Losing Our Religion by Russell Moore (January - 4 out of 5 stars) The Lord's Work in the Lord's Way; No Little People, No Little Places by Franic Schaeffer (January - 5 out of 5 stars) Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (January - 5 out 5 stars) The Lord's Prayer by Kevin DeYoung (January…

"I just want my kids to be happy." How did that statement become the dominant parenting philosophy today? Author Andrew Root briefly tours history to answer that question. He explores the answer to that question in his provocatively titled book, The End of Youth Ministry?. The Shift to Happiness In the book, Root traces how…

We cannot attribute to God the vices of humanity. Some people believe that God made people sinful. Instead, they should look for God's handiwork in Adam's nature when it was still whole and uncorrupted. The blame of our ruin rests solely upon us, not with God. The only cause of our sinful conditions comes from…

Reading Joshua can be a shock to the system. The book details the conquest of Canaan by Israel which often involved war and violence. Modern readers, especially Christians, can feel uncomfortable with the narrations of violence in the book because they seem so contrary to not only what contemporary people believe about human rights, but…

When Heather miscarried her first pregnancy, people around us told us that we were grieving. Obviously, we both knew that was the case from the sadness we were experiencing. Being told we were grieving was like having a handful of pieces for an 1,000 piece puzzle. Certainly, it was a good start, but it was…

I have read a lot of church "vision statements" over the years. I came to the realization recently that every single one (including ones I have written!) gets something very important wrong. Many church vision statement go something like this: "NAME OF CHURCH desires to impact the world for Christ's kingdom. We will preach the…

Keller lays out key five areas that churches need to pay attention to in order to grow: 1) ministry options; 2) staff; 3) decision-making; 4) assimilation; and 5) role of the pastor. To move from a smaller church to a medium-sized church, churches need to have bring all 5 of those areas to an "A+"…

A church that is "medium-sized" (250-400) begins to function and feel like this... People don't know everyone. There are too many people attending now for everyone in the congregation to know everyone else. The congregation begins to affiliate most closely by ministry, group, or class. Leadership represents different constituencies. There will now be more ministers…

Tim Keller wrote an influential article on what changes happen to churches when they grow called "Leadership and Size Dynamics." As a church grows larger (whether that's growing from 20 people to 50 or 200 to 500) things begins to change: Things become more complex. As an organization grows larger, it becomes more complex. You…

While many Christians view the book of Galatians as a profound exposition of justification by faith, Galatians also has many important things to say about the Holy Spirit. According to Paul's teaching on the Spirit in Galatians, the Holy Spirit can be thought of as God's powerful presence which brings new spiritual life and empowers…