I Like Sermons Make you think of your own personal life relating to what God would want us to be like in our daily walk with Him. Not a guilt trip, but encouragement. We need to hear the Law, but the Gospel as well! Attraction to a Congregation The main attraction is music in […]
Read MoreThe Most Engaging Part(s) of Worship I love “spontaneous” worship, Spontaneous worship can happen at the end of a worship set, in between songs, or even in the middle of a song. In the moment, it really lets you focus on your worship to God and feeling the Holy Spirit’s presence around you. I Like […]
Read MoreAs we leave 2020 behind, I thought I would share my most popular blogs of the year that engaged most readers like you. I’m often told they are encouraging and help readers. I hope they help you! Ministering to Those in Same-Sex Relationships Keep Your Sermon Simple and to the Point; Don’t Forget the Gospel […]
Read MoreI’ve reached 3 BIG milestones in 2021! Milestone #1: I hit 100 blogs! Over the span of two years, I have sent out over 100 weekly blogs. My open rates range from 25-50% each week! I have had over 1,200 comments on my website alone related to the blogs and well over a thousand on social media. My […]
Read MoreThe Easter promise of Christ’s resurrected life is applied to our resurrected life, too. That is the message preached in Christian churches all over the world. What wonderful news! The preached promise of Easter, however, loses some of its power in three ways: when resurrected life is reduced to the springtime freshness, when the resurrected […]
Read MoreOne of the popular books in my seminary days was The Secular City, in which Harvey Cox tried to work out a theology for the “post-religious” age that many sociologists had confidently assured was coming. Since then, he says some religions seem to have gained a new lease on life. Today it is secularity, not […]
Read MoreAny biblically responsible pastor and church leader has to cringe at the second part of Paul’s statement about the purpose of church leaders in Ephesians 4: 12-13. The first part of his challenge is to “prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” But I am […]
Read MoreThe world of Lutheranism is very different from the world of Calvinists. I realized this when preparing for the philosophy subject test of the Graduate Record Examination at the end of my senior year of college. Ethics would be a component of this sub-test. My philosophy professor realized that I had not had an ethics […]
Read MoreThose who pursue the Benedict Option basically reject the post-modern culture of our times. They would set up their own counterculture through communities that submit themselves to distinctive Christian practices, especially prayer. Neo-Calvinists would take the opposite approach of trying to reform the political process of a country to support religious institutions. The best representative […]
Read MoreOne approach to living in a post-modern culture is to withdraw from it. That is basically what Rod Dreher recommends in his 2017 book The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation. Dreher declares, “I have written the Benedict Option to wake up the church and to encourage it to act to […]
Read MoreThe Most Engaging Part(s) of Worship If “worship service” refers to an entire Sunday morning church service, I would say worship (singing) and altar calls are the most engaging. The more engaging parts of the sermon come at the end when it turns more practical and a charge (or charges) is/are given. (I’m also part […]
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