Faithlife StaffChristians understand the meaning of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem . . . but there’s so much that’s hazy in our imagination and understanding of the details. Popular Christmas songs, Christmas movies, and Christmas media have given us the wrong idea...
Matthew BoffeyWith all the preparation you’re putting into your Christmas services, don’t forget one of the most important elements: presentation slides. What should you keep in mind as you build your service slides for Christmas and Christmas Eve? Here are five...
Finding the right Black Friday deals can be like spotting the last can of cranberry sauce at the back of the shelf on the day before Thanksgiving—pretty sweet! And “wandering the aisles” online is much more fun than playing grocery-cart bumper cars...
These deals are so good, they won’t stay around long! Add these new favorites to your library before the bargains disappear, or view all of this week’s deals. *** Delights and Disciplines of Bible Study: A Guidebook for Studying God’s Word Dr...
Jennifer GrishamWhen God established the feasts in the Old Testament, he set milestones to remind his people about who he was and how he had rescued them (over and over). While many Christians no longer celebrate the feasts, there are still plenty of places on our...
Christmas! It’s one of the best times of the year—especially for church outreach. And this year, that outreach may be even more important than ever. Many churches are shrinking. Carey Nieuwhof reports that “anecdotally, most churches find themselves...
Mary JahnkeMany of us read Luke 2 at Christmastime, but what Scriptures can we read at Thanksgiving? Here are 54 Bible verses about thanksgiving and gratitude to meditate on during the holiday season or take turns reading around the table on Thanksgiving Day...
Guest AuthorBy Deborah Ike Recent events, including the abduction of a child on a Sunday morning at a church in Giles County, Virginia, serve as a sober reminder that safety requires vigilance. A key method for both ensuring children are safe and showing...
Today through December 1, you can save up to 91% off Christian ebooks, audiobooks, and courses in Faithlife’s Black Friday sale. Here’s a highlight of five great options included: The Doctrines of Grace: Rediscovering the Evangelical Gospel ($4.99)...
Christmas songs play nonstop on radio stations from Thanksgiving on (sometimes earlier!), but Christmas songs about Jesus are harder to come by. Here’s a list of Christian Christmas songs you can lead in worship at church or as you worship Jesus at...
By Ryan J. Pemberton In this article, Ryan J. Pemberton—author of Called: My Journey to C. S. Lewis’s House and Back Again and coauthor of Walking with C. S. Lewis—explores Advent ideas for your worship community. For Pemberton...
Bible study can be as addictive as eating Fritos: “You can never eat one. You can eat a half a bag, but not one.” That’s what Chuck Swindoll, one of the best Bible teachers, says. But for many Christians, reading the Bible feels like eating...
I’ve been in church all my life, and I’ve been in volunteer leadership positions long enough to know that planning a service simply takes time and energy.
Jess HollandThe holidays—Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the new year—are a special time in ministry. Not only do we celebrate the birth of Jesus but we also get the chance to welcome visitors in our churches—many of whom will be attending for the first time. ...
Thanksgiving Day gets overshadowed by other holidays in store aisles, porch decorations, and people’s priorities—but preaching about thankfulness will always hold a place in the pulpit. Here are 14 sermon illustrations on Thanksgiving to help you...
Across the United States, Giving Tuesday will be celebrated on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving. The day kicks off the giving season, offering a counterbalance to the materialism of Black Friday shopping. Although Giving Tuesday focuses on...
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...
Though the primary audience for your church website may be visitors, you can’t ignore your current members. They’ll turn to your site again and again for up-to-date information. Here are the three big needs each audience has for your website, and...
Why do we sing or pray the Psalms? What happens spiritually when we use the Psalms the way the ancient Israelites did? Those are the first questions answered in this month’s free book—The Psalter Reclaimed: Praying and Singing with the Psalms...
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...
According to Lifeway Research, “64% of churches either have nothing to assimilate new members, or no systemic plan to move people towards membership.” Imagine if that were true in the workplace . . . not a good start. Like onboarding and...
Christmas hymns spring to mind as freely as coffee flows on a Sunday morning, but Thanksgiving worship songs can be harder to come by . . . Here are 22 to consider as you invite your congregation to “sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises...
“I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.” (The unnaturally aged Bilbo Baggins says this on his eleventy-first birthday in The Fellowship of the Ring.) Can you relate? I’ve felt it, and I’m not even a pastor. So what...
When the busyness of the Christmas season arrives, it’s easy to lose our focus on the importance of Christ’s coming. How can we better celebrate and share him with others during such a frantic time of year? One easy way to reflect more on Jesus’...
I remember the days of stuffing cash into an offering envelope, then slipping it into the plate as inconspicuously as possible. (Matthew 6:3–5 really stuck with me, even as a kid.) Now I can give in secret anytime, anywhere through my church’s...
Not long ago, I read an article arguing that live streaming doesn’t benefit the Church. But is that true? A sweet saint in my church recently had not one, but two, strokes. Her daughter cares for her at home. She’d be at church in person if she...
Building a church website? Follow these five best practices for a church website that attracts visitors, engages members, and is easy to maintain. (And if you haven’t yet, check out why church websites are important and three overarching...
I went to a fundraising event recently where I heard the best request for financial support I can remember. It wasn’t the rhetoric or the moving stories that did it, although both were strong. It was how confidently the nonprofit founder asked. He...
By Nate Walker “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...
SEO means “search engine optimization,” but to a lot of church leaders, it might as well mean “shenanigans extremely out of my depth.” SEO can seem complicated and techy and too much to think about. But it’s worth thinking about because today...