Discipleship ministry is people work and people can be difficult. Some folks seem to have the spiritual gift of pointing out everything you and the church could do better. Others have impossibly high expectations that despite your good intentions you never seem to meet. Still others are just plain ornery: cantankerous old (or young) cusses that fit the profile of grumpy goats, better than cuddly sheep. And speaking of sheep, well, you’ve probably read enough about them to know it’s not a flattering metaphor. In short, churches are full of individuals with flawed personalities, irksome quirks, psychological disorders, and good old-fashioned sins. Sometimes, after discussing some difficult situation, my wife and I look knowingly at one other and say (tongue in cheek), “Everybody’s weird exce...

“It is well and good for the preacher to base his sermon on the Bible, but he better get to something relevant pretty quickly, or we start mentally to check out.” That stunningly clear sentence reflects one of the most amazing, tragic, and lamentable characteristics of contemporary Christianity: an impatience with the Word of God. The sentence above comes from Mark Galli, senior managing editor of Christianity Today in an essay entitled, “Yawning at the Word.” In just a few hundred words, he captures the tragedy of a church increasingly impatient with and resistant to the reading and preaching of the Bible. We may wince when we read him relate his recent experiences, but we also recognize the ring of truth. Galli was told to cut down on the biblical references in his sermon...

We recently returned from a sweet time of vacation. We live in Chicago, and most of our family lives in Dallas. So my wife, three small kiddos, and I took a two-day road travel, staying overnight in St. Louis both ways. Our kids spent a whole week with grandparents. We went to the Ft. Worth Zoo, Lambert’s Café (home of the throwed rolls) near Springfield Missouri, St. Louis’s City Museum and the Arch. We had plentiful witnessing opportunities during this vacation, which was wonderful. Yet, on this trip, I was reminded of how easy it is to waste that witness. Many of us, me included, have vacationed not just from work but also from our witness. Admittedly, two years ago, our little troop felt convicted of this sentiment mid-week through a very magical vacation in Disney World. We realized t...

In his book Brain Rules, John Medina tells the intriguing story of Dr. Oliver Sacks, a British neurologist, and one of his patients, an elderly woman who “suffered a massive stroke in the back region of her brain that left her with a most unusual deficit: She lost her ability to pay attention to anything that was to her left.” Medina explains the effect this had on her perceptive abilities: She could put lipstick only on the right half of her face. She ate only from the right half of her plate. This caused her to complain to the hospital nursing staff that her portions were too small! Only when the plate was turned and the food entered her right visual field could she pay any attention to it and have her fill.[i] Sometimes I think we’re like this in our spiritual perception. While it’s eas...

Suffering sometimes feels like slipping, sinking, suffocating. As the Psalms testify, suffering can engulf and consume, leaving you groping for a handhold. Suffering can swallow you whole, blocking any light from outside. There’s no way to make suffering not hurt. Some pains simply need to run their course, and some will keep coursing through you long after most people have forgotten about your trial. So Christians need to acknowledge the reality that in this world we will have trouble. But responding to suffering as a Christian takes more than bare acknowledgement. Instead, we need to be able to put it in its place. And that’s exactly what Peter’s first letter helps us do. The entire epistle reflects on the reality of and reasons for Christians’ suffering. But I want to focus on just two ...

I am often overwhelmed with a sense of gratitude to God for placing me in a Christian home with a wise and godly father who diligently taught me the Scriptures; and, although I didn’t know the saving grace of God until I was an adult, there are certain inestimably valuable things my father taught me when I was a teenager that continue to have an impact on me today. One of these was the way in which my father challenged me to read the Proverbs. Perhaps it continues to impact me in a significant way, in part, on account of the fact that there are ten father-to-son talks in the Proverbs (1:8; 2:1; 3:1; 4:10; 5:1; 6:1; 7:1; 23:19; 24:13; and 27:11). These talks reflect something of the concern that a godly father has for his son; but—foundational to that—they reflect what God the Father desire...

Would you feel guilty if you were a millionaire? There is a strand of evangelical thinking that suspects, if not believes outright, that having a lot of money (and in some cases just a little surplus) is something to feel guilty about. John Piper has called people to a wartime lifestyle. He writes, “In wartime we spend money differently—there is austerity, not for its own sake, but because there are more strategic ways to spend money than on new tires at home.”[1] Later he writes, “a $70,000 salary does not have to be accompanied by a $70,000 lifestyle. . . . No matter how grateful we are, gold will not make the world think that our God is good; it will make people think that our God is gold.”[2] Piper has a point, and we need to hear that point. We also want to balance that point with oth...

With all the time and attention focused on Easter a few weeks ago (and rightly so), you could hardly blame people for overlooking the holiday that fell on April 22nd: Earth Day. First celebrated in 1970, Earth Day is now observed in over 190 countries by more than 1 billion people every year. Such widespread popularity has led its organizer, Denis Hayes, to call Earth Day “the largest secular holiday in the world.” Instead of scoffing at this holiday, Christians ought to realize the huge teaching opportunity it presents. So, here are three ways to get a clearer understanding of what God says about the world he made and the role he has given us in caring for his creation. 1. Recognize the goodness of God’s physical creation. “In the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1)....

Jesus’ Last Supper provides the basis for one of the most important observances of the Christian church: the Lord’s Supper, also known as Eucharist or Communion in different traditions. From the earliest days of the church, Christians have re-enacted the Lord’s Supper in accordance with Jesus’ instruction that his followers “do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19). The New Covenant The significance of the Last Supper is seen in the fact that it is when Jesus instituted the new covenant with God’s people, as he explained, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20). The Mosaic covenant, which God had made with Israel, was constantly broken because of the sin of God’s people. In the Old Testament, God’s prophets declared that someday God would instit...

High school graduation is a rite of passage unlike any other. You move from being treated like a child (legally) to being counted an adult, both in society and in any academic setting you might enter. Colleges aren’t even allowed to discuss your grades with your parents apart from your consent. Childhood is over. Adulthood beckons. How should you respond to the blessing and challenge of graduation? 1. Own Your Faith. If you come from a Christian home, you have benefited tremendously from a host of supportive circumstances (household rules, numerous protections, church life). Testing awaits as you enter the world. It won’t be enough to ride the coat tails of your parents’ faith. If you’re not sure about Christianity, now is the time to settle the matter (Ecclesiastes 12:1). Christianity is ...

Image Credit: St. Peter Orthodox Church The ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven is one of the most important events recorded in the New Testament. But though it occupies a vital place in Scripture, it doesn’t get a lot of attention today, even among Christians.  My guess is that you probably haven’t read any books about it or heard many sermons on it. Usually we focus on the crucifixion and the resurrection. But the ascension is pivotal, especially in the writings of Luke. Luke wrote a two-part history of the origins of Christianity. Volume one is the gospel that bears his name. Volume two is the book of Acts. And the ascension was so important for Luke, that he ended volume one with it (Luke 24:50-51), begins volume two by reporting it again (Acts 1:9-11), and then refers back to i...

Image Credit: www.spurgeon.org Pastors often struggle with feeling isolated from the world. They are in meetings with Christians, counseling Christians, preparing sermons and lectures, developing leaders, and before long find that they have very little interactions with people outside of the church. To whom, outside of the church, do we testify that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life? It’s a questions we should all ask ourselves regularly. And while preaching before the congregation on Sunday is one of the ways we can “do the work of an evangelist” I believe much more is required of us. And this is not just a problem among church leaders. Christians too often isolate themselves from the world by only interacting with and investing in other Christians. I believe we ...