Author: S&P

(Image: Cleveland, Ohio) Last week mega-star, LeBron James shocked the sports world by leaving the Miami Heat and returning home to the Cleveland Cavaliers. I was on vacation at the time, so my hotel TV was tuned in, for way too many hours, to Sportscenter. I was tracking this on Twitter and reading as many blogs as I could read without upsetting my non-sports-loving wife and my children. LeBron a...

I was thirty years old and less than two years into my second pastorate. The phone rang and I answered to learn that the father of someone in our church had died suddenly. Would I do the funeral? I had never met the deceased man and knew nothing about his spiritual condition. And this was my first funeral. I had no idea what to do. Thankfully, my own father (a veteran pastor of many years) was vis...

The arrival of thousands of Central American youth immigrants at the U.S. border has created an unprecedented immigration crisis. As Republicans and Democrats are capitalizing on the event to lambaste the other side’s immigration policies, other Americans have traveled to the border to hurl angry protest at the youth. Do we turn them away? Do we bring them in? No solution seems to promise an ideal...

Summer is here and I hope you are planning on taking a vacation. I have read several reports that claim Americans work more hours, take fewer vacations, and retire later, than those in any other industrialized country. And anecdotally I can see what the men and women in our church are doing. We are always working, and seldom resting. As a pastor I encourage the church to take vacation seriously, n...

It is going to take time—decades at least—before we are able to accurately tally the cost of our cultural addiction to pornography. But as Christians we know what it means to tamper with God’s clear and unambiguous design for sexuality: The cost will be high. It must be high. We all know the cost will be high in fractured families and heartbroken parents, husbands and wives. Already we are se...

[Editor’s Note: adapted from How God Became Jesus: The Real Origins of Belief if Jesus’ Divine Natures–A Response to Bart Ehrman, Zondervan, 2014) I think it is necessary to explode a popular caricature where Jesus cruises around Galilee announcing, “Hi, I’m God. I’m going to die on the cross for your sins soon. But first of all I’m going to teach you how to be a good Christian and how...

In his new book “Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus,” author Nabeel Qureshi tell his own powerful story of the clash between Islam and Christianity. Learn how Qureshi’s faith in Allah was dramatically conquered by the truth of Christ’s resurrection and deity. (More at NabeelQureshi.com.) Originally published January 06, 2015.

As many young Americans celebrated on the 4th of July, probably the last thing on their mind was the craft giant, Hobby Lobby. After all, what does a chain of craft stores have to do with hot dogs, fireworks, and American Independence? A lot more than you would think. On Monday (June 30, 2014), the Supreme Court of the United States ruled, in a narrow, 5-4 decision, that Hobby Lobby could not be f...

Dr. Karl Giberson is not happy that so many Christians believe what the Bible says about creation, human origins, and the fall. In an article posted in The Daily Beast, Dr. Giberson laments the fact that the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) has not reached a consensus fully embracing the theory of evolution by natural selection. He seems scandalized that there are those within the CRC who still hol...

We chat with Drew Dyck about his new book “Yawning at Tigers” which asks us to abandon our tame view of God and encounter the true God of Scripture. A boring, sanitized Christianity can never satisfy our deep hunger for transcendence. We must seek to know God as He is—mysterious and powerful, yet accessible, loving, and present. Originally published July 02, 2014.

Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Foursquare, Flickr, LinkedIn, Reddit, Tumblr, Imgur, or whatever comes next—social media have changed our relationships in significant ways. With the touch of a button on a small device I carry in my pocket, I can instantly discover what’s happening with friends on the other side of the world. Drawing from personal experience, pastoral conversa...

This is as close as a Southern Baptist gets to dancing in the streets for joy. The Supreme Court just handed down the Hobby Lobby case, and ruled that the government cannot force closely-held corporations to violate their religious beliefs in the purchasing of abortion-causing drugs. The ruling isn’t just a win for evangelicals, like the Southern Baptist Greens. It’s a win for everyone. Here’s why...