You can see where God has been at work and what He has brought you through. You will be reminded that what felt so devastating or challenging earlier in the year is now behind you, and you are the better for it, offering a view from the mountaintop.
With evangelical churches often consisting of more than half of its members and volunteers being women, we see the fruit and faithfulness each and every week, and yet when it comes to the conversation about how to honor women in church, it often gets hijacked with arguments around roles, office, and title, and in so doing we miss a bigger conversation around celebrating, equipping, and affirming the roles of women in our churches.
Forgive what you can in the moment. When God makes something right, there is true restoration, healing, forgiveness, and change, especially concerning the pain of Judas betraying Jesus.
Karen Smith credits much of that growth to how well the longtime members have welcomed new, younger members to Mount Vernon Missionary Baptist Church growth. Both groups have proven they're willing to compromise and adapt.
The routes we walkrhythms of embodied presence and prayerful listening to the small world outside our front door help me to notice the small, and not-so-small, shifts in our season of life, integrating into an ordinary life of worship.
When we seek God, we discover that—through the invitations of Jesus—God’s love sought and found us first.
Do not settle for longing for the past or even managing what is now. Instead, rise and lead.
Howard Hendricks was good at emphasizing the simplicity of the message he wanted to express. Jeanne, his wife, relates that he said all he wanted to do was teach the Bible to men who lacked understanding. This essence of Howard Hendricks discipleship is key to understanding his approach.
The recency effect on perspective can cloud our view of God's work in our lives and the church, making short-term struggles seem like the whole picture. The way out of this unhelpful state for me is to step back and form a larger perspective of God's work in my life and the church. Unfortunately, what takes place in the short term is not always a clear picture of God's activity.
According to the apostle Paul, a richly varied church that’s united in Christ reflects the richly varied wisdom of our God. To cultivate multiethnic, multigenerational, and multi-socioeconomic cultures in our churches is to declare to the world the riches of God’s multiethnic church wisdom in Christ.
