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By Matt Carter Almost four years into the life of the church he planted with a core team that included worship leader Chris Tomlin, Matt Carter had a profound mountainside experience. Interview by Scott Marshall Almost four years into the life of the church he planted with a core team that included worship leader Chris Tomlin, Matt Carter had a profound mountainside experience. His church, The Austin Stone Community Church in Austin, Texas, had been growing consistently, receiving abundant financial [...]

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By: Ed Welch Published: May 16, 2013 NOTE:  I have encountered pastors who I believe are true psychopaths.  They were tremendously used by God or had great potential to be used by God, but ultimately due to lack of accountability and an unwillingness to heed the confrontation of others who were close to their situation, their psychopathy won out and they lost their ministries. A friend sent me a copy of Jon Ronson’s book, The Psychopath Test: A Journey through [...]

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by Ruthie Dean “Those high school girls … they dress so slutty,” she said, and then casually chuckled and added, “It’s a battlefield for men out there.” My entire body felt tingly and hot, as I sat quietly. I didn’t quite know why her words prompted such a strong response inside me, but I excused myself to the restroom. When I came back, the subject was changed, but I continued to mull over her words. She was on staff with [...]

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by Greg Stier Legalists are tricky creatures. They slither in the side doors of churches, sign up to lead Bible studies, and fill the minds of once joyous believers with rules and requirements of what it “really means” to become a Christian. Ask them how a person is saved and they’ll say, “By grace of course,” and then they’ll roll out a scroll across the floor full of checklists to prove your salvation, and prerequisites you must abide by in order to [...]

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By Jim Cymbala Brooklyn Tabernacle’s Jim Cymbala: Do we really believe God can draw anyone to Himself? Have you ever considered the implications of Christ’s startling words when He tells His disciples in John 15:5 “Apart from Me you can do nothing”? Are we really so spiritually helpless that nothing can be accomplished without God? My wife, Carol, and I made that discovery in the autumn of 1971 when the little inner-city New York church I was pastoring was struggling [...]

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by Sonny Lemmons Working in Children’s Ministry ruined church for me. Seriously. The church in Athens, Georgia I was attending/serving/working multiple volunteer hours in already had me committed to about as much as was humanly possible. I was involved with the Teaching Team (outlining the weekly sermons and series as well as trying our best to keep our pastor on track and not veer too wildly off topic), the Creative Team (designing and building the environments for said series), the [...]

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May 9, 2013 – Much ink has been spilled in recent months over what social analysts are calling the “rise of the Nones.” The trend describes the seeming surge in people who claim no faith or say they are unaffiliated with any belief system. The term rose to prominence when a Pew Research poll found that the number of Americans who are religiously unaffiliated rose to almost 20%—a nearly 5% leap in just the last five years. In the subsequent [...]

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by Brian Dodd I am an anomaly in America culture. At 47 years old, I had never had a cup of coffee until I attended a coffee cupping last week. Coffee cupping is similar to wine tasting in that you smell the aromas, identify flavors, test texture and then drink different types of coffee. It is not because of religious reasons that I have not had a cup of coffee. I simply do not enjoy hot drinks. Like many people who have no religious background, [...]

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Luke 13:11 11And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. Imagine being bowed over for 18 years. All you would see is the dust on the ground. That was the predicament of the woman in Luke 13. Dust was all her eyes fell on, all the time, everywhere she went, until she became dust-conscious. Thank God she finally saw the beautiful feet [...]

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A former forensic artist teams up with Dove’s Real Beauty Campaign to illustrate the perception of beauty among today’s women. Participants are instructed to describe their own facial features as FBI trained forensic artist Gil Zamora sits behind a screen and sketches their portraits. Next they’re instructed to describe a fellow participant’s facial features. The portraits are then hung side by side for the participants to see, and an amazing thing happens.