ChurchLeaders

Christmastime is a season of anticipation. We anticipate celebrations and traditions. But even more than that, we long for a time when we will experience the fullness of redemption in Jesus.

Christmas is the true intersection of faith and family. That should be encouraging to us as Christians. Here are three ways we can cultivate a healthy engagement with the Christmas season.

Yes, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas—which, for many of us, feels like a rush into chaos. Celebrating Advent during this season slows us down and helps our hearts and minds be reoriented around the coming of Christ.Yes, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas—which, for many of us, feels like a rush into chaos. Celebrating Advent during this season slows us down and helps our hearts and minds be reoriented around the coming of Christ.

Children have a faith that's ready to go. So let’s not waste that opportunity by delivering a mere morality tale in Sunday school and children's church. We need to share the Gospel message and Gospel Truth.

In a recent speech, Michael Flynn followed the pattern of Christian nationalism by taking a biblical passage and applying it to the United States. "You have to believe this, that God Almighty is, like, involved in this country...This is the shining city on the hill," Flynn said. Hint: It’s not.

Here are five practical ways pastors and church leaders can properly and biblically use gospel power to help foster healthy churches and communities.

Jesus schooled the world on how to understand and exert power. If pastors and church leaders are going to understand and exert power well and guard against its misuse and abuse, we must learn from Him.

Pastoral abuse of power can lead to the misuse of authority, the mishandling of finances, the sexual harassment of adults, the abuse of children, and a myriad of other sins. It's always disastrous.

Power is all around us, and in fact, it is within us. Pastors and church leaders should seek to recover a biblical understanding of power by understanding the subtlety, scope, and stewardship of power.

It is easy to do all that we can to make things work—to make them go. And I’m not against that, when done with wisdom. I just want you to leave some room for divine encounters with the Holy Spirit.