There are a number of things that make a church website successful, from aesthetics to load time to ease of use. But the most important thing about your website comes before the page even loads: your domain name.
Your website domain name is one of the most important marketing tools that your church possesses. (more…)
“The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold of me.” — Martin Luther
I remember early on as a follower of Jesus, I would hear people reference their desire and ability to go to a quiet place with only their Bible and emerge after four hours refreshed, renewed, and revitalized. If I’m honest, the prospect of this scenario seemed overwhelming and the direct opposite of refreshing. I think this was mainly because of my lack of perspective on the benefits and blessings of a time of studying. [Read more…]
This is a post by guest author Lindsay Kennedy.
Given that only two angels are explicitly named in Scripture (Michael and Gabriel), it is unsurprising that they have garnered a lot of attention, speculation, and reverence throughout the centuries—in both religious tradition and popular media.
Some even believe Michael was the pre-incarnate Jesus.
With the help of Michael Heiser’s Angels, we will consider what the Bible says about Michael, archangels, and some other important angels. [Read more…]
This is a post by guest author Lindsay Kennedy.
In previous posts, we drew from Michael Heiser’s Angels to find out what the Bible tells us about angels. We know that angels are immaterial members of God’s heavenly host, and we also discussed why Christians should care about angelology in the first place.
In the first post, we saw that heavenly beings make up a council over which Yahweh presides. But what does this council do? Do they float through heaven all day playing harps? Do they simply worship Yahweh? Or do they observe, or even participate in, the decision-making? [Read more…]
This is a post by guest author Lindsay Kennedy.
The Bible has a lot to say about angels. The problem is, few Christians seem interested in hearing about it.
For whatever reason, many Christians have a dismissive attitude when it comes to angels. But here are three reasons—drawn from Michael Heiser’s new book, Angels—on why every Christian should care about angels. [Read more…]
It’s C.S. Lewis week here at Faithlife! We’re celebrating the scholar’s life and writings, and with that, discounting the 30-volume C.S. Lewis Collection for one week only.
This is a post from Adam B. Shaeffer, PhD, Durham University, contemplating Lewis’ An Experiment in Criticism.
I love C.S. Lewis. I have read and reread his works more times than I can count. Whenever someone asks me which of his books is my favorite, I point to one that often garners puzzled looks: An Experiment in Criticism. [Read more…]
Reading the Bible regularly can be hard. Sometimes it can feel like it takes too much work to understand what Scripture is really saying. And the last thing you want is for your Bible reading to become stale, or to feel forced.
If Bible study matters to you but you’re struggling to keep going, try some of these techniques.
Here are 15 ways to read the Bible with fresh eyes:
Today’s guest post is by Dr. Daniel Bush, author of Live in Liberty: The Spiritual Message of Galatians and Embracing God as Father: Christian Identity in the Family of God. Dan holds a B.Sci. from Michigan Technological University, the M.Div. and Th.M. degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and a Ph.D. in systematic theology from the University of Aberdeen (Scotland).
I don’t recall how the conversation turned to the topic of hair. My sister-in-law noticed I still had a full head of hair, which is nothing spectacular, except when compared to my brother, who is growing bald patches where he ought to be growing luscious locks. So, I strutted and made a joke about Rogaine, then got honest: My brother is losing hair, but what he has is dark while mine is beginning to look like winter preemptively struck—morning frost everywhere.
Gray hair means I’m getting old and tired, and one of the things I’m tired of is comparisons, which are a gentle way of judging. We compare everything: our green lawns, our athletic and academic children, our fulfilled lives, our sin, and then we use social media to prove to ourselves and others that we actually have a life, a bunch of friends, a brilliant smile, and can strike a pose with the best of them. Beneath it all, however, we’re unconsciously leveling all of these things, attempting to compare goodness. It’s mostly innocent; nevertheless, the impulse to compare goodness is as powerful as the impulse to get a cup of coffee on a frosty winter morning.
There’s one more thing making my hair grey: Bumping into the notion that following Jesus is really all about “getting better”—that is to say, Christian spirituality is about putting an end to all of our sinning.
Today’s guest post is by Pastor Dan McEvoy from North Bay Christ the King Community Church, in Blaine, Washington.
My first images of Jesus and the land he lived in were a cheap print of Da Vinci’s “Last Supper” at my grandparents’ house and cartoon images on flannel graphs at Vacation Bible School. When I got older, what I pictured as the Holy Land came from poorly-produced movies starring characters with British accents and the evening news showing the Israeli and Palestinian conflict. When I became a Christian and began reading the Bible and hearing sermons, my mind began to form images of what I thought the Holy Land might be like—images that I adapted and described to others when I became a pastor.
It wasn’t until I personally toured Israel that I realized the picture in my mind was two dimensional and black and white.
From the moment I stepped off the plane, I sensed I was about to experience something very special and holy. With the help of a highly knowledgeable and articulate tour guide who brought us to places we knew well from Scripture, the Bible came alive in an instant. It’s hard to describe in words how my pilgrimage profoundly transformed me, but I’d like to share some highlights from my 10-day journey.
Today’s guest post is by Pastor Sam Luce of Redeemer Church in Utica, New York. Sam has been a pastor for 17 years—14 of which he served as a children’s pastor. He received his BA in theology from Portland Bible College, and he’s been involved in children’s ministry for 23 years. Sam writes regularly about children’s ministry and Christian parenting at SamLuce.com.
“Bonhoeffer would often say that ‘if one couldn’t communicate the most profound ideas about God and the Bible to children, something was amiss.’”—Eric Metaxas
One of the most important and most neglected disciplines for children’s ministry work is personal study. Often when it comes to children’s ministry curriculum, the Bible story is either too complicated or too simplistic. The answer is not “buy a better curriculum.” The answer is personal bible study.