Author: S&P

One of the ways that children sometimes try to deepen their relationship with their parents is to travel back to where their father or mother grew up. They might visit historical societies, read archives, and gather newspaper stories and artifacts from old friends. Doing so, they build a bigger and better picture of their father or mother and experience a deeper sense of connection with them and l...

Evangelical Christians have been especially attentive to worship in recent years, sparking a renaissance of thought and conversation on what worship really is and how it should be done. Even if this renewed interest has unfortunately resulted in what some have called the “worship wars” in some churches, it seems that what A.W. Tozer once called the “missing jewel” of evangelical worship is being r...

People often project confidence when they have no reason to. Some do this out of defiance and others out of ignorance. An example of defiant confidence would be Saddam Hussein. You may recall the video of Iraqi President, during the Gulf War, sitting in an underground bunker while informing the people of Iraq that they were trouncing the Coalition forces. Again, he was in the bunker! The rest of t...

Moving the ministry of your church forward requires a delicate dynamic of giving and receiving between the leaders and members. If not monitored closely, this dynamic morphs into a tug-of-war match, which always ends up with one side tumbling. If not both. When the effort behind the ministry tugs toward the leaders, programmatic ministry results. This is when the church does things through events ...

Picking up a sub sandwich today, I saw a news report on CNN about Miley Cyrus’ performance at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards. I was shocked, then sickened, then saddened. For the rest of the day, I wondered: What kind of people are we? What kind of culture have we created? What do we want our children to be? No more wondering. Tonight, I weep. I weep for the little girl who gave us Hannah Mont...

The Bible begins with God, the good Creator of all things and the One who rules the universe. His creative handiwork—everything from light to land to living creatures—is called “good.”[1] But the crown of God’s good creation is humanity. We are made in the very image of God. And God declared: “behold it was very good”.[2] As the pinnacle of God’s creation, human beings reveal God more wonderfully ...

The difference between barbarism and culture is, simply, work. —Lester DeKoster If you’re like me, you’ve often heard the saying that “work is a curse” as result of the fall in the Garden of Eden. That statement couldn’t be further from the truth.  Our Original Purpose In the beginning, prior to sin, God assigned Adam and Eve important work. In Genesis 2 we read about man’...

Many Christians have an uneasy relationship with the Lord’s Supper. Though this gospel feast has been central to Christian worship since the beginning of the church, many believers find the Lord’s Supper either confusing, intimidating, or just plain boring. I was raised in a tradition that observed the Lord’s Supper only twice a year, complete with unleavened bread and alcoholic wine. These biannu...