The Gospel and the Church

What is the Essential Virtue Pastors Should Model and Teach?

by William Farley | October 19, 2020 | Featured, The Gospel and the Church | 0 Comments

Where a text appears in Scripture is all-important because the location often teaches pastors and their congregations' big lessons. For example, The Sermon on the Mount contains Jesus’ first recorded teaching, and the first sentence in Matthew 5:3 is this simple...

On the Usefulness of a Ministry Fellowship

by Brandon Freeman | October 13, 2020 | Featured, The Gospel and the Church | 0 Comments

Within the category of Christian ministry are scores of important topics to consider. Life often moves so fast that ministers do not think through ministerial issues of consequence until they have to. But too often, their thinking comes too late. For each aspiring...

Developing Elders in the Church

by Parker Reardon | July 23, 2020 | Featured, The Gospel and the Church | 0 Comments

Suppose you were called to pastor a church where none of the elders were biblically qualified, though they had been serving in their “positions of authority” for decades? Or what if you are serving at a church that had learned a bit about the Bible’s teaching on...

Did I Really Miss My Prime?: Enjoying Knowing and Being Known by Christ

Gabriel Azucena, who goes by the artist name GAWVI, is a Christian rapper whose popular song,...

Helping Paul and Trophimus: Doing Life With One Another

“I left Trophimus sick at Miletus” (2 Timothy 4:20). As some churches tiptoe back into corporate...

There Are No Unimportant Parts of the Church

A Varied Menu Every few months, my church gathers in the fellowship hall for a slightly different...

Four Lessons For the Church In This Time, and Beyond

These are strange, sad times we live in, and a perfect season for the glory of the Christian gospel and the light of Christ’s church to shine brighter than ever before. But how? While countless headlines and speeches declare the value of every human life— in the midst...

Apollo 8 and the Faraway World of Pastoral Ministry

Perspective allows you to see farther than you can look. Take Apollo 8. The crew of William Anders, Frank Borman, and James Lovell were a hurry-up “dream-team” thrown together by a pressure-cooker NASA Leadership and a beleaguered US president named Lyndon Baines...

4 Ways Paul Encourages Us to Love the Church (Even When It’s Hard)

Beauty on the Inside Around the corner from where I live, a house is for sale. In bold green letters, the lawn sign reads: “I’m Gorgeous Inside!” The message is surprising. From the street, the house is thoroughly ordinary, even run-down. It’s a seventies-era raised...

The Gospel and Teamwork

This material has been previously published in Jeff Mingee’s Called to Cooperate: A Biblical Survey and Application of Teamwork. (Ichthus Publications, Apollos, PA., 2016). Reprinted with permission. “Whether or not one realizes it, the gospel is – by its very nature...

God Blesses Holiness, Not Pastoral Talent

God Blesses Holiness, Not Pastoral Talent from Crossway on Vimeo Constantly Turn from SinIt’s a very simple thing to go down the path of sanctification. Through prayer, cry out to the Lord, confess your sins, repent of your sins, and turn from your sins so that you’re...

Gospel Mission and Unity: How Far Am I Willing to Go?

I went to a funeral the other day, not to officiate, but simply to attend as a friend and pastor to the grieving. Since I orient toward others far more as a brother than as pastor, I instinctively sat toward the back alongside those I knew and loved. Then I noticed...