FTC Mailbag
Jared Wilson and Ronni Kurtz dive back into that bag of indeterminate color, the FTC Mailbag! Answering your submitted questions and topics, the guys discuss age gaps between staff pastors, baptizing nonverbal churchfolk, how to share concerns with a pastor, what to do if your pastor is having AI write his sermons, and more. You can always send us a question or topic via [email protected]
Standing Firm Against the Enemy of Your Soul
I once heard a pastor say, “The enemy of your soul hates you.” You probably hear sermons and social media clips about how much God loves you—and rightly so, for He does indeed love you. Yet it is also important to hear about the other side of the coin: the devil hates you. There are […]
The Hope of the Resurrection in Rejection
“What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.” This is simply a way of saying: What’s good for one person ought to be enough for another. Such is a running theme of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus told His disciples, on more than one occasion, that they would be tried, tested, hated, and persecuted for […]
Singing
Christians are a singing people! But what songs should we sing? And how should we sing them? In this episode, Jared Wilson and Ronni Kurtz discuss the content and attitudes of Christian worship music.
The Pastoral Virtue of Avoidance
At least seven times in the pastoral epistles, Paul directly charges Timothy and Titus to “avoid” and to “have nothing to do with” ideas and people who pose a threat to their flock. This is jarring since one of the main purposes for these letters is to encourage Timothy and Titus to engage false teaching […]
Preach to the Choir
“I know I’m preaching to the choir now!” Pastors will say this for a few reasons. First, they don’t want to sound patronizing: “I know you already know and agree with this!” Second, they’re feeling insecure about saying something that feels obvious, and they don’t want to seem “un-insightful.” So it has the effect, “Please […]
Teaching Your Church to Lament
Many years ago, author and professor Carl Trueman wrote—by his own admission—one of his most read and well-known works, an article titled What Can Miserable Christians Sing? In it, Trueman argues for the necessity of including songs of lament (especially from the Psalter) in a church’s corporate worship. He writes, in part: “A diet of […]
Grab Bag!
In the latest installment of our occasional Grab Bag feature, Jared Wilson and Ronni Kurtz ask each other surprise questions. This time Ronni comes with a bonus question, so there’s a bit more bang for your buck.
When God Takes What We Love Most
Jonah 4 provides a striking picture. God appoints a plant to give Jonah shade, and Jonah greatly enjoys its comfort. But the next day, God appoints a worm to destroy the plant. Deprived of its shade, Jonah becomes furious and cries out, “It is better for me to die than to live” (Jon. 4:8). Jonah’s […]
The Ongoing Weight of Standing Graveside
In almost seven years as a lead pastor, I have stood beside graves almost thirty-five times. Some were expected. A saint in her nineties whose Bible had nearly fallen apart before her body did. An older husband who slowly forgot names but never forgot the Lord’s Prayer. Or a sick child only twenty weeks in […]