Sublime

Two-thirds of the ordinary means of grace—prayer and the Word—are fully available to anyone, regardless of where they are in their faith journey. We should not underestimate the value of having people be able to sit under such ordinary means as an extension of that forecourt. In other words, we want to see cultural Christians back in our churches b

There is one mediator between God and man (1 Tim. 2:5), and it is not the pastor or his church programs.

Lots of people can preach the gospel better than you; but nobody can preach a better gospel than you if yours is the true one. We are all on level ground at the foot of the cross. The question is, can you talk about it plainly and personally? This is a necessity for every disciple of Christ, so there must be a gift of teaching required for pastors

Peace, Walter Brueggemann

Pastor, here is a ministerial secret not often publicized: sometimes things that shrink are getting healthier. So here we are: totally dependent. In ruins. Vulnerable. But hopeful. A remnant will always remain.

As the great British preacher Charles Spurgeon once said, “Let your sermons be full of Christ, from beginning to end crammed full of the gospel.”5 That’s what we’re after: sermons crammed full of Christ.

But all of this is obscured when the Guy at the Front waves his Bible around, claiming to announce the simple, unadulterated Word of God. No. What he is offering is his interpretation of God’s Word. What he does not offer (often because he does not realize it) is that he inherited this interpretation from some pastor or teacher himself. Nor does he

This is why the real Beatitudes are today the powerful scandal they were in Jesus’s day. Because the kingdom is for the hurt, the grieving, the mourning, the poor and poor in spirit, the meek, the downtrodden, the marginalized, the discarded, the weary, the torn, and the broken. And why is that?

The desire for meaning.