When the World’s All Wrong…Trust God
How do we do what’s right in a world that’s all wrong? As we learn from the life of Daniel, we must set our minds, persevere in challenges, and, finally, we must trust God with the results. As a young man, Daniel the Hebrew was selected with some of his friends to be trained for...
Julia Martin
When Am I Getting off Social Media?
I’ve gotten a lot of questions lately from friends asking what I think about the documentary on Netflix about social media called “The Social Dilemma.” I don’t have the time right now to dedicate to a full review, so I’ll say simply that it is essential viewing. If you use social media at all, you...
Chad Ragsdale
5 Questions for Bobby Harrington: A Renew.org Update
*Editor’s Note: Renew.org will soon be three years old. We interviewed Bobby Harrington, one of the co-founders and the point leader of Renew.org on the progress of the network. Q: What is the most exciting thing about the Renew.org Network? The answer, hands down, is God’s provision. God has provided again, again, and again. Three years ago,...
Bobby Harrington
Good News: You Will Have Trouble
Good news: It appears that the church across the globe is on the rise. Depressing news: It appears that the church across the United States is on decline. It appears from the statistics that the American church is following the troubled trajectory of Europe and Canada—where fewer and fewer Christians raise their kids to love the church...
Daniel McCoy
Can We Be a Unified Church in a Divided World?
*Editor’s Note: I recently caught up with Renew.org writer Marcos Mercado and asked him some questions about how we can help hold a church together during a polarizing seasons (for examples, election years). How can our churches be characterized by unity in diversity, in a bitterly divided society during deeply polarizing seasons? #1 – How...
Marcos Mercado
America Is in a Spiritual War. Are You All-In or AWOL?
Recently, Americans commemorated the 19th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3000 in one day. When the World Trade towers were demolished, most Americans were shocked by what they interpreted as unprovoked attacks. They had no idea there were Muslim extremists who hated America so much they were plotting behind the...
Bob Russell
On Gender and the Bible: What about Husbands and Wives? (Part 6)
This is the sixth in a series of articles dealing with gender and the church. Previously, we engaged with John Mark Hicks’s book, Women Serving God, and Scot McKnight’s, Blue Parakeet. (See Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5.) This article focuses specifically on gender and marriage. While Paul honors and...
A Fatal Misstep in Addiction Recovery
*Editor’s Note: Because addiction can disrupt our ability to submit to God and to love ourselves and others well, followers of Jesus do well to understand the subtle causes of addiction. The following is an excerpt from Renew.org resource Untangling Addiction, by Dr. Marcus De Carvalho, M.D. In previous articles, we’ve discussed how powerful addictive feelings can...
Marcus De Carvalho, M.D.
Matters of Trust: A Crisis of Crumbling Authority
“Trust me.” Once upon a time, that phrase inspired confidence. Perhaps it seems hard to imagine, but less than 50 years ago, people turned to doctors, teachers, ministers, the police, and broadcasters on early networks for reliable information and reassurance. Walter Cronkite, the renowned CBS news anchor during the ’60s and ’70s, used to sign...
Bonnie Blaylock
Sermon on the Mount: Crowds or Disciples?
*Editor’s Note: This is the second article in a 13-part series on the Beatitudes. Here’s the complete list of articles in the series: Who Does Jesus Think He Is? Crowds or Disciples? The Sermon’s Most Important Word The Pursuit of Happiness Poor in Spirit God’s Answer to the Problem of Evil Meekness Hunger and Thirst...
Jeremy Bacon
3 Keys for Training Your Kids for Lifelong Faithfulness
I recently read a blog post that made these statements: “We are experiencing a rise in the unpopularity of our Christian beliefs,” and “Parents with Bible-grounded beliefs will have trouble passing along the faith to kids who are being discipled by a secular culture.”[1] I believe the author’s conclusions are correct on several levels, especially...
Gordon Thompson
Revival: God Could Do It Again!
*Editor’s Note: This is the final installment in our series on the Promise Keepers by one of PK’s founding members, David Roadcup. Here are the other articles in the series: Part 1: “Promise Keepers: The Beginning” Part 2: “The First Promise Keepers Event: Witnessing the Power of God” Part 3: “Promise Keepers and the Power...
David Roadcup
A Leadership Training Manual on Avoiding the Ditches
*Editor’s Note: We will be giving away a copy of An Authentic Experience to each registrant at the Renew.org Gathering on October 15, in Franklin, TN. Here is why it is an important resource for us to feature. [Click HERE to learn more about the Gathering.] We at Renew.org are convinced that disciple making is...
Book Review: Jen Hatmaker’s Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire
“Well-behaved women seldom make history.” So wrote Harvard professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, in a scholarly article about the funeral sermons of Christian women. When she penned that phrase in the 1970’s, I bet she never imagined it would capture the imagination of generations to come. Do a quick Google search and...
Renée Sproles
Jesus, Suicide, and Our Lowest Points
September is national suicide and prevention awareness month. This article will kick off a series of articles at Renew.org that will examine mental health issues from a Biblical point of view. Discipleship will also be a major focus of this series as I look to shine a light on a subset of our society that...
William Butt
In Defense of Christian Missions
I have seen a handful of social media posts online recently from mostly non-Christians calling out mission work as being akin to imperialism and colonialism: We are told that white Westerners go into a predominantly non-Christian culture with the mindset, not only of converting them to Christianity, but of assimilating them into forms of Christianity...
Taffeta Chime