Ray Pritchard said... I know a whole handful of miserable, grumpy Christians, and I think I know what is wrong with most of them. They have decided that they're going to keep the body of Christ at arms length and they're not really going to get involved. They are not going to join the church. They are not going to really get involved and they are going to sit on the fence and watch as things go by. They're going to stick their toe in and pull it out and stick their toe in and pull it out and that's...

I preached Genesis 22:1-14 today at the Shiloh Church. I entitled the message, "Testing Time" (22:1). The big idea of the sermon was simply that a faith that cannot be tested cannot be trusted. God enrolls us in the school of faith to promote us to graduation. But spiritual promotion requires divine testing. In verse 8, Abraham responds to Isaac's question by declaring, "God will provide for himself a lamb for the burnt offering." And when God provided, Abraham named the place, "The Lord will provide" (22:14). As I talked about the God who provides, I quoted the words of a...

In my pulpit I preach from the Bible for two reasons. First, I am not smart enough to preach anything else. If I were to preach on social issues, there are sociologists in my congregation who would know far more about them than I. If I were to preach on political issues, there are politicians who would know more than I do in that field. Second, I am too smart to preach anything else because I know that God blesses his Word and it will not return void. - O.S. Hawkins, Jonah: Meeting the God of the Second Chance, p....

So learn about Jesus! Follow the sacred counsel of Ezekiel and eat the scroll. Learn about Jesus for His word is a lamp unto our feet (or for our present moments) and a light unto our paths (that is, for our future) amidst moral blackouts and human power failures. Learn about Jesus for what a tragic mindset in the church that many will go here and there to be bigger, better teachers, lawyers, doctors, but when it comes to Christian education, many choose to be mental moral midgets, spiritual shrimps and shorties, religious runts, whose inner growth is stunted by the...

I think that there are people who enjoy Bible study the same way that other people enjoy filling out crossword puzzles. Get all the parts and get the thing completed – they find satisfaction. I think there are people that study the Bible that way. They can see how it relates to its context and how its details work to get across the concept. But if it never gets into your life, if it never really touches your experience, I doubt seriously that you can call it a study of biblical truth, because I think God’s truth is always designed...

The McChurch has replaced the traditional church and its relational values. Fast-food Christians pull up to ecclesiastical drive-through windows, order the McGroups, consume the experience and then drive off, discarding relationships like burger wrappers on the highway of life. Savvy church growth pastors quickly learned that significant growth can occur if a church learns how to market it burgers to capture the appetite of this roving crowd. In some instances merely producing an interesting alternative to the status quo can lead to significant church disaffections. - William Chadwick, Stealing Sheep, p. 20 Transfer growth, by definition, creates no numerical growth in...

Have you noticed how people refer to the singing in church as "worship time," as if the other parts of the service are not part of our worship? This is troubling, because Christians should recognize that prayer, saying the creeds, giving, and especially the sermon, are all part of our worship of God. But I wonder if one of the reasons why people do not know this is that preachers have forgotten to worship God when they preach. We may deliver carefully crafted sermons, but if we ourselves are not worshiping God when we do, then that element will be...

It struck me one day in a Christian bookstore that most of the "church growth" books I picked up in that store were not books on vision but on image. They hadn't been published to help me see the world in a particular way but to help the world see me - were I a megachurch pastor - in a particular way. They were books that enticed the pastor of limited self-image to be like somebody else the world admired. What a cul-de-sac of emotional poverty this is. These books were published to serve the idolatries of megapastor wannabes. -...

Ministers aren't kidding when they talk of troubles. It's the truth. Pick any ministry you want, and there will be enough problems in it to occasionally jerk the most optimistic person down off his toes. Ministries are few and far between that have no troublesome concerns stalking in the wings. More than likely, the best church you know about could be destroyed overnight if the right person made the wrong move. Even the best situation is fragile. Whether we know it or not, churches live on the brink. Something could go wrong at any time. If you are going to...

Here are several personal resolutions made by the late Dr. Robert G. Lee (1927-1960) that every minister should consider. For that matter, every Christian should embrace these resolutions. I will be joyful that life may give me wings. I will be courageous that there shall be no binding fears. I will be balanced that neither work, nor play, nor rest, nor worship shall lose its proper share. I will be self-restraint that thoughts of failure shall not hold me back. I will be self-controlled that emotions shall not be dominant. I will be intelligent that straight thinking and knowledge shall...

I am preaching through the Epistle of 1 John. In the footnotes of a commentary, I recently found out that Herschel Hobbs wrote a commentary on the Epistles of John. It arrived in the mail several weeks ago. As I was studying 1 John 3:4-10, I ran into an interesting paragraph. It really had nothing to do with anything. It seems that a grammatical point caused Hobbs to reminisce about his Greek professor, A.T. Robertson, author of the popular Word Pictures in the New Testament. Here's what Hobbs wrote... Despite the fact that he was one of the leading Greek...

Why? Why do we do what we do? What is our ultimate goal? Why do we dress as we dress? Why do we allot time as we do in our services? Why do we preach as we preach? Why do we sing, and why do we sing it the way we do? Do we care about what the world will think of our activities? Where is God in all this? Do we seek to meet Him in His truth, begging the Spirit to use the word to reveal to us the depths of our on hearts so that we may...