As the ball is hours from dropping into 2020, Joseph shows us what to do when faced with a future we never asked for.

If one desires to preach the whole counsel of God, proper interpretation is of paramount importance. ​

This week's links include resources on abandoning dreams, fighting materialism, gospel-driven theology, Lottie Moon, and how God uses suffering. 

How do we “do application” in a way that is faithful to the Scriptures and representative of the biblical portrait of obedience?

Serving the church is not merely a job; it is an all-consuming responsibility that can threaten a family.

Have you ever wondered at the fact that you wake up believing in Christ?

If the festivities of Christmas are proving too weak an antidote for what ails you, I want to help you for a moment look beyond the wrapping to the Gift

This week's links include resources on Joseph, our deliverer, the redemption of the curse, and giving God your pulpit. 

What does it mean for a preacher to be faithful? How does one even measure a preacher’s faithfulness?

Hurtful words are only good if they are selfless words, driven by love. 

It’s the life-light of Jesus that helps us want what we need more than wanting what we want.

You cannot gain victory over temptation fighting the wrong battles.

No, Biblical Theology is not just theology that is biblical.

How can you plant a church if you don’t actually know what a church is?

This week's links include resources on desiring Jesus, the little drummer boy, mastering self, preventing kids from going as missionaries, and encouraging the ministry of single women. 

Trying to tailor-make your Christianity without the virgin birth is to tailor-make a different faith entirely.

We are closing the year with grateful hearts and eagerly anticipating another year of serving the Church with gospel-centered resources.

Putting aside preferences and embracing common, unified, God-centered worship is part of what it means to follow Jesus together.

We can’t always see what God is up to, either on the global stage of world history or on the smaller stages of our lives and decisions.

To grumble is to leak darkness when we were made to shine.

The good news is that Christ's death and resurrection set in motion a righting of the wrongs in this world.

Announcing the winners of the 3rd annual FTC Book Awards.

It’s impossible to replicate, day after day, the camp/retreat/conference high. What can you do to make the most of your experience after it’s all over? 

This week's links include resources on peace during Christmas, emotionally unhealthy leaders, why God would give kids a sick mom, the real meaning of Christmas, and singing Christmas carols. 

Train your flock through your preaching to behold.

The gospel is the joyful message from God that leads us to salvation.

If you preach regularly, you should read this book.

Just as the Sherpa comes alongside his clients and helps organize, direct, assemble, and lead, the theological educator does the same for students.

I feel in my bones the common temptation to professionalize ministry, as if tools for effective ministry cannot be found in Narnia, only seminary.

How should you take communion? I’m not talking about the form of being served, but what should be going on in our hearts and minds as we partake?

In these three ways, Irenaeus helps us understand how the Bible is one book about one Person written by one Author.

This week's links include resources on gratitude, C.S. Lewis and youth ministry, anxiety, and ministering to the homeless.

How often has God told us in the Scriptures that he is good, but we choose our own golden calf? 

The first thing you see may be the breaker box. Or boxes of church maintenance supplies. I’m always struck by the snow shovel leaning against the wall.

All theological education exists to build up the church, equip the church, adorn the church, love the church - it is for the church.

The only kind of soil in which church discipline can properly grow is communal love.

We should pray that God will lead us by his Spirit to know when it’s best to be quiet, to pray, and to live a life that commends the gospel, and when it’s best to add more of our own words.

This week's links provide resources on multiplication in the church, women and the Word, who delivered Jesus to death, a letter for "dones" and "nones," and faith as defiance. 

Nostalgia can be a nice place to visit. But it's a terrible place to live.

Interviewing can be a rough experience for most pastors, but it doesn’t have to be. 

What does countercultural Christianity look like in America today?

The ministries in which women participated are among the markers of genuine Christianity in a community and these ministries led to the growth of the early church.

Whether you are a pastor, a leader or just a growing follower of Christ, it is up to you to ensure that the young people in the church have the opportunity to be mentored. 

While we may not feel the impact of silence for generations and to one day hear the news of the Messiah being born, we do have the promise of Jesus’ presence.

We cannot say we are clear on doctrine when we are so often unclear on the application.

In short, it’s vital for older Christians to talk often with new Christians, making sure that in following Christ, they haven’t unduly harmed their relationship with their family.

The point isn’t that feelings don’t matter or aren’t important. The point is that feelings are not the definer of ultimate reality.

In valuing Christ we devalue all else for this object of our love, the treasure. 

This week's links include resources on speaking truth in your heart, hope and sexual past, hymns for youth groups, and mothering as a first-generation Christian. 

Nothing is more cringe-worthy than a guest preacher who takes a pulpit only to make himself famous. 

Death marks not the end, but the beginning for the believer.

The special value of General Revelation is that it calls the believer simultaneously to praise God and proclaim God.

It’s painful, but good shepherding often means that we say things that are challenging to our people.

Social media platforms have to be a tool for outreach and benefit, not stress and anxiety, or they're not worth it.

My main exhortation to you is to fearlessly adopt a gospel fixation. Don’t worry about it seeming rote or redundant.

His standards are the robes of Christ’s righteousness—they literally cannot be higher. 

We need to remember that we were culpable products of our sinful environment as well. 

I’ve been told that becoming an older man guarantees more aches and pains. I hope it also means more hopeful discipling, and more earnest prayer. May the Lord help me.

The Bible reveals that while we are fixated on what we don’t have, God’s focus is on what we are becoming for the sake of His purpose.

The doctrines of systematic theology do not replace or stand over the Bible; rather, they provide definitions and summaries of certain key terms and themes that we encounter in the biblical story.

The flesh may counterfeit Spirit-fruit. But it cannot produce genuine fruit. 

In a world of self-justifiers and wannabe gods, the idea of God’s wrath will always be the first domino the devil tries to topple.

When teaching or reading Genesis 1, we should focus on the sovereignty of God in creation and how important mankind is to him and to the flourishing of the world.

These dangers are possible in every church, because every church is made up of sinners -- both pastors and laypeople alike.

I do not deserve to be in this place, doing this thing every day. No one does. 

This week's links include resources on the Christan non-majority, pastoral encouragement, evangelicals and retrieval, disabled children in the womb, and God's Book. 

We have learned again Christ’s words to be busy storing up treasures in heaven and not on earth, where moth and rust destroy. 

Luther was God’s wrecking ball. He was God’s appointed servant for such a time as the Protestant Reformation.

On Halloween night 1998 I threw a party in my apartment. I had girls, booze, weed, and cocaine. On that Halloween night, I was geared up for what I expected to be a good time. But my friend Dave didn’t respond like I expected he would.

When others hear the gospel from your lips, they hear it not from one who can leap over buildings in a single bound but from one who needs grace for the next breath.

We’ve bought into the same worldview of the larger culture, which is that women—and all people, really—are objects for our consumption. 

We’re all looking for a place where the Father comes running, wraps his arms around us with a tearful smile, and throws a party. We’re all looking for home.

Ensuring our Christian communities are “high group” isn’t just a question of growth. In a post-Christian America, it’s a question of survival.

When we “accept” Jesus into our life, we give him a seat at the table. But this is not how Jesus operates.

This week's links include resources on disagreeing well, the Samaritan woman, joy, and those with special needs.

True wisdom—biblical wisdom—is not limited to the intellect. 

He took on skin to veil his radiance and live the life we should have lived to die the death we don’t want to die and save us from our sins. 

Here’s why I believe biblical theology should be woven into the fabric of discipleship in the local church.

Where does the wayward mind truly go when it comes time to pray? It’s hard to say.

All our longing for God-likeness is only wrong when we strive for it in and of ourselves.

While missions is more than evangelism, it is never less than that.

The proud preacher can’t stand to be criticized, let alone critiqued. 

How do we stick with our uncomfortable church long enough to see this growth happen? How can we endure—no, learn to love—our uncomfortable church in spite of its frustrating imperfections?

Men today are often drowning is superficial relationships, but do not possesses any genuinely accountable gut-level friendships.

The letter to the Galatians reminds us that the faith that saved us is the faith we still walk by and the Spirit that regenerated us is the Spirit that grows holiness within us.

While the attributes of God’s wrath and God’s love may seem to clash to our spiritual ears, they were in perfect harmony in Jesus’ death on the cross. 

Many would rather live it up now and use the party they create out of their life as a sedative numbing them to the certainty of what lies ahead in death. 

Dear brother pastors, why have we become so compelled to let everyone know what we think about so many issues peripheral to our calling?

When you hear of new appeals for tolerance of sinful behavior in the churches, remember that this is not a nascent problem, but the old Corinthian problem revived.

The minister is to be at God’s disposal, sensing and seeking his leadership for where he would have the minister go and to whom he would have the minister serve.

Separating vocational ministry from academic ministry is something I would encourage you to avoid. 

We can love politics without it replacing God. We can love politics without it eclipsing our evangelism. We can love politics without it devaluing the eternal. We can love politics and honor Jesus simultaneously.

Pastors have a weighty calling. It is a calling that carries with it lasting and eternal consequences. 

We will not be mastered by Scripture if we don't occasionally allow it to overwhelm us, intimidate us, and force us to wrestle with it.

This week's links include resources on sex, raising up leaders, proclaiming Christ at work, and the humanity of pastors. 

I am transformed from a person who balks at King David’s selfishness and short-sightedness into a person who bawls alongside of him. 

If the Lord who counts every star came down from heaven to die in your place when you were his enemy, is it likely that he has forgotten you?

Just as we appreciate the skill of a spectacular soloist, or an elite athlete, or simply a brilliant coworker, we can appreciate the work of an artist. 

We cannot afford to have Christ on our lips without Christ in our hearts. 

The essence of Christianity is the believer’s union with Christ. 

Here are eighteen specifications on how we should study theology.

Who in your congregation would welcome a note from their pastor today?

Ask God to renew and restore the joy of His salvation and His calling to ministry.

Psalm 48 as a portrait of a gospel-centered church is an incredible song for reflection!

This week's links include resources on domestic abuse, generations in the church, entertainment and our minds, and helping kids love the Bible. 

The call of Paul to Timothy is simple: preach the Word. Letters to My Students takes this simple charge at face value.

Yes, we fail, but God is good and worthy to be worshiped. He accepts us by the blood of Christ. We can draw near to him right now.

There can be a temptation to put believers who are suffering in a petri dish, watching to see if they grow evidence that will confirm our doctrinal beliefs without making us too uncomfortable in the process.

As God’s revelation to man, the Bible comes with binding authority.

These words gave me permission to wonder at God and to deepen in enjoyment of the true story of his Son’s reigning forevermore.

This week's links include resources on singing in church, personal holiness, God's love, racial reconciliation, and hard conversations. 

In Who Is an Evangelical?, Thomas Kidd reminds us of what initially earned us the "evangelical" label, beckoning us to remember where we came from and offering a proposition to return.

If you are not content with a Christianity characterized by minimal devotion to God, Nehemiah is your book.​

One rhythm rooted in the life of Midwestern Seminary is the annual For the Church National Conference. For two days in September, pastors and ministry leaders ascend upon Kansas City in hopes to feast on the goodness and grace of God in the form of conference sermons, breakouts, panels, and fellowship with one another. 

Because He is the Master at creating a brand new something from a pile of nothing, He saw what we could become.

We are a people who want to walk through and consider every verse of Scripture.

One of Christianity’s greatest idolatries today is also one of the most subtle and insidious: the idolatry of comfort. 

When it comes to people who are really suffering, many pastors are tempted to feel overwhelmed and under-qualified. If that’s you, pastor, here five things to remember.

Jesus commands humility from us but he does not leave the humble man hanging!

This week's links include resources on retirement, hailing Jesus' name, marriage as ministry, reasonableness within outrage, and feasting on the Word of God. 

Our best suggestions for barbeque, food, coffee, and things to do while you're in our wonderful city. 

Whatever people call “evangelicals,” I hope we will still be known as bearers of the good news about salvation through Jesus Christ.

The Bible is preoccupied with the Messiah and we must be as well.

So how do we—as parents, mentors, and church leaders—help the children in our care separate wisdom from folly? We train them as the Church has for generations: we catechize.

Jonah fled because he knows that God is compassionate and loving, eager to forgive sinners. 

I made a disjointed relationship into a convincing substitute for true unity.

I need to be reminded that a vision of God is greater, more important, than any vision I could ever create and cast

Do you want to faithfully follow Christ during your college years? Then join a church.

We share a couple of things in common besides our name. One is a dark reality. The other is a greater Truth.

When church members see pastoral leadership caring for orphans, it helps them to see that they can do the same.

This week's links include resources on biblical womanhood, being a former white supremacist, forgetting Christ, studying the Bible with joy, and transitioning to a new ministry. 

The most helpful response is not just to give the Osteen’s a well-deserved rebuke.

Love that is true love is wrapped in objective truth.

God has entrusted each of us with talent. 

When we listen well at the beginning of a partnership, we focus on serving the church rather than using them to advance our own plans. 

Father, help us to see that you are at work through us for the advance of the gospel. 

This is part of God’s curriculum for pastors: in leading a church post-seminary, men of God will need to personally know of God’s faithfulness if they are going to lead the flock to walk by faith.

There is one thing that the churches experiencing historic revival have in common: they seemed overrun with the sense of the glory of God.

This week's links include resources about praying for children, pornography, preaching the bible, poverty, and women in leadership. 

God desires us to run to Him with both the things that bring us joy and the things that bring us pain.

I can overlook an essential element to the preaching process if I don’t intentionally pause and reflect upon the task at hand. These seven questions help me do just that.

We should think more carefully about how we conduct our family affairs, including our fights. We need to think about these issues for the good of our churches, the future of our convention, the joy of all (watching) peoples, and the glory of our King.

Christ is the head of the church, and he has given the church and its leadership as gifts to all believers, including me. 

In this fallen world permeated with sin and death, even adopted children of God may taste the bitterness of loss.

If you genuinely believe sexual sin is wrong and it keeps you from experiencing joy in God, then what?

Because God is good and he does not change, there is a reason to be thankful, to God, for God, always.

The more bored you are with the things of God, the more vulnerable you will be when difficulty comes.  

A Christian writer should develop his or her craft so that a story is created so beautifully that it rivals the hopeless fiction that runs in abundance today. 

How can I help this member see and savor Jesus Christ? 

We may not always understand why the Father prunes the way He does.

It is good and right also to consider the impact of a group of praying students, heirs of Wittenberg themselves, on the modern missions movement of global gospel proclamation.

If all else were stripped away—your career, your earthly relationships, your plans—your identity as a beloved child of God would still remain.

The good news is that the Lord has a way of making a way where there is no way.

Certainly, my smartphone and its accompanying array of apps can be a tool of inestimable value.

This week's links include resources on motherhood as artistry, church for college students, God and your weakness, and Jeremiah 29:11. 

I have come to firmly believe that student ministries are uniquely positioned to be mission sending agencies within the local church.

At the front door of pastoral ministry, we find that if a pastor isn’t a family man, he’s not a churchman.

What’s it like to hear the whole world sing your praise? Only God knows. Be awed by the fact that He does.

Actively praying for the children and begging the Lord to save these little ones is not a small request.

Believing, teaching, and defending the truth should be a priority for every Christian.

Two decades of pastoral ministry has taught me that a prevailing theme of Christian life is the faulty thinking that we relate to God as though he is a disappointed father.​

This is the story of the hopeful, dreadful time between sin’s entrance and Christ’s conquest.

The life of faith is difficult. But there is a joy waiting for us beyond all comparison.

No matter how severe our loneliness might be, it can never surpass the loneliness of Christ crucified.

This week's links include resources on caring for single parents, calling and serving, teaching children to love the vulnerable, and praying in spiritual warfare.

Dr. Allen answers questions about his new book, Letters to My Students, Vol 1: On Preaching.

Rather than reciprocating proportionally based on what has been done, the way forward for disciples of Christ’s Kingdom is rooted in the grace of Kingdom​.

God’s character is as honest as we can be in our prayers. Our quest may feel endless but our God is not. 

The abundance of God comes in part in this life, but in fullness only later. 

While reading your Bible every day, praying, and fasting do not necessitate spiritual growth, neglecting them is like never going to the gym in the first place.

Four basic ways we can use our Sundays to serve others, as opposed to just being served ourselves.​

Often, the greatest threat to theological understanding is a lack of humility. ​

You may feel “all is meaningless.” Especially when you are ministering in the midst of conflict, division, unfair or undue criticism, or even hostility.

Work to embed spiritual growth and vitality into your staff gatherings. 

This week's links include resources on asking questions, fear in evangelism, pursuing others, and dealing with doubt. 

A conviction worth holding is a conviction worth defending and advocating.

May our times of family worship and discipleship be richer and fuller because we have experienced the good God has for us in His command to sing.​

When the perfect comes, the partial, half-measures of today will pass away, and no one will miss them.​

Paul was able to continue to minister in established fields as well as pioneer new fields largely because his missionary team continued to grow and expand.

When a man is not okay with the life God has given him, he often pursues more not for the glory of God and building of His kingdom, but for the glory of self and building of the self-kingdom. 

I am not against you, friend. I’m against the golden calf that I’ve seen built in your midst.

Pastors, your people want you to go there.​

Here are just three of my favorite anecdotes touching on the surprising power of grace.

Through yieldedness and surrender, we placed her in the Lord’s hands; it was not easy; lots of tears were shed and fervent intercession was made. 

This week's links include resources on being uncomfortable at church, kids and transgenderism, recruiting young leaders, missionaries of color, and growing in Christ. 

We are excited to introduce a fun new weekly tradition—#FTCFriday!  

For the pastor to ignore evangelism is to have an unfulfilled incomplete ministry. 

If we deny we’ve been tempted or sinned, leave out parts of the truth, or distort the facts, then we’re robbing ourselves of holiness and joy.

Mimi is a good reminder, to me at least, to curb my ambition and instead simply, faithfully seek Christ.

You can try as hard as you may, clawing at the mud and gravel and tree roots with a free hand—as long as the other hand clutches onto that sin, the ditch is your home.

One of the joys of weekly communion is the opportunity it affords the parents in our churches to declare the great news of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ to their children.

When we engage in what the Bible calls foolishness—choosing sin over obedience—we engage in a practical kind of atheism.

This week's links include resources on fear of God, the sufficiency of Jesus, wisdom, communicating with missionaries, and criticism. 

Though we cannot improve upon the Bible’s relevancy... perhaps we can make our sermons a touch more relevant.

Often, in lieu of your local church becoming the best contextualized version of itself, God is fashioning its parts into a whole that looks more like Him.

We are not to do good to meet a goal, exercise a gift, or fulfill a calling. 

The Spirit convicts Christians of sin so that they will stop hiding in the darkness and instead walk in the light. 

Pastor's Kid, your dad devotes his time and talent to faithfully steering the church toward Christ. As his son or daughter, don’t detract from that mission. Be a catalyst.

For good or bad, leaders set the emotional tone within an organization. . . . Hope is the most powerful tool in your arsenal.

We do not want to avoid equipping women just because it can be hard.

We think the problem might just "go away" on its own. But if it doesn't, we have the biblical obligation to "take it to our brother."

This week's links include resources on what the Bible says about women, dangers of money, unshakable joy, and pride and the pastor. 

Jesus went willingly into the weakness of flesh, to make himself like us so he could save us.

I pray that my soul would not be so fickle as to rely on man’s acclaim or applause or attendance as validation of my ministerial efforts. 

Whether it’s the man in the pulpit or the believer in the pew, suffering can be the greatest help or the greatest hardship to the proclamation of the gospel.

Consider with me, brothers and sisters – do we really see the idols of our culture? Can we call them by name?

When it comes to people who are really suffering, many pastors are tempted to feel overwhelmed and under-qualified.

If a man is easily swayed, we are slow to consider him as an elder.

Jesus' torn flesh and spilt blood was for the embarrassing—those like you and me.

If you hear this, it won't be from Jesus.

Perhaps our lack of volunteers has less to do with our recruiting strategy and more to do with how we are stewarding our current volunteers.

This week's links include resources on reverse culture shock, multigenerational leadership, studying the Bible, neglecting lament, and the war on sin. 

Attention is to be focused on the Lord, the true object of our service, not people pleasing. 

Don’t set yourself up to play with something that will grow to something that can kill and maim you.

As a theologian, Bavinck listens carefully before making a judgment; this is the kind of theology that pastors need to learn and to emulate.

If our churches are following the New Testament grid of ministry, orphan care will be natural, just another outlet for the powerful message of Christ that gathers and disperses us each week.

Living in the present, with a forgiven past, and secured future, will definitely lead to a happier life.

As one who is entrusted with a leadership position, I find it profitable to read of others who have led.

Revelation is very much a capstone to the Bible’s unified storyline, not a freaky add-on to the end.

I've been out of pastoral ministry now for 5 years, and while I am not asked as often I was in those first few years, I still get the question a fair amount: "Do you miss it?"

Evangelism is a biblical mandate for every Christian. 

This week's links include resources on college students and evangelism, revival, kindness, and communion with Christ. 

God is producing lifelong fruit and an eternal joy within me during these formative years in the classroom and in the church.

Mission isn’t just something made possible by a passport or a seminary degree. It’s a paradigm which should inform everything we do

We have died to sin in his death and are now alive to God in his resurrection.

On first looking into Spurgeon’s sermons, I have found joy and awe in the work of Spurgeon, the man, but also in the work of Spurgeon’s God.

Here are some common introductory cliches that might be worth weighing in terms of their helpfulness to the congregation's gathering to worship.

This week's links include resources on spirituality, leadership, pain, family worship, and waiting. 

We don’t always see what the Vinedresser is doing beneath the surface, but we can rest assured that it’s always for our growth.

We’re not doing anyone any favors by sparing them obedience, even when it’s hard, even when it feels “insane.” We’re only withholding from them everything on the other side.

A classical Christian understanding of God’s immutability would maintain that God cannot – and need not! – change even by a divine decision to alter himself. 

There is only one who instructs the rain to fall on Holland. There is only one who know the number of Netherland hairs. There is only one who administers days to Amsterdam. There is only one who is truly sovereign.

At the height of my foray into theological worlds unknown, I met a traveler. Her name was Mrs. Billie Jo.

Missionaries are keenly aware of the shortness of life. 

Vacations should be a time to rejuvenate you for your calling, not escape it.

This may come as news to you, and if so, I am sorry that it has taken this long for someone to tell you, but you are not the center of the universe.

To whom is the ransom paid?

Our God is a treasure to be enjoyed, worshiped, and obeyed. 

This week's links include resources on prosperity preachers, missionary callings, praying for family vacation, and myths about marriage. 

Philosophy can show us the extent to which Scripture answers life’s ultimate questions.

All of our obedience begins with listening to our God.

What we say to new people (and how we say it) will either give credence to our message about Jesus or take it away.

You get the story wrong if you don’t see Jesus as the center and the goal. But when you get it right, you understand, as Stephen did, that suffering makes sense.

Both beats in our ears make promises, promises of fulfillment and of satisfaction. But only one has the power to keep and deliver on its promises. 

My current struggles weigh as much as a feather while the weight of God’s glory is incalculable.

Seven theological and practical reminders to help you sleep like someone whose God is actually alive.

God is calling us to make adjustments in the areas of our lives that are hindering us from costly participation in the mission of the church.

The Bible teaches three facts of life: God is good. God is all-powerful. Terrible things happen.

Here are three all-too-common approaches to sign messages I think churches ought to avoid . . .

We should not be mistaken, a man who has all of his theological ducks in a row is not guaranteed to be a gifted husband. 

This week's links include resources on biblical truth, the missionary and insufficiency, loving your spouse, and when someone backslides.

All the “humble brags” on social media have a green shade if you look closely enough. 

Though we should seek Him in our closets or a quiet place during the week, he has commanded us to gather together as the church on Sunday morning. 

If Christians are shaped by the form of corporate worship, then they will also be shaped by the rhythms of their daily life as a part of the community of God.  

In the doctrine of the Trinity, the church is given a pattern for unity and participation in mission.

Always seek to feed your people, do not settle for unhelpful—or even less helpful— diversions.

The ministry of reconciliation continually provides a clear, unobstructed avenue to grace to all of those who need to hear the gospel, which includes all of us!

Like any good pastor, it vexed and frustrated him to see God’s sheep led astray on something so vital and yet so simple.

Ashamed friend: look to the shamed one on the cross and know his shame was for you. His shame was so that you might not be ashamed, that his welcome would overcome the world’s rejection.

Being called to ministry of any kind is both a responsibility and a privilege.

My conversation on preaching with Tony Merida and Brandon Smith.

He is the One who makes everyone in Him not just “better”, but righteous.

This week's links include resources on potted plant Christians, salvation of a pastor's wife, virtue signaling, skating as missions, and Jesus' resurrection. 

Jesus can be glorified in you and me, and in the pitifully inadequate, sometimes myopic, church we attend.

The more we orient our lives around Him, the more His Spirit shapes and even transforms our plans. 

One deficiency in much contemporary preaching is the failure to proceed with an understanding that we preach as sufferers, to sufferers.

For, as we live and serve at the end of the world, the six seminaries count it a joy to do whatever it takes to serve cooperating churches as they carry out their biblically designed task of seeing God's great name proclaimed to the ends of the earth.

How many times have we seen confession happen without genuine and lasting change? Why does genuine transformation still evade us?

The waves of trends beat against the rocks of God’s Word. They make quite a noise, but they can never change it.  

The problem is when self-preservation becomes an ultimate thing, when safety becomes a god. 

It is vital that senders see the immense value and importance of their role in getting the gospel across the street and around the world.

A year into church planting: it's hard and it's wonderful. And I don't want to be doing anything else.

Choice lines from this recent release.

We should be so dependent on God that our first ingrained action should be to pray to Him when times get tough or even when we start a new day. 

This week's links include resources on dying, forgiveness and children, Ecclesiastes, prayers of repentance, fighting with your spouse, and fear of God. 

Eventually, if we actually believe what we believe, obedience will be the tell-tale sign that follows us.

Men, God has given you the privilege of leadership.

Pride can only bring bondage and discontentment because you do not have the power to compel the world to affirm you on your terms.  ​

Here are three open and honest struggles I faced and things I wished I knew in my first year of ministry.

This is where I am - covered by water and desperate for God’s help every moment to truly believe this flood is a gift.

We walk around incomplete or empty, longing to once again be complete in God.

When the door opens for MDiv study, go through it.

By and large, the Bible is a book written for a community.

Aren’t we left here in this in-between time to point others to the Lamb of God? 

This week's links include resources on spiritual indifference, trauma and the body, worshipping on Sunday, lamenting, sharing with Muslims, and when God seems silent. 

What do we make of the fact that the man who was perhaps the greatest preacher in American history and is still one of evangelicalism's favorite heroes owned slaves and propagated slavery?

Wear your shield, Christian, and cry mightily unto God, that by his Spirit you may endure to the end.

A godly motivation to disciple others is your gratitude for God’s work for, in, and through them.

David was anointed to sit on the throne. But he was appointed to sit among sheep. 

We couldn’t reach up on the top shelf to get God, so God places himself on the bottom shelf—right within our reach—in the person of Jesus Christ, the carpenter from Nazareth.

My problem? I tend to think God forgives like I do. 

Faith is not about impersonal plans, unfolding programs, or divine principles. Faith is heartfelt trust in the person of Christ.

My younger self wanted a voice, wanted a platform but was unwilling to invest in the character required by the gospel. 

When accumulated fatigue takes hold of us, a night of rest, a weekend get-a-way, or a six-week sabbatical likely won’t help.

God is calling us out of the stands and into the arena. He is calling us to follow Him deep into the wild and restless world around us. But we are not going there alone.

When we come across big, "technical" words in our preaching and Bible study, we should use, study, and explain those words, rather than skirting around them or simply glossing over them with an alternative phrase.

As a pastor, few things warmed my heart more than church members telling me they prayed for me daily.

No law can be just if its justice for one is predicated on injustice to another.

Even though Jesus isn’t a mother, he is still able to sympathize with every weakness we face as moms. 

This week's links include resources on exercise, dark times, insufficiency of good theology, and choosing the right kind of busy. 

We are not to expect that God will give us everything we choose to ask for. We know that we sometimes ask, and do not receive, because we ask amiss. 

The best this world offers is incomplete. 

Apart from a broken spirit that sees how much we need Christ first and foremost, these betterments are futile.

Nothing can provide a better picture of the relationship between believers to Christ than marriage. It explains why loving submission and sacrificial authority is so important.

The wisdom of God is more than just right thinking; it’s the glories of his righteousness and the wonders of his love.

We have a God that deals in the business of the inadequate and unworthy. Let the power of Christ rest upon you, young pastor.

God's track record is flawless, and His ability to accomplish His purposes is unquestionable. 

Testimonies arising from scores of churches all over the Golden State represent the Kingdom fruit of the gospel sown over the last 170 years.

Jesus is commanding a life of faithfulness, of loyalty, and yes, in many cases, sacrifice. But He is not unaware of what He’s asking. He understands.​

Our goals as Christian women should and will look different the more we behold Christ and, in desperation, throw everything aside and root ourselves in him. Only then can we be immovable, unshakable, laughing at the days to come.​​

There are questions every pastoral candidate asks a search committee or hiring team when evaluating possible relocation, and then there are the questions every pastoral candidate ought to ask but rarely do. Here are four...

When we overthink our faith we tend to have some really bad thoughts and go places God never said to go with those thoughts.

This week's links include resources on the gospel and the cry for "mama," sharing the gospel with family, going to church as a mom, having eternity and mind, and what to pay pastors in poor areas. 

How blessed to feel assured that the Lord is with us in all our ways, and condescends to go down into our humiliations and banishments with us! 

We decided early on that our rhythm of weekly worship would consistently include celebration of the Lord’s Supper.

The truth that sets us free, like the truth that set free the original audience of Genesis, is that the God of the universe created us.

There are secret things, and there are revealed things, but the faith once for all delivered is not a secret thing.

Finding a consistent pace between too slow and too fast is vital for endurance, not only for an athlete but for a Christian as well.

As I think about a future "retirement" from formal ministry, there are five things I hope are true about me at that time.

God knows our idols will ultimately disappoint us and leave us empty, so He gets us alone into the wilderness to win our affections back.

Training a new believer to do a single (very important) task is not the same thing as making a disciple.

Here's one lesson taught through education: it is okay to be dim in the sunlight. We need our heroes, but any of us can please God and be used significantly by him even with average abilities.

The love of the cross rescues us from an idolatrous love of self. This gospel rescue doesn’t destroy personal confidence; it is the only true ground of it.

Until we understand that the gospel is the doorway into freedom from sin, even our religious efforts will simply be rearranging idols.

We can critique so often and in such ways that we also hurt the cause.

This week's links include resources on pastors resting, emotionally healthy leaders, the dangers of media, if God can suffer, and praying with expectation. 

Dear friends, can you, by faith, see yourselves in that number?

God’s infinite grace fuels generosity, which fuels the glorification of God and his gospel.

In local churches, converted men and women manifest God’s righteous rule and true political righteousness.

Knowing the trajectory of the things of this world and their declared and promised end should drive us to place our hope and trust in God and not the world. ​

Here’s Christ’s kingdom offer: all our striving and trying for all his finished and accomplished.

Over the past decade, I’ve witnessed in others—and, unfortunately, in myself—three parental motivations to avoid. Like weeds that force their way through the best-cultivated garden or thickest concrete, these motivations seem stubborn, always reappearing; resilient, always resurfacing.

A child must also see that in their sinful nature-state they are morally deficient and hopelessly unrighteous.

The disconnect happens when we forget who we are in Christ and choose to live in our old ways of self-reliance, self-determination, and self-rule.

Let’s remember the people we are sharing with are not just “targets” or “hot prospects.” These are human beings, made in God’s image, who have not formed their beliefs in a vacuum.​

God is at work among my generation. And the harvest is plentiful. So, pastors, keep laboring. Parents, keep laboring. Youth workers, keep laboring. Don’t give up on us.​

Four steps to making a trainwreck of your life. And how to get back on track.

We often neglect or ignore that Paul learned contentment both in times of frustration and in times of favor. 

This week's links include resources on pornography and missions, quitting the pastorate, the road from Emmaus, and lessons from Moses' leadership. 

 If you have lost the sweet sense of the Saviour's presence, and are seeking him with a sorrowful heart, remember the promises.

One of the most significant personal needs a person has is the need to be heard.

I believe isolation is the enemy’s number one tool to take down worship pastors.

Much of the Christian life does not involve suffering, but is one of mundane, normal days under the good gifts from the Father of the heavenly lights. These days are crucial in our sanctification.​​

We have the one message of hope our crumbling culture and our challenging congregations need. Now our calling is to follow through.​

Who is God? What is he like? How do we come to know him? To whom are we speaking when we go to God in prayer?​

God is never surprised by our sin. 

We must trust that these in-between days where we can’t see God at work are not signs that he’s turned his back on us.

While business meetings can be a great cause for anxiety, they need not be. Here are a few ideas for avoiding acrimonious business meetings in a local church.

Mankind has exchanged the truth of God for a lie and seems happy about it. 

Jesus has a word for you today about tomorrow.

Our restoration begins with a change in what we’re searching for. 

This week's links include resources on small sins, passion in marriage, Psalm 22, women celebrating women, and encouraging children to befriend those with special needs. 

Christ at the right hand of God hath all power in heaven and in earth.

On this Good Friday, consider these words from one of church history's greatest Baptist theologians on the apostolic preaching of the cross of Christ.

Despite my despair and self-pity when trials come my way, He lovingly draws me to Himself and reminds me there is so much more.

Though a relatively short work, Queen Katherine Parr's The Lamentation of a Sinner is a deeply personal and overwhelmingly theological confession of her unworthiness for the grace of God.

We don’t need something new. We need something old. We need to do the same things that saints of old have been doing in order to deepen our understanding and apprehension of the greatness of God.

Jesus is not the poster boy for old-time religion. He’s not the Bible Belt co-pilot. He’s not the post-modern homeboy. Jesus is the covenant-making God filling up the old in himself and pouring out the newness we long for.

When Christians oppose abortion, they are beginning with the fundamental belief that humans are the capstone of creation, created in the image of God, and therefore ought to be preserved.

Sheep have been known to bite their shepherd. How should pastors respond in the face of unjust criticism?