Pursuing a holistic expression of Christian faith that is true to the Bible and applicable for today’s world.
We Must Be Good Stewards of All That God Blesses Us With The Old Testament church required a lot of financial support to keep it going. There was a tabernacle to build and transport. The temple later replaced the tabernacle, but it required regular maintenance. The priests and Levites received support too. This huge need […]
Discover 3 Tips of What to Do If Question Your Faith I hear people who have a crisis of faith, who question what they believe. It pains me to see the struggle they’re going through. Yet I’ve never been sure how to help them, except to encourage them to press forward and not give up. […]
Stop Paying Clergy and Ministry Staff to Do What We’re Supposed to Do Ourselves In part one of Embrace a Fresh Perspective about Church we looked at adopting a new, biblically enlightened view on the role that a church building should play for our spiritual community. Now we’ll continue that theme by looking at church […]
Be Sure to Celebrate Your Mom Today and Every Day May we wish our moms, a happy Mother’s Day! In my book Women of the Bible, I explore the lives of biblical women, celebrating their lives and their contribution to the world. Their example can inform our faith journey. I conclude the book with the […]
We Don’t Need a Church Building to Encounter God or Enjoy Spiritual Community So far, we’ve looked at the Old Testament model for church—of building, paid clergy, and tithes—which we still follow today. Then we considered how Jesus fulfills the Old Testament and looked at how the early church functions in the New Testament, considering […]
What Do You Focus on When You Should Be Focusing on God? This is a post I’m hesitant to share. Yet I’ve always been forthright when I talk about my spiritual journey. So there’s no point in holding back now. The disconcerting truth is I often struggle with church distractions during the service. I wrestle […]
We Must Rethink What Happens at Our Church Services A friend once said in his Sunday morning message that some people go to church for the music and put up with the sermon. Others go for the sermon and put up with the music. The minister’s statement suggests that people feel a church service has […]
Not Everyone Can Be a Missionary, but Everyone Can Support Missionaries We’ve talked about four places—or ways—to be a missionary for Jesus. How does the idea of a short-term mission trip fit into Jesus’s command to be his witness (Acts 1:4-8)? Or his instruction to go make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20)? It doesn’t. At best a […]
We Must Correct Some Wrong Perspectives about Our Religious Practices We’ve looked at how Jesus fulfills the Old Testament to provide a new way for us and our churches to function, replacing the temple, paid clergy, and tithes. Then we explored ten New Testament practices and five New Testament examples to inform our church behavior. […]
Make Disciples of all Nations In the oft-quoted passage that wraps up the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells his followers to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19-20). In doing so, they—and we—are to be a missionary for Jesus. We see this repeated in the book of Mark (Mark 16:15-20). In the parallel […]