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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

How to meet people’s needs so they keep coming back to your small group! Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not ...

May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. – Genesis 28:3 Have you ever been a member of a church small ...

I grew up under the influence of the Asian-American honor shame mentality which runs deep in the fabric of our cultural values. The simple solution to avoid feeling shame is ...

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.

When you come across a passage of Scripture that makes you uncertain, what do you do? Do you skip it, rush past it or just avoid asking questions?

That’s why the words of a meme I read recently stirred up some deep questions for me. It read, “The more certainty you can bring to the table, the greater your value.”(1)

The writer spoke with such authority. She seemed so… well, certain which made my misgivings feel wrong. But is that principle correct? Is our value really based on our level of certainty?

As I pondered certainty and human value, these words from an unknown author sprang to mind. They’re a reminder that certainty shouldn’t be our highest goal. This meme read, “Just because you’re certain doesn’t mean you’re right.” This thought has been shaping the way I’m approaching both interpersonal connections and my Bible study.

Certainty is an obstacle for both.

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.

Jennie Allen unboxes her Find Your People Curriculum Kit and gives us a tour of what's inside!

I knew I had seen something I was not supposed to see. I felt a feeling I had never felt before. Guilt. I remember feeling like I was supposed to save somebody, but I didn’t. The early inner workings of guilt were planted within my heart. They continued to sprout like weeds. I signed up for as many community outreaches as possible, but our neighborhood’s needs never seemed to lessen. I tried to do more, save more, and save better, and instead, the disappointing results left me insecure and angry.

The pulpit can often be the loneliest space in the room. In their private lives, these seven pastors were isolated relationally. Somewhere along the way, they substituted friendship with counterfeit versions of community (likes, followers, and fans). But followers are a poor substitute for healthy, accountable, encouraging, loyal friends. Pastoral failure was a symptom. Isolation was the underlying disease.

I’ll cut straight to it: We haven’t yet paid the psychological bill for the last two years. The pandemic, the high-octane politics, all the tension––what we have just emerged from ...

It is impossible to remain the same when you think about or experience the glory of God because you will get a sense of your sin. That is why I object to prophetic ministry that is not accompanied by gospel preaching.

In the New Testament Everyday Bible Study Series , widely respected biblical scholar Scot McKnight combines interpretive insights with pastoral wisdom for all the books of the New Testament. Each volume provides: Original Meaning. Brief, precise...