Blog Articles and Resources for Pastors and Church Leaders
Blog Articles and Resources for Pastors and Church Leaders
You Are a Connection with the Sacred for Your Non-Believing Friends | Sam Chan
My friend Craig is a military chaplain. He spent a few years with his unit of soldiers when they were deployed in Afghanistan. There his unit experienced many of the tragedies of war. So he was often called on to conduct funerals, provide...
Adversity Happens in Every Life | Charles F. Stanley
Trials are a fact of life in this fallen world—for both the non-believer and the believer in Christ. Jesus said that God the Father “makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). He...
Hold That Thought | Levi Lusko
Hold that thought. It’s what you say when someone is telling you a story you want to hear but your phone rings (and it’s your spouse. Pro tip: don’t ignore that one.) Or a work topic, money topic, parenting topic, comes up on date night. It’s...
How to Have a Prayer Meeting | Jim Cymbala
Pastors, we have to remember that the first calling on our lives is not to preach. In Mark 3, Jesus went up on a mountain and called the disciples to himself. He called them by name. That they might be with him, Mark says, “That he might send them...
Awaken to the Wonder of God-With-Us | Scott Erickson
There are many assumptions about the Nativity Story. It’s assumed that Mary rode on a donkey, but it doesn’t say that she did. It’s assumed there was an innkeeper, but it doesn’t mention them anywhere. It’s assumed there were three magi, but it...
Helping Our Churches Love Each Other Through Disagreements | Jared Byas
Throughout my life as a layperson and as a pastor, I’ve been a part of at least 20 churches. And in each one of those experiences, the church was at some point going through a difficult conversation. For some, it was about what kind of music we...
The Courage to Combat Racism | Jemar Tisby
After Moses died, God called Joshua to lead the people of Israel into the promised land. Joshua understandably experienced trepidation at the prospect of leading a throng of people into a land filled with enemies and succeeding Moses, the leader of...
Paul's Pastoral Theology for a Perplexing Topic | NT Wright
I have been interested in the question of adiaphora – ‘things indifferent’, as expounded by Paul in particular – for many years, both at the historical level (what did Paul mean and why did he take the line he did?) and at the practical level (how...
Where Is God in the Midst of These Difficult Times? | Dr. David Jeremiah
As we move through this pandemic and begin to think of its impact and effect, many people are asking what is going to happen now. Some are predicting the worst. “The world will never be the same,” they say. “We’ll never go back to normal.” The...
Is God Slow? | Mark Buchanan
God is slow. This is perhaps the most obvious thing about God, though rarely noticed. Of all the divine attributes that we laud or debate, ponder or puzzle over, it’s seldom or never we mention God’s slowness. Yet nothing about God is more...
Our ‘Secret Weapon’ in an Age of Us-Against-Them | Scott Sauls
When Saturday Night Live comedian Pete Davidson harshly mocked Congressman-elect Dan Crenshaw because of his eye patch and flippantly remarked, “I know he lost his eye in the war or whatever,” no one expected the former Navy SEAL and decorated war...
3 Myths about Male-Female Relationships Every Pastor Should Bust
Few of us expected pastoral ministry to involve so many conversations about relationships . For many of us, deep convictions about salvation and scripture draw us into ministry; and yet beyond the halls of seminary, we discover that the issue of...
Faith, Economics, and the Road to Loving Our Global Neighbor | Bruce Wydick
Many in the church would like to have meaningful and fruitful engagement with those living in poverty, but they are uncertain about what are genuinely effective ways to serve and give. As a result, their ministry to the poor is stifled by feelings...
5 Things the Psalms Teach Us about Being Honest to God
Is it possible to stand honestly before God without fear, to face one another vulnerably without shame, and to face the world without any of the secrets that would demean and distort our humanity? For most of us, the answer to this question is...
7 Priorities That Change Everything
Sometimes, church can look a whole lot like our hometown of Las Vegas. During the 2008–9 economic recession, an issue with squatters emerged. People were moving into abandoned homes, usually foreclosures, and making them their own. One of the best...
Why Your Prayers Need to Be Dangerous
Prayer is sacred communication, the language of longing, a divine dialogue between you and your heavenly Father, your Abba, your Daddy. When you pray, the God of the universe listens. And not only does he listen, but he also cares. About what you...
Free Resources
Using How (not) to Save the World with your church or small group?
Here are some tools to help:
The Small Group Tool Kit includes two mobile-friendly invitation cards, reflection cards to enhance your small group experience, and a worship song playlist curated by Hosanna Wong that can beplayed during small group meetings or personal Bible study time.
The Church Tool Kit includes a downloadable poster, bulletininsert, invitation card, and Power Point slide.
Is your church talking about anxiety, depression and mental health issues? You should be.
Shawn Johnson, lead pastor of Red Rocks Church, gives a
searingly honest portrait of anxiety and depression and shows readers how to fight back and live free. He also has put together three free tools pastors can use to help their congregation have a productive conversation around mental health, including a discussion guide, sermon notes and key Scripture verses.