As 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 MoreOver my years of teaching new member classes, I was continually surprised that the creation story caused so little discomfort with people’s public-school training in evolutionary theory. These were adults, and maybe the implications of the modern understanding had not caught up to them, especially the older ones. I was and remain a big fan […]
Read MoreOur staff’s weekly devotions are from a book by an experienced pastor whose one-page reflections are well written and usually right on. A recent one was on advancing the kingdom of God in church life. His description of what should and can happen through grace was well said. But he missed the key ingredient—the Holy […]
Read MoreThe name of a congregation says a lot about who they are and want to be. Of late, newer congregations are showing up with variations of the Church of the Abundant Life. I take this as evidence of the shift that is occurring in American Christian churches. They recognize that the new touchpoint for outreach […]
Read MoreChristianity has a long history of reference to the Ten Commandments to identify sins that need to be exposed, confessed, and repented of. This is basic to a biblical view of sin and salvation. But in the new post-modern culture, holding unbelievers to this standard does not work so well as a starting point. Better […]
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