Tag Archives: church

Battle for the Church

Last week the United Methodist Church (UMC) caved to the LGBTQ agenda. For several years, the UMC has pushed back against progressive efforts to embrace same-sex marriage, the ordination of LBGTQ pastors, and the full inclusion of those who identify as LGBTQ into all church ministries and activities.
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Will The Real Church Please Stand Up!

 “How Should We Then Live?” is the question the late influential Christian apologist and author Francis Schaeffer set out to address and answer.  
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What to Say?

I saw a Facebook post recently re-shared by a friend I admire. You will need to read it all the way through to get the gist of it. Since it was a public post, here’s some of it:
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What Makes Easter…Easter?

Churches throughout Illinois are preparing for this upcoming Easter Sunday. Also known in Christendom as Resurrection Day. It is most certainly the most important of Christian celebrations on the calendar. I mean, what could possibly be more significant and impressive than a man crucified in front of witnesses come back to life a few days later?
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Online Sports Gambling – Church Leaders Beware!

Pete Rose was the all-time hit leader in Major League Baseball. However, he was gambling on the sport while playing. In the wake of the Pete Rose gambling controversy, he was banned from baseball on August 24, 1989.
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Christians, Stop Living Like You’re Lost Part 2

In my last article I addressed the reality that many born-again Christians have been thinking and acting too much like the non-Christians around them.  I pointed out particularly the willingness of so many to lie, or misrepresent the facts, when it appeared to benefit them.  Sadly, abandoning truthfulness is not the only similarity between many of God’s people and the world.
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Mike Johnson and the Separation of Church and State

With Mike Johnson’s selection as the new Speaker of the House, the attacks were instantaneous. One criticism directed at the new Speaker was that he routinely violates the “separation of church and state.”  If the accusers had any knowledge of American history, they would not quickly raise such an issue against a Baptist.
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The Pastor

You may or may not know that October is “Pastor Appreciation Month.” Because I have pastored for thirty years, I am hesitant to write on this topic, but I also believe that it is an important issue. A number of surveys have revealed that there is a significant attrition occurring within the ranks of pastors which threatens the future of churches across the United States. These studies show that in recent years over fifty percent of the men who enter the pastorate drop out before achieving ten years of service. 
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Responding To American Secularization

It’s a topic that’s showing up more and more in books, thought pieces, news outlets, podcasts, and blogs, inside and outside the church: the secularization of America. Pew Research and Gallup (to name a few) have recently highlighted the rise of the “nones” (religiously unaffiliated) across the nation, specifically in the last several years.
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Dropping Like Flies

Some phrase origins are hard to pinpoint such as “dropping like flies.”  A story in the May 1902 edition of the Atlanta Constitution might have said it first, “I saw men and women rushing back and forth within the flames. They would run along, then came the choking smoke and they would drop like dead flies.” 
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Christian Emergency League Update on the Orchard EV Free Church

In this recent dialogue local Chicagoland area Pastors Calvin Lindstrom, James Pittman and Brandon Myers give an update on The Orchard Evangelical Free Church (EFC).
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Is the Church in America Dying, as Some Say?

Recent assessments declare or imply that the church in America is dying. One headline described it this way: “Axios begins countdown to death of Christianity.”
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New Survey Shows We Are Approaching a Post-Christian America

A recent study by Barna reveals the truth about what the spiritual climate in America is currently like. The study was conducted over 7 years, ending in 2016, and focuses on the most post-Christian cities in the US. According to Barna, “To qualify as ‘post-Christian,’ individuals must meet nine or more of our 16 criteria… which identify a lack of Christian identity, belief and practice. These factors include whether individuals identify as atheist, have never made a commitment to Jesus, have not attended church in the last year or have not read the Bible in the last week.”

The

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Prayer Precedes Revival: A Call to Prayer

Our country has never been so parched for prayer, yet we never have found praying harder. Prayer is too hard for us, so our country withers.
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David Platt’s Call to Counter Culture

The last few weeks have seen a lot of commentary on pastors leading the same-sex “affirmation movement.” Church leaders like the infamous unorthodox author and speaker Rob Bell, evangelicals Stan Mitchell of Gracepointe Church in Franklin, Tennessee, and Danny Cortez of New Heart Community Church of La Mirada, California are just a few of the movement’s leading affirmation pastors.
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