Guest AuthorI don’t know a single worship leader who doesn’t want more solid musicians on their worship team. Identifying those musicians through an audition process is the first step to getting them there. But how can you set your new musicians up for success...
There’s a palpable pressure that comes with being a parent. The great responsibility to meet your children’s needs and train them up in the way they should go can be paralyzing. I feel this burden enough with my first four children; the pressure is...
By Douglas Heck I heard what I thought was God’s voice saying, “You have the wrong sermon for tomorrow.” It was late Saturday night and I had just completed the last touches for preparing my sermon to preach the next morning at our new church plant...
The other morning I woke up while my children were still sleeping and began to pray. I started thinking about my identity. Who am I? As I settled into my prayer time, I began to rejoice at the thought that I am a mother. It is part of who I am. To...
Although “performance review” may seem like a corporate term, it’s simply a way of tracking growth or decay—matters that concern every organization. Here are some quick tips on church performance reviews, as well as the unfortunate task of employee...
“Is this something we do?” I remember asking when I first heard the word “Lent.” Even though my father is Catholic, I grew up in a Protestant house where Lent, Ash Wednesday, and fasting were as exotic as Rome, the pope, and crucifixes. It wasn’t...
Every church is full of sufferers. No matter the size of your congregation, someone is probably suffering from illness, relational dysfunction, financial distress, loss, addiction, or any number of hardships. Thankfully, there are worship songs that...
I’m going to lay all of my cards on the table right here at the beginning: I wholeheartedly, unreservedly, and unashamedly believe that every church should have a plan in place to care for its guests.
The Christmas season provides a unique opportunity for your church to connect with people in the community. And social media is one of the greatest tools we have to promote what’s happening in the life of our church.
By Reuben Evans The new series Angels follows up The Unseen Realm and Demons. It’s available for purchase on Faithlife TV. Pop culture and church tradition have a lot to say about angels. However, in this documentary series, Dr. Mike Heiser takes...
Happy Reformation Day! In this guest post from Dr. Jim West, professor of biblical studies at the Quartz Hill School of Theology, we are reminded of the great Reformers and how they changed the course of history. *** The temperature outside the...
“I am not the head of the church. Jesus is.” As a pastor, I had not only heard that many times, I had said it many times myself. And I really did believe it. But it left a major question unanswered for me. If I am not the head, what part of the...
Two years ago, I transitioned from leading and overseeing our church’s youth ministries to overseeing and leading our children’s and youth ministries. Practically, that’s an eighteen-year gap of kids under my care—not to mention their older...
Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” But what are good works? Professor R. Michael Allen explains in the course Law and Gospel: The...
This is a guest post by Peter Krol. A reader of my blog recently emailed to say, “I was never intentionally taught how to lead a Bible study, and, when the time came for me to teach others how to do it, I had no idea even where to begin.” Do you...
By Harold L. Senkbeil Where do you go when the calamities of life feel too heavy? We’re all tempted to turn inward, but perhaps we would do better to open the Psalms of lament instead. In the following excerpt from Christ and Calamity by award...
But what does an online pastor do? I get asked this a lot. Here’s a job profile to help start the conversation.
In late January, Discovery Church in Colorado Springs, CO, launched a three-tier discipleship program at their church. About six weeks later, the COVID-19 pandemic sent their entire discipleship program online. Turns out they were actually ahead of...
When you think about helping people grow spiritually, Bible engagement and discipleship are probably at the top of your list. What if your congregation engaged with the Bible in meaningful ways every day?
What does the Bible say about loneliness? More than you might think. Scripture’s light reveals its lies and shows us how to deal with loneliness God’s way. This excerpt is adapted from Finding God in My Loneliness by Lydia Brownback. *** Lie:...
This post is adapted from The Bedrock of Christianity: The Unalterable Facts of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection by Justin W. Bass. *** The earliest followers of Jesus did not just claim that Jesus rose from the dead but that his resurrection was the...
By Stephen Nichols, adapted from Welcome to the Story: Reading, Living, and Loving God’s Word. *** How Dietrich Bonhoeffer came to write Life Together In 1935, the German National Church threw its support behind the Nazi party. Troubling to many in...
By Brandon Crowe When we ask, “What does the Bible say about work?” we often find a list of verses telling us to work hard and be faithful in our labor. But when we take a broader view of the topic, we can ask: how does the great commandment shape...
If we do our job well, our song choices can provide a “sonic sanctuary” where people meet with the living God. Here are five tips for building better worship setlists.
When we receive a request for a photo for a social post, a website banner, or an event promo slide, it always seems to be urgent. There isn’t time to sift through the archive and find the perfect image. How can this hunt be simplified?
Before I share with you how I study God’s word using the inductive Bible study method, I want to share with you why I study it this way.
By John Stott, adapted from The Radical Disciple. In the introduction to his book Knowing God, Dr. J. I. Packer writes that we are “pygmy Christians because we have a pygmy God.” We could equally say that we are pygmy Christians because we have a...
“For the first time in my life, I met somebody who really believed in Jesus as a living person. I’d never encountered that before,” Sproul recalls.
This is a guest post by Paul Tripp, author and founder of the Parenting conference. It has been adapted from a blogpost and has been edited for readability. It was 11:00 p.m. on a Sunday night and I was pulling out of the grocery store parking lot...
With our ever-present sin, we must return continually to the ever-abundant grace of God in Christ Jesus. Sunday morning is one of the primary times to reflect upon grace and celebrate it together as a body. Here are five worship songs about grace...