Last spring I had the privilege of speaking at a conference for NFL players put on by Pro Athletes Outreach (PAO), a group which exists to unite a community of pro athletes and couples to grow as disciples of Jesus and positively impact their spheres of influence. They have a fantastic outreach to professional football and baseball athletes and their wives. I’ve seen firsthand the amazing difference they’re making. In the off-season I exchanged emails and texts with dozens of NFL players and cha..Continue reading→
Home
Thoughts
Motherhood Is a Marathon
I wanted to do great things for God. In the spring of my senior year of college, on the brink of embarking upon my own journey into adulthood, my future was undecided and that was simultaneously terrifying and thrilling. As a philosophy major, my path was narrower than I had realized, but I was sure it would take me on some grand and glorious adventure. I knew the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. “Glorify” sounds like such a grand term. It evokes images of battlefie..Continue reading→
1 Peter 5:7–8: How Not to Battle Anxiety
Anxieties attack our faith and torment our peace. The question with anxiety is not whether it will come, but rather, how can I fight it when it does? Watch NowContinue reading→
Is Love of Money Really the Root of All Evils?
Is the love of money the “root of all evils” or only the “root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10)? “All evils” is the formal English equivalent of the original Greek (pantōn tōn kakōn). It is remarkable that all older versions of the Bible translate 1 Timothy 6:10 in the more literal way: “The love of money is the root of all evils” (or all evil). This includes the Wycliffe Bible, Luther Bibel, Geneva Bible, King James Version, Douay-Rheims, Darby Bible, and Revised Standard Version. Bu..Continue reading→
Church & Ministries
Charity that took on SPCK Christian bookshops strongly criticised by Charity Commission
A Christian charity has been strongly criticised for serious mismanagement and misconduct by the Charity Commission. Charity CommissionThe Charity Commission has released a report criticising the Saint Stephen the Great Charitable Trust. An inquiry published today into the Saint Stephen the Great Charitable Trust - whose main purpose was to acquire Church of England churches for use by Orthodox Christians - began when the charity filed for bankruptcy in the US in 2008. It found conflicts of i..Continue reading→
4 Keys to an Exponential Group Launch
Some launches go better than others. Over the last 10+ years of group launches both in the churches I’ve served as well as churches I’ve coached, we have seen some significant progress and we’ve seen some incremental growth. Whether your launch feels exponential or expected really comes down to your grasp of four keys. 1. Is Your Senior Pastor All In? Having been an associate pastor for over 20 years, I know that if I invite people to lead groups, I will get 30 percent the result of my senior p..Continue reading→
Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral to be flood-lit red to highlight persecuted Christians around world
Westminster Abbey will be flood-lit red in November to highlight the plight of persecuted Christians around the world. Both Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral are to be flood-lit in red by the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) in November this year to highlight the plight of persecuted Christians in the Middle East. The move was announced by the campaigning peer Lord Alton in an article for the Catholic Truth Society. "In November, ACN is arranging for Westminster Cathe..Continue reading→
Evangelicals form new group within United Methodist Church over homosexuality
WCAThe WCA takes its inspiration and title from Methodist founder John Wesley A new evangelical grouping is set to form within the United Methodist Church. The group – the Wesleyan Covenant Association – is being formed in response to the ongoing debate within the denomination about sexuality. The UMC is one of the biggest mainline denominations in America, with around 7 million members, and 4 million more worldwide. A special commission of the UMC is working on the issue of homosexuality at t..Continue reading→
Hot Topics
The Ordinary Christian Life
If gradual growth in Christ is exchanged for a radical experience, it is not surprising that many begin looking for the Next Big Thing as the latest crisis experience wears off. Even in my own lifetime, I’ve witnessed—and participated in—a parade of radical movements. And now, according to Time magazine, the “new Calvinism” is one of the top trends changing the world. This movement has also been identified as “Young, Restless, Reformed.” But as long as it is defined by youthful restlessness, it ..Continue reading→
Diversity Is Offensive
In Advaita (Oneism), there are no ultimate distinctions, and so it is natural that critical thinking is profoundly undermined. Hindu gurus tell us to abandon the mind in order to feel a oneness with the god within. Feelings, not intellectual thought, determine our lives. Ideas from an opposing worldview threaten our very existence and must be avoided or silenced. Totalitarianism beckons. truthXchange just finished a marvelous conference on the important issue of “Gay Christianity,” in which we ..Continue reading→
Don’t Give Up the Battle
Though hard and painful emotions are often distorted and exaggerate reality, they do tell us something, they tell us that something is wrong. They indicate that something is going on in our heart. They reflect our internal struggle with God. When we ignore them, try to control them, attempt to cover them up, or pretend they don’t exist; we miss the opportunities they provide— opportunities to learn more about God; opportunities for God to change and transform us; opportunities to grow in faith. ..Continue reading→
Calamity Brings Clarity
In significant ways, at least in terms of pop culture and conventional wisdom, we are indeed in a post-Christian era in our country – but so often in history, it’s in these times that Jesus really begins to reveal himself as alive and well. Because Jesus is alive, what dies in an anti-Christian or post-Christian culture is not the gospel, but the ways in which we’ve compromised it. Churches which no longer preach a risen Christ are hemorrhaging members; they’re dying. And those of us who believe..Continue reading→
Life & Society
Joel Osteen Wants His New Book ‘Think Better, Live Better’ To Help People ‘Delete Negative Thoughts’
(Facebook/Joel Osteen) Pastor Joel Osteen of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas recently released his new book called "Think Better, Live Better," which hopes to encourage readers to exercise positive thinking in order to improve their lives. "How you think determines how you live. Many people are being held back by wrong mindsets. You can't think negative, and live a positive life," Osteen says in in a preview video about his book, according to The Christian Post. "I'll show you how ..Continue reading→
Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore Appeals Suspension Over Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ Memo
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Attorneys for Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore have appealed his suspension from the bench, and are asserting that his suspension is tantamount to removal, which is a violation of state procedural rules since there was not a unanimous agreement to remove Moore as required by law. “Under the COJ (Court of the Judiciary) rules, removal requires a unanimous 9-0 vote by the members of the COJ, which is made up of judges, a lawyer and laypeople. Absent a 9-0 unanimous vote, the COJ..Continue reading→
FBI Says Minnesota Mall Attacker Recently Became Interested in Islam
ST. CLOUD, Minn. — The FBI released surveillance video on Thursday of last month’s knife attack at Crossroads Center mall in St. Cloud, outlining that the assailant who injured 10 and was killed by an off-duty officer had recently become interested in Islam. “We have numerous credible witness accounts of him asking victims during the attack if they were Muslim, and at least one instance yelling ‘Allahu akbar’ while stabbing one of his victims, and others heard him yelling ‘Islam, Islam’ during ..Continue reading→
Oklahoma Supreme Court Strikes Down Law as Placing ‘Undue Burden on Access to Abortion’
Photo Credit: Credit Tomasz KoboszOKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — The Oklahoma Supreme Court has struck down a state abortion law that it says both violates the “one subject” rule and “continues to place undue burdens on access to abortion under the guise of protecting the health of women.” In January, the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights filed suit on behalf of Oklahoma abortionist Larry Burns to challenge a multi-faceted law centering on youth who obtain abortions. The law required crimi..Continue reading→
Movies
Watch: Rihanna sings in the final trailer for Star Trek Beyond
Star Trek Beyond isn’t the first Star Trek film to feature a new song on its soundtrack, but it just might be the first to put its song front-and-centre in a movie trailer. The song in question is Rihanna’s ‘Sledgehammer’, and this is the trailer: You can listen to the complete single via Spotify: It is not clear to me whether this song was actually written for the film or whether the filmmakers are simply taking advantage of the fact that Rihanna has a new song to promote. Maybe Spock and Uhur..Continue reading→
Box office: Independence Day and Free State of Jones flop while Finding Dory and The Shallows thrive in the water
They had 20 years to prepare a sequel … and it more or less flopped in North America. Independence Day: Resurgence — which opened over a week before the holiday it’s named for and was not screened for critics in advance, both of which are sure signs that the studio wasn’t confident about the film’s prospects — is estimated to have grossed only $41.6 million between Thursday and Sunday nights. That’s less than the $50.2 million that the original film opened to in 1996. To repeat: the original fil..Continue reading→
Halftime: The best films of 2016 (so far)
We’re quickly approaching the midpoint of the year, and it’s been an interesting one. If you look at the box office reports, it’s been a blase year, unless you’re Disney. But in terms of quality, it’s not been bad. Usually, I reach the midpoint of the year and wonder if I’m going to be able to have enough to fill a top ten list in six months. This year, I already have at least five films that I know will kill me to leave off the year-end list. So I thought, in the interest of getting pageviews m..Continue reading→
Review: “Finding Dory”
Five years after its release, “Cars 2” still instills dread in Pixar lovers. Never mind that the studio’s other weakest films (“The Good Dinosaur” and “Brave”) are both original works, and that the “Toy Story” followups have been lauded as some of the best sequels ever. What most people think of when they hear about returning to a beloved Pixar world is Mater the Tow Truck zipping through Japan and making pee-pee jokes. It’s why the idea of a “Finding Nemo..Continue reading→
Interview with comic book artist Ted Woods
Here’s a new feature I’m hoping to implement more regularly on this blog. Constant readers know that I can be critical about Christian art, and that’s because I think there’s a lot of bad art out there that goes under the Christian name. But I really want to delve more into the artists and crafts people who are passionate about creating great Christian art and improving the conversation about faith. I met Ted Woods, an independent comic book writer, when we brie..Continue reading→
The strange love affair between Christians and guns
This isn’t the first time I’ve addressed this, and I hate that. This post, in fact, is adapted from a now-defunct blog I used to have; I just had to tweak it for the tragedy du jour. I hate that 50 people are dead because one man was filled with hate and had access to a firearm. I hate that this is not the first time I’ve had to deal with this news. Charleston. San Bernardino. Columbine. Aurora. Sandy Hook. All names that strike a chord because of one underlying ..Continue reading→
Orlando: Death in our safe spaces demands love across the lines
Earlier this evening, in response to the horrific shooting at a gay nightclub Orlando that left 50 people dead and just as many hospitalized — the deadliest shooting in U.S. history — blogger Micah J. Murray posted the following on his Facebook page: What makes mass shootings so intimately offensive is that they tend to happen at “safe” places where such tragedy should be off limits. A school. A movie theater. A day care center. A mall. These are wher..Continue reading→
“The Conjuring 2”: Ghostbusting with love
James Wan’s “Conjuring” movies are something rare in the horror genre: warm-hearted stories that scare the hell out of you. The first film, released in 2013, notably received an R rating for being “too scary” — movie marketing that was actually justified. The film was one of the most terrifying, knuckle-clenching haunted house movies in decades, elevated by Wan’s affection for his characters. Ed and Lorraine Warren (played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) were real-life paranormal experts car..Continue reading→
Morgan Freeman Explores The Story of God
On the heels of Holy Week, National Geographic presents The Story of God, an ambitious, expansive six-part series hosted by Morgan Freeman. This is an impressive interfaith study, with Freeman traveling to Israel, Egypt, Turkey, Guatemala, India and beyond in search of God, or at least humanity’s efforts to reach God. From the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to bathers on the Ganges, we follow Freeman and his guides to spiritual hot spot..Continue reading→
Music
Heartbeat (Single) by The Waiting Kind
Track Listing 01. Heartbeat Continue reading→
All Is Bright – EP by Cristabelle Braden
Track Listing 01. I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day 02. O Little Town of Bethlehem 03. Away in a Manger 04. Jingle Bells Continue reading→
The Thrill of Hope by Christy Nockels
Inspired to share her first Christmas album with the world, Christy Nockels will unveil The Thrill Of Hope on November 4. The Thrill Of Hope introduces Nockels' take on holiday classics mixed with original songs, including "Song In The Air," "Wrap This One Up," Amaryllis" and "Our Christmas Song," penned originally. The album is steeped in scriptural references from Isaiah, Genesis, Micah and more, along with family memories as Nockels invited other family members to take part in the project as well. Nockels worked with husband Nathan Nockels (Passion, Matt Redman, Laura Story) to create the LP. "'The thrill of[...]Continue reading→
Loose Canon Vol. 3 by Canon
Loose Canon Vol. 3 is the third installment of the Loose Canon series. With lead single Eagles, The Family, and Over Do It; Canon has a stacked line up for this EP. Track Listing 01. I'm Back Purchase 02. Eagles 03. Over Do It 04. EZ Purchase 05. My Little Baby 06. Renegade Purchase 07. Expect Us Purchase 08. Hold Up 09. I Ain't Got Time 10. The FamilyContinue reading→
Bethel Music Kids Release ‘Christmas Party’ EP Nov. 18
Dove Award-winning Bethel Music Kids (#BethelMusicKids) releases their Christmas Party EP internationally Nov. 18. The new recording follows their first full-length album and concert film, Come Alive, which launched to the top of the retail charts amidst acclaim when it released Dec. 2015 and went on to receive the GMA Dove Award for "Children's Music Album of the Year" last month after receiving a trio of nominations.Continue reading→
Gaither Music Group’s All-new Docu-musical Rides To The Top Of Three Music Sales Charts
Gaither Music Group's all-new Circuit Rider DVD rode straight to the top of this past week's Billboard Music Video chart in addition to the Christian Music Video chart, according to Nielsen Soundscan, garnering the #1 position on both. The audio version of the docu-musical also claimed the #1 position on the Southern Gospel Album Sales chart and a Top 20 spot on the Contemporary Christian Music chart.Continue reading→
OBB Releases New Single ‘Sweater’
OBB has been teasing something new for a few weeks now through social media images that only said "11-4-16." They finally made the announcement early this morning a new single, "Sweater," available now here. RELATED OBB Back In The Studio With David Thulin As the band preps to appear on Winterjam next year, they promise this is only the beginning of new things. "We're super excited about the new music we have coming out, lots of new imaging, lots of new stuff coming out. So make sure you..Continue reading→
Casting Crowns Celebrates 11th No. 1 Radio Single With ‘One Step Away’
Multi-platinum selling and GRAMMY® award winning group Casting Crowns released their eighth studio album, The Very Next Thing, in September and just celebrated their 11th No. 1 radio single with "One Step Away." RELATED Casting Crowns Releases New Album 'The Very Next Thing' Today The band is currently on their own "The Very Next Thing" 40-city tour, presented by Compassion International and Museum of the Bible. The show offers an encouraging message of hope about doing the next thi..Continue reading→
We Are Messengers Releases ‘God With Us’ Christmas EP Today
Dove Award-nominated band We Are Messengers has announced the release of its first Christmas project, God With Us. Available beginning today, this four-song EP can be found at iTunes, Amazon, Google and Spotify. RELATED We Are Messengers' Darren Mulligan Shares His Story "At Christmas, we see the love of God take on flesh and bone so that He can be with us, rescue us and heal our brokenness," explains Darren Mulligan, lead vocalist, We Are Messengers. "God is not removed and distant, but ..Continue reading→
American
More Pregnant Women Choose Life Over Abortion Than Ever Before
Last month the Guttmacher Institute released updated abortion statistics for the United States. Their latest survey of abortion facilities indicate that the number of abortions fell by approximately five percent between 2011 and 2014. The short-term abortion decline is unsurprising. The U.S. abortion rate has fallen steadily since 1980. Furthermore, these declines have been fairly consistent. They have occurred during times of economic prosperity and economic hardship. They have also occurred th..
Cecile Richards Says More Women Need to Brag About Their Abortions: “It’s Time to be Bold”
Planned Parenthood is desperate for support after Americans rejected its pro-abortion candidates in the November election and chose a strong majority of pro-life lawmakers instead. On Tuesday, the abortion business’s CEO Cecile Richards gave a talk at the Makers Conference urging people to get more involved in abortion advocacy. Richards, who makes close to $1 million a year, and her supposedly non-profit abortion group stand to lose big money from the federal government. Planned Parenthood cu..
Senators File Legislation to Stop Obama’s Rule Forcing States to Fund Planned Parenthood
In his last Christmas as president, Barack Obama made sure he played Santa for at least one group: Planned Parenthood. With just weeks to go in the White House, the abortion industry’s best friend did what it could to protect the industry from an administration sure to be bad for business. Using his power at Health and Human Services, President Obama issued a rule that not only locked down federal grants for Cecile Richards’s group through the Title X “family planning” program, but also blocked..
Washington DC assisted suicide bill puts patients at risk and prioritizes cost over compassion
Do no harm.” Three short words, but to physicians they represent a sacred charge. Three short words that now hang in the balance here in the District of Columbia, after the D.C. council passed the Death with Dignity Act (Act 21-577), legalizing physician-assisted suicide in the nation’s capital. In authorizing doctors to violate the Hippocratic oath of “do no harm,” physician-assisted suicide undermines a key safeguard that protects our nation’s most vulnerable citizens and helps to ensure our l..
Australia
Activists spy on sermons from churches meeting in public schools
Churches that meet in public school halls in NSW on Sundays are under attack for the content of their sermons. The attack comes from a one-man advocacy group linked to the campaign against scripture in public schools. Sermons found on the websites of Hunter Bible Church, Maitland Evangelical Church and The Lakes Evangelical Church (all part of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches) on the NSW mid north coast were the subject of complaints ..
Three cheers for missionaries
Over at the Centre for Public Christianity, we’ve been doing a lot of research lately into some of the worst bits of Christian history. The Spanish Inquisition. Sectarian violence. Early-modern witch hunts, and torture techniques I didn’t know existed (see: “squassation”). The casualness with which Crusaders massacred peoples not remotely connected with their war aims. The end result of such disheartening research will, I hope, be worth it: CPX..
Muslim refugees open to the Good News in their own language
In a refugee camp in northern France, a Pashtun man from Pakistan was happy to hear the good news of Jesus in an audio-visual presentation in his own language. It was an evangelistic audio-visual presentation by Global Recordings Network (GRN) giving an overview of the Bible story from creation to Christ and how to become a follower of Jesus. “He sat there holding the player while I showed him the pictures,” recalls Graydon Colville, international di..
‘Christian’ parties fighting for Senate scraps
Australia’s “Christian Values” parties have been left scrabbling for the twelfth Senate spot in three states (SA, NSW and Qld), in the wake of an election that favoured smaller parties. But the protest and conservative voters went to One Nation and Nick Xenophon ahead of the small Christian parties, that include Christian Democrats, Australian Christians, Democratic Labour, Rise Up Australia and Family First. “We have a very good chance of getting the t..
Entertainment
“Prayer Woven Into the Fabric of the Film”: A Q&A with Ben-Hur’s Roma Downey and Mark Burnett
On August 19, an exciting new Ben-Hur will be charging into theaters to tell once again the epic tale of brotherly betrayal and revenge for a new generation. At a recent press event in Los Angeles, we got the chance to speak with executive producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey (The Bible, A.D., and Son of God) about this new imagining of a classic film and why they were drawn to the project. What attracted you to this production of Ben-Hur? Mark Burnett: Gary Barber, the chairman of MGM, had se..
Captain Fantastic: The Anti-Christian Christian Movie
Captain Fantastic, a little indie film out today, is a moving family parable about hippie dad Ben (Viggo Mortensen) and his eclectic family of six, leaving their near-isolation in the Pacific Northwest to attend a funeral. Did I say “attend?” I met stop. The funeral is that of Leslie, Ben’s wife and the children’s mother. Though we learn she was raised in a fairly traditional, comfortable Christian home, she became a Buddhist when she and Ben got together. And the last thing she wo..
Watch: New Trailer for Hillsong’s “Let Hope Rise” Live Today!
“Let Hope Rise,” the highly anticipated new feature film about the journey of youth-band-turned-international-sensation, Hillsong United, comes to theatres September 19. Here’s a first look at the trailer for the film, just released today.
“Let Hope Rise” Spotlights Rise of Christian Band “Hillsong UNITED”
IN THEATERS NATIONWIDE SEPT. 16 Film spotlights Hillsong UNITED’s remarkable journey from a youth group band at Hillsong Church to a worldwide recording and concert sensation Pure Flix is distributing HILLSONG-LET HOPE RISE, the highly anticipated feature film that chronicles the spectacular and miraculous rise to prominence of the Australia-based band, Hillsong UNITED. Directed by Michael John Warren (Jay Z’s FADE TO BLACK), the film explores Hillsong’s journey from a tiny church in the Sydney..
US
Obama picks a fight with Russians
President Obama has hit Russia with sanctions and the expulsion of diplomatic personnel in retaliation for Vladimir Putin’s alleged interference with the U.S. election. He has also threatened cyberattacks against Russia. In return, Russia is promising retaliation of its own. With only twenty or so days left in office, the president has stirred up a conflict with Russia that his successor is going to have to deal with. Donald Trump, with his pro-Russian leanings, will probably reverse Obama’s act..
Checking our predictions for 2016
It’s time to check the predictions we made around this time last year, something you don’t see the tabloids or most highly-paid consultants doing. Your predictions for 2016, as usual, were thoughtful, interesting, mostly-wrong, but with some remarkable accuracies. Go here to read them all and come to your own conclusions. We were still under the World Table comment system back then, so go to that link. If you do a search for the post, it will come up as there being no comments, but click the ful..
Birth as the “moral fault line of our time”
Christmas is about birth, Kevin Williamson reminds us, which is what reminds us most of our physicality. No wonder, he says, birth is also “the great political and moral fault line of our time.” Consider all of the moral issues that have to do with birth, whether preventing it or negating it: abortion, sex outside of marriage, pornography, today’s much vaunted fantasy of sex with robots. Consider the political and ideological issues: fears of overpopulation, health care, feminism, child poverty,..
Top religion stories of 2016
The Religion News Association announced its top 10 religion stories of 2016. Number one: Donald Trump’s election. Why was that a religion story? An important factor in Trump’s win was his support from evangelical voters, even though his lifestyle, moral history, and religious beliefs would not seem to be in accord with those of most Christian conservatives. What this means, though, is less clear. Does this mean Christian voters have sold out, or have they become pragmatic in choosing a candidate..
Church & Theology
Where Grace Abounds
Each year at Lancaster Baptist Church, we introduce a new theme for the year to our church family on Vision Sunday. Primarily we do this through the Sunday messages in which the theme is shared from a biblical text and then, in Sunday evening’s message, developed into ministry goals for the coming year. But one of the most memorable ways we introduce the theme is through teaching our church family a new chorus (typically written by our music team) based on the theme. Our theme for 2017 is “By ..
Growth Points 74: Three Attributes of a Great Year
When I think about a great ministry or a great minister, I think of John the Baptist. Jesus Himself called John and his ministry great: “For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist…” (Luke 7:28). John wasn’t as concerned with being relevant to his culture as he was with being in touch with God. It was his heart for God and the way he uncompromisingly shared God’s message that set him apart. In this growth points video, I share thr..
A White Man’s Meditations on Martin Luther King Day
Most of my childhood, I lived in highly diverse neighborhoods. My neighborhoods and schools were a mishmash of white, black, Asian, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, and more. I recently looked up the stats of my junior high, for example, and the current student population is 33% white, 30% Hispanic, 25% African American, 10% Asian, and a few others. This type of relatively even split is how I remember it. I don’t remember my parents ever making blatantly racist comments. Race was neve..
3 Dynamics of Growth in Grace
Do you need grace today? Do you desire to grow in grace this year? I suppose these are questions with self-evident answers. We know we need God’s grace, and we know Scripture commands us to grow in grace. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.—2 Peter 3:18 This is what we desire for our lives as well as for the lives of those to whom we minister. But how? How do we grow in grace? And what does growth in grac..