You prepare a table before me (Ps 23:5) As the psalmist, David shifts his attention to protection from the valley of death in verse 4,...

There is much conversation in my church right now about whether we are a declining church body and whether or not we will survive this...

In a magazine for pastors [Pulpit Helps, August 1997], one fellow wrote with one of those "you know you're in trouble when …" lists. This...

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man...

Sometimes, when I look back at my time in the parish, I feel for my congregation members. My parents raised me with the idea that "good...

23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up...

One question I love to ask guests on my podcast is: “What do you want your legacy to be?” The illustration below shows what happens when...

I have spent most of my ministry in big metropolises but have not lived in a community of under 4,000. You know you live in a small town...

We pause today to remember our fallen heroes. Thank you for defending and giving your lives to keep us safe and the banner of freedom...

I grew up in the great state of Louisiana. It was a very diverse community of people and cultures. When I think about the church on...

Urban Ministry is messy. It involves loving all people. Some come into our stream of consciousness with messy and broken lives. Because...

There’s an old saying, “God couldn’t be everywhere at once, so he made moms.” That statement has horrible theology in it. But it...

When I talked to a few frustrated rural pastors, at the heart of their frustration was the sense that because there was not a large...

This story is familiar. In 1972, and after 308 years, the First Church of Newton, Mass., called it quits. It gave its assets to a museum,...

"Can't see your nose in front of your face " Idiom Meaning - Being oblivious to something obvious, in clear view. On the Road to Emmaus...

In his 1983 acceptance speech for the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, [Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn] recalled the words he heard as a...

24 Thomas, the one called Didymus, one of the Twelve, wasn’t with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples told him, “We’ve...

In the first century, Rome executed criminals by crucifixion. It was a humiliating and agonizing experience. There was no concept of...

A cross on a hill The press reported a heart-rending story, telling of a young father who shot himself in a telephone booth. James Lee...

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said...