#church

The Greatest Treasure of Church History

This is my year of traveling, searching, and scouring the world to uncover the treasures of church history. Since December I’ve been in 11 different countries (with many more remaining) and have gazed upon some amazing objects. This is, of course, all part of the project I’m calling EPIC that is meant to culminate in a book and documentary. Some of the objects I’ve seen have great monetary value to the degree that they are rightly considered priceless. (Go ahead …

How the Church Submits to Jesus Christ

I am sure we’ve all read and wondered about God’s command to Christian wives: “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:22). It seems that in the God-ordained ordering of a Christian household, God intends husbands and wives to accept differing but complementary roles and for the wife to do this, she needs to focus on the way she and her husband and all the church of Christ submit to their Savior. There must be some …

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Friends to Christ, Strangers To His Church

It’s remarkable how often the Bible describes the Christian life as a shared life. We become Christians through a personal commitment to Christ, then immediately bind ourselves in a corporate commitment to Christ’s people. There are so many biblical commands we can fulfill and examples we can imitate only if we are involved in one of these Christian communities we call “church.” The notion we can be friends to Christ but strangers to his church is completely foreign to scripture. …

How To Tell if it’s a Prosperity Gospel Church

The prosperity gospel is a diverse, popular, and worldwide movement that understands faith to be the instrument through which Christians can attain physical health, material riches, and divine favor. There are countless thousands of these churches around the world with various levels of adherence to the key tenets of the wider movement, yet they rarely advertise themselves as prosperity gospel churches. So how can we know if a church is part of this movement? In Kate Bowler’s book Blessed, she …

How We Worshipped (One of my Favorite Services Ever)

Every few weeks I like to share an example of one of our worship services from Grace Fellowship Church. I hope that by doing this others will begin to share their services as well. We have a lot to learn from one another, I’m sure. This service’s cast of characters included Paul as our service leader and preacher, Steve as the elder who read the Scripture text and prayed, Joshua as our lead worshipper, and Thushara as our Scripture reader. Our …

Ask Me Anything: Advice for Marriage and Concerns in the Church Today

One of my favorite things to do is answer questions, and especially when I’ve got no idea what those questions will be. Today I’ve got two more short videos for you, both of which were shot at a recent Ask Me Anything event in London, England. The first is some advice for those about to get married while the second discusses what I think are the foremost concerns in the church today.   Transcript What kind of advice would you give …

Just Forget About Marriage for a Minute!

We are a people obsessed with love. We crave love and long to both extend and receive it. It is the subject of our favorite films, the theme of our treasured poems, the thrill of our happy hearts. Yet for all the love we see and experience, there is one much greater than them all. While we find it in a passage of the Bible that describes the relationship of a husband and wife, it points us to a love …

Is Your Church Christian or Christianish?

Three little letters make a world of difference. Together i, s, and h distinguish Christian from Christianish and mark the difference between right and wrong, life and death, heaven and hell. There is nothing better for your spiritual wellbeing than to be in a Christian church. There is nothing worse for your spiritual wellbeing than to be in a Christianish church. Here are a few marks of each. A Christian church teaches the Bible. It is committed to the inerrancy, …

Does Church Membership Really Matter?

To the modern ear, the notion of church membership can sound odd, intimidating, or even abusive. Should we care about church membership and, if so, why?   Transcript Why do I need to be a member of a church? Can’t I just attend and be involved? There’s a couple of great benefits to church membership. The first is the commitment of yourself to a group of people. I want to be clear, when you’re becoming a member of a church, …

It Takes a Church To Raise Your Child

You’ve probably heard it said that it takes a village to raise a child. Parenting is so difficult, so complex, so relentless, that it is more than any two people can successfully handle. Children thrive under the responsibility of loving parents but also under the watchful eye of a caring community. I have always believed in the wisdom of this proverb, but I’ve come to appreciate it even more as my kids grow older. And as I’ve come to appreciate …