We live in a culture that is eager for religious experience. George Barna reports that in the United States over 90 percent of the population believes in a God or gods that have power over the universe. As a result, religious tolerance and experimentation are important to people today. Furthermore, when asked if all of the world’s religions essentially prayed to the same God, 64% of the adult public agreed. In the Christian church, among those who called themselves evangelicals, 46% agreed, and among those who labeled themselves “born again,” 48% agreed. Among adults who simply called themselves “regular church attendees,” 62% said that they believed that all religions essentially prayed to the same God.

This is astonishing. Within the pews of America’s churches, two-thirds of the people do not believe in the exclusive character of the Christian message, and almost half of all evangelicals say the same thing. In light of these tendencies, both inside and outside of the church, how should we define our life together as Christians?

A few days ago, I was perusing some new blogs and came across the following statement: “God cannot bear to behold such things but responds to them only by turning Himself away and executing justice against such evil.” I copied the statement because I knew I wanted to write about it but I neglected to get the blog reference. If this statement is from your blog, please let me know and I will give you the proper credit.
The statement above was written in the context of saying that God the …

The following devotion is from Donnie Lambert, who is one of the young men in Lewisville Baptist Church. It is my wonderful privilege to pastor men like Donnie. Les
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God’s Rope
A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back to back and conquer, three are even better, for a triple braided cord is not easily broken. – Ecclesiastes 4:12
When I was a teenager, I went repelling with some friends of mine. I can remember being at the top of that mountain and looking down. As …

A few days ago I crashed. The day before, I had gone all day at my usual breakneck pace. That evening we had a fantastic two hour meeting of our Missions Action Team (MAT) in which we were brainstorming ways to reach our Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. What a wonderful exciting day it was. That night I had a hard time getting to sleep because my mind was racing with the possibilities of how God was moving in our midst. The next morning as I …

You’ve seen them as you drive by: church signs with messages on them. Here are examples of a few of the signage I’ve seen:
“God will never leave you for the Jets!”
“Which is worse: a child afarid of the dark or an adult afraid of the light?”
“I created Church Norris. God”
“That love your neighbor thing? I meant that. God”
“We welcome the good the bad and the ugly.”
“Will you take God on summer vacation with you?”
There are even whole books dedicated to church signs.
The church I pastored two churches ago, in Granville …

This is a copy of a post from my personal blog “Joining God in His Work.” I thought the topic deserved wider coverage and so I offer it here.
I was invited to attend the Southern Baptist Bivocational Ministers Association (SBBMA) Coordinating Council meeting in Brentwood, TN on August 26-27, 2008. Only recently had I become aware of this organization and I was happy to attend the meeting to better understand who they are and what they are doing.
What I learned is that even though their name only mentions “bivocational” …

If someone came up to you right now and asked you, “What’s wrong with having sex when you’re not married?”, what would you say?
Our culture has been changing its attitudes about sex for the last 30 years. According to one poll, only 49% of American women believe sex before marriage is immoral, and that’s down from 65% who believed that in 1970. According to another poll, 47% of Americans say that it’s wrong to have children outside of marriage but 50% responded that it is not wrong. Other surveys …

When God called me to preach, He called me to preach His Word, not my word. When God called me to preach, He called me to preach what He says, not what I want to say. When God called me to preach, He called me to preach His truth, not my opinion. And early in my ministry, God showed me a Scripture that has formed the basis of my preaching ever since.
That Scripture is Jeremiah 26:2, which reads “Thus says the LORD, ‘Stand in the court of the LORD’s …

50. We could get sued.
49. This could be divisive.

48. The woman’s group would be against it.
47. Our people have been asked to give too often.
46. Our people are stretched too thin.
45. Bill Gothard teaches against it.

I’m reading a wonderful book by D. G. McCoury entitled, “Understanding the Single-Staff Church.” He makes an astute observation about the differences in local churches. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
A pastor attempting to serve an open-village or small-town church and then a crossroad church outside the village is likely to find that the style of preaching ministry satisfactory to one group will not be so to another group. Too often, we assume all congregations are about the same, especially those within the same denomination.