believers

Greater Christlikeness Through Church Life

How are pastors and churches key to helping believers grow closer to God and growing in their sanctification?

Keep Trying Innovative Ministries

We can probably all agree the world is changing and poses a real threat to the advancement of the kingdom if we as the church become irrelevant to the changing environment. So what do we do?

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Shifting the Starting Point for Sanctification

The purpose of sanctification is not to win God’s favor to get into heaven; Christ already took care of that. Today a hunger for “getting into heaven” is no longer prevalent in our current society. But there is great hunger for the fuller, more abundant life that Jesus came to offer in this life we are living now. To become more like Christ is the goal of sanctification. It conveys movement from far away to very close. Promoting such growth provides practical goals for ministry.

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A Christmas Reflection — How Much of God is With Us?

At Christmas, we love to sing Oh, Come, Oh Come, Immanuel. We celebrate that God is with us. This Christmas, ponder how much of God is with us in the baby born in Bethlehem. For Christians in the earliest centuries, this was a serious theological issue.

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Has Your Church Attendance Recovered From the Pandemic?

Church attendance took a heavy hit during the pandemic. Will involvement ever go back to pre-pandemic levels? The pressure is on now for churches to demonstrate that they offer something beyond what other cultural institutions can do.

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The Case Method Teaching Approach Offers Much for Spiritual Enlightenment

What the Bible says remains central. Do you want the Gospel to have a greater impact on people’s lives? Start with specifics, then add reflection and theory. Is the old approach of starting first with biblical theory easier? Definitely. But that leads to the question of how important it is to be effective in your ministry. Which approach can be best used by the Spirit to touch and change lives?

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Finding More Switches for Enlightenment

Spiritual Enlightenment happens when switches get turned on. Ministry is all about finding those Spiritual switches that work for people at various stages and situations in life.

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Getting Switches Turned on for Enlightenment by the Spirit

How do we change the culture of our church so we are illuminated by the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment? How does that happen through the ministries of a church? And what actions can we take that make it easier for the Spirit to touch hearts and turn bulbs on bright? Can we identify things we do that get in the way of the flow of Spiritual energy, that keep the switch turned low?

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Fine-Tuning Your Church’s Culture

Changing church culture is key to growth, but change isn’t always easy. How do you change the behaviors of a congregation in ways that more faithfully unleash the Spirit and fan into flame the work he does to motivate fellowship members?

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The Limits of Rule-Making in a Grace-Focused Congregation

TBDThere may be no greater threat to the unity of the church than legalism. We can easily be deceived by legalism, but if we know God’s love and understand His Word, we see that because of our relationship with Jesus, we have everything. We don’t have to work for it. Jesus did all the work. It is by grace alone we are saved, although we do work for the Lord not out of obligation but out of our love for Him.