In our church, we employ two different types of groups. One of them is likely meeting in your area on Sunday: Community Groups. These groups are meant to possess the ethos of a "love feast". It's the same ethos that everyone wants in a family: to be welcomed, to be known, to be safe, to be connected, to be part of something bigger than ourselves. On Sunday, that "bigger t...

What shall we do with Easter, after Easter is over? To ask such a question is a good sign; it means Easter had its intended effect on us. But the question remains. There are many threats to "keeping Easter". But one of the most dangerous, and the most pernicious, because it is so subtle, is the threat of "trends". Fads are different. For pastors to have or have not facial...

(See Luke 19:1-10). Zacchaeus never saw him coming. Literally - the "wee little man" was probably kept from seeing Jesus deliberately by the crowds, out of spite, and hatred. Zacchaeus was the boss of tax collectors - a legalized pimp of professional extortioners, all with authority from Rome to fleece their own people in order to return taxes due to Caesar. Zacchaeus was...

Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. Psalm 119:18 The thorniest issues, once sorted out, always reveal profitable truths. One such issue is whether to include younger children in corporate worship. Several competing interests and questions intersect here: the desire for parents and those nearby the kids to listen to a sermon uninterrupted; ...

"OK, wow, I'll pray for you." Fewer words are more powerful, and are spoken more often so tritely. "I'll pray for you." What do we mean by "for"? I'll pray FOR you? Our default is to think that praying FOR another means praying ALONGSIDE them - essentially repeating what the other person has asked for, longing for, etc. This is not wrong, in and of itself. But the most po...

Today the Work + Faith Forum hosted its first Seminar, to dig deeper into some of the bigger issues of work: We find ourselves compelled towards work, because of the "deep character" of the world, because of how it's been made. We feel within ourselves that work is good. And we see it - it's the means by which we are provided what we need and desire. From our work, we pur...

Productivity is one of those subjects that we are very interested in, but we are not sure that the Bible has much to say about it. So we turn to secular sources for insight. But I would argue the Bible says the most profound truths about true productivity. I list here four: We are freed for productivity by the gospel producing in us humble love. Biblical humility is self-...

Last week in this space I referred you to Jon Bloom's article, "Cut Off Your Hand". I invite you to read it, if you haven't. Then I have some further comments here: In the context of Matthew 18, it's clear that a) sin is really, really serious, because b) God is really, really worth not missing out on, due to sin. Heaven is at stake, yes, and that's important because heav...

All Christians get "unsettled" from the gospel sometimes. We "unsettle" ourselves from finding our identity, our "OK-ness" in the always-coming grace of God to us in Christ, and shift that faith onto other things. It's not good, but it happens. While we can't see this shift happening, it's useful for us to think about the outward evidences of the shift, in order to take co...

2 Cor. 1:3-4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. Suffering is suffering, in part, because it is unexpected. We are never completely read f...