category
Search by topic, scripture, category etc..
16 Results in 102ms
Display
Sorted By
-
illustration
The Message We Want to Hear in Church
Churches want to hear nice, optimistic messages, free of the mention of sin or a call for repentance. Churches want nice, lean programs, directed at nice, clean families, leading to growth without sac... -
Quote
By failing to come to grips with how cultural dysfunctions deeply impact the health of the church, our leaders will continue to fail to discern an essential reality concerning the nature of change: Cu... -
illustration
Scene Stealing through Pride
One of the cardinal rules of improvisational theater is that actors must never steal scenes. In her book Improvisation for the Theater , Viola Spolin bluntly puts it this way: “Any player who ‘st... -
illustration
Pastors Experience Success from Status
If we lack money and power, we can still feel successful if we have the respect of our peers. As a young minister without wealth or power, I loved being called “Reverend.” It was an ego trip for me wh... -
Quote
When Jesus caught his disciples arguing about who among them was the greatest, they felt embarrassed—but Jesus didn’t rebuke them for wanting to be great. He simply gave them an unexpected formula: Be... -
illustration
Changing Portraits
Writer Philip Yancey notes that toward the end of his life, Albert Einstein removed the portraits of two scientists–Newton and Maxwell–from his wall. He replaced those with portraits of Gandhi and Sch... -
liturgy
God of nurture and care, You seek to
God of nurture and care, You seek to gather us together as a mother hen gathers her chicks. You seek to be our refuge in times of trouble. As we have gathered together today, draw us closer to You, de... -
liturgy
Lord Jesus Christ, at your birth the
Lord Jesus Christ, at your birth the angels gave glory to God in the highest heaven, and offered peace on earth to all humankind. We struggle to follow the heavenly host. All too often we focus on giv... -
illustration
Beautiful Feet
A missionary was preaching in the village market, and some of the people were laughing at him because he was not a very handsome man. He took it for a time, and then he said to the crowd, “It is true ... -
illustration
Everything is Required?
“A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord,” reads Leviticus 27:30. It may come as something of a surprise bu... -
illustration
Baptized but not Converted
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, of Sherlock Holmes fame became a zealous spiritualist later in life. He would often give public lectures on the subject. At one such meeting, he gestured enthusiastically while... -
illustration
An Attitude of a Servant
What he [Jesus] was attempting to instill in his disciples was the attitude of a servant: humility and a willingness to put others ahead of oneself. In that culture, washing the feet of others would s... -
illustration
Power is for Service
The way most of us serve keeps us in control. We choose whom, when, where and how we will serve. We stay in charge. Jesus is calling for something else. He is calling us to be servants. When we make t... -
illustration
From Mediocre to Super Bowl Champions
On Monday morning, February 2008, every sports page in the world heralded the New York Giants’ astonishing Super Bowl upset over the undefeated New England Patriots. And the big story within the story... -
Quote
Christianity has suffered more casualties from faux faith than from honest doubt. -
Quote
How many prodigals are kept out of the kingdom of God by the unlovely characters of those who profess to be inside!
Top_level_categories by Topic
C
S
Top_level_categories by Reference