We Can Change

When I lose sight of my hope, I’m prone to believe lies. One lie I hear whispered frequently is that I’ll never change, that I can’t change. It’s a lie completely antithetical to the gospel – the good news that I could change, or rather that I could be changed. Why is it after more than twenty years after God …

Lessons Learned From Church Revitalization Part One: Don’t Do Church

  I recently completed my first six months of my first pastorate in a position that would probably be characterized by the experts as a “revitalization effort.” I had done my research. I had read up on church revitalization, what to do in your first six months, how to shape gospel-centered ministries, etc. But of all the thoughts, plans, etc. …

Three Reflections on Baptism

This post was originally published on Acts29’s blog.   One of the joys of being a church planter is the opportunity to disciple, equip, and instruct our people on important aspects of the faith often for those who have very limited knowledge of these things. The importance of baptism is one of these opportunities we should take to disciple our people …

Dr. Russell Moore, Muslims and Religious Liberty at the SBC 2016

The SBC 2016 in St. Louis brought many memorable moments. One of which came when Dr. Russell Moore, President of the ERLC–the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention–fielded a question on “how in the world” Baptists could support the religious freedom of Muslims to build mosques in the US. A sad reality of the SBC is that our convention carries in …

Killing the Fuzzy Gospel – Moving Forward (Pt. 2)

My previous post dealt with the need for our churches to kill the “fuzzy gospel” – the imprecise understanding of Christ’s work on the cross being meant only to save the sinner rather than sanctify the saved as well. Here are five practical ways that I believe we can kill the “fuzzy gospel” in our ministries: Look in the Mirror …