Accepting LGBTQ+ Lifestyles for Disciples of Jesus: A Response to Sally Gary and the CenterPeace Ministries Decision to be Pro Gay
*Editor’s Note: Due to some recent articles exploring what the Bible says about gender, our ability to share articles widely has been significantly suppressed. In the interest of continuing to be able to speak biblical truth in love to an increasingly inhospitable culture, would you consider sharing this important article to people in your circle...
Guy Hammond
Critical Race Theory: Bitter Roots
For Part 1 “Critical Race Theory: Friend or Foe,” click here. What is critical race theory and where does it come from? Delgado and Stefancic begin to answer this question in the introduction to their book Critical Race Theory: An Introduction. A clear and broadly agreeable definition for CRT is sometimes hard to find–especially from...
Chad Ragsdale
How I Learned to Look for “God Signs”
A long time ago, our family happened upon this idea of what I’ll call “God signs.” The idea came through a friend of ours who had mentioned that, whenever he was faced with a tough decision or was feeling conflicted or particularly low, he had started noticing birds. Not just birds on a wire or...
Bonnie Blaylock
Developing a Prayer and Fasting Culture: A Q&A with David Roadcup and Bobby Harrington
Is your church waking up from the uneasy peace we have often made with the way things are? Are you and your church ready to move beyond maintaining membership rolls to seriously pursuing revival? For Christians ready for revival, it’s time to reintroduce the spiritual disciplines of prayer and fasting—not as sporadic regularities but as...
Reasons Why Adolescents Attempt Suicide
There are a number of reasons why a teen might make a suicide attempt. The following are a summary of some of the most common.[1] To escape from an intolerable situation. It is important to note that “intolerable” might be anything in the mind of a developing adolescent. Any time a teen feels hopeless and...
Gary Zustiak
A Snapshot of a Disciple Making Relationship
When it comes to making disciples, one of the areas that can be confusing is the relationship between people. Ultimately walking with others the way Jesus did is messy and personal. It’s all up in your time and business. There is a need for healthy boundaries at the same time, but a lot of questions...
Stan Rodda
Critical Race Theory: Friend or Foe?
Critical race theory (CRT). What have you heard about it? What do you think about it? What in the world is it? CRT has been in the news a lot lately. President Trump has recently banned its use in diversity training in federal agencies. We didn’t get a single question about Chinese persecution of religious minorities...
Chad Ragsdale
Church Leader, We Are So Thankful for You
Dear friends, If you’re a church leader in 2020, wherever you have served, it has been a tough year. Well done. When we think of you, these words of Paul come to mind: “We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. We remember before our God and Father...
Don’t Quench the Holy Spirit. Follow His Prompts.
The moment was like one of those Mission Impossible movies: Your mission, should you choose to accept, is…. But let me start at the beginning. It was the middle of March, 2020, a couple weeks before lockdowns or mask mandates, and stores were running out of food. I was in danger of running out of...
Luke Gray
Discipling Group for a Pandemic?
At Renew.org we believe that Jesus-style disciple making is the core mission of the church. It includes reaching lost people (evangelism) and forming people into the image of Jesus (maturation). But how do we make disciples when we are having trouble even gathering with the church? Many people are joining online instead of in person....
Bobby Harrington
What Does God Think about My Mental Disorder?
“As he was passing by, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” Jesus answered. “This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him (John 9:1-3). Disclaimer: I am...
William Butt
Lessons from the Church in Germany: Tsunami
Q: Remind me of how influential German thinkers have been. Germany has always been on the cutting edge of various kinds of progress. For example, in the early 1900s, Germany was the most technologically advanced country in the world. Their engineering was way ahead of America’s and Britain’s. When I think of influential theologians, Germany...
Brett Seybold
Sermon on the Mount: What Is God’s Answer to the Problem of Evil?
Everyone knows what it is to suffer. It’s just part of the human experience. Someone once made the observation that, no matter how diverse our cultures may be, you can always relate to a person on the level of suffering. It’s universal. We all speak that language. At least one major religion–Buddhism–takes suffering as its...
Jeremy Bacon
Did Religion Come from God or Us? Interview with Winfried Corduan (Part 2)
*Editor’s Note: Where did religion come from in the beginning? Was it something that humans created which later evolved into belief in one supreme God (monotheism)? Or is it possible that monotheism was the original religion which later religions deviated from? I recently caught up with a dear friend and exceptional scholar named Winfried Corduan....
Daniel McCoy
How Can We Treat the Bible like Jesus Did?
In times of increasing skepticism about the Bible’s authority, we need to return to who Jesus is and how he viewed the Bible. (See articles 1 and 2 here.) How can we treat the Bible like Jesus did? We respond as Jesus did: We submit to Scripture by believing and acting on it. Believing It...
Renée Sproles
Can a Pastor of 5,000 Understand a Church of 150?
We at Renew.org are attempting something risky. We are hoping to convince church leaders of all church sizes to consider learning a church model from a church of 5,000. But isn’t that precisely the reason so many Christian conferences feel out-of-touch? How many conferences feature megachurch pastors explaining to small-church pastors what has worked so...
Renew.org