I’m happy to see that The Jesus Creed for Students: Loving God, Loving Others is now available. So parents and youth pastors, consider this book for your high school students. Two youth pastors, Chris Folmsbee and Syler Thomas, helped me at every phase of this book so that it would speak to the high school student who want to know how to follow Jesus. Twelve short chapters, and I can see it being used in three contexts: first, high school... Read more
From CT: Five years ago, I found myself sitting in an interfaith meeting. Gracious people from different religions and denominations had gathered at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s headquarters in Chicago to plan the ongoing work of congregational research. The goal of the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership was to bring together participants from Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Baha’i, and Orthodox churches to research and compare our findings. I was unsure whether I belonged at the meeting. In one session,... Read more
Because of the firestorm created, I am beginning these discussions of Rob Bell’s book, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, with a prayer. I am asking that you pause quietly and slow down enough to pray this prayer as the way to approach this entire series: O Lord, you have taught us that without love whatever we do is worth nothing: Send your Holy Spirit and pour into my heart... Read more
Plura Pastora 3 – For this part of our discussion, I want to talk about what the practice of sola pastora does to our ecclesiology, especially among us low church folks. I want to introduce the topic by reproducing a comment that came in from a pastor, Mike, at the close of the last post in this series, along a couple other comments. But here’s the deal. I think Mike and Rick are being extraordinarily honest about things that many,... Read more
From One.Life: Jesus Calls, We Follow : Jesus was a Dream Awakener. He startled his contemporaries from their self-imposed deep sleep by standing up tall and in front of everyone and announcing the following three lines: The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news! Unfortunately, these words about the kingdom have become dog-eared for many of us. They’re about as catchy as the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way” or... Read more
Wow, this is quite the piece, and I suspect there are lots of church folks, including pastors, who need to read this carefully. What mulligan would you play? I used to be a pastor. For nearly two decades, I enjoyed the thrills, spills, chills and can’t-quite-pay-the-bills of local church ministry. Now, five years after packing up my office for the final time (including two boxes of Leadership back issues), I still think about those years in the pastorate every single day. No... Read more
One of the most important themes in the last supper is Bread. Brant Pitre, in his new book, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist: Unlocking the Secrets of the Last Supper, sees the Lord’s Supper as a new Exodus, a new Passover, and — today’s subject — the new Bread of Presence. In this chp Brant Pitre is seeking an answer why if this is a new Passover that Jesus pointed to “bread” and not “lamb” as that... Read more
Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. Read more
I’m not a Calvinist, but Kenneth Stewart is. He’s a very good thinker and a clear writer and he argues there is more than one kind of Calvinism, and many don’t even know that, especially many of the most vocal New Calvinists of our day. (Nor do some of them know their history of American evangelicalism, but I digress.) We are in Ken Stewart’s debt for his new enough-is-enough book, Ten Myths About Calvinism: Recovering the Breadth of the Reformed... Read more
Got anything for me? Help your parents — or someone who needs it — to be more tech savvy. Fun. And Parents, encourage your kids. Speaking of parenting, April Diaz openly and honestly expresses her struggle of going back to pastoring after an eleven week journey to get her two orphan children, bringing them to the USA and learning to be a mom. Steve Cuss, the Multi Hat Pastor, on a spiritual retreat. My friend George Guthrie interviews Michael Card... Read more
Select your answer to see how you score.
Jesus Creed
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In