Blog
Explore our growing library of practical resources created to help you plant, grow, and multiply healthy churches.
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Pursuing the Kingdom vs. the King: Priorities, Lesson 4
WARNING: You can pursue the Kingdom and not the King! Join us as we explore the profound difference between serving God as a faithful servant and a beloved child–in Lesson 4 of the Priorities Series by Steve Childers.
The Danger in Spiritual Disciplines: A Word of Caution About Your New Year Resolutions
Resolutions to read the Bible and pray more can be helpful. But they can also be hurtful if the underlying motivations are not deeply rooted in the good news of God’s astonishing love for you in Jesus Christ.
A Vision for the PCA: A Look Back and Ahead
Randy Pope discusses the importance of maintaining doctrinal purity and effectively equipping church members to share their faith in a culturally relevant manner. He notes a decline in the vitality of his denomination, advocating for a balance of doctrinal understanding and active mission work. Inspired by Frank Barker, he emphasizes the need for regular training in evangelism, urging churches to model and teach practical faith-sharing annually.
The Key to Evangelism in the 21st Century
In "Workers for Your Joy" by David Mathis, a class at Reformed Theological Seminary, led by Steve Childers, learns that "hospitality" is crucial for 21st-century evangelism, especially in the West. The article underscores hospitality's growing importance in a post-Christian society, highlighting it as an ancient, biblical strategy gaining renewed relevance for engaging with contemporary secularism.
Jerry Bridges Versus Jerry Bridges
Childers reviews Jerry Bridges' evolving theology, noting his early focus on "dependent responsibility" in his best-selling book "The Pursuit of Holiness” versus his later focus on God's grace and the gospel as the motive and means of holiness–moving away from a performance-based approach.
What is the Gospel? A Funeral Sermon in Honor of Mary Frame by Steve Childers
There were many beautiful stories shared in honor of Mary Frame by her family and friends at her funeral service. But John and Mary Frame asked Steve Childers to preach on another beautiful story at her funeral to honor someone else.
Heart of Renewal: Renewal Series Part 6
How does the gospel really change us? What’s our part? What’s God’s part? Take a deeper look at how the gospel brings personal renewal to the human heart, beginning with yours, in the Renewal Series Pt 6 by Steve Childers.
Spreading Renewal: Renewal Series Part 5
Paul would be shocked to find the church so horribly divided today. Since no single church has the gifts and resources needed to do effective ministry to a whole community, churches must partner with other churches. Learn more in the Renewal Series Pt 5 by Steve Childers.
Community Renewal: Renewal Series Part 4
What is the church’s role in transforming society? Should the church just focus on saving souls? The problem is a failure to have a biblical balance between the not yet and the already aspects of God’s kingdom on earth. Learn more in the Renewal Series Pt 4 by Steve Childers.
Church Renewal Dynamics: Renewal Series Part 3
The biblical dynamics of church renewal include always aligning God’s church with God’s mission of restoring people to God, one another, their community, and the world through Christ by his Spirit. Learn more in the new Renewal Series Part 3 by Steve Childers.
Personal Renewal: Renewal Series Part 2
Personal, spiritual renewal begins when thirsty people start turning away from their idols and drinking deeply from the well that is Christ. Learn more in the new Renewal Series Part 2 by Steve Childers.
Vision for Renewal: Renewal Series Part 1
The church today is in serious decline. There is a desperate need for a new outpouring of God’s Spirit. We must first recapture the biblical vision of the great church leaders and churches in history. Learn more in the new Renewal Series Part 1 by Dr. Steve Childers.
Corporate Worship Services: Worship Series Part 6
Our corporate worship should inspire our personal worship and our personal worship should culminate in our corporate worship. Learn practical ways your weekly worship can be more edifying to you and honoring to God in this new episode on worship by Drs. Frame and Childers.
Why Your Work Matters to God: Faith and Work Series Part 1
In today’s hybrid work culture, Christians need to embrace biblical principles and practices of work and rest. Recommit to a biblical view of work this Labor Day and get 50% DISCOUNT on “Faith & Work Course” by Dr. Steve Childers.
Wholehearted Worship - Existential Perspective: Worship Series Part 5
Learn how to worship God with your whole being, including your mind, affections, and intentional, physical acts of your body in this new episode on existential perspective of Worship by Drs. Frame and Childers.
The Cultural Perspective of Worship: Worship Series Part 4
Should I lift up my arms in worship? Should I bow down? Learn how to avoid the twin dangers of blindly neglecting the worship practices of the past and rigidly adhering to them in the present in this new episode on cultural perspective of Worship by Drs. Frame and Childers.
The Biblical Perspective of Worship: Worship Series Part 3
How should you respond to church leaders who accuse you of displeasing God if you don’t worship according to their practices, when you can’t see these practices condemned or required in the Bible? Learn how in this new episode on Biblical Worship by Drs. Frame and Childers.
Hope: Longing for One Kiss and One Song that Never Played
“I love that it [this line] is being questioned in that it means the poetry of the lyric is doing its job. And that job, or one of them, is to evoke deep feeling and imagery in an expansive way so that each reader/singer can see some of their deepest moments within them though having lived very different circumstances from one another.” – T. L. Moody
Vertical and Horizontal Worship: Worship Series Part 2
In our last episode, we learned about the broad and narrow focus in biblical worship. In this episode we learn about the vertical and horizontal focus in biblical worship. Our vertical focus is on God and our horizontal focus is on others. Learn more.
Broad and Narrow Worship: Worship Series Part 1
Learn how to deepen your understanding and experience of true worship in the new Worship Series by Drs John Frame and Steve Childers. In this episode, learn what the Bible teaches about a broad and narrow sense of worship.