If we are transformed people who love Jesus, we absolutely must show people how to handle conflict, irritation, personality conflicts, and whatever else makes us want to escape personal rejection.
Atonement: A Call to Action for the Church
Our neglect of understanding the atonement or reducing it to a legal or financial transaction has weakened us.
Why Do We Need White Crayons? Identifying and Empowering the Often Overlooked
Our overlooked “broken” crayons truly did serve a purpose in the right hands.
Jesus Wept
In these two words exists a clear example from Jesus of what it looks like to truly and intentionally experience life with another person.
Simple Children’s Ministry: Two Precious Gifts
Both of these gifts, hope and belonging, can be offered by the smallest churches with minimal resources, and they can be packaged in a million different ways.
Reflections on Fifty Years of Ministry
I was one of those guys who, from his mid-teens, knew what he wanted to do and be—at least in general terms. I wanted to be a preacher.
A Salute to Mr. Pauline, A Hood Hero
Mr. Pauline inspired his students and basketball players to be Black and proud. Mr. Pauline was passionate about raising a nation of young people who were smart, disciplined, and self-aware.
Building Walls in Order to Build Walls
Nehemiah constantly faced outside pressure from opponents and inside issues from coworkers. He persisted, but he probably had to build some walls of his own.
What Is Mentoring?
At a basic level, there are three modes of mentoring: active, occasional, and passive.
On Spiders and Human Complexity
While the term spider connotes danger, it does not tell the whole story about the thousands upon thousands of species of spiders in all of their glorious diversity.
Special Needs and the Church
We often buy into the belief (worldview) that to be human is to be increasingly independent. But Jesus says the very opposite.
Call Failed
As ministers, we are called to counsel those who are experiencing a prayer life full of “dropped calls.”
Minimum-Security Monastery
These moments of silence got me thinking about two kinds of people who live in cells: inmates and monks. So what if I could help these inmates see this jail as a monastery?
Snapchat Prophets
Christian teenagers have a message from the Lord for the church, and they have truth bursting from their souls about morality that it would behoove the church to hear.
Resource Highlight: Journey: From Text to Congregation
The demands associated with preparing to teach and preach every seven days parallel the demands of moving irrigation pipe in the summer on our farm.
Smart, Educated People Are Always Right … Until They Aren’t
Smart people sometimes help us see and understand things in better ways. They are often right. Sometimes they are wrong.
Joy in the Moment
What would happen if you saw each meaningful moment of your day as a potential expression of the presence of God?
Let’s Get Ready to Rumble! (A Primer on How to Fight in Church)
If a church doesn’t learn how to fight, war is the inevitable and unenviable outcome.
Communication Lab with Professor Jesus
Try these two communication experiments and see how Jesus is revealed through you.
Resource Highlight: Ministers’ Salary Survey in Real Time
This survey offers church leaders a sense of how other congregations are addressing things like base pay, housing allowances, paid leave, healthcare, and retirement.