I’m a pastor. Not a lawyer. Here’s what that means for me and how I interpret my calling.  I teach the Bible in an effort to make disciples of Jesus.  I want people to believe in Jesus, to know Jesus, to follow Jesus, and to live and love like Jesus....

Let’s fight. Or not. There are a thousand things to get mad about in today’s world, and the almost instantaneous and twenty-four news cycles and onslaughts of social media throw these things in our face constantly.  If we’re not careful and prayerful, these controversies ignite anger, division, and broken relationships...

There are many points of doctrine and church practice in which there is ample room for differences of interpretation and opinion.  I can articulate my opinion and others can explain their idea of what Scripture teaches, and we can depart as friends and coworkers for the cause of Christ, even...

This article first appeared in our weekly newsletter in 2019.  I’ve updated it for 2024. I had a good question posed to me this week. “What makes your church different than any other church?” I want to answer it carefully, for I never really like to compare our church to...

How far can a church go to house homeless people?  Should it be illegal? There’s a court case in Ohio that is both interesting and distressing.  The pastor of a church in a small town of about 8,600 people in Ohio had 18 criminal charges filed against him for violating...

This Sunday, January 21, 2024, is Sanctity of Life Sunday.  Because I preach through Bible books like I’m doing now with Proverbs, I don’t focus my preaching on the various “special Sundays” on denominational calendars.  There are simply too many special Sundays to cover, and we would simply go from...

It’s now November, and families and churches are beginning to plan the holidays, if they haven’t done so already.  There’s a lot to think about.  Are we serving traditional food or doing something different?  Are last year’s decorations good enough or do we need something more?  Are we traveling (to...

There is a debate in Christian circles about the role of women in church life and worship.  (Actually, it’s been a debate for as long as I’ve been a pastor.)  The issue I want to deal with in this blog is simple and came up again a few weeks ago...

I believe in religious liberty.  It is a Biblical concept.  Our first responsibility is to God and not to the state.  Peter and John stated it very well when called before the Jewish Sanhedrin and told to stop testifying about Jesus.  They said, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to...

Last week, a leak from the United States Supreme Court indicated that the court may be considering reversing Roe v. Wade, which made abortion widely available.  We don’t know yet how the courts will officially rule.  And if they do overturn that case, we are not yet certain what the...