's Word actually bound in a luxuriously soft Stars and Stripes material that is stitched on all edges and gilt-trimmed. Every detail has been designed to make...
Escape The Ordinary from Bruce Wilkinson and Teach Every Nation
From Bruce Wilkinson and Teach Every Nation, comes one of the most life-changing Bible Studies you will participate in. Escape The Ordinary is based on the powerful book, You Were Born for This! In this groundbreaking course, Bruce reveals how to respond to the move...
(Un)Qualified by Steven Furtick
Who You Think You Are is Not as Important as Who God Says You Are Many of us wrestle with the gap between our weaknesses and our dreams, between who we are and who God says we are meant to be. We feel unqualified to do God’s work or to live out the calling we imagine....
Can You Get Real with Anyone?
Pastor Chad Norris: Getting Real Sometimes, the hardest thing for a pastor to do is to be real. There is so much pressure to be perfect, holy, and spiritually on-point that there's very little room for the things that make you human once you become a pastor. Here,...
5 Out-of-the Box Community Outreach Ideas
Bounce houses in the church parking lot has been done . . . a lot. Easter egg hunts in the church lawn . . . yeah, there’s always going to be a couple of churches in your community doing that. And Halloween parties—I mean, fall festivals—are a time-honored tradition...
5 Excellent Women’s Ministry Retreats
Finding a good place to conduct a retreat can be challenging. Your women’s ministry group can join in with others at a retreat organized by someone else or you can conduct your own. I will address some of both. As a disclaimer, I do not have personal experience with...
A Passion For God
I was fifteen years old. At this time in my life, I lived on a remote and sparsely populated island in the middle of Puget Sound, Washington. In the summers of my life activities were hard to come by that would entertain and adequately distract me from the boredom and...
Tell Stories Like Jesus (And Hollywood)
In what way does a Hollywood script writer take lessons from Jesus that far too many pastors do not? They understand the power of a story. Preparing for your next Sunday sermon will typically have many of the same ingredients as those from other pastors, no matter...
7 Reasons Church Members Say No
I once posted the following on a social media page: “Is God calling you to serve Him? What is your answer?” It’s a relatively straightforward question. Yes or no. And yet not so simple. Ministry leaders often walk a tightrope when it comes to recruiting volunteers. We...
Counseling Members in Areas You’re Not Well-Trained In
Intro to Greek. Intro to Hebrew. Systematic Theology. Church History. New Testament. Old Testament. Advanced Greek. Advanced Hebrew. Live, Eat, and Breathe Greek. Live, Eat, and Breathe Hebrew . . . You probably took all these classes and much, much more during your...
The Surprising Secret to Lasting Transformation
The traditional paradigm that has dominated Western thought for the last four hundred years can be summed up in a simple equation: Reason + Good Choices = Transformation This paradigm grew out of the Enlightenment. When René Decartes uttered his famous phrase, “Cogito...
10 Ways to Lead Music Without a Musician
It’s funny how it can seem that coffee houses, seminary dormitories, and even urban street corners seem to never be short of musicians, but all of a sudden when the invitation is put out in front of a church to form a worship band . . . crickets. But don’t worry. It’s...
Leaders of “Competing” Churches Talk
A kingdom divided will not stand.” Sounds nice in theory, especially since it’s Biblical. But adhering to it can be a painful process including anger, frustration and even bitterness…This is the story of Pastors Tim Blevins of Life Community Church and Jeff Kapusta of...
Guarding Your Gratitude
Recently, our family celebrated the 7th birthday of our twin girls, Adleigh and Liana. Amid the festivities marked with Barbies and princess dresses, what made this day extra special for us was remembering the words spoken by doctors days after they were born 3 months...
Steven Furtick: A Bowl for a Birthright
Scripture says we have an inheritance. It is reserved for us, and it is shielded by faith. We have a birthright, and the Devil can't take away our birthright; he has to get us to give it up. He can't take it. It's not in his power. When we study Jacob and Esau in...
Six Questions to Ask Before Adopting
Whether you are wrestling with whether to adopt a child or one of your parishioners comes to you for guidance on the topic, you know how pressure-filled the situation is. Sure, the first step is always to bring it to the lord, but what other steps can you or your...
Five questions to ask yourself when you feel frustrated
Let’s face it, leading a church can feel frustrating. You have a vision but they’re not be buying it. You have aspirations for church growth but it might not be happening. You have dreams of feeling successful but feelings of failure loom instead. During seasons of...
Why Do My Parishioners Resist Change
Whenever the grandchildren visited, my brother made a point to spend special time with each child. For then five-year old Andrea, it was a trip to a nearby McDonald’s. On a whim, he thought she might enjoy the new McDonald’s across town, complete with a...
