Tag: Evangelism

A Vital Ministry

37 Comments

Every authentic church is built on Christ and Christ alone. Nothing else will do. But that’s not the only thing that makes a church a real church. If we are founded on Jesus, then it would make sense that we would be committed to the kinds of things to which He was committed. Well, there was one thing He was committed to above just about everything else: Getting people into a right relationship with God. Churches who are authentic churches share this passionate commitment. In this second part of our series, Authentic Church, we are talking about this commitment, why it’s there, and what it might look like.

A Vital Ministry

The U.S. Presidency is an incredibly powerful position. For starters, the President is the commander and chief of the most powerful military force the world has ever seen, and it’s not close. Then there’s the power to veto or sign legislation. That means the President gives the final thumbs up or thumbs down on the laws that govern our nation. And because I know there are constitutional scholars somewhere whose ears are tingling, yes, Congress can override a Presidential veto, and the Supreme Court can declare a particular law unconstitutional, but historically speaking that hasn’t happened very often when a President has signed or refused to sign a particular bill, turning it into a law. A bill is just a bill until it is signed by the President. That’s a lot of power. 

Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: 1 Corinthians 1:18

9 Comments

“For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is the power of God to us who are being saved.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Today’s post will represent something of an update of a continuing conversation I’ve been having via the comments section of several different posts now with a skeptical friend. Most of it you can find here and here. It has been a learning experience for sure. It has also been a reminder of several different things including the importance of clarity and kindness in our interactions as followers of Jesus with the unbelieving world around us. Perhaps more than anything else, though, it has served as a demonstration of just how true what the apostle Paul wrote here toward the beginning of his first letter to the Corinthian church really is. Let’s talk about why.

Read the rest…

Morning Musing: 1 Peter 3:15-16a

Leave a comment

“…but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet do this with gentleness and reverence…” (CSB – Read the chapter)

A little something different for you this morning. Part of the reason I started this blog so many years ago was to be able to spark conversations about things that matter through a faithful engagement with the Scriptures. The bulk of what I post on here takes the form of what I hope are encouraging devotional reflections on the Scriptures. I have covered a lot of ground during this time. I don’t believe there is a document in the Scriptures I haven’t written at least something about over the last six and a half years. Because I have covered so much ground, I have occasionally touched on big or hot button issues. Recently, a post I made drew the attention of a couple of different skeptics of Christianity. This has resulted in what is a still-ongoing conversation about a whole range of topics. I’m sure I haven’t gotten everything right in my method and approach in these conversations, but if you are interested in what engaging with someone who does not at all accept any of the truth claims of the Christian faith including the historical existence of Jesus in the first place can look like, I submit these two conversations to you as an example.

Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Luke 9:49-50

Leave a comment

“John responded, ‘Master, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he does not follow us.’ ‘Don’t stop him,’ Jesus told him, ‘because whoever is not against you is for you.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

We live in a culture that is increasingly turning against the Christian faith. The level of tolerance the church receives as an institution is dropping like a stone in some places. There are still pockets where things haven’t changed very much from where they were 50 years ago (I happen to live in one and love it), but there are others where the people in power seem dead set on railroading the church out of existence. In Finland, there is an ongoing case whose outcome will determine whether or not reading certain verses from the Scriptures is considered hate speech. In the face of such a cultural tide, the internal unity of the church becomes all the more important. Big, public fights within the church stemming from differences of opinion on whether or not something is a first-tier issue on which we must plant our flag or a second- or third-tier matter where a bit more diversity of views can be tolerated do not help us. In the wake of the recent Super Bowl 58, we have seen exactly that kind of a debate unfold. Let’s talk today for a few minutes about the He Gets Us campaign debate.

Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Deuteronomy 6:7

Leave a comment

“Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Children typically wind up looking like their parents. Now, this doesn’t always happen. Sometimes the relationship between fathers and their sons, between mothers and their daughters, winds up with their becoming completely different from one another, but that’s more of an exception than a rule. In most cases, the resemblance is striking – and I don’t just mean physically. In many cases, this is intentional. Parents themselves grew up really enjoying a particular hobby or activity, and as a result, they work rather diligently to teach their kids to enjoy it as well. Sometimes this results in a total whiff (like my attempting to pass down a love for cartoons to my kids which failed rather spectacularly as I am the only one in the house with any kind of an interest in pretty much anything animated). But sometimes we manage to knock it out of the park (like I did with my passion for Kansas basketball and Kansas City sports teams). I’m thinking about all of this today because I recently (and finally!) got to watch the latest installment in the Ghostbusters franchise, Ghostbusters: Afterlife. The movie itself doesn’t have much of anything to do with this, but it got me thinking about it all the same. Let’s talk about the film and I’ll explain why.

Read the rest…