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In other words, the key question seems to be this: In light of terror attacks worldwide, is bringing 10,000 refugees from the Middle East really a safe decision? While we shouldn’t downplay these concerns, I do wonder what would…

Jeff Vanderstelt offers helpful insight on how our culture’s method of celebrating halloween offers an opportunity to share the good news of God’s kingdom with neighbors who show up on our…

Paul Lim talks about his experience as an evangelical Christian on the campus of Vanderbilt University. He identifies ways that Christians can act as a “missional agents” in an environment that increasingly eschews religion in general and christianity in…

It feels that at some point, we might have lost our way. Perhaps we became more concerned with success than fruitfulness. Jesus says we evaluate things in the Kingdom on their fruitfulness…but somewhere along the way it became about…

There’s a sense of urgency tied up in the word, “harvest.” Harvest also connotes hard work. Picking produce, reaping crops, and all its associated tasks are not for the faint of heart. There will be sweat. When you combine…

I got angry at others who did not feel the same as me—all of those nice people on Facebook and Pinterest and Instagram, living their normal lives while everyone I knew was falling apart. I tried to poke sticks…

The beheadings by the Islamic State in Libya have resulted in unprecedented sympathy for Egypt’s Christians, who are increasingly finding common identity across denominational lines. The martyrdoms have also allowed Copts a platform to witness to the realities of their…

When the day is done and last of the lights are turned out and my head hits the pillow, all I can think of is the faces of The 21 and their surrendered heads, their heads carrying the full…

Many years ago my church was pondering how to create a “third space” in our neighborhood. A third space is a place where people can mix on a regular basis, a place that is relaxed and non-threatening. A lot…

In the video above, Brian Fikkert points out how Western notions of success are flawed and lead to a failure to promote human flourishing. In complement to the video, Joshua Butler explains in the article below that we in…

Opening your heart to love any child is risky and requires a loss of self. Opening your heart and home to a foster child may seem especially risky. But in losing ourselves, we gain. We grow in understanding how Jesus loved…

Mission-minded people are different. That’s it. Somehow they manage to see the world from another perspective. The things they do and the decisions they make are just different than what other people would usually do. You can find them…

Jon Tyson explains how the church gets distracted from its mission of making disciples of Jesus. Instead, the culture is making disciples, and doing a much better job of it than the church. That’s a big…

Is not the mission of God to see people not only reconciled to God, but also diverse groups reconciled to each other? In this video Leonce Crump challenges us to pursue racial reconciliation in light of the…

I believe that one of the essential jobs of the local church is to equip Christian parents to take the lead in spiritually training their children. Passing faith to our kids is not the church’s job – it is…

When the path to unity starts with the meeting/church service/ or gathering, then I think its trajectory is skewed from the beginning. I think mission is the better path to unity. Unite in the furtherance of the gospel. Unite…

I cannot define the word “missional,” at least not in an authoritative or definitive way, for everyone. But I can tell you why I think it must include Jesus’ mission to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10). This…

David Platt explains how every Christian is a missionary. Christians are the people of God with the Word of God and the Spirit of God. Those are the basic ingredients for a missionary…

Alan Hirsch discusses the problems surrounding discipleship. Problems range from the fact that we fail to recognize its centrality to the mission of God to the fact that the Church in the West is not very intentional about it…

Francis Chan and David Platt discuss the problems with losing focus on God in favor of focusing on other good things such as mission, discipleship, productivity, etc. These are good things, but they are not more worthy of our…

Alan Hirsch gives a few simple reasons for why discipleship is the mission of the…

Francis Chan shares a story about how he got a 2nd chance to talk to someone who God wanted him to talk to after he had already blown it once. His encouragement is to make sure that fear doesn’t…

Paul Washer explains what is wrong with the “sinners prayer.” Rather than having someone pray a prayer and then tell them they are going to heaven, he says we should tell people that the evidence of their salvation will…

The reasoning goes something like this… If I know I have important things to say and I am going to get others to listen to me, then they have to want to listen to me.  In order for them to want…

Missiologist, Alan Hirsch, talks with Ed Stetzer about the future of Christianity in America amid its increasingly secularized culture. They also discuss the importance of recovering a vision for the 5 key gifts Christ gave to his Church from…

The story of the Good Samaritan is easily the most famous parable that Jesus told. A priest and a rabbi refuse to help someone hurt along the road, but a Samaritan, the one hated by the Hebrew people not…

Dr. Rob Rienow shows how the first command to humans to be fruitful and multiply is still in effect. The primary means by which this happens is through families passing on faith from generation to generation. The Great Commission…

Dr. John Perkins is a prominent voice in reconciliation ministry. When he speaks, people listen. So, listen to his explanation of why we should stop asking people if they want to be…

As I handed the change back to one of the young girls, she handed me a tract with a very sweet smile – and I froze. My entire feeling changed. When they first came up to me at the…

I’ve come to believe that instead of being a bunch of churches separated by music style or building, God sees one bride and one city church. In my experience, we are a divided, fighting, graceless, defensive mess. If your…

This is part 1 of a two-part series of video posts on Alan Hirsch’s presentation on discipleship. See part 2 here. Alan Hirsch explains how traditional evangelical thinking that we must evangelize first and then disciple second is flawed.…

This is part 2 of a two-part series of video posts on Alan Hirsch’s presentation on discipleship. See part 1 here. You can’t make disciples out of consumers. You can’t consume your way into the Kingdom. It doesn’t work like…

I breezed through an article on the Huffington Post’s religion section last night before I went to bed and it gnawed at my conscience all night.  It’s called “How I Kissed Evangelism Goodbye,” and it is a REALLY GOOD article.  But, I think…

Paul Tripp shares his thoughts about how parents can lead their children in a process of becoming mindful of God’s mission and purposes so that they can be aligned with that mission and purpose. In other words, this is…

I’ve watched over and over as people who signed up for Christianity because of the promise of Heaven grew disillusioned by the unfulfilled guarantees of certainty, weary under the weight of the religious bait-and-switch, and left the faith altogether. Tell me,…

Every Christian and ministry faces the slow, subtle, suffocating pressure of the ordinary. The creeping clutch of worldly concerns confronts us all. We settle into routines and ruts. Our zeal cools as we have our minds and then our…

My husband and I live in Guatemala and host short-term mission teams throughout the year. We have both seen the good, the bad and the ugly of short-term missions. And we continue to feel this tension with the short-term mission…

Many churches seem to have forgotten the two most basic impulses of an organism: reproduce and adapt. Or to use more Biblical language: We have forgotten how to be an Apostolic movement. Key to understanding what the Church is…

Ed and Mel Zwyghuizen have three children—Gabe (19), Christian (17), and Greta (15). Together, they are known as Team Z. We always knew we wanted to invite our kids to participate in God’s big story for the world, but as…

Oral story telling is proving to be one of the most effective means of communicating the gospel, and specifically the biblical narrative. For many Muslims, the Bible is considered haram (i.e. forbidden) because it is believed that Christians have changed…