Relationships and Community on Church And State

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Colossians 1:13-14, Romans 12:2, 1 Peter 5:2-3, James 4:4, Philippians 2:5-8, John 18:36

When the Church tries to embody the rule of God in the forms of earthly power it may achieve that power, but it is no longer a sign of the kingdom.

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Author

Justin Giboney

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Psalm 2:10-11, John 18:36, Matthew 5:13-16, Jeremiah 29:7, Micah 6:8, 1 Samuel 15:22

We can’t separate what we believe in the political arena from who we are in Christ and what obedience to God demands...That said, not every tenet of Christianity should become the law of the state. We...

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Author

Abraham Kuyper

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God built into the creation a variety of cultural spheres, such as the family, economics, politics, art, and intellectual inquiry. Each of these spheres has its own proper "business" and nee...

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Abraham Lincoln

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Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.

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The Peaks and Troughs of our Hypersexual Age

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Jonathan Grant

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Sex

A few years ago, while celebrating our fifteenth wedding anniversary, my wife, Esther, and I stayed at the base of the twin mountains of Whistler and Blackcomb, the mammoth ski resort on Canada’s West...

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The Redemptive Landlord

Author

Easton Garcia

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Not everyone living in a distressed neighborhood is associated with gang members, parole officers, employers, social workers, or pastors. But nearly all of them have a landlord. —Matthew Desmond, E...

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God of grace and truth—Father, Son, and

Author

Richard Herman

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Matthew 5:14-16, Ephesians 4:15, Isaiah 41:10, Psalm 46:1, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, John 14:27, Psalm 145:8

God of grace and truth—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Thank You. Thank You for being there even when we don’t feel it. Thank You for keeping Your eyes on us, even when we lose sight of You. Thank You f...

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Gracious God—Father, Son and Holy

Author

Richard Herman

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Matthew 5:14-16

Gracious God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit: You are the light of life, the One who speaks light into darkness and gives us hope like the rising sun as night gives way to morning. With the light of joy:...

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The Covenants of Scripture

Author

Merrill F. Unger

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Covenant

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Hebrews 13:20, Genesis 1:26-28, Genesis 1:26, Genesis 3:14-19, Genesis 3:14, Genesis 8:20-9, Genesis 9:5-6, Genesis 12:1-3, Galatians 3:16, John 8:56-58, 2 Corinthians 3:7-9, Deuteronomy 30:1-10, Deuteronomy 30:1, 2 Samuel 7:4-17, Luke 1:31-33, Acts 1:6, Revelation 19:16, Matthew 26:28, Mark 14:24, Luke 22:20, Hebrews 8:8-12, Galatians 3:13-20

Eternal covenant, Heb 13:20—The redemptive covenant before time began, between the Father and the Son. By this covenant we have eternal redemption, an eternal peace from the ‘God of peace’, through th...

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Alone Together

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Jay Y. Kim

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Proverbs 18:24, Romans 12:9-12, Hebrews 10:24-25, Galatians 3:2, John 13:34-35, 1 Thessalonians 5:11, Proverbs 27:17, Proverbs 18:1

In this excerpt from Jay Y. Kim’s book, Analog Church , the author shares about an experience at a local restaurant after being convicted of his own smartphone use at home, keeping him from being p...

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Settling Accounts

Author

William E. Brown

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Isaiah 55:8-9, Matthew 6:33-34, Proverbs 3:5-6, Psalm 37:25-26, Ecclesiastes 3:1, Galatians 6:9

The story is told of a farmer in a Midwestern state who had a strong disdain for “religious” things. As he plowed his field on Sunday morning, he would shake his fist at the church people who passed b...

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David Putman & Ed Stetzer

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Amos 8:11-12 , 2 Chronicles 7:14 , Nehemiah 13:10-11, Hebrews 10:24-25 , Matthew 9:37-38 , Psalm 122:1

Since 1991, the adult population in the United States has grown by 15%. During that same period, the number of adults who do not attend church has nearly doubled, rising from 39 million to 75 million—...

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The Shock-Value of Attending American MegaChurches for Third-World Missionary Kids

Author

Neil Cole

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1 Samuel 16:7, Amos 5:21-24 , Isaiah 1:11-17, John 4:21-24, Matthew 18:20, Psalm 95:6-7

A missionary family who has started organic churches in some of the most dangerous fields in the world once returned to the states for furlough. On the first Sunday back, they visited a large Baptist ...

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Author

David Putman & Ed Stetzer

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Scripture

Isaiah 29:13, Malachi 3:10 , Exodus 20:8-10, Hebrews 10:24-25, Luke 4:16, Psalm 84:10

The Barna Research Group reports that in the United States about 10 million self-proclaimed, born-again Christians have not been to church in the last six months, apart from Christmas or Easter.

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He’d Be Wrong!

Author

John M. Perkins

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Segregation

Reporters Alex Alston and James Dickerson tell a sad story about a church that sought to integrate its ranks: The Mississippi Delta was in a tizzy over rumors that blacks might show up at white church...

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A New Direction for Family Discipleship

Author

Brian Dembowczyk

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If the Prof is 10 min late... I was in my freshman year in college, and Statistics was the final class before Thanksgiving break. When the professor was ten minutes late, I and several others got up ...

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5 Steps to Handling Strife Within the Church

Author

Mike Kenyon

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James 4:1, Philippians 2:14, 1 Corinthians 14:33, James 1:5

Conflict in Ministry Have you ever whispered to yourself, “I didn’t sign up for this?” I confess those words have passed through my mind more than once over the years. When I started out in ministry...

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Challenge: Sum up Every Aspect of Theology & Church History

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Joshua Brooks

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Psalm 23:1-4, John 10:11-18, Luke 19:1-10, Luke 15:11-32, Ephesians 3:17-19, 1 John 4:10-11, Romans 8:38-39

Karl Barth arguably was the greatest theologian of the twentieth century. His twelve-volume Church Dogmatics, alone, consists of over ten thousand pages of systematic theology. Toward the end of his l...

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Author

Charles Hodge

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The Church is everywhere represented as one. It is one body, one family, one fold, one kingdom. It is one because it is pervaded by one Spirit. We are all baptized into one Spirit so as to become, say...

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Has Religion been a Force for Evil in Human History

Author

Francis S. Collins

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Exodus 3:7-10, Isaiah 58:6-10, Micah 6:6-8, Matthew 23:27-28 , James 1:26-27, Psalm 146:7-9

A major stumbling block for many earnest seekers is the compelling evidence throughout history that terrible things have been done in the name of religion. This applies to virtually all faiths at some...

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Pledging Allegiance to a Party

Author

Eugene Cho

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Exodus 32:1–4, 1 Samuel 8:6–9, Daniel 6:6–10, Matthew 22:20–21, Acts 5:29, Psalm 146:3–5

Followers of Jesus should not be in bed with any of the political parties. Even if one affiliates with a particular party, may we maintain a posture to collaborate, listen, hold accountable, and engag...

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The Politics of Ministry Book Review & Quotes

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Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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Scripture

Philippians 2:21

Picture this: you are just about a year into your first call as a minister. Everything seems to be going swimmingly. You caught up with a seminary friend over the weekend and you slightly brag about h...

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A Poor Man’s Ticker-tape Parade

Author

Mia Levetan

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Zechariah 9:9, Exodus 12:1–28 , 2 Kings 9:13 , Matthew 21:1–11, John 12:12–16, Psalm 118:25–26

Frederick Buechner is a master of capturing the excitement of the moment of Palm Sunday. It’s a great reminder that the story itself is a great illustration! We call it Palm Sunday because maybe t...

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God of hope and anticipation—who’s

Author

Richard Herman

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God of hope and anticipation—who’s constant in love and with us always and everywhere: We need you! ...For we do nothing of value on our own. We need you to heal—because we can’t do it. Please make...

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The Humanity of the Stranger: the Samaritan in the Israel/Gaza Crisis

Author

Scott B. Bullock

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Luke 10:null, Luke 10:30

Compassion does not demand that we know who is right and who is wrong. In fact, it does not ask for us to know anything at all about [people] except the fact that they are in need. As I facilitated...

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The Banshees of Inisherin Movie Review

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Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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Ephesians 4:null

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or. what's a heaven for? " Robert Browning A part of our desire at The Pastor’s Workshop is to help pastors connect the stories in ...

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Laundry Love

Author

Don Everts

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Greg and some of his friends from church were zealous to pursue the common good of their community, Ventura, California. Instead of coming up with their own ideas of how to do this, they started by li...

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The Beatitudes: An Antidote to Superficial Christianity

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Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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The Beatitudes

This blog post started as the introduction to a book review (details below), but I rather quickly realized I had two posts on my hands, not one: There are two quotes about the beatitudes that I lov...

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Loving Your Enemies & Costly Love

Author

Brett McCracken

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Matthew 5:44

One of the costliest requirements of Christlike love is Jesus’s call to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt. 5: 44). What does this look like for Christians in today’s world...

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Justice is Personal

Author

Andy Crouch

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Matthew 25:40, Leviticus 19:15, Galatians 3:28, James 2:8-9, Amos 5:24, Micah 6:8, Isaiah 1:17

When did the topic of justice become important to you?” Gideon Strauss posed that question to two dozen people crammed into our living room one fall evening in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Some of us wer...

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