Sublime

Persecution matters because it calls the church to sacrifice and suffer. Today in the West, we can’t force persecution, nor would we wish that upon anyone. However, practicing a life of ministry that requires sacrifice in every dimension of our lives can have the same effect on the church.

Faith communities might do well to consider how to channel their digital resources toward engaging with and equipping young Christians to connect with their fellow digital natives.

If He remains a historical figure who came to pay for our sins, then we may put a cross around our neck, we may go to church on occasion to thank Him for what He did for us, but we may not look much different from the guy or gal next door. But if you become convinced that Jesus had other reasons for coming to earth—namely to teach humans how to be

Every week people file into our church services aching for eternity. In our zeal to provide something they may find comfortable and useful and inoffensive, are we offending the God who wishes to offend us in awe of his glory? Are we dismissing our brother Jesus, whose formula for victory includes crucifixion?

Legalistic messages predicated on human wisdom are an insidious trick to keep people in bondage. We don’t mean them that way, but that is the effect. It doesn’t matter if they sound comforting, if we deliver them in blue jeans from stools with lattes in our hands and conclude them with a movie clip. They only prolong spiritual captivity.

However, the commitment to protection, civil rights, and justice for LGBTQ people should be universal among Christians.

Owen Strachan wrote that we should be “spider-sense wary about the ‘Christian teaching is a stumbling block to the gospel’ argument.” He said that it is “a devil’s bargain.”

Jesus Christ alone is the hope, treasure, joy, and purpose of pastoral ministry. Not church growth, not church planting, not church success, not church business, not church programs, not church activities, not church popularity. Let everything be a means to this end: the treasuring of Christ and the enjoying of his glory.