Who Do You Say I Am?: A Mormon And An Evangelical Discuss Jesus: In the past 25 years, Vince has served a full-time, two-year proselyting mission and has held many positions of leadership within his local congregations, including time as a bishop. But he didn’t know which specific points of Christ-centered theology differ from the theology of Latter-day Saints and orthodox evangelicalism. And I didn’t know what Mormons believed either.

13 Ways You Waste Your Money: About once a year I go through a phase—a deliberate phase—in which I evaluate our family finances to see where we’re doing well and where we aren’t doing so well. I especially look for places we are spending money we don’t need to spend—bills that are too high, subscriptions we no longer need, and all of those little money-wasters that eventually add up. And over the years, I’ve collected quite a list of ways that we, and perhaps you, waste money. Here are some of them:

May Jesus's Name Be Known Through Me: Jesus came on mission, lived on mission, died on mission, and left his disciples — including all of us who follow him today — on mission. Conversion is about commission, not just salvation, because we’re not saved to be saved, but saved to be sent. Redemption is a life-saving rescue, but it also involves a profound rewiring and repurposing. We are saved to go out into the world for the glory of our Jesus — to make him known as our Lord, Savior, and greatest Treasure.

Jesus Is Better Then The Super Bowl: “This Super Bowl thing, it’s such a big deal to the people of the Northwest,” he adds. “You can see how the Seahawks provide identity for so many people. What’s cool is that God has opened up a platform through winning to talk about Jesus Christ, the greatest treasure of all. Why do we want to win? I know the brothers on the team, they want to win to glorify God and tell more people about Jesus Christ.”

Do You Believe God Will Save Your Kids?: I do what is right and trust his grace, pleading not my own merit, but the merit of Christ, trusting not in my own works, but in the work of Christ. And I pray—I pray that the God who graciously extended favor to undeserving me, would extend it to my undeserving children as well.

8 Lessons From The School Of Prayer: Throughout my spiritual pilgrimage, two sources have largely shaped, and continue to shape, my own prayer life: the Scriptures and more mature Christians. The less authoritative of these two has been the advice, wisdom, and example of senior saints. I confess I am not a very good student in the school of prayer. Still, devoting [space] to their advice and values may be worthwhile before I turn to the more important and more authoritative of the two sources that have taught me to pray. Among the lessons more mature Christians have taught me, then, are these.

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Christmas Spending Is A Test Of Your Treasure: ‘Tis the season to test your treasure. Not only are we on gift-expectation overload with Christmas, but then comes the year’s end and that one last chance for tax-deductible charitable giving. December bids us dig deeper in our wallets than any other season.

7 Things Christians Should Know About Torture: But this report should be the beginning, rather than the end, of the discussion on the morality and legality of torture. To aid in future discussions, I’d like to highlight seven things I believe all Christians should know about torture.

Confessions Of A Hardcore Homeschooler: It do strongly believe that insisting on a particular education method is harmful to the church and runs contrary to God’s word. When we insist on a certain practice, we create an “in” crowd and an “out” crowd, with those who are in being more “spiritual” than those who are out. When we take principles and turn them into hard and fast practices, we make the commands of Jesus burdensome. God doesn’t do “in” and “out”. In Christ, we’re all in, and that’s good news. Let’s not mess with God’s good news.

Don't Get An Emotional Divorce Before You Are Married: A dating relationship should gradually and normally progress to a point where a boyfriend and girlfriend are emotionally attached and deeply fond of one another (especially when they get engaged!). But again, hear my warning: Don’t let this happen in the early stages of dating. Why do I say this? Let me suggest two principles to guide the early stages of dating.

How To Build A Disciple-Making Culture: Many people much smarter than me have wrestled with the question “what is culture?”  At the heart of it though, culture is composed of beliefs, values and practices shared by a group of people.  Building a disciple-making culture in the local church is driven by foundational beliefs, shared values and common practices.

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10 Reasons To Be Thankful: A loss of awe for Jesus will manifest itself in our lives. Paul wanted to see the Galatians’ awe for Jesus recaptured. So throughout the letter, Paul gave them a long list of ways the Lord had served them, of how the Lord had blessed them. From the first four chapters of Galatians, here are ten ways the Lord has blessed you if you are His.

10 Missional Ideas For Your Family Thanksgiving: That’s why thanksgiving is a wonderful gateway for those who are far from God. As someone recognizes that Jesus is the source of all that is good – which is what happens in giving thanks – so that person learns to acknowledge Him and His goodness.

Adoption In Christ: A Story Of Unimaginable Good News: As amazing as that thought is, it’s not the 'age' of adoption that makes it greater than the universe. What makes it greater than the universe is something bigger, better, and infinitely more wonderful.

5 Ways To Have A Missional Thanksgiving: Thanksgiving is almost here and  you’ve likely got the Turkey, the guest list, and the growing excitement over the special dessert and stuffing your family makes. Thanksgiving is a fun family holiday and has the opportunity to be a place of great joy. As you plan for this fun holiday, here are 5 ways you can make it missional.

What Do We Mean By "Missional Living"?: Here are four ways that the local church can follow Jesus into missional living in the twenty-first century.

When Was Time You Really Just Enjoyed Your Money?: I firmly believe that every thing we have is actually God’s. We are not the owners of our money, but the stewards of God’s money. Most of us believe this and we try to live it. And there are many, many ways to faithfully steward God’s money.

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Without This Your Missional Movement Will Fail: The fundamental way that we are going to see Jesus save people across the globe is through discipleship. That’s right, the good-old-fashioned, life-on-life, person-to-person, dirty, messy process of teaching people to obey all that Jesus has commanded. Showing people with our words and our lives how to follow and magnify the Risen Savior.

Nine Lies In The Not-Yet-Married Life: Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, perhaps one of the more polarizing holidays of our year. It's very fun and exciting for the love birds, too commercial and insincere for the skeptics, and sometimes especially lonely for the single...

How To Engage The Neighborhood: The basic principle behind this strategy is simple, and it's one any church can follow: engage your neighbors by taking an interest in what they care about. Building common ground is easy when you participate side-by-side in community organizations, service projects, family events, block parties, yard sales, and the like. Common interests are one of the most powerful tools for building friendships that can enable spiritual conversations to take place.

Why Are Our Kids Addicted To Social Media?: ...To an over-scheduled teen under constant parental surveillance “Turn off your phone” basically means “Go to your room and be alone.” That’s no good either. Without real, unstructured time with friends, kids can’t develop the healthy social interactions today’s adults long for them to have.

Holy Laughter: It is easy to look at what is going on in the world—wars and rumors of war, increasing hostility to biblical norms, persecution of Christians around the world, volatile elections, nuclear proliferation, terrorism, mass shootings—and to wonder what does God think of this? Doesn’t he care? Is he still on the throne? Doesn’t God see what is going on down here?

How To Create A Culture Of Evangelism: But in a culture of evangelism the work is grassroots, not top-down. In a culture of evangelism, people understand that the main task of the church is to be the church; they understand that church, just being biblical church, is a witness in and of itself. The church supports and prays for outreach and evangelistic opportunities, but the church's role is not primarily to run evangelistic programs. The members are sent out from the church to do evangelism, the church does not do evangelism.

The Gospel And Money: When God commands us to give it’s not because He wants your money. He wants your heart. When He commands us to be generous it’s not because He wants to take things from you. He wants to give you Himself. God doesn’t want the money out of your pockets. He wants the idols out of your heart.

How Can The Tired Mom Stay Connected To The Hubby: Most of the time, money is tight in this season as well, as you are trying to live off of one income and dad is trying to get his career started. Admittedly, these were tough years for us. Looking back, Grace and I did not get this right all the time. But we would offer the following suggestions as Grace thinks aloud and I type along:

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