God Called Him to Preach with a Broken Heart

Preaching legend and longtime professor Robert Smith Jr. is retiring after years of scholarship, accolades, and personal loss. A student at Beeson Divinity School once came to preaching professor Robert Smith Jr. in tears. The young man’s fiancée had returned the ring to him and called off their engagement. Smith cried with him. Then he made the student preach his scheduled sermon that day in class. “I told him ministry is like that,” Smith said. “You... Read More

How Doubt Derailed a Train Town

After a major chemical spill in Ohio, disagreement tore close-knit East Palestine apart. Local churches are working to heal the ravages of mistrust. In East Palestine, Ohio, days after last year’s train crash and subsequent burning of more than 100,000 gallons of toxic chemicals, 14-year-old Jameson Kenneally noticed that his family’s chickens were producing wrinkled eggs. They live three miles from where the chemicals ignited. His mom, Jamie Kenneally, explained to him that... Read More

Alistair Begg Stands by LGBTQ Wedding Advice with Sermon on Jesus’ Compassion

Despite his opposition to same-sex marriage, Begg’s “grandfatherly” pastoral counsel cost him his place on American Family Radio and at the Shepherds Conference. For the past few weeks, Alistair Begg, pastor of Parkside Church in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and host of the Truth for Life radio program, has been caught in what he calls “a storm in a teacup” over advice he gave about attending an LGBTQ wedding. That advice, he said in a sermon this past weekend, was based on... Read More

Indian and Chinese Cultures Favor Baby Boys. Here’s How Immigrant Churches Counsel Expectant Couples

Honor-shame dynamics color how Christians have these sensitive conversations. The two most populous countries of the world, China and India, both suffer from skewed sex ratios due to a cultural preference for boys that causes families to abort or abandon their daughters. From 2000–2020, 115 boys were born for every 100 girls in China, while in India that ratio was 110 boys for every 100 girls. This has led both countries to ban the use of ultrasounds to determine the sex of the baby,... Read More

Church Attack Leaves Turkish Christians Troubled and Confused

Many believers were already avoiding fellowship after warning by ISIS, which claimed responsibility for the killing at a Catholic congregation in Istanbul. Turkish Christians are shaken by last weekend’s terrorist attack on a Catholic church in Istanbul. Claimed by ISIS, it comes amid threats that have already caused some believers to shy away from Sunday services. And like the rest of their nation, Christians are confused by details that eschew easy explanations. “Everyone is... Read More

Protecting the Image of God—Especially on Death Row

A testimony from Julius Jones and the minister who led the campaign to stop his execution. In 2018, I was a mom and teaching pastor newly relocated to Oklahoma. That’s when I heard of Julius Jones, who was then on death row following a 2002 conviction for murder. I stumbled upon his story one night while watching The Last Defense, an ABC docuseries about people facing execution with strong innocence claims. To say I was devastated by the issues in his case can’t capture how... Read More

David Brooks: We Change People for the Better by Knowing Them More Fully

The New York Times columnist says extraordinary things happen—both personally and socially—when we pay attention to others. Twenty years ago, I got stuck in the back of a van with a rather dull missionary. All of us missionaries were on some trip, and I found myself preparing for hours of driving with this man as my companion. I didn’t know him, but I sensed that if we got to talking, then some political and cultural differences were going to become painfully obvious. In... Read More

Are Pro-Life Laws Working?

The national abortion rate rose slightly after Dobbs but plummeted in states with abortion restrictions. Last fall, The New York Times’ Michael Barbaro, host of The Daily podcast, declared the overturn of Roe v. Wade had “backfired.” Barbaro and Times reporter Margot Sanger-Katz said abortion numbers had risen nationwide since the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s HealthOrganization decision, which turned over abortion policy to individual... Read More

Truth from Power

David E. Fitch’s Reckoning with Power offers Christians a purer model of power but misreads how power operates in the ministry of the church. Imagine yourself at any church service you wish. Imagine the music, the preaching, the reading of Scripture. Hear the voices of others next to you in welcome or in questions or in laughter. Feel yourself bumping against strangers and friends. Observe the movements of others in this scene as they jostle, listen, squirm. Listen to the message... Read More

Sabbath Is Not a Luxury Good

God designed weekly rest to be holy for all people, not just the economically stable. Everywhere we look we see people pushing themselves—their bodies, their minds, and their capacity for faithfulness and fruitfulness—to the limit. In some ways, society incentivizes this “to the limit” way of life: If you want to get ahead, it’s the price to pay. But in other ways, society demands this lifestyle. People at the bottom of our socioeconomic ladder feel this most... Read More