Resources

Slightly more churches today have reserves ranging from 16 to 51 weeks. In 2016, 27% said that was the case. Today, 32% have that amount on hand. The percentage of pastors today who say their congregation has more than a year’s worth is similar to 2016 (23% in 2016 vs. 24% now).

Losses tend to turn out to be wins in disguise. Remember, we are the death and resurrection people. The gospel calls us to a cheerful confidence to jump into the fray, and to a cheerful humility to lose well (if we must), knowing that the Father can take painful losses and raise them up to be gospel wins.

Beloved, the level of your devotion isn’t what makes God faithful to you or makes Him keep loving you. He is and always will be a faithful God to His people. This issue is never first our love for Christ, but rather His love for us. His love causes love.

Sugar Creek conducts Wednesday night worship services at the unit and offers a Malachi Dads program designed to help incarcerated fathers learn how to be effective parents.

Preaching at our moment in history is perilous. People find offense and can easily find some other voice that will say what they want to hear. How do we move forward?

Recognizing the Bible as literature opens us up to a fuller appreciation of the holy book than if we treat it like an instruction manual or to-do list. The Bible is a bibliography of genres, including poetry, song, lament, prophecy, history, narrative, parables, letters, dreams, and so forth.

In reading other books, we practice reading the Bible; and in reading the Bible, we read other books by that lens.

The number of adults who don’t fall wholly into the biblical worldview category, but still lean that direction, possessing “a substantial number of beliefs and behaviors consistent with biblical principles,” has fallen dramatically, as well.