Standing around with pastors during a break at an associational pastor’s conference, one pastor lamented that his church had stopped growing. When I asked why, he said that his building could only hold so many people. When I asked him why a little thing like drywall would prohibit growth, it was like scales fell off his eyes. “Reaching people for Jesus doesn’t depend on our building size!” he almost shouted. An International Mission Board missionary once challenged me to add up all … [Read more...]
Is the canon of Scripture closed?
Some Christian scholars today cast doubt over the canon of Scripture – those 66 books that the Church has long held to be the complete written revelation of God. They justify their views by claiming: (1) that surviving texts of the Old and New Testaments are corrupt and therefore unreliable, or (2) that early Church leaders deliberately excluded certain books for personal or political reasons. As Craig L. Blomberg responds in his recent book – Can We Still Believe the Bible? – “there is … [Read more...]
Call to prayer Aug. 21
Pastors and church leaders, please accept my personal invitation to a Heartland Prayer Summit Aug. 21. Our facilitators are SBC President Ronnie Floyd and OneCry leader Bill Elliff. We are meeting at Crossway Baptist Church in Springfield from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Included is a light lunch. There is no cost for the event other than to arrive with an anxious heart to call out to the Lord. We do need you to register online or by calling Betty Benz Pulliam at 573.636.0400 ext. 302. I … [Read more...]
Two pods in a pea – but loving anyway
According to the Sammy-cat, there’s no container that’s not worth sitting in. If there’s a bag, box, bowl, bin, basin or bucket that he can reach, there’s an understood “Dibs!” from Sammy as he slowly fills the container with himself. I had a rectangular basket sitting out the other day and Sammy poured himself inside it – well, poured most of himself inside it – and when I looked over, all I could see was a loaf of Sammy. So weird. Incidentally, Sammy has a thing about his personal … [Read more...]
Picture your community as a village of 100 people
When you think about Missourians, what comes to mind? Sports fans? Hunters and fishermen? Patriotic Americans? How about these: Unemployed neighbors? Immigrants? Families going hungry? Veterans with stress disorders? Parolees? Poor readers? Who are the real people living just beyond your church doors? As an evangelism/discipleship strategist, I frequently get calls and emails from pastors who want to know: “What can I do to help our church members be active witnesses for … [Read more...]
Bankruptcy of the prosperity gospel
Leaders of the word-faith movement, also known as the prosperity gospel, say they place a high value on Scripture. Unfortunately, their unique interpretation of God’s Word leads to unbiblical conclusions about God’s design for the Christian life. A case in point: 3 John 2, which reads: “Dear friend, I pray that you may prosper in every way and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.” As prosperity preachers like Kenneth Copeland and Joel Osteen would have you believe, this … [Read more...]
Mendacity, lawlessness in the marriage debate
One of the most troubling aspects to the same-sex marriage debate is the way much of the news media have deliberately misled the American people about different aspects of the issue. They tout polls and bloviate about the speed with which the American people are changing their minds in support of same-sex marriage. They state with faux certainty that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a same-sex marriage case next year (doubtful in reality) and that the court will allow same-sex marriage. How … [Read more...]
Clarifying the vision
I join a host of others who are so grateful for the new day dawning at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Jason Allen and his team are transitioning the seminary to the forefront of theological education. How? By reclaiming the priority of “why?” – doing everything they do “for the church.” In a recent blog post, Allen addressed with amazing clarity key issues that are foundational to the cooperative ministries that we do as Missouri Southern Baptists. I asked him for permission to … [Read more...]
What is ‘finding answers’?
Maybe I don’t need to tell anyone this, but there are a lot of reasons I’ll never be on Jeopardy. One big one is that I can very reasonably imagine Alex Trebek saying something like, “Please remember to phrase all your ignorance in the form of a question.” Um, I’ll take “No Way I’ll Ever Get Any of These Right” for 200 please, Alex. What if the question that’s the answer, isn’t my answer? What if my question is just really a question? Because I don’t know the answer to the question – or … [Read more...]
Five time-tested discipleship models
Editor’s Note: The following material was first introduced several years ago in a Discipleship Training Resource entitled, “Becoming a Disciple-making Church” by Steve J. Williams. It has been updated and is used by permission. This is the final of three articles. This week we will look at five models for disciple-making: Just over a generation ago most churches did disciple-making the same way. They did it in ongoing, age-graded groups that studied dated quarterlies and met on Sunday … [Read more...]
Preparing our children for the future
“Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.” I Peter 2:17 As Independence Day approaches, we turn our thoughts again to the condition of our country and speculate as to what the future holds for our children. We are seeing more and more conflicts in rendering unto Caesar and at the same time being able to render unto God. No one knows exactly what the future holds, but certain trends seem quite evident. We are seeing greater antagonism … [Read more...]
Helping the lost progress toward faith and action
How people learn is important. How they progress toward belief and action is more important. A white-haired man was introduced to me after preaching. He was starting a church in the next town over, but his comment startled me. “Mark, I appreciated what you said about new believers knowing more lost people. In all my years of ministry, I never thought about training up a new believer to share their faith. And I wanted you to know I’ll be going out with them to share Jesus with their family … [Read more...]
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