David Young

When I was in junior high school, the coaches in my physical education class decided to teach us several dances. I had been taught by my church that dancing is sinful because it creates lustful situations. I doubt the church of my youth still teaches this (I really don’t know), and I’ve since changed my […]

Years ago in the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas, two boys pulled the fire alarm at the Westside Middle School. As the students and their teachers exited the building, these boys began to shoot into the crowd from a slope across the parking lot, killing four students and a teacher. The thirty-two-year-old teacher was hit when […]

What is the purpose of baptism? Baptism expresses faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. Baptism is like the disciple’s wedding ceremony. As wedding ceremonies make marriage concrete, so does repentance-confession-baptism seal and holistically solidify our relationship with Christ and his forgiveness. Bill and Sue are in love, but they are not yet […]

When he was about fourteen years old, my son, Jonathan, sat me down and told me that he had lost his faith in God. I was hurt, but I wasn’t surprised. After all, he had not shown much spiritual interest in several years. He suffered from depression and had been painfully lonely since we moved […]

What is spiritual warfare? Spiritual warfare is what the apostle Paul calls “our struggle…against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm” (Eph. 6:12). When we say spiritual, Americans often merely mean emotional. When the Bible uses the term, however, it refers to the personal, real beings who are beyond physics but who interact […]

The RENEW.org Network was launched five years ago as a renewal movement for those who prize following the lordship of Jesus through Scripture. With Scripture as our guiding and final authority, we articulated a faith statement to give everyone unity and clarity on the beliefs and direction we are pursuing as a network (see our […]