Blog Articles and Resources for Pastors and Church Leaders

The first study in The Jesus Bible Study Series, Beginnings, is designed to usher you through the first act of God’s story, which is revealed most fully in the opening two chapters of the book of Genesis. Later biblical authors also wrote about God’s creation and the purposes behind his work, so we will pull from those portions of Scripture as well as we go along.

Because God speaks to us through the Bible we can see the Bible as an agent God uses to communicate with us. In these scriptures God instructs and rules and determines and prescribes and orders and promises and shows the way for us. The Bible is a gift to us and is for us.

I have a strong conviction that as goes the marriage, so goes the family, and so goes the world. While a frail marriage can lead to heartache and brokenness that ripples into all those affected, a strong marriage can be the root of so much stability, strength, and healing. My wife, Jennie, and I wrote a 52-day devotional called The Marriage Devotional with this in our hearts and minds – to speak Jesus into every hear, home and marriage that would be willing to read.

Special Note to the Reader: The purpose of the Gospel of John is explicitly stated at the end of the Gospel (20:30–31). Because that passage is so important to understand how this Gospel works, we begin with it. The purpose is to enhance faith in both believers and to promote faith among those who are not yet believers. If we keep this in mind as we read the Gospel, we will read the Gospel as John wants us to.

These five daily devotions are based on Randy Frazee and Phil Collins' Bible study, The Abide Bible Course. will walk you through five innovative practices that will take you beyond ...

Worry. There’s no shortage of it in our society and throughout our daily lives, and for many it can feel inescapable. Instead of worry being an occasional encounter, we have ...

That’s four million people who woke up the next day wondering, “What do I do next?”

What’s even more interesting is that April was not an anomaly.  It follows a trend of the months before where millions and millions of people simply quit, walking away from their jobs. 

It’s awkward and even terrifying for parents to discuss their child’s sexuality. Yikes! You may be afraid you’ll give them ideas. News flash: God created us as sexual beings, and they already have ideas (plenty, actually). I would much rather you give them ideas than let their peers fill that void. Sexting is a modern-day reality.

Social media is a reality of twenty-first-century parents. It’s a great way to connect and seek support. But as parents, we often don’t give posting much thought. It’s called “sharenting”: venting frustrations about teen drama, funny bath photos, relief over being “kid free” for the moment, asking advice on personal struggles, angst about teen dating or driving, posting awkward photos making gentle fun of your teen. Here’s the thing. You are the literal caretaker of your child’s digital footprint. One day they will look at everything you posted and see themselves through your eyes. What will they see?

Right now, we’re in a sort of global denial about the actual cost of these hard years (which are not over). We just want to get past it all, so we’re currently trying to comfort ourselves with some sense of recovery and relief. But folks, we haven’t yet paid the psychological bill for all we’ve been through. We would never tell a survivor of abuse that the trauma must be over now that the abuse has stopped. And yet that mentality is at play in our collective denial of the trauma we’ve been through.

Our friends at HarperChristian Resources have a new Bible-engagement-centered podcast hosted by author and pastor Randy Frazee. The Bible Roots Podcast is for pastors and church leadership who want to help their congregation or ministries actively and effectively engage with the Bible

Paul's letter to the Colossians has been increasingly compelling for me as we find ourselves today in the midst of such strange and uniquely challenging times.

The Yale historian, Jaroslav Pelikan once said that regardless of what anyone may personally think or believe about him, Jesus of Nazareth has been the most dominant figure in the history of Western culture for almost 20 centuries. And it's pretty difficult to argue that point. You know our calendars, the, the very way and means by which we set and mark our days hinges on Jesus, his birth and his life.

If what your church or ministry is doing now is effective and changing lives, enjoy it while it lasts. Because what’s working now won’t work in the future. The message we preach must never change, but how we communicate it must change as the world changes. This may sound discouraging, but it’s true. If you don’t change, you won’t last. If you don’t adapt how you share the gospel, your effectiveness will likely lessen over time because the world is changing too fast. William Pollard said, “The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.”

If you are ready for change, you are ready for growth. This mindset changes how you see problems. When you think about it, every innovation is really a solution to a problem. Problems aren’t things to be feared but opportunities to embrace

Everyone aches to be whole. We ache to be healed. We ache to be restored. Most of the time, though, we wouldn’t put it in those words. We just know we are broken because our child is addicted. We ache because the depression of our youth is now the depression of our golden years. We are stretched to the point of breaking because our career ambitions position us to commit to a pace we can’t sustain. Miscarriage, divorce, loneliness. In all of it, we ache. We ache for some way to walk through this life and not give up or give in.

As a young Christian, I often heard a parable described as “an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.” That’s not a bad description, but the parables are not just about heaven, they are about the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. They are about faithfulness in the present as much as they are about God’s promises for the future. They are about God’s reign, now and in the kingdom in its future fulness. They are about the Good News—the gospel—and none of them is to be understood apart from the gospel.

The Thompson® Chain-Reference® Bible is an excellent tool to engage with for Bible study and sermon preparation. For well over 100 years, professional clergy, lay pastors, and Bible teachers in many settings have profitably used its study systems to enrich their instruction. The TCR’s in-depth study system identifies the interconnectedness of God’s inspired Scripture as it links topics throughout the Bible. In this article, we’ll examine how this study system, and all the tools associated with it, save time in study and sermon preparation.