How do you know that God is good? That He’s trustworthy? How do you know the Bible is true? Many times we’re told we just have to believe these things by knowing and accepting them.
In my life, these questions required much more than acquiring knowledge. Coming to answers involved knowing about God, yes, but also experiencing God.
Read the rest of my article at Gospel-Centered Discipleship.
The opening lines of the book of 2 Timothy show us two important foundations of Christ-centered leaders—they are called by God and formed by family. Listen to this episode to see how both of these effect your leadership some two thousand years after Paul first wrote to Timothy.
Episode length: 25 minutes
Main idea: A Christ-centered leader is called by God and formed by family.
We’re more distracted than ever, constantly feeling overwhelmed by the torrent of information that floods our eyes and ears each day. Arcade Fire’s newest album, Everything Now, captures the spirit of our distracted age.
In a surging song that sounds like several playing at once, frontman Win Butler holds up a mirror to the modern world with these words:
“Infinite content
Infinite content
We’re infinitely content
All your money is already spent on it
All your money is already spent
Infinite content”
Butler is warring against the Instagram age, mocking our contentment with endless streaming, infinite music, and never-ending social media feeds.
One of Eugene Peterson’s books on following Jesus is titled A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. His message is that discipleship to Jesus takes discipline and attention, and he’s right.
But how do we get people’s attention long enough to disciple them?
Read the rest of my article at Gospel-Centered Discipleship to learn more.
Over and over again, studies show the most important thing for spiritual growth is reading the Bible, yet most people in the church aren’t doing it. Only 45% of those who regularly attend church read the Bible more than once a week. For each church attender who does read their Bible every day, there’s someone else who doesn’t read it at all.
Biblical illiteracy is an epidemic.
I say this as a pastor who talks to people every week, inside and outside the church, with next to no biblical knowledge. The most concerning thing is that there doesn’t seem to be a distinction between those who are new to the faith and those who isave been Christians for several years, sometimes even a decade or more.
Why is it that despite the evidence, despite our sincere longing to grow spiritually, we don’t do the one thing most capable of producing that growth?
In my experience, there are two main reasons people don’t read their Bible. The first is that people honestly don’t understand the Bible holds transformational power. Second, they don’t read the Bible because they don’t know how to find delight in reading it. Both issues are worth understanding in more detail.
Read the rest of my article over at Gospel-Centered Discipleship.
I know—that’s a heavy question. But all of us ask it of ourselves at some point, and I guarantee some of the people in your group are asking it right now. We come up with standards we think will make us into the person we want to be, but we end up feeling crushed beneath the weight of it all. So what hope is there when you feel like that? Listen to this week’s episode to find out.
(Episode length: 15 mins)
Main idea: There’s only one Person who can bear the weight of living.
This is part of a podcast I do for group leaders at my church. Browse the archives for more.
Grayson Pope 