What Is a Healthy Way to Leave a Church?
Leaving the church is painful for Christians and pastors, and we've seen a lot of it over the last couple of years through COVID, election crises, and racial crises.
Articles on Church Ministry
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Should the Church Operate Like a Business?
How we think about the church will affect how we think about our service in the church.
5 Myths about Being Called to Ministry
Are you called to the ministry? How can you tell if you’re called to ministry? What should you do to find out?
Church Membership Is Not a One-Way Street
What is church membership? It’s the commitment Christians make to keep one another accountable for regularly gathering and centering their lives together on the gospel.
What Is the Job of the Pastor?
Collin Hansen, Jonathan Leeman
Your ability to do your job as a church member depends on pastors or elders doing their jobs.
5 Questions about the Sacraments
What is a sacrament and what is its purpose in the church? Learn answers from To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism.
What Does a Committed Church Member Look Like?
There are many marks of true discipleship, but one mark is singled out as signifying to the watching world that we belong to Christ.
5 Stumbling Blocks to Pastoral Honesty
Why isn’t humble candor more of a regular part of our ministry leadership culture? Why aren’t we more ready to confess spiritual discouragement or struggle?
The Trinity Transforms the Church into a Community of Love
Just as the church is the glorious gift of love from God the Father to Christ the Son, so the church, as the body of Christ, reflects that Trinitarian love and beauty outwardly to the world.
How to Pray for Your Pastor’s Family
Would you like to show your pastor your appreciation but are unsure what might be most helpful to him? More than any other gift you could give your pastor, he will treasure your prayers for his family.
Dear Pastor . . . Your Shepherd Doesn’t Care How Big Your Church Is
What the Lord requires of us is faithfulness. And while it’s perfectly normal for every pastor to want his church to grow, it’s also idolatrous to marry our validation and our justification to our attendance.
5 Questions about the Local Church
Ultimately, the local church makes visible what is invisible, and reflects in words and deeds the kingdom life that is to come.
People throw the word church around quite a bit, and often they have different things in mind.
What Does It Mean for Jesus Christ to Be the Head of the Church?
The phrase "head of the church" is not employed to identify Christ as the head of a company or the head of some earthly organization.
10 Disciplines of a Godly Pastor
As we sweat out the disciplines of a godly pastor, remember, with Paul, what energizes us to live them out.
6 Things to Look for in a Pastor
What are some things to consider when searching for a new pastor to lead the church?
Dear Pastor . . . You’re a Shepherd, Not an Entrepreneur
If we plant churches as pastors, not entrepreneurs, whose aim is to love Christ and feed and tend the sheep of Christ’s reward, then we can sleep well knowing our work will endure.
The Church’s Central Role in the Coming of the Kingdom of God
It’s not to the government, nor to any king or pope or any other ruler, but rather to the church that the keys of the kingdom of God are given.
Our new status and our new identity are due to the saving mercy and transformative power of God and are not of ourselves.
5 Myths about Being a Pastor’s Wife
What every congregation really needs to see is a family serving God with wholehearted devotion while dealing with the realities of sinful parents raising sinful children.
The Church and Homosexuality: 10 Commitments
Of the many complexities involving the church and homosexuality, one of the most difficult is how the former should speak of the latter.
The Hidden Value of Pastoral Gentleness
As leaders of God’s people, we all long to make a difference for Christ. We don’t want to be unfruitful. The main reason to nurture gentleness is neither pragmatic nor historical, but biblical.
3 Convictions You Need to Have before You Teach the Bible
If you’re just getting started teaching the Bible, this is the first thing I want to put in your mind: beginning preachers and teachers (and experienced ones too!) need confidence in God’s word.
There is not an uninfluenced day, hour, or minute in our lives. We are constantly discipled by the cultural, relational, and spiritual forces around us. Which discipling forces influence you the most?
10 Things You Should Know about Inaugurated Eschatology
Traditionally eschatology consists of the return of Christ, the resurrection, the final judgment, heaven, and hell. Here's what else you should know.
What Are the Limits of a Church’s Authority?
Christians today tend to give little attention to the idea of church authority, just like we give little attention to church membership and discipline.
10 Things You Should Know about the African Church
It is said that the number of Christians in Africa at the beginning of the twentieth century was about 9 million and that by the end of the twentieth century it was about 380 million.
We instinctively recognize that the solution to bad authority is seldom no authority, but almost always good authority.
Podcast: Rethinking Multiservice and Multisite Church (Jonathan Leeman)
Do multiservice and multisite church models run counter to the pattern for the local church we see in the New Testament?
How to Preach Biblical Narrative
Douglas Sean O'Donnell, Leland Ryken
I love stories. You love stories. Your congregation loves stories. The unbelieving world loves stories. Below are seven suggestions for preaching a sermon on a biblical narrative.