Preaching Can't Love You Back (but People Will)
I love expositional preaching. It re-centered my ideological world, exploded my love for Jesus, and opened my mind to the wonders of the Scriptures. But expositional preaching has never loved me back.
Articles on Community
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7 Tips for Improving Your Ministry Team
Jesus does not mean for his followers to go about their work alone. He is the one singular leader in his church. No peers. The rest of us follow his example together.
Why Does Paul Tell the Church to Deliver Someone to Satan? (1 Corinthians 5)
God’s church must be unleavened or pure. Tolerating unrepentant sexual immorality ruins the whole church’s purity.
Love for the church ought to be a fundamental characteristic of our lives. You have a people. They are your local church. And our love ought to mirror God’s love in three important ways.
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.
God's Intention Was a World Full of Diversity
Where do our differences come from? How should we think about them? And what do we do with them when we meet them? To answer those questions, we need an origin story.
Who’s in Charge at Church? 3 Ways the Answer Is You
The whole congregation has the responsibility for its health, its preaching, and its membership. All the members together are responsible.
7 Tips for Becoming a Better Encourager
Because Christians are called to encourage one another, we must make sure that we are crystal clear on who we are called to encourage, how we are called to provide help, and why we are called to do so.
4 Questions about the Lord’s Supper
When we understand that the church is a family, we more clearly perceive the biblical emphasis on the Lord’s Supper as a family meal, to be celebrated by the church as Jesus’s family.
Why Do We Need to Keep Praying “Forgive Us Our Debts”?
If you want to be happy in the church (or simply not give up on the church), you need to learn forgiveness. You need to grant it, and you need to receive it.
Podcast: How to Lament after Two Years of Loss (Mark Vroegop)
Mark Vroegop considers what it looks like to lament the COVID-19 pandemic—and how that lament can help us heal, both individually and as churches.
Podcast: What's Happening to Evangelicalism? (Michael Reeves)
Michael Reeves discusses the term “evangelical,” the different ways it’s used in our culture today, and how we should respond to the cultural baggage often associated with the term.
You Were Made to Love Your Neighbor
Just because the Bible says that not all men are our brothers, it does not follow that we are not to love all men as our neighbors.
2 Ways Our Motives Can Be Twisted in Discipleship
When Christians discuss any given topic, our aim should be to align our thoughts with God’s thoughts, not his thoughts with our thoughts.
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.
What Does Radically Ordinary Hospitality Look Like?
Those who live out radically ordinary hospitality see their homes not as theirs at all but as God’s gift to use for the furtherance of his kingdom.
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.
Watch for Faithfulness in Those around You
As you spend time in the local church, observe how the believers around you follow Jesus. Watch for people who radiate the life of Jesus and spend time with them.
A Call for Theological Humility
There are plenty of issues over which Christians will be tempted to divide. We must even be willing to make sacrificial adjustments for the sake of our unity with others in the body of Christ.
10 Key Bible Verses on Brotherly Love
The faithful, covenant-keeping God asks the objects of his love to love him and other human beings too.
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.
Why You Should Join an Imperfect Church
We need the body of Christ to grow and to know what it means to be a mature Christian.
Podcast: How to Find a New Church (Edward W. Klink III)
Mickey Klink talks about what you should look for in a new church, what factors should impact your decision, and what warning signs to be on the lookout for in your search.
What Our Physical Diet Says about Our Spiritual Appetite
He has prepared food for us. The food he has prepared is himself. He serves us himself through his holy word—the Bible.
Podcast: Sourdough Starters, Daily Bread, and the Goodness of Jesus (Abigail Dodds)
A discussion with Abigail Dodds about what the mixture of flour, water, and yeast can teach us about God, the Bible, and what it really means to be satisfied by our Savior.
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.
An Open Letter to the Churchless Christian
It is impossible to have a faithful walk with Christ and Christian life—biblically or practically—without committed participation in a local church.
God saves people for a purpose. Salvation in Christ begins a life spent growing into being like him and serving him faithfully.
Podcast: How to Have Hard Conversations with Those You Love (Caroline Newheiser and Cheryl Marshall)
Cheryl Marshall and Caroline Newheiser discuss how to have hard conversations with others that put the focus on what God has said, not their own opinions.
Help! I Don’t Know How to Initiate Meaningful Conversations
Cheryl Marshall, Caroline Newheiser
Whether speaking with strangers, acquaintances, or those we dearly love, we sometimes realize that we and they would greatly benefit if we would talk about God. But how?