7 Habits of a Healthy Church

A healthy church, like beauty, may at first seem to be in the eyes of the beholder. God’s Word leaves the church with clear instructions about the habits that lead to healthy churches. Letters like 1 Thessaloni...

Why Do We Do the Things We Do?

It was a dramatic, game-changing moment. It’s recorded for us in Matthew 5:27–30. Jesus is unfolding the gospel principles of his kingdom. I’ve often wondered about the reaction of the crowd as he spoke these w...

The Truth about Weakness

We value human strength and earthly perfection. We admire people for “being strong” when they’re mourning a loss. We are proud of friends for “standing tall” in the face of adversity. We put images of our most ...

Stop Worshiping Worship

Every Sunday, congregations all over the world gather together to worship the one true, living God of the universe, and we believe He has saved us from the death of sin and moved us into a position of holiness....

What This Book Is Not About

This book is not about the age of the earth. We are aware that many sincere Christians hold a “young earth” position (the earth is perhaps ten thousand years old), and many others hold an “old earth” position (...

Why Observe Lent?

If you told me ten years ago that I’d be leading my church in the observance of Lent, I would have laughed. We come from a church tradition that associates Lent with stuffy, liturgical churches—and since many o...

5 Reasons to Give up Something for Lent

Still on the fence about whether to give something up? Here are 5 quick reasons you should go for it: 1.  Discipleship. At its core, discipleship means following and becoming more like Jesus. Early in his mi...

Creating Church at Home

Ever since I can remember, church has been my second home. I am the daughter of two incredible parents who have been Worship Leaders and Music Ministers for hundreds of years (okay…that was dramatic, but it fee...