Blog Articles and Resources for Pastors and Church Leaders

Ministry is exhausting. This is true for the church planter who is just getting his core group together or the minister who’s had years of ministry experience. Exhaustion in ministry is real, and burnout seems to come for the best of us. But it doesn’t have to. It is quite possible to do all that God has called you to do, but it requires us to return to the humble way of Christ. Humility may be an unexpected suggestion, but it honestly shouldn’t be. Humility was the very thing that set the first-century church apart.

Recently I was standing in line at Heart Coffee. Portland, Oregon is home for me, and while our city’s most broadly read press clippings haven’t been particularly favorable these last ...

This is God’s message to us? “I’m offering rest. Partner with me, and you’ll find it.”

Jesus offers rest because the way of living that Jesus gives us is deeply restful.

We all live for something. This “yoke” talk is about taking the burden of whatever it is I’m living for, and trading it in. His yoke is lighter, He says.

I can confirm this. I sometimes feel the pressure to have a Big Vision and accomplish some Big Thing or be More Significant and you know what? It’s a lot of stress. Our culture loves Big Visions and Plans and Statements and so forth. But our culture is also acutely anxious and exhausted and angry.

So why take this pilgrimage?

Because, while “It is finished,” He is not. His work on the Cross was perfect. Complete. Absolute. And because of it and through it, He continues working in and through us. The Cross is the singular basis of Christ’s total defeat of satan and his kingdom. satan had no response then and has none now. There’s nothing he can do about it. his defeat was complete, everlasting, and irrevocable. And while satan can’t change what happened on that Friday, he has been working ever since to hide what happened there. To obscure the work of the Cross. To avert our eyes. This is why Paul told the Galatians they’d been “bewitched.” Even though they were Spirit-filled eyewitnesses to the death and resurrection of Jesus, and God was actively doing miracles in their church, they’d taken their eyes off the Cross. Some power of darkness obscured the work of the Cross and they were focused on something else.

In an era marked by polarization and societal divisions, Terry Crist’s Loving Samaritans emerges as a beacon of hope, challenging Christians to embody the radical kindness Jesus exemplified. Through a tapestry of personal anecdotes, biblical insights, and practical wisdom, Crist invites readers to reconsider the essence of their faith - love and compassion for all, especially those marginalized or perceived as different.

Step 1: Do you know what Bible translation you are looking for? If you know what Bible translation you are looking for—great! Feel free to skip this step and go ...

Life in abundance refers not only to eternal life in heaven but also to our life here and now. All over the world where I have had the opportunity to travel, it is evident that the deceiver is busy with his business of killing, stealing, and destroying. Deception tells us that it is God’s will that we suffer. The idea that the promises of Jesus for our abundant life are only in our eternal heavenly state steals the destiny of our earthly lives and creates a powerless gospel. Nothing kills hope more quickly than assuming that we have no supernatural ability to create change here on earth and are simply biding our time waiting for heaven.

I don't know about you, but if you're not careful, Thanksgiving comes, and the Christmas crush is on. And it does just that. It crushes us with the busyness and ...

The more people I talk to about the doctrine of the Holy Spirit the more I am reminded how much confusion there is regarding His work. Perhaps worse than mere ...

We may feel like health lessons from the pulpit cover a topic everyone can relate to—it seems like we’re all trying to pursue something other than the bodies we’ve been given. We may feel like sharing food and body messages could be helpful or even motivating. But many times, these messages fall flat, or worse, bring harm. Asking yourself these five questions before delivering a health-related message can help prevent harming other believers.

Is a kids Bible study that important?

Nineteenth-century evangelist D. L. Moody once said that if he could relive his life, he would devote his entire ministry to reaching children for God. A look at the statistics would tell us that Moody was right. The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) found that 63% of people surveyed became a Christian between the ages of 4-14, with the median age being 11.

What Moody understood, and what we need to pay attention to today, is that involving kids in Bible study at the time they are most likely to make a decision to follow Jesus is the most important ministry our churches can have.

Small group Bible studies play an essential role in the life of any church. The idea is simple, it takes a large group of people (the church) and connects people within that large group to other members of the congregation where they can create deeper, more meaningful relationships. Find out 5 reasons your church should have a small group ministry.

As pastors, we pray publicly and privately, personally and professionally. We pray with our teams and staff members and pray for those we serve. Other people ask us to pray for them and want to know how they should pray. Prayer sustains us but can sometimes become just another part of our job. And if we lose the fire in our own prayer life, then we may limit our ability to teach others to pray.

Scripture makes it clear that the way we relate to God reveals the way we relate to others—and the way we relate to others often indicates how we will relate to God. In other words, how we relate is how we relate.

Although Lenten practices vary depending on denomination and congregation, it generally includes three primary areas of focus: Prayer, Fasting, and Giving.

We won’t often admit this, but we like being angry. We don’t like what caused the anger, to be sure; we just like thinking we’ve “got” something on someone. So-and-so did something wrong, sometimes horribly wrong, and anger offers us a sense of moral superiority.

That’s why we call it “righteous anger,” after all. It’s moral and good, we want to think.

But inconveniently, there’s this proverb that says, “You may believe you are doing right, but the Lord will judge your reasons” (Prov. 16:2 NCV).