(Published by Baptist Press on April 18, 2007) As the coronavirus disease spreads around the globe, thousands of deaths have forced decision-makers to cancel sporting events, restrict international travel, and discourage common social interactions. Individuals are being asked to self‑quarantine themselves. Financial markets are in disarray. Daily lives are being disrupted. For the elderly and …
Continue reading 5 Ways Your Church Can Respond to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic
While I was in college, a youth minister asked me to “fill in” for him and host a party for the students at his church. One of the games involved “bobbing” for apples. As the evening unfolded, students were laughing and playing hard, until one student opened his mouth too wide to grab an apple …
Continue reading Risk Management: Making Your Church a Safe Place to Worship and Serve
One night on a routine visit in a home, I asked a recent guest in our service “How did you decide to come visit our church?” “It was the magnet on the refrigerator,” she said. Immediately, I was moved beyond words. I never imagined the magnet would be a divine tool for life change! In …
"You can build a great church or you can build a great people. I'm not sure you can do both." The older pastor looked at the neophyte steadily as the statement settled into the young minister’s thoughts. The older pastor’s point was well taken. Recalling that experience decades later, I recognize how easy it is …
Too many times we make little gods out of "the odds" associated with the twists and turns of our life's journey. We bow down to the odds, allowing them to shape and govern our hearts, giving the idols of chance the first hearing as we process major decisions. But there is a sovereign God who …
Casper ten Boom (1859-1944), Corrie ten Boom’s father, was a Dutch storekeeper who helped to hide Jews escaping the Nazi Holocaust during World War II. A member of the Dutch Reformed Church, he was in his eighties when Germany occupied his hometown of qHaarlem in The Netherlands. When Jews were forced to wear the Star …
Continue reading Insight: Casper ten Boom on Suffering for Him
1. It is waiting on the Lord who renews and sustains me (Psalm 103:5, Isaiah 40:31). 2. It is a walk He sustains (Psalm. 63:8). 3. It is a walk that originated in the Garden and was damaged and destroyed by sin. Man no longer naturally longs to walk with God. Man would rather wander …
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ~ Romans 5:8 When He died ...I did not exist ...except in His mind. I was just another unborn sinner with a lifetime of future offenses ...but I was known ...He knew this lost and broken …
When we realize that God is not some faraway distant and disinterested deity... When we learn that He invites us to draw near on a pathway blazed by His Son... When we discover that He made us to be satisfied only by continuously and deeply drinking from the life He alone can provide... When we …
not a goal, but a result... not for religious professionals, but for His sons & daughters... not for gaining public attention, but for a divine audience... not for my reputation, but for my sanity... not a terminal destination, but a highway... not where I am going, but how... not a decoration on display, but the …
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