Spiritual abuse works both ways: congregations can abuse pastors and pastors can abuse congregations and congregants. Make it more complex: congregants can abuse one another.

Leaders sit around and figure which ones will work in their context and then crumple up the true stories so they can be tossed in the rubbish bin. These false narratives rewound the victims, corrupt the heart of the church, and turn church cultures into greater toxicity.

Church crises are happening so often they have become customary, and that reflects the state of church in the mode of leadership.

Over the years, my own thinking about legalism has become more nuanced, but I want to map out what legalism is in the context of the New Testament.

A toxic church culture may well appear to everyone as successful, strategic, innovative, observably Christian and biblical, and worthy of emulation.

If we are to have any hope of developing a goodness (tov) culture in our churches, a narcissistic pastor, unempathetic leader must be resisted.

Unless you are well-versed in biblical Hebrew and New Testament Greek, you don't have the authority to tell your congregation which is the "best Bible translation."

Why go to seminary? I know full well that many today find seminary irrelevant and contend they are “successful” ministers without it. I disagree mostly, so here are 10 reasons why you should seriously consider going to seminary.