You Do Who You Are: Our people seemed to be doing well at loving one another, but were having a hard time regularly engaging in the lives of the people in our city. It started to feel as if we had to keep reminding them of what to do on a weekly basis. And unfortunately it seemed as if we had just adopted a new kind of legalism—a “missional to-do list”—that had started to feel like a new form of spiritual slavery that left the leaders feeling like taskmasters. This was clearly not the free and abundant life the gospel promised to deliver. 

Unintended Pharisees: Revealing and Redeeming the Hypocrite Within: No pastor or church leader likes to see the spirit of judgmentalism in others. In fact, Pharisees seem to be the only ones who like themselves. But this is a blind spot in our own lives, too. Pharisaical attitudes are often revealed through difficult situations.

Self-Control And The Power of Christ: It’s not a flashy concept or an especially attractive idea. It doesn’t turn heads or grab headlines. It can be as seemingly small as saying no to another Oreo, French fry, or milkshake — or another half hour on Netflix or Facebook — or it can feel as significant as living out a resounding yes to sobriety and sexual purity. It is at the height of Christian virtue in a fallen world, and its exercise is quite simply one of the most difficult things you can ever learn to do.

Do You Have Confidence In Christ That Can Handle Ebola?: So I’m thinking about a man in Dallas who took his last breath today. But I am also thinking about a man in Louisville today whose final breath may come sooner than he expects. And I am praying for the Lord to have mercy on him and his family and to make him ready to exalt Him either by life or by death.

Pastor Saeed's Letter To His Daughter Rebekka: Saeed Abedini, the American pastor imprisoned in Iran, writes an encouraging and beautiful letter to his daughter on her eighth birthday. Pastor Saeed Abedini wrote this letter to his daughter for her 8th birthday, which was on September 12. This is the third birthday of Rebekka’s that Pastor Saeed has missed while he languishes in an Iranian prison for his faith.

Is It Wrong To Earn A Profit?: The ability to earn a profit thus results in multiplying our resources while helping other people. It is a wonderful ability that God gave us, and it is not evil or morally neutral, but is fundamentally good. Through it we can reflect many of God’s attributes, such as love for others, wisdom, sovereignty, and planning for the future.

6 Great Reasons To Study Doctrine: I love doctrine. Doctrine is simply the teaching of God or the teaching about God—the body of knowledge that he reveals to us through the Bible. I guess I’m one of those geekly people who loves to learn a new word and the big idea behind it. But I hope I do not love doctrine for doctrine’s sake. Rather, I strive to be a person who loves doctrine for God’s sake. Today I want to give you 6 great reasons to study doctrine.

5 Tips For Business Leaders On Mission: I’ve owned three businesses in the last few years. I’ve also held a high level executive positions that have had me on the road on a very regular basis. I know from experience that it can be harder to live on mission in everyday life when you are in a different city or country every week on business. Or when you have to run to Costco in the middle of your missional community gathering to grab milk for your coffee shop because they ran out. I’d like to share a few things with you that were helpful to me when I was on the road and/or very busy at work. Remember, these only apply if you are not working too much or neglecting your relationship with Jesus and your family.

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3 Ways To Be Mission This Halloween: My guess is that if Jesus lived in our neighborhood, everyone couldn’t wait to go to his house to see what he was going to hand out this year.  Everyone would be excited to go to Jesus’ Halloween party and couldn’t wait to invite him over to their party.   My only question I wonder is “Who would Jesus dress up as for Halloween?” Who knows…but you know it’d be a killer costume.

Why We Neglect Our Bibles: But that’s often not true. Many Christians find it difficult to get into a daily habit of Bible reading. So this week John Piper addressed four common causes of Bible neglect in the Christian life, like: “I don’t read my Bible because . . .

The 6 Ingredients of Jesus' Bitter Cup: Isaac Ambrose captured so well the meaning of the cup when he set out what he believed to be the 6 ingredients that made it so burdensome a sight to the soul of the sinless Son of God...

Six Reasons To Live More Simply: How can we live more simply? There are thousands of ways. We can buy used cars rather than new, modest houses rather than expensive ones. We don’t have to replace older furniture just for appearances. We can mend and wear clothes we already have, shop at thrift stores, give up recreational shopping and costly clothes and jewelry, cut down on expensive convenience foods, and choose less costly exercise and recreation. Some of us can carpool, use public transportation, or a bike instead of a car or second car. But these are things few of us will do unless we have clear and compelling reasons. Here are six:

The Cure For Shame: Maybe you feel your shame is too much for Jesus. That he's too pure to handle the kind of shame you've been carrying around for so long. Sinclair Ferguson puts it well: "In your shame, how could someone like you come to Jesus? Because he has come to your shame, to bring you to his joy...

Five Ways To Loose The Battle With Sin: The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. One of the ways such deceit manifests itself is through convincing us that we have battled a sin and put that sin to death when really we have done nothing of the sort. John Owen is a steady guide in the battle against sin, and in chapter 5 of his great work Overcoming Sin and Temptation he deals with misconceptions about what it means to put sin to death. Here are 5 ways to lose the battle against sin...

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The Dividing Wall Is Gone: When we fight for deep relationships with those we are tempted to view as racially divided from us, humility results on both sides. We learn to value differences and to recognize how much we have in common as children of the same God. And we cease trying to rebuild walls that have been crushed to dust by the peacemaking work of Christ, by which many are made one.

TV And The Virtuous Idol of Family: On the contrary, when people ask you about your favorite shows, you often spout it out with no shame because, after all, it’s a harmless and heartfelt drama about the people who matter most in our lives, right? And how can we expect non-Christians to act like Christians in a show made by non-Christians?

When Someone Reaches Out, Reach Back: And if no one is reaching toward you, take it upon yourself to reach out first. Be what you want others to be toward you. I guarantee that everyone is looking for the same thing you are: to be loved.

Kids And Missional Communities - What About Bible Studies?: During the Bible or book study meetings, you will probably need to arrange childcare in order to get the most out of that time. As a community, think through your options for caring for the children well during this season. One option is to pool your money together and hire some sitters to watch the kids at one of the group members’ houses. You could also talk to your church about meeting during a time when childcare is available, such as a second service hour, a Wednesday evening gathering, or a Sunday school hour.

Why Teenage Suicide Is More Than A Statistic For Me: When I hear of another child bullied to death, or another depression that ends in despair, I am right back in that flowery funeral home, standing over my best friend’s casket, the smell of flowers that cannot overcome the stench of death. I’m there again looking at his pale face, angry with him, angry with myself, angry at the evil one, and filled with grief. Part of me wants to cry. Part of me wants to scream: This isn’t right. Someone do something! 

Is Marriage "Just A Piece Of Paper": God ordained certain rules regulating marriage in order to protect people. His law was born of love, concern, and compassion for His fallen creatures. The sanctions God imposed on sexual activity outside marriage do not mean that God is a spoilsport or a prude.

The Gospel Of Genesis 13: So there was a time that Jesus was in the midst of the wilderness, and he was hungry and weary and the devil took him by the shoulder and showed him the vast multitudes of glorious cities in the valley below and said to him, “Look, Jesus, there doesn’t need to be conflict between us. There’s plenty for everyone. Look east and west. Look at all the beautiful riches out there just waiting for you. Why don’t you take your pick? You can have it all.”

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Look And Live: From one who bears the fang-shaped scar, I urge you this weekend to attend corporate worship not merely to sing or merely to listen, but to look — to gaze. Look and live.

You Can't Catch Sin Like A Cold: So, when we are around obvious sin, those people and places, we can’t catch their sin. We can choose their sin, but that is a matter of decision, of belief, of theology. If we hold fast to Jesus there is no risk of that sin invisibly taking hold of us like a flu bug might. How freeing! We no longer have to keep our distance or live in cultural quarantine. We can engage those people with grace and freedom without fear. Because we are near Jesus we can be near to anyone without fear that they will make us more like them than like Him.

Theological Impatience: Theological impatience is one of the most troubling features of our generation. Examples of impatience in everyday life abound – measuring your progress against that of the person in the adjacent supermarket queue, tutting at the slowness of a microwave dinner – but far more inisidious is the way this everyday impatience now manifests itself in the way we do theology. Assuming, as we are often told, “the means is the message” (that is, the physical way in which you communicate something forms an important part of what you communicate), we would expect that: if theology is done in blog comments and tweets and Facebook posts, then it would be surprising if that did not make us theologically impatient.

Biblical verses Systematic Theology?: This is what gives Systematic Theology its finality. Biblical Theology asks, What did the patriarchs say, or Moses, or the prophets or Paul or John? Systematic Theology asks, What does the Bible say?

What Is The 'Abomination of Desolation'?: A wise preacher dealing with this passage may find particular value in focusing on this point. When Jesus gives instruction concerning future events, his purpose is not to satiate our curiosity or answer all or our speculative questions. Instead, his purpose is to protect and guide and instruct his people. Jesus gave relatively little attention to the question "When?" and much toward the question "How shall we live faithfully?" Preaching on such texts today should be shaped by Jesus’ concern for the welfare and endurance of his church.

Christianity Is Not Going Away: The quiet religious revival in New York City is mostly below the radar screen. But it showcases how Christendom, although it ebbs and flows, after 1700 or so years, is not going away.

Friendless Millennials In A Digital Age: She is hitting the nail square on its head. Young people vaguely know about stuff, but they often do not truly know those around them. Much of that comes from our connectedness on the Internet, and specifically social media.

A Failure Of Worship: The addict is not merely following deeply-ingrained habits and physical desires, but seeking the escstasy of worship. The problem is not the desire to worship—we are created to be worshippers—but the idolatrous object of that worship. The addict looks elsewhere—anywhere—for what can be found only in God. The addict’s foremost failure is a failure of worship.

Should We Kiss Evangelism Goodbye?: What my dad and mom thought about me as I was growing up meant a lot. Their thoughts and opinions could crush or lift me in a moment. The truth is that we seek approval from others all the time. As you get to know someone, you might pick up that they need to hear the gospel of adoption, that God the Father offers an undying approval in his Son Jesus. This can radically change people’s view of God, and thrill them with the hope of a Father’s love. Don’t kiss your evangelism goodbye; just give it a facelift.

Kids And Missional Communities - Family Meals: Sometimes families feel like they shouldn’t hold their Family Meal on Sundays, since we’ve already done one church event that day. But there’s no such thing as too much church family on one day, and many of our Missional Communities have found great success with a Family Meal that starts at 5pm on Sundays.

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Jesus Cares About Your Words: Jesus is Lord over all. And as the Cosmic Emperor, he reigns over Neptune, pinwheel galaxies, birds, blades of grass, and our words. Jesus is Lord over our sentences. The Lordship of Christ has no boundaries. There is not an area of our lives that we can rope off and tell Jesus, “Not here, bub.” Jesus cares about our speech.

A Gospeled Church: You cannot grow in holiness and holier-than-thou-ness at the same time. So a church that makes its main thing the gospel, and when faced with sin in its ranks doesn’t simply crack the whip of the law but says “remember the gospel,” should gradually be seeing grace coming to bear.

You Must Put Sin To Death: Owen says that Christians—the choicest Christians—hate sin and pursue it to its death. Could there be a conclusion that is farther from the world around us? The world, the flesh, and the devil tell us to pursue our sin, to enjoy our sin, to go deeper and deeper into our sin, to identify ourselves by our sin, to become our sin. God’s Word tells us to identify our sin, to hate our sin, to destroy our sin. And by God’s grace we can do that very thing. He can give us a revulsion toward our sin, and then empower us to kill it. Praise God!

He Must Increase; Our Churches Must Decrease: There is one thing that the churches experiencing historic revival have in common: they seemed overrun with the sense of the glory of God. They preached the gospel and the response was, as some describe, that “glory came down.”

Good News For The Poor: The church has made mistakes in the past by farming out, almost exclusively, social justice-type ministries to parachurch organizations. The church has also been guilty of paternalism and malevolent generosity when it comes to things such as soup kitchens, food pantries, and so forth. We’ve too often confused free handouts with Christian ministry. Instead, we should be evangelizing, discipling, equipping, and sending out people as they minister within local churches.

A Tale Of Two Mars Hills: A drift in doctrine, a drift from the truth, has a devastating impact. There is a massive difference in holding tightly to the “faith delivered once and for all to the saints” and continually questioning, as Satan did in the garden, “Did God really say…?” Putting on trial what the Lord has clearly declared is the antithesis of watching your doctrine. One Mars Hill, and numerous observers, has been adversely impacted by a failure to closely watch life, and one by a failure to watch doctrine.

When You Wonder Who Is Thinking Of You: The trail of tears is thinking of myself and looking for others to give to me. The trail of joy and blessing is thinking of God and others. The fight that so often happens in my heart happens because this isn't a natural response, but it is possible by the Holy Spirit who resides in me.

4 Things God Says To Singles: About 35 percent of adult church members in Britain are single, so clearly the subject of singleness has considerable personal interest to many people in our churches. Each single person will have a different experience. There are age differences. Being single at 20 is very different from being single at 30, 40, or 70. There are circumstantial differences: some have never married, while others are divorcees, widows, or widowers. And there are experiential differences: some have chosen to be single and are basically content; others long to be married and feel frustrated. What does the Bible say to all these people?

Ten Simple Ways Your Church Can Serve Foster Families: Foster care is a Church problem, not a state child welfare problem. It is a Gospel issue first, not a government issue. The Church has both the duty and privilege to speak on behalf of and stand for the sake of those who cannot speak and stand for themselves because that is exactly what God has done for us through Jesus. That's the Gospel.

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Three Ways We Make It Difficult For People Turning To God: When the gospel occupies the center, we can live in unity even with those who do not share all of our convictions. Only the gospel has that kind of unifying power.

On Platforms, Self-Promotion, And Pleasure Complete: There was a man named John. He was a man, a voice, a friend of the bridegroom, and a witness. And there has arisen no one greater than him. May God help us to live our lives online and offline with the same passion, humility, and determination to have Christ seen through us, not us seen through our platforms.

Ferguson: The Gospel Frees Us To Listen: Because of sin, listening is harder than it should be. But for those changed by the gospel, listening should come (super)naturally. The gospel will surely call us to more than just listening in the current moment – but not less. Listening is where change must begin. So let’s not miss a God-given opportunity to show a watching world the power and grace of the gospel by listening well to one another.

Living Sent (For The Relationally Challenged): living sent does require some intentionality on our part. Who is God calling you to intentionally pursue and build relationships with – even this summer? Who are the top five people in your life that you could intentionally invest in, pray for and pursue this coming season? Of those you already have relationships with, what would it look like to lovingly, winsomely and boldly speak to them about the gospel? What are your first steps of faith as you seek to live sent? What follows are some suggestions as you seek to live an intentionally sent life: 

College Students: Discover God's Will For Your Life: College students are always asking what God’s will is for their life. And the closer they get to graduating, the louder that question gets. There are two ways to hear that question. You can hear it as a heart seeking after the idol of certainty and security—and using God to do it. Or you can hear it as young people legitimately desiring to serve God with their talents...

3 Steps To Raising Disciples: Parents have to work hard to build a Christ-centered home and not a kid-centered home, because a kid-centered home produces self-centered adults. Parents have to constantly strive to take their kids out of the center of the family and remind them that Christ is the center.

Christians Can Be Terrible - You Should Know This Going In: Christians can be terrible. As a reader of the New Testament, this doesn’t surprise me. One of the major premises of the Christian faith is that humans are so flawed, so broken, so rebellious, and so unable to redeem themselves that the eternal Son had to incarnate himself, live, die, and rise again in order to fix them (Romans 1-8). I suppose what does shock me is that Christians are still surprised when other Christians are terrible.

Living And Leading From Grace: But in May, just as I do every year, I looked ahead to the summer season with a mix of apprehension and relief. Relief because we don't have to rush from the moment the alarm beeps, and because summer in Virginia means great weather (even greater this year!) and lots of outdoor activities after cold winter days. But there is also always the apprehension: what we will do with all that unstructured time? Will I have the patience and energy that I need not just to entertain my kids but to enjoy them as well? And how I will get anything at all done?

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