Resources by Renew.org:
9/11: A Scary Realization and a Needed Prayer
It was a scary realization: We are hated. If you were old enough to take in what was happening on 9/11, you remember snapshots of horror and heroism. Horror: Planes full of people bulleting into towers full of people. Skyline of smoke. Jumping from top stories. Dazed and debris-blown survivors. Bloody stretchers. Heroism: First responders...
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It’s Easy to Fall Short of Faith
It’s scary easy to know your Bible, live an exemplary life, be impressed with Jesus… …and still fall short of what the Bible calls “faith.” Just ask Nicodemus. In this excerpt from Mark E. Moore’s new release Faithful Faith: Reclaiming Faith from Culture and Tradition, we meet someone who… Knows the Bible well Lives an...
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Theological Differences, Respectful Debate: A Concluding Conversation with John Mark Hicks on Gender and the Bible
*Editor’s Note: In our 12-article series on Gender and the Bible (summarized here), we interacted with biblical scholars with whom we found both agreement and disagreement. One of our primary interactions was with John Mark Hicks’s book Women Serving God: My Journey in Understanding Their Story in the Bible. Although there are significant disagreements we...
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The Holy Spirit Is on the Move
Imagine you were given the choice between two doors: one marked “The Study of the Holy Spirit” and the other “The Holy Spirit Is Here.” Which door would you choose? Many Christians would opt for the safer route of classroom discussion. Study can be inspiring and enlightening—and safe. And who knows what might happen if...
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The Equality Act: The Background, Battle, and Our Beliefs
The Equality Act passed the US House of Representatives on February 25, 2021, and is on its way to the Senate. What is the Equality Act? And why should disciples of Jesus pay attention? In this article, we will discuss the background of the bill, the current battle that centers on the bill, and how...
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Top 10 Renew.org Articles in 2020
An eventful 2020 has been a year for Christians to live out compassion, get creative, and think hard. We are grateful that so many of you have engaged with our website to help navigate a perplexing year. This year, we at Renew.org have wrestled with how we can live out a faithful and effective faith...
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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...
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The Gospel Coalition, Matthew Bates, and Renew.org
This is one of the most in-depth posts we have written so far explaining the distinctive purpose of Renew.org. Thank you in advance for taking the time to carefully read it. Can we just start by mentioning how grateful we are for The Gospel Coalition? What a valuable group of men and women who are...
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The 7 Rhythms Played Out
We discover from the Gospels that Jesus modeled 7 recurring “relational rhythms” as he made disciples. Here are the rhythms, and then, below that is a message we received recently from a Renew.org partner who has been following the rhythms as he disciples Chinese new believers: The Rhythms Listed: Grounded in and flowing from FASTING...
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How Didn’t I See That Parallel Before?
Have you ever watched two movies at separate times, only to discover that—wait a second! It’s basically the same movie?! For example, there’s Judy Garland’s In the Good Old Summertime (1949), followed by Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks’s You’ve Got Mail (1998). Basically the same movie. A little less obviously, there’s Disney-Pixar’s A Bug’s Life...
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This Is How the Ancient World Received Grace, Part 2
*Editor’s Note: Matthew Bates will be speaking at the Renew Gathering on November 6, in Franklin, TN. As mentioned in Part 1, the ancient world viewed gift-giving differently than we typically do today. For us, there is the ideal of giving a gift with no strings attached. We don’t expect reciprocation. However, as Matthew Bates...
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This Is How the Ancient World Received Grace, Part 1
*Editor’s Note: Matthew Bates will be speaking at the Renew Gathering on November 6, in Franklin, TN. To understand what follows, you’ll need to keep in mind that the ancient concept of “return gifting” is different from “gift returning” (something you do at Target on December 26). In Gospel Allegiance, Matthew Bates explains the ancient...
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See if You Can Catch the End Result of the Gospel
*Editor’s Note: Matthew Bates will be speaking at the Renew Gathering on November 6, in Franklin, TN. See if you can catch the end result, the ultimate purpose of the Gospel, according to these passages. Hint: Look for what the Gospel is meant “to bring about.” Romans 16:25-26 Now to him who is able to...
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Just What IS the Gospel?
Just what is the Gospel? It is possible to confuse Gospel-related concepts with the Gospel itself. I found this parable from Matthew Bates’s Gospel Allegiance helpful: It is not that the true gospel is entirely missing or that people are not entering salvation. Far from it. The gospel is still being preached with saving effect....
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