I have seen the story unfold so many times I could tell it in my sleep. A young pastor walks into established church and tries to change the church’s structure and culture on the first day. Instead of getting to know the people, the culture, and his... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
Today — January 11, 2016 — John Piper turns 70. I ‘met’ John Piper in 2000 when I was 19 years old and my summer mission trip leader had us read The Pleasures of God together. I was transfixed, and transformed. Never had I encountered such an... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
So many of the mistakes and missteps a pastor makes in a church struggling and needing revitalization comes from a lack of knowledge of what to do. The absence of clear thinking on this matter causes a pastor to listen to all kinds of different... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
Editor’s note: This article is excerpted from “The Five Pillars of the Insiders: A Collective Response to Understanding Insider Movements.” The entire response is available at the blog of the Jenkins Center for the Christian Understanding of Islam.... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
It was the first of March, 1985. I remember where I was sitting when it happened. I was pastor of a church in the western suburbs of Chicago. A guest preacher was speaking at a series of meetings at our church. He was teaching on the prayers of the... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
One of the great privileges we have at Southern Seminary is the opportunity to hear God’s word proclaimed from some of the top evangelical scholars, pastors, and leaders in our bi-weekly chapel service. Thankfully, you don’t have to be... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
What we celebrate at Christmas is a repudiation of racism and all forms of ethnocentric superiority and segregation. Jesus of Nazareth was a Jew, born of the Virgin Mary, and his adoptive father Joseph was of Davidic descent. Nevertheless, the angel... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
Video continues to be one of the fastest growing forms of content on the internet. While the power of video has long been realized, the opportunity to share these stories with a wide audience is still a relatively new phenomenon. At Southern... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
At the end of another year we want to pause and thank you for taking the time to read The Southern Blog. Our prayer is that content produced would equip you for more faithful service. This year saw a new record for pageviews on Southern Blog content... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
Many of us struggle to make conversation at Christmas gatherings, whether church events, work-related parties, neighborhood drop-ins, or annual family occasions. Sometimes our difficulty lies in having to chat with people we rarely see or have never... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
