Prayer in unhealthy churches is reactive rather than proactive. A problem develops, and then the church members pray. A marriage struggles, and then they pray. A young person wanders, and then the church prays. Prayer in an unhealthy congregation is often a response of desperation rather than a marker of the DNA of the church. …
A wonderfully constructive and pastoral exhortation from Terry Johnson, who encourages us to remember the four central aspects of a Christian identity: sons, saints, servants, sinners; and how our identity can become dysfunctional when any of these emphasised at the expense of the others. Surely as we attend corporate Christian worship each facet of identity …
Two minutes of video from Russell Moore which reminds pastors of a point which we all know, but are prone to forget.
Our suffering and sadness, well navigated, will cause us to look inward, but our gaze should not, must not remain there. Instead, acknowledging the emptiness, loss and confusion within, and convicted of our inability to endure suffering, we look to Jesus, who came and endured the true suffering of which ours is but the echo. …
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