Several years ago, I was involved in an email discussion about sermon evaluations. A friend and fellow pastor was inquiring about how to do a more effective job at sermon evaluation in his context. Here’s how I responded, “I use a sermon outline with a central question (I creatively term it The Big Question or …
Earlier this week I took time to listen to a short video on sermon preparation featuring Bryan Chapell, Mike Bullmore, and Alistair Begg. The entire video is worth your time if you are a preacher or a teacher of the Bible. It was Alistair Begg’s summary of sermon preparation that jumped out at me. As …
Recently, after my children had a disagreement and one apologized to the other, the response to the apology came as, “Don’t worry about it, its OK.” Angela quickly responded, “No, its not OK. We should forgive others, but forgiveness does not mean that its OK to do wrong things.” Yes, thats one reason why I …
Homosexuality, Divorce, and the Biblical Family— We are losing the conversation on homosexuality and we are losing our opportunity to speak into the lives of those who struggle with this sin. We are losing it, in large part, because we have unbiblically identified homosexuality as the only sin affecting the health of marriage in our culture …
Much is made about the prevalence of young adults leaving the church after they finish high school. We have a right to be concerned, but more than concerned, we have a responsibility to fight the trend. Certainly much of the fight needs to take place long before graduation. Some research over the years has suggested …
Recently, my son had a bad dream. It was a really bad dream, the kind that he talked about the next day and that had him scared to go to sleep the next night. I knelt by his bed with him as he recounted the details. There was a witch, a creepy forest, scary kids, …
3 Common Traits of Youth Who Don’t Leave— My wife (Angela) sent me a link to this article. Notice that the first and most important trait to be considered is the spiritual state of our students. Christians persevere. Our first goal must be to see our students saved. Two Questions that May Greatly Improve Your …
I’ve read several blog posts and articles recently discussing ways that church members can love their pastor, or their pastor’s wife, or their pastor’s family. There is certainly a place for these encouragements. The pastor’s family is no different from other families in the church in that they need to be loved and cared for …
A Chilling New Front in the War on Religious Liberty— Denny Burk writes on an issue we should all be informed about. Why would the ACLU and gay rights groups remove their support for such a measure? Because the current form of the bill provides an exemption for religious employers. The ACLU et al. have …
Faith and Mental Illness— I field questions about depression and mental illness form a Christian perspective almost weekly. This is a helpful perspective from Michael Horton. The Morning I Heard the Voice of God— I was directed to this yesterday by Matt Rogers. I’m not sure how I’ve never seen this from Piper, but it …