Many Christians have heard of William Carey. Fewer are familiar with his partner in India, William Ward. While overshadowed by Carey’s fame even in his lifetime, Ward played a vital role with the Serampore mission team as a printer, preacher, pastor, and trainer. His accomplishments include founding one of the first newspapers in India, printing portions of the Scriptures in nearly 40 languages, and writing one of the most important documents in the history of Christian missions, the Serampore Form of Agreement (SFA). The Serampore mission contributed hugely to the great missionary expansion o ..read more

Four years ago, my husband and I began planting a church in Greenville, North Carolina. Our eyes were bright with optimism for how God would work. Along the way, those eyes have grown wiser for what they’ve seen—what God has done in our city and our church plant but also what he’s done in our home and our hearts. My experience as a church-planting wife has challenged and shaped me in more ways than I can count, but I’d like to believe my eyes still hold that same joy and expectancy. This is due in large part to the relationships I have with other church-planting wives through a family of churc ..read more

The first time Richard Pope read Desiring God by John Piper, he hated it. “I read it like it was homework,” Pope, then a pastoral intern, recalls. When he reported back to the associate pastor who’d asked him to read it, Pope told him, “It was the most boring book I’ve ever read.” Pope had only been a Christian for a few years by then, saved at 15 years old. Before that, he’d endured a dysfunctional family, sexual abuse, his cousin’s suicide, and several stints in mental health facilities. Richard Pope / Courtesy of Send Network/Ben Rollins His pastor looked at him. “Now read it like you love ..read more

If you spend any time in Christian missions, you’ll almost certainly notice more women serving than men. That’s what I’ve observed wherever I’ve traveled overseas, and the statistics bear this out. For over a century, women have made up the majority of the evangelical missionary workforce. Some might see this as a problem. It certainly suggests we could use more men to take up the missionary mantle. But the inverse isn’t necessarily true: we don’t need fewer women serving cross-culturally. Endless opportunities remain for women to be gospel ambassadors. I recently spoke with a handful of women ..read more

A group of British evangelicals gathered in London on July 4, 2023, to remember the life and ministry of Tim Keller. The London Project, an initiative of Redeemer City to City, hosted a “Tim Keller Appreciation Evening” in Mayfair. The evening began with various evangelical leaders in London sharing testimonies of Keller’s influence on their lives and ministries. The main feature was the U.K. launch of Collin Hansen’s recent book on Keller. Ben Virgo, director of Christian Heritage London, interviewed Hansen. Hansen’s work explores the formative figures behind Keller’s life and work, including ..read more

Are most denominations in America in decline? That was a question I considered nearly a decade ago. At the time, the answer was that conservative churches weren’t growing as quickly as they once were, while mainline churches were on a path toward extinction. But a lot has changed since then. And not for the better. Before we consider the question in detail, we should clarify what’s meant by “decline.” In 2015, I considered the year-to-year trends since the 1960s. The data showed there was a decline in the total number of people in all but a handful of (mostly conservative) denominations. That ..read more

We’re hearing a lot these days about dechurching, deconstruction, and decline. Church attendance in America is dropping. Is this a crisis or merely a correction? Is it more of a problem or an opportunity? What can we expect for the future of the American church landscape? I’m not a prophet or the son of a prophet (Amos 7:14), but I was asked recently to speak to some church leaders about that question. Here are six answers I proposed. 1. The church’s future is certain.  Amid much hand-wringing and prognostication, we must start with one absolutely certain truth: the church has a future. O ..read more

I’ve never been a fan of big Christian conferences. I’d prefer just to watch the content afterward. For me, conferences mean crowds of people, frenzied activity, lots of strangers, and a flood of information I’ll never remember. When I lived in the United States, I never made it to The Gospel Coalition National Conference because, well, I’d rather read the website! So how does someone like me become the founder and a council member of TGC Norden? Because of our big God. Preparing the Way TGC Norden seeks to serve Christians in the countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, as ..read more

Years ago, I read Alonzo L. McDonald’s chapter in the book No God but God where he introduced the idea of a ministry “life-cycle.” When I adapt McDonald’s life-cycle concept to teach about a ministry shelf life, I use five Ms: minister, ministry, movement, machine, and monument.  Gospel movements typically begin with an individual minister whom God calls. Through a communication gift and the clarity of a compelling vision, the leader catalyzes gospel activity. Like a tractor beam, people are drawn to him, and the individual multiplies himself. He plants or cultivates growth in a church. The mi ..read more

Kenosha Christian Academy was supposed to be a church plant. “Throughout seminary, I had a growing desire to do ministry in a hard place,” said Justin Denney. After finishing his MDiv at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS), he came on staff at Crossway Community Church in Bristol, Wisconsin, as a church planting resident in 2018. Crossway knew exactly where they wanted him to go—into the Wilson neighborhood of nearby Kenosha, where they’d been running an after-school program for the past eight years. Justin and Catherine Denney with their children / Courtesy of Justin Denney Kenosha sit ..read more