What has made the greatest impact on your spiritual growth? If you’re like me, the answer isn’t a sermon, a lesson, or even a book; the answer is a person who was willing to invest time in you. Ron Swiger was one of the first guys who intentionally poured into my...

“The criteria on which a church should measure its success is not how many new names are added to the roll nor how much the budget is increased, but rather how many Christians are actively winning souls and training them to win the multitudes.” —Robert Coleman, The...

Discipleship involves two aspects of our lives. First, it is living in God’s presence. Second, it is how we live on a day-to-day basis: balancing God’s purposes in our lives, relating to others, and seeking to become more like Christ. Here are some practical...

Being for someone means I celebrate their victories and mourn their setbacks. It means I deeply and sincerely wish them well. This is not easy to do. It doesn’t take much truth-telling for me to admit that I don’t want my enemies to succeed. More humbling is the fact...

The mission statement we had settled on was (and still is) to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. But we felt like that needed further definition. If someone is in a growing relationship with Christ, what specifically is growing? Her hair? His...

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You may not think of yourself as a boastful person. But you are. I’m not saying that because I’ve done surveillance on you. I’m saying that because we all boast in something. We are always searching for something that sets us apart from others. We boast in what we...

https://youtu.be/C5Z6h_RVhIw

David didn’t think one rock would do. He knew Goliath had four behemoth relatives. “Ishbi-benob was a descendant of the giants; his bronze spearhead weighed more than seven pounds” (2 Sam. 21:16 NLT). Saph made the list, described as “another descendant of the giants”...

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Jesus taught we are changed more by what we say than what we hear: He went on: "What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.' Mark 7:20 (NIV) That is why the Bible makes such a big deal about what we confess. That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is...

https://youtu.be/7c9PaZzsqEg

If you live on the East Coast and travel to Hawaii, you know that there is a time difference that makes three o’clock in the morning feel like nine. With that in mind, you will understand that whenever I go out to our fiftieth state I find myself wide awake long...

Bible-based Christianity is dead. At least that’s what society wants you to believe. Churches are closing their doors. Evangelicals are leaving the faith. The tide of those who identify as “no religion” is rising. Is the handwriting on the wall? Is the Christian...

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The term “conversational prayer” is not an unusual one. Neither is it original. I’ve found many groups of young people and adults using this direct, honest approach to God. Yet the word conversation needs a fresh defining. What is conversation? It is a method which...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdkQMSTgi2E

Conversational Prayer Expressed. Just as we converse with different people through a variety of different means, we also talk with God in a number of ways that inevitably reflect our unique culture, our tradition, our depth of experiences, our own personalities and...

As Goliath moved closer to attack, David quickly ran out to meet him. Reaching into his shepherd’s bag and taking out a stone, he hurled it from his sling and hit the Philistine in the forehead. The stone sank in, and Goliath stumbled and fell face downward to the...