Category Archives: Gospel

Daring Faith: Word

One word makes all the difference. Marketing experts preach the importance of putting the customer in the present. They say you need to help the customer imagine themselves actually using your product in the here and now. So when you’re … Continue reading

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Fixer Upper: The Hope of Creation

We’re suckers for home renovation shows. A dozen years ago, it was Trading Spaces. (Remember that show? It kinda put TLC on the map.) Then it was the Extreme Home Makeover craze. About five years ago, Sunny and I fell in love with House … Continue reading

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A Theological Reading of “In the Sanctuary of Outcasts”: Church

I just finished Neil White’s fantastic memoir In the Sanctuary of Outcasts. White spent 12 months — spring 1993 to spring 1994 — incarcerated at the minimum-security Federal Medical Center in Carville, Louisiana. What made this incarceration unique was the “convergence … Continue reading

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A Discipling / Missional People

Before His ascension, Jesus left His followers with a mission to make disciples. We’ve spent much of this year discussing what it means to be missional. When we talk about being missional, we’re not referring to one particular activity or … Continue reading

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The Power of Missional Conversation

  People who have been shaped by the Good News of Jesus have a responsibility to embody the Good News of Jesus. And one of simplest and yet most powerful ways we can embody the Good News is through our … Continue reading

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Love Is Our Mission: Pulpit and Paradigm

John Howard Yoder once wrote that the mission of God is to create a people who are both “pulpit and paradigm” of a new humanity. What does that mean? It means God’s mission is to create a people who both … Continue reading

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Love First: Compelled

On October 25, 2013, British explorer Ben Saunders and his fellow adventurer Tarka L’Herpiniere set out to retrace one of the most ambitious and dangerous polar expeditions of all time. In 1912, British explorer Robert Falcon Scott attempted to journey … Continue reading

Posted in 2 Corinthians 5, Church, Devotional, Faith, Gospel, Love First, Love of Christ, Scripture | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Fearless Love

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of … Continue reading

Posted in 1 John 4, Devotional, Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, Kingdom Values, Love First, Love God, Love Others, Ministry, No Fear, Obedience, Scripture, Theology | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Scandal of Foolish Love

For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. — 1 Cor. 1:17 With these words, Paul gets at … Continue reading

Posted in Devotional, Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, Kingdom Values, Love First, Love God, Love Others, Quotes, Scripture, Theology | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The Church as Public Witness

From Michael Goheen’s A Light to the Nations: The Missional Church and the Biblical Story: [The] witness of the early church was publicly subversive. The early church did not allow itself to be pushed into a private realm in some … Continue reading

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