Jesus was consumed with the Kingdom.
I see dead people
In much of Christianese (the language spoken by Christians but unintelligible to the uninitiated) the term for an unbeliever is “lost.” So, if a Christian says: “I have a lost neighbor” we understand immediately what’s conveyed, and the meaning is not that they have ended up on the wrong street and don’t know how to get home. But I’m afraid … Read More
It’s a Wonderful Life
The other day during the meeting of the A-Team (our student ministerial association at Anderson University), there was a presentation on ministry and marriage by our own administrative assistant Kelli Strickland and her husband, pastor Charles Strickland. As part of their presentation to the students, they shared some sobering statistics about the number of pastoral marriages that end in divorce … Read More
Billy Graham: Will we reach out or turn inward?
In a recent interview with Christianity Today online, Billy Graham celebrated the good things God is doing through today’s church, but offered some appropriate words of caution: “I’m grateful for the evangelical resurgence we’ve seen across the world in the last half-century or so. It truly has been God’s doing. It wasn’t like this when I first started out, and … Read More
Don’t Fear Adapting Methodology
Preachers must the difference between the message and the method. As preachers of the Word, we have a sacred duty to be true to the Word of God as revealed in scripture. But we have freedom in the methodology we use in communicating that truth. “3 points and a poem” is not the 11th commandment. As Calvin Miller points out, … Read More
Time to Stand With Our Leaders
Leaders need to learn to take a stand against the critical members of the body that are wreaking havoc on the church.
Meet My Friends, the Puritans
Middle school was a crisis time for me. Bespeckled with Coke-bottle frames and sporting braces and a bowl-haircut, I was the poster-child for the socially awkward. What I longed for as a shy, self-conscious seventh grader was the proverbial “friend who sticks closer than a brother”—an encourager and advocate, someone who could speak comfort and counsel to my preteen circumstances … Read More
The Pastor’s Best Tool: The Church
What does every pastor need? Surely dozens of answers might be offered. A nice facility? Or, perhaps, a growing community surrounding the church that would provide a field ripe for harvest might head the list. I suppose every pastor might desire an expanding budget to allow for additional staff or upgraded technology. Each of these is legitimate. But I think … Read More
Technology and Worship
One of the most significant trends in American church life over the past decade has been the dramatic expansion in the use of technology in the worship experience, particularly in what author Quentin Shultz calls “presentational technologies.” Walk into an American evangelical church facility built in the last 10 to 15 years and you may or may not see a … Read More