Young adult ministry scares us. Young adults seem like the elusive Holy Grail demographic in Christian ministry. We often treat them like another species, with an inscrutable culture all their own. To have a thriving ministry to young adults, we're told, we'll need to be up-to-date on all the latest trends. We'll need to change up our worship style. We'll need to make programs. ...
Throughout his ministry, Jesus consistently demonstrated his concern and love for the whole person: soul, mind, and body.
That task is carried forward today by pastors and church leaders, who are called to care for people in the midst of individual circumstances as well as seismic cultural shifts. How might that calling be informed by recent developments in psychology? How ...
One of the central tasks of pastoral ministry is preaching the Word of God.
Yet those who are called to ministry may feel unprepared, unable, or unwilling to step into this role. Moreover, the discipline of homiletics sometimes gets lost amid the exegetical questions, theological debates, and denominational disputes that overwhelm our attention.
In this brief introduction ...
For many evangelicals, liberation theology seems a distant notion. Some might think it is antithetical to evangelicalism, while others simply may be unfamiliar with the role evangelicals have played in the development of liberation theologies and their profound effect on Latin American, African American, and other global subaltern Christian communities.
Despite the current ...
Sometime around 56 AD, the apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome. He entrusted this letter to Phoebe, whom he describes as the deacon of the church at Cenchreae and a patron of many. But who was this remarkable woman? Biblical scholar and popular author and speaker Paula Gooder imagines Phoebe's story—who she was, the life she lived, and her first-century faith—and in doing so opens up Paul's ...
Christians who are serious about their faith want to love God with all that they are -- heart and mind and strength. Books abound on the devotional life, on commitment, on evangelism and practical Christian living, but few take up what it means to love God with our minds. How do we learn to honor God in the ways we think? James Sire blazes a trail for Christians concerned about the discipleship ...
Is a church just something we create to serve our purposes or to maintain old traditions? Or is it something more vital, more meaningful, and more powerful? This can be hard to believe when we look at what happens in any one congregation or denomination. Certainly not all ...
What does healing mean for people with disabilities? The Gospels are filled with accounts of Jesus offering physical healing. But even as churches today seek to follow the way of Jesus, people with disabilities all too often experience the very opposite of healing and life-giving community: exclusion, judgment, barriers. ...
There's an urgent need for Christian ministry in our cities—but we need a guide. Known around Oakland, California, as "OG Rev.," Reverend Harry Williams's calling is to the streets: to the hungry, homeless, addicted, incarcerated, and vulnerable. In Taking It to the Streets, ...
Jeff Tacklind, pastor of Church by the Sea—a quirky, diverse congregation in Laguna Beach, California—knows from decades of ministry experience that sometimes effective leadership looks like standing in the middle of conflict, holding the tension. In The Winding Path of Transformation, Tacklind describes spiritual transformation as an invitation to paradox. By entering into suffering, ...