Paul offers a binary view of life: light and darkness, day and night. But the young Christians must live as befits the light.
Refiner of Hearts
Scripture tells us repeatedly that God wants to take possession of our stubborn, evil hearts, but it’s difficult when we are kicking and screaming.
Family Prayers
I don’t want the message of this post to be only that we pray, but also about what it means to genuinely connect with God as a family.
Grasping the Newness
We can retain the spirit of newness as we face off against burdens and pains, choosing a fresh perspective of hope and promise.
Preaching in the Dark Without Forgetting the Light
To take the language of light and darkness, we should remember that it is biblical. In the hands of the prophets and apostles, it is full of rich significance.
8 Questions With Jennifer Schroeder, Summit Director
We recently announced that Jennifer Schroeder is joining our team in the Siburt Institute. For those of you who don’t already know her, allow me to introduce the new ACU Summit director.
King of Kings
As Epiphany wafts past today, let’s not miss the magnitude of the message through the Magi: the gospel is for all.
Joy in Discouragement
When we would rather erase the previous period of time rather than reflect on it, it may be that burnout, fatigue, or just plain discouragement is impeding our ability to feel anticipation or excitement about the future.
Reflection Roundup: Bell Ringers
Here’s a Christmas playlist full of Fisher favorites for fun and frolic. Maybe a few will inspire musing, meditation, and a little Christmas magic.
What Then Should We Do?
Where does John the Baptist fit among Bing Crosby on the radio, children on a stage, and Charlie Brown memories?
A New Light Has Dawned
But into the darkness, God sends his light. It’s what he has been doing since the beginning. “Let there be light” were the first words spoken.
Reflection Roundup: Joy Bomb
Our youngest son’s birthday is next week. When he first arrived on the scene, he emanated joy from within. Still does! How might we bomb those around us with joy this week?
On Levi’s Jeans and Wine
In many established churches, we continue to assume that our jeans and our wineskins that we have received from a previous generation are still capable of holding the dynamic, electrifying power of the gospel.
Twenty Years of Congregational Change: The 2020 Faith Communities Today Overview
Summarized responses from 15,278 congregations and 80 denominations or religious groups resulted in the largest national survey of congregations ever conducted in the U.S.
Thinking About Church Leadership in a Different Way
Many of us talk to churches about how to rethink our approach coming out of the pandemic. This is a chance to do things differently.
Reflection Roundup: Light Bringers
Squaring off against the darkness, acknowledging its created separateness from the light that is God in the lives of people, is our posture for this season.
Christmas’s War on You
Like an insurgency amid a people we are trying to free, Christmas has decided to go to war with our ideas of Christmas. We are, I’m sad to say, fighting a war on two fronts.
Prove It
When the stakes are high, the words that come out of our mouths are our strongest witness, only trumped by our nonverbal communication. For this article, I’m going to focus on the words.
Reflection Roundup: Behold, the Light
As the light of Christ streams in the window, lighting the room of our lives, let us notice what the light illuminates, yet not spend glorious, God-given energy attempting perfection in what is the Lord’s to complete.
Too Many Prophets, Not Enough Pastors
The message of Jesus is prophetic enough as it is. Ministers must obviously retell that message in a faithful manner. That act of proclamation is prophetic enough on its own. Given the difficulty with hearing who Jesus was and was really about, the story doesn’t need much additional help beyond that.