Inspiring Ministry & Church Development Articles

3 Steps to Make Your Church Giving Campaign Compelling

There's a reason New Year's resolutions like ''pray more'' tend to fail. ''More'' is vague-when will you feel like you've reached your resolution? And if you're talking about a church giving campaign goals, ''...

How Today’s Church Can Be a Healthy Family

Mark Driscoll

Today in the Church we have a generation of sons with father wounds preaching a Son-centered theology, leading churches as brothers rather than fathers, lacking spiritual moms and dads, and attracting people w...

Good Preachers Are Always Students

Scott Maze

If reporters interviewed pastors after worship as they do NFL athletes after Sunday games, I imagine I would step up to the podium and say: ''We gave it our best effort out there today but we came up short....

How to Study the New Testament for All Its Worth

N. T. Wright

How do we understand the narrative, the real-life story of God in the New Testament? How should we view the story which reached its ultimate climax in Jesus of Nazareth and which then flows out, in the power o...

Are You Happy and You Know It?

Max Lucado

(Adapted from Chapter 1, How Happiness Happens by Max Lucado) How long has it been since you felt a level of contagious, infectious, unflappable, unstoppable happiness? Maybe your answer is “I feel that way...

Start with Your People

Brian Dixon

It looked like just another Friday morning at a coffee shop. The familiar whirr of the espresso machine. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee. A long line of patrons in a hurry to grab their favorite drink and fa...

5 Myths about the Armor of God

Iain M. Duguid

Myth #1: Life is a picnic. Even though all the evidence is to the contrary, we often seem to believe that life here on earth is—or at least ought to be—easy. In reality, however, life is hard—often very, very ...

Creation: The Beginning of God’s Restoration

Ian K. Smith

The Bible does not begin at Genesis 3; it begins at Genesis 1. This may seem a relatively bland statement, but the implications are as extensive as the universe. When we understand the scope of the Bible’s narr...

How to Make Sermon Illustrations Memorable

Scott Maze

Most pastors and Bible teachers immediately recognize the power of a well-told illustration. It engages the heart of those listening and allows the mind’s eye to see truth through the application of something f...

My Funeral Fumble: A Pastor’s Nightmare Comes True

Wyman Richardson

It remains the most humiliating moment of my pastoral life. I can now laugh about it a little these few years after the incident, but I still wake up with a start sometimes and feel the cold chill of disbelief ...