It’s not always easy to love those who are different, those we don’t understand, or those with whom we can’t relate. But if the church is going to win the lost, we first have to find a way to reach them. And to make them feel at home. It’s not just those outside the...

I was born the day before my father started seminary. My dad loves to quip, “My mentors recommended I not start a family and grad school at the same time, so I started my family on Sunday and seminary on Monday!” It must have been a nightmare at the time, but the...

I couldn’t understand why the more we talked about Jesus, the more outwardly pious my friend Imani became. When I first met her, she rarely bothered to cover her hair with a headscarf. She wore shirts not long enough to conceal her hips, and she didn’t seem to care...

The word renew means to continue something after it is paused. This is what happens to God’s plan to fill the world with His presence through His children. They again renew, re-engaging their calling to partner with God in the spreading of His presence in the world....

I was ten years old. I was sitting on the floor of my bedroom and paging through a picture book about the lives of the saints. It was December 14. I know the date because I distinctly remember turning to that day’s page to see whose feast day the Catholic Church...

One significant responsibility every Christian has is to submit to the established spiritual authority that God has set over him or her. It’s a very simple recipe, if followed. However, one reason why so many bad things happen to so many Christians is that they don’t...

John 3:16 is arguably the most familiar verse in the Bible. It seems everywhere you look there is a sign with this verse on it. Most sporting events will have at least one person setting in the stands with this verse in large letters on a poster board. “So, is that a...

Many years have passed since I had my crisis of “church faith.” My conversion to Jesus at the age of sixteen was in some ways a conversion away from the church I had come to experience and only partially love. I had tried to leave the church and just focus on...

One of the perennial puzzles for preachers is how to best communicate the statements about justification from James and Paul. On the one hand, James writes, “A person is justified by works and not by faith alone” (James 2:24). Yet Paul says, “One is justified by faith...

It’s not always easy to love those who are different, those we don’t understand, or those with whom we can’t relate. But if the church is going to win the lost, we first have to find a way to reach them. And to make them feel at home. It’s not just those outside the...

I was born the day before my father started seminary. My dad loves to quip, “My mentors recommended I not start a family and grad school at the same time, so I started my family on Sunday and seminary on Monday!” It must have been a nightmare at the time, but the...

I couldn’t understand why the more we talked about Jesus, the more outwardly pious my friend Imani became. When I first met her, she rarely bothered to cover her hair with a headscarf. She wore shirts not long enough to conceal her hips, and she didn’t seem to care...

The word renew means to continue something after it is paused. This is what happens to God’s plan to fill the world with His presence through His children. They again renew, re-engaging their calling to partner with God in the spreading of His presence in the world....

I was ten years old. I was sitting on the floor of my bedroom and paging through a picture book about the lives of the saints. It was December 14. I know the date because I distinctly remember turning to that day’s page to see whose feast day the Catholic Church...

One significant responsibility every Christian has is to submit to the established spiritual authority that God has set over him or her. It’s a very simple recipe, if followed. However, one reason why so many bad things happen to so many Christians is that they don’t...

John 3:16 is arguably the most familiar verse in the Bible. It seems everywhere you look there is a sign with this verse on it. Most sporting events will have at least one person setting in the stands with this verse in large letters on a poster board. “So, is that a...

Many years have passed since I had my crisis of “church faith.” My conversion to Jesus at the age of sixteen was in some ways a conversion away from the church I had come to experience and only partially love. I had tried to leave the church and just focus on...

One of the perennial puzzles for preachers is how to best communicate the statements about justification from James and Paul. On the one hand, James writes, “A person is justified by works and not by faith alone” (James 2:24). Yet Paul says, “One is justified by faith...