Church & Ministry Resource Guide
Church & Ministry Resource Guide
Help! I Don’t Like Praying in Public
Prayer can get repetitious, feel rote, rambly, or distracted. For these reasons, many are reticent to pray in public. How can we overcome our fears and misguided thinking?
Articles on Community
298 results found
6 Questions about the Book of Job
The book of Job is realistic in the sufferings it sets before disciples of Jesus and full of glorious hope because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
How to Pray When Your Heart Feels Cold
Many Christians experience seasons of spiritual apathy when the heart seems miles behind what we know to be true in our minds.
What Does a Committed Church Member Look Like?
There are many marks of true discipleship, but one mark is singled out as signifying to the watching world that we belong to Christ.
An Open Letter to Those Who Feel Unqualified to Offer Counsel
The Lord specializes in using people who feel weak in themselves, and your sense of inadequacy will probably protect you.
7 Tips to Help Introverts Connect at Church
In our individualistic, consumer-minded culture, it can seem acceptable to conclude that, if you’re an introvert, church just isn’t your thing. But the Scriptures tell a different story.
Prayer is oxygen for the Christian. It sustains us. So it follows that prayer must be a source of life for any community of Christians.
How Can You Show Radical Hospitality as an Introvert?
What is most lacking in this Christian world is not the need for more extroverts, but the need for more discernment.
Help! People at Church Are Driving Me Crazy
Who isn’t discouraged by conflict at church? After all, church should be as close as we get to heaven on earth, right?
Unpacking “Everything Happens for a Reason”
Have you ever suffered in some way when a well-meaning friend quips, “Well, you know, everything happens for a reason”? How did that make you feel?
10 Questions to Ask at Your Christmas Gathering
Here’s a list of questions designed not only to kindle a conversation in almost any Christmas situation.
5 Reasons You Did Not and Cannot Reinvent Yourself
You are not just an individual. You are not your own creation. You did not invent yourself. You exist in a web of relationships. You are a social animal.
4 Ways to Look for the Good in Others
All of us can see the good in our friends. Scripture, however, authorizes us to see the good and enjoy it in all people, even when most of us are not always so good.
What Is a Healthy Way to Leave a Church?
Leaving the church is painful for Christians and pastors, and we've seen a lot of it over the last couple of years through COVID, election crises, and racial crises.
10 Things You Should Know about Your Smartphone
How much do you really think about your smartphone? Here are 10 things you should know.
Music is a gift meant to bring glory to God; don't let it become an idol.
3 Tips for Starting a Bible Study
If you're hoping to start a Bible Study, always incorporate these three vital aspects: structure, accountability, and predictability.
Mentoring is a discipleship relationship that focuses on equipping younger believers for the work of ministry so that they grow in maturity and unity in the faith with the ultimate goal of glorifying God.
Two Mistakes the Disciples Made—and We Still Make—About the Kingdom of God
A healthy church has a unity that is humanly inexplicable, given the diversity of backgrounds that are represented, welded together by the power of the Spirit.
5 Things to Remember about Worship
Music can be a part of worship, but it was never meant to be the heart of it.
5 Questions about the Local Church
Ultimately, the local church makes visible what is invisible, and reflects in words and deeds the kingdom life that is to come.
A Category You Won't Find in the Bible: The Churchless Christian
The New Testament apostles can't conceive of anything called a Christian that's not connected to Christ's body.
Discipling Is Inherently Countercultural
In our contemporary world, where efficiency, appearance, and marketability are high values, spending hours with disciplees seems like a waste of a leader’s time.
The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community
This new book calls us to embrace the uncomfortable aspects of Christian community, whether that means believing difficult truths, pursuing difficult holiness, or loving difficult people.
You can be in community with any number of people, but not actually have any true friends.
7 Practical Things You Can Do for People Who Are Grieving
There are simple ways that we can demonstrate a deep sensitivity to the pain of grieving people.
3 Principles of Self-Denial for Every Christian
The blindness with which we all rush into love of ourselves is such that it seems to each of us that we have good reason to elevate ourselves and to despise all others in comparison with ourselves.
Some people have good friendships, some don’t. Friendship—true friendship—requires intentionality and even skill.
An Open Letter to the Hesitant Host
Are you busy? Are you important? Do you work on a tight schedule? Are your boundaries well-fortified?
Our church’s gatherings are ultimately about God. We worship according to his desires, not ours. When we gather we should be governed by God’s word, not our preferences.