The good thing about being six years old is that you can squeeze through a crowd. Which is what Jacob did. He pushed his way through past rows of villagers, bumping the odd arm, moving to the front with only a few protests. He could hear Jesus talking with his friends. Most of them didn’t have time to react. He made it almost to the front. “Where do you think you’re going?” a big man asked, standing in his way. Jacob froze. He didn’t know what to say and was about to make his escape, until he heard his name. “Jacob!” Was he hearing right? “Yes, Jacob!” Jesus, standing before the crowd, called ..read more

Big Idea: Pray for courage to share about Jesus and to see opposition as an opportunity to talk about him. We have a serious tension, and here it is in a nutshell. On one hand, we want people to know about Jesus. If you follow Jesus, you probably want others to know about the good news of Jesus: God's Son lived, died, and rose again to make us right with God. This is such good news that we simply want everyone to know about it. But here’s the other side of the tension: we’re terrified to tell people about Jesus. There’s one simple reason: we aren’t sure how people will respond. People may not ..read more

Curated links for your weekend reading: Gen Z and the Draw to Serious Faith Today, if you want to attract young people, lead with the fine print. Shock them with the seriousness of a faith that requires rigor, a rule of life that brings structure for spirituality, grounded in the grace of the gospel. “Brace Yourselves!“: The Reduction of Public Bible Reading We need to renew our focus on the public reading of the Bible. The Church Should Mind Its Spiritual Business A variety of competing claims threaten to overrun and overwhelm the institutional church in our times. The call of the Lord to th ..read more

While in Belgrade, Serbia visiting missionaries, we figured we had time for one side-trip. After looking at the options, we picked Thessaloniki. Thessaloniki was a great pick. It’s not only a bustling city with great food with a great waterfront, but it’s packed with history. We walked where Paul walked. At the archaeological museum, we saw unbelievable artifacts, not only from Greco-Roman times but from before. After two days, we boarded the plane back to Belgrade via Zurich. After leaving Zurich, the plane turned around. The pilot announced we were headed to Geneva due to broken wing flaps ..read more

Big Idea: We need a personal blessing based on the gospel. Out of all the beginnings of books of the Bible, I think Hebrews may be my favorite. I admit it’s close. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). That’s really good. Or John 1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John ..read more

Curated links for your weekend reading: Don’t Confuse Secondary or Tertiary With Unimportant The truth is, there are lots of tertiary things that will have a significant impact on your church. Your Elders Will Fail You My elders have fumbled and failed at times. Your elders will too. That does not mean we sweep things under the rug or excuse sin. But we can show grace. 25 Questions a Christian Woman Should Ask Herself When a Man Starts to Show Interest Here’s a list of 25 questions we sometimes share with Christian young women who are evaluating the possibility of a relationship with a Christ ..read more

Researchers invited one hundred people to participate in a study. They put participants in pairs. The task: to guess how many coins were in a series of jars. One participant would be shown large images, while the other would see only small, fuzzy images. The person who’d seen the large images would help the person who saw the small, fuzzy images to make good guesses. The more accurate the guess by the person who had seen only the small, fuzzy image, the more both participants would receive. They put the first person — the one who saw the large images — in an MRI machine. The researchers then ..read more

Big Idea: Jesus calls churches to follow godly leaders, guard their teaching, and suffer like Jesus. What is the greatest threat to this church? Years ago, Francis Schaeffer said: The central problem of our age is not liberalism or modernism, nor the old Roman Catholicism or the new Roman Catholicism, nor the threat of communism, nor even the threat of rationalism and the monolithic consensus which surrounds us. All these are dangerous but not the primary threat. The real problem is this: the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, individually or corporately, tending to do the Lord’s work in the po ..read more

I met with a friend for lunch. When I mentioned the difficulties I encountered in ministry, he emphasized the significance of maintaining a non-anxious presence. "What does it mean to have a non-anxious presence?" I asked. “Tell me more.” It turns out he’d been reading Edwin Friedman’s book A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix. In fact, he said it was the best leadership book he’d read. I picked up the book too and found it to be a helpful resource for pastoral ministry. The Basics Friedman was an ordained rabbi, family therapist, and management consultant. Despite his b ..read more

Big Idea: The resurrection means that Jesus is vindicated, you are included, and that God’s church will keep growing. If you were here last week, you know that the first part of Psalm 22 is anything but happy. Psalm 22 is the cry of a righteous person who is suffering for no fault of their own. It is intense. The psalmist feels abandoned and ignored by God, and taunted and despised by people. It’s a heartbreaking cry for God to listen. After describing his anguish, the psalmist cries out: But you, O LORD, do not be far off! you my help, come quickly to my aid! Deliver my soul from the sword ..read more