Friday Five: Matthew Lee Anderson
Matthew Lee Anderson is the founder of the popular blog Mere Orthodoxy as well as the author of Earthen Vessels, Why Our Body Matters to Our Faith He was featured in Christianity Today’s Who’s Next column in December of 2009. Matthew sits on the editorial board of The City, and has been quoted on FoxNews.com, in the Wall […]
Ed Stetzer – How Should We Talk About Sex?
I wanted to write a post about this, but couldn’t find the words. Thankfully Ed Stetzer, a wiser man than me by far, wrote what I consider a terrific and wise post on how evangelicals might approach the delicate, but necessary subject of sex. I especially liked this paragraph: Third, when talking about sex, hype […]
Evangelicalism’s Changing Heart on Immigration – Patheos Column
Today Patheos is featuring a my column, cowritten with my friend Matthew Soerens of World Relief on the changing attitudes toward immigration among evangelicals: The conventional wisdom among pundits and journalists holds that immigration is a key to winning over the evangelicals who dominate the Republican presidential nominating process in the early states. This is […]
Flattery Can Kill – The Gospel Coalition Blog
The Gospel Coalition website posted my article entitled, “Flattery Can Kill”. In this piece I share the story of my being wooed by the flattery of a church member and how it ultimately hurt the ministry: Flattery is a hidden trap for pastors, especially young men new to leadership. Pressured to grow and besieged by […]
Why Your Work Matters
This is a terrific conversation between Collin Hansen of The Gospel Coalition and Matt Perman, proprietor of the blog What’s Best Next and director of strategy for Desiring God Ministries. Collin interviews Matt about his forthcoming book, but more importantly about the often-neglected doctrine of work. I love this new emphasis, helping so-called “lay people” discover […]
Kevin DeYoung on Christian Political Engagement
Today is the Iowa caucus and the first of many primaries for Republicans before a long drawn-out Presidential and Congressional contest. Christians of course have to wrestle with politics in America. Good people find themselves on both sides of important issues. This is why I especially appreciated the wisdom of Kevin DeYoung, who writes on […]
Permission to Pursue What You Love
I’ve just finished reading two books which have cemented in my mind an often neglected biblical doctrine. We often call it the doctrine of “vocation” but I think this doesn’t speak to the totality of it. The first book I finished was Work Matters by Pastor Tom Nelson (Christ Community Church, Leewood, Kansas). The second was […]
Why Your Pastor Shouldn’t Be Your Podcast
Trevin Wax recently wrote a widely distributed post entitled, “Why Your Podcast Shouldn’t Be Your Pastor.” He raised some important points about the proliferation of content over the Internet. Its easy today to consume the best of contemporary evangelical pastors simply by downloading them through iTunes or listening online. While this is a wonderful blessing […]
Preaching Through James
This last year I finished a series through the book of James entitled, Authentic Faith. I divided up this book into 15 messages and gave the congregation the entire outline of the series before we began. It was a terrific study, one that challenged me as a preacher and offered a great challenge for our […]
Bible Reading Plans for 2012
In 2012 our church is going thru the Bible in a year. To help, I gathered resources and some Bible reading plans and put them out at our information table at church. I thought I would post the information here as well as a help to those considering reading the Bible thru in 2012. This […]
Pastoring the People You Have
I have been meditating on 1 Peter in my own private devotions for sometime now. This is a habit I began last year. Rather than rushing through a book, I’ve been taking books and just spending days and weeks and months on the same passages to get familiar with them. Next year I plan on […]
The Discipline of Going to Church
Going to church can become routine. I know it, because I grew up going to church three times a week (at least). It was not a choice my parents gave me. It was something we did, part of our regular routine. As a 2nd Generation Christian, I know full well the dangers of making spirituality […]