There is a great misunderstanding in churches of the purpose of music in Christian worship. Churches routinely advertise their “life-changing” or “dynamic” worship that will “bring you closer to God” or “change your life.” Certain worship CD’s promise that the music will “enable you to enter the presence of God.” Even a flyer for a recent conference for worship leaders boasted: “Join us for dynamic teaching to set you on the right path, and inspiring worship where you can meet God and receive the energy and love you need to be a mover and shaker in today’s world…Alongside our teaching program are worship events which put you in touch with the power and love of God.” The problem with the flyer and with many church ads is that these kinds of promises reveal a significant theologi...

As people living in a fallen world, we know what it is to have desires. We experience physical pain, witness injustice, suffer under various trials and ache with loneliness and grief. Even when all is going relatively well, our minds imagine how wonderful it would be if we had just a tad more. We rightly long for the restoration of Eden, but regularly find ourselves living outside of our hopes and dreams.  Most of the people I know desire good things:  a job, a spouse, healing, children, friends, ministry, and rest. The question we face on a daily basis is not whether or not we have desires, but how to discern when they drift from hopeful longings to become covetousness and entitled attitudes. Gaining insight into the health of our desires is a bit like discerning whether or not ...

One of the most important verses in all of Scripture regarding the uncertainty of human success and achievement is Ecclesiastes 9:11. There we read, “the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all.” This verse has become almost the singular source of self-evaluating recalibration for me in life. My mind returns there whenever I begin asking questions like: ·         Why does one advance more than another? ·         Why aren’t those who are most successful by human standards also always those who are most wise, knowledgeable and gifted? ·   &nb...

I believe every Christian should strive to carve out time dedicated to Scripture reading and prayer every day. But for many of us, devotions aren’t very daily. Some people, like mothers of young children, have excellent reasons for this. Others, like many college students, not so excellent. If you struggle to fit in a daily quiet time, the open spaces in your schedule can be great places to squeeze in the Bible. Even if you have a robust devotional life, you can still cram the Bible in wherever and however you can. Wedge it into the gaps in your schedule. Stuff it into the in-between places, the nooks and crannies of unclaimed time throughout your day. In other words, fit the Bible into the margins of your life. I don’t mean push the Bible out to the margins of your life, as in, “Quit maki...

Caring for the poor isn’t easy—but it also doesn’t need to be overwhelming, at least when we recognize poverty from a biblical point of view. I explained in an earlier article that when we begin to see poverty the way the Bible does, we begin to see it as offering a number of practical opportunities to worship Jesus. But how we will worship—how our concern will be expressed—will differ from one person to another. The expression of our concern neither reflects nor establishes our holiness before God. Our responsibility is only to serve in the way in which we feel compelled. With that in mind, here are five things you can do to help the poor that really do help: 1. Begin in the church and move from there.So, practically, this means a couple of things: service starts within our local congrega...

Love Is Not Blank Check Affirmation “Will you support me in this decision?” my friend asked me. But I couldn’t support his decision. It wasn’t a problem of not wanting what’s best for him. In fact, it was because I wanted what’s best for him that I wasn’t able to go along with him. The decision would have only brought more problems, and my love for him didn’t want him to suffer needlessly. Yet my reasons for disagreeing hardly mattered to him. What really mattered, it seemed, was that I as his friend would not “affirm him” and the course he was determined to follow. Though I explained why I couldn’t support him in his unwise decision, he was still deeply hurt. My friend is far from alone in this regard. As a case in point, social media platforms are littered with quotes that express simila...

My late father was a stay-at-home dad. He was a man’s man, a strong individual right out of a 1960’s Marlboro advertisement. Yet he was broken by extreme physical suffering and the sun never set on the pain of his pieced-together spine and extremities. It was normal to me that my father was always in the home. However, he was not there by choice. When I hear of fathers opting out of employment to be at home full-time, I think of my dad who would have loved to have done the opposite. What is a stay-at-home dad? By one study from the Pew Research Center, the number of stay-at-home dads has doubled over the last quarter century. Any discussion of the phenomenon must take into account the variety of this broad category. Stay-at-home dads are not a uniform monolith. The reasons dads are at home...

While talking with my pastor recently, we discussed my increasing burden/passion for pastoral ministry. As we talked, he looked at me and said: “You need to bloom where you are currently planted.” I didn’t realize how much I needed to hear this. I’ve been looking toward ministry for so long that I’d missed something incredibly important: God wants to use me where I’m currently planted to produce patience, thankfulness and joy—fruits of the gospel in me. Patience. Paul describes a heart liberated by grace as, among other things, patient (Gal. 5:22). Patience means trusting in the sovereign care of God. It means waiting on the Lord’s timing, trusting that His plans are better than yours. One of the hardest things about patience, however, is actually exercising it. Maybe you rolled your eyes ...

Someone once quipped that an ambassador is a politician who was not elected to office but was given an office on the condition that he leaves the country![i] When we hear the word ambassador today, we naturally think of an American ambassador to another country. In ancient Rome, an ambassador was a representative of Rome to imperial provinces, sent with a message that declared the terms of peace with the Empire. While modern people may recoil at the imperialistic imagery, the metaphor of ambassador is a helpful picture of the Christian’s role in evangelism. Paul’s description of himself as Christ’s ambassador in 2 Corinthians 5:20 and its surrounding context, teaches us at least three things about evangelism. Our Assignment The basic assignment of an ambassador is to represent the one who ...

Male violence against women is a real problem in our culture, one the church must address. Our responsibility here is not simply at the level of social justice but at the level of ecclesical justice as well. We must teach from our pulpits, our Sunday school classes, and our Vacation Bible Schools that women are to be cherished, honored, and protected by men. This means we teach men to reject American playboy consumerism in light of a Judgment Seat at which they will give account for their care for their families. It means we explicitly tell the women in our congregations, “A man who hits you has surrendered his headship, and that is the business both of the civil state in enacting public justice and of this church in enacting church discipline.” Church discipline against wife-beaters ...

When theology is mentioned in a circle of women I have often found the response to be less than enthusiastic.  Mention books on homemaking, marriage or parenting, on the other hand, and everyone seems interested. Why is that? I have heard comments like, “I’m just not smart enough”, “I will leave the study of theology to the men”, or  “I don’t need theology I just need to read my Bible.”           But the truth is no one is “smart enough” to know God on their own. It is only because God has revealed himself to sinners that we can know him at all. And leaving the study of theology to the men is like saying no to a beautiful dinner prepared by a master chef, only allowing some of the guests to eat.  And reading the Bible is itse...

Superficial relationships in the church are a tragedy. The church is the last place humanity should be allowed to anonymously pass by each other. As Christians we live in the eyes-wide-open panorama of the cross of Christ (1 Cor. 1:18). No longer stumbling about in the pervasive darkness blind to the sin that plagues our existence. We now walk in the light (Eph. 5:7-8). We see each other clearly with all our common ailments. From our common confession springs sympathy and compassion. Rather than reject each other, we welcome each other into a common life of brokenness, grace, forgiveness and transformation. No one passes by unknown or unaccepted. There is no longer a need to hide our brokenness. There is nothing left for us to hide (for all is known) and no reason to hide it (for all is fo...