‘The Bible Is Not About You,’ Says Young Evangelical
A young evangelical pastor urged Elevation Church attendees to get past their church and their popular pastor, Steven Furtick, and “get underneath” to what God is doing.
“If we can’t get there, we’re going to be at a superficial plane,” Matt Chandler, lead pastor of the Village Church in Highland Village, Texas, told over 2,500 people at the Code Orange Revival in Charlotte, N.C., on Friday.
The Next Billy Graham Might Be Drunk Right Now
Whenever I start to get discouraged about the future of the church, I remember a conversation I had a few years ago with evangelical theologian Carl F. H. Henry on what would turn out to be his last visit to Southern Seminary before his death.
#1 UNEXPECTED Church Trend by 2020
“The diverse church will explode in growth over the next 10 years. And instead of looking at this trend through the lens of pragmatic church growth practices, I believe it needs to be viewed as a picture of the Gospel. What man segregates, the Gospel unifies. Get on board with this trend not because it will grow your church, but rather because it was God’s plan for his church from the beginning.”
7 Things NOT to do in Kids Ministry
Here are 7 mistakes you can’t afford to make if you want to see your Children’s Ministry impact kids and families.
5 Areas Of Focus For NEW (And Not-So-New) Youth Ministers
So, here are my 5 areas of focus for new (and not-so-new) youth ministers.
Why New Years Resolutions dont Work
There’s an assumption about human nature that is important to have in place as we think about New Year’s Resolutions: people do what they want to do. The Reformation theologian Thomas Cranmer held this view of human nature (as summarized by Anglican historian Ashley Null):
Christian Teens caught up in trend of ‘sexting’
If parents and student leaders think their precious teens aren’t sending naked pictures of themselves to their boyfriends and girlfriends, they need to think again. It’s happening.
Ministry and having Integrity with Finances
“Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things” (Matthew 25:21). The few things that Jesus is talking about in this particular scriptural passage refer to money or finances. The many things refer to spiritual responsibilities. If pastors prove their honesty and integrity in temporal things—things that do not last, such as money—God then can trust them with the more important things, such as the spiritual well-being of people. However, if ministers prove to be lacking in financial integrity, it is unlikely that they will have a consistent or spiritually auspicious ministry. If God cannot trust them with the lesser things of money, how can He trust them with the greater things of spiritually influencing the direction of people’s eternal lives?
Want to Understand the Teenage Brain?
Based on new research by the National Institute of Health, this article proposes some new takes on the teenage brain. Instead of saying teenagers do what they do because their brain is simply immature, it proposes that the teenage brain is actually wonderfully adaptive for making the transition between childhood and living on your own. The idea is based on evolutionary theory (called the adaptive-adolescent story) and suggests that even risky teen behavior is a natural part of development.