Showing results by narrator "David K. Martin" in All Categories

Christians have some navigating to do. The culture we live in hates the message we cherish. We know the gospel we share is offensive, but sometimes we make it more offensive by our behavior. Is there a way to share an offensive message to an offended culture while not being gratuitously offensive? Blake Long challenges evangelicals: Let the gospel do the offending, not us. The gospel is offensive enough. Our attitude - our smugness - shouldn't make the gospel harder to believe. Long helps us find the problem and points us to the solution: Jesus Christ.

We live in a secular, skeptical, and cynical age. Americans have lost faith in its institutions - including the church. Although the vast majority of Christian leaders serve faithfully, examples of financial fraud, greed, sexual and emotional abuse, and other systemic problems are almost everyday occurrences. And a watching world has a right to ask even those who are faithful ministers of the Gospel: “If you knew this was happening, why didn’t you say something?”

Luther, Calvin, and Knox: Three men who changed the world because they were radically driven and shaped by the Word of God. To study their lives apart from this perfect Word would be folly, and to study the Word apart from its work in history would be incomplete. Living & Active: Volume I introduces us to the catalysts of the Reformation, through the Scripture that shaped them, in hope that we too would find God's Word alive and active in our souls.

Ordination is the affirmation of God’s call to pastoral ministry. It is also the verification of theological and moral fitness for ministry. The full process of ordination in the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA) lasts several years. The final step involves an extensive oral exam and writing a dense paper organized around the EFCA’s statement of faith. In the summer of 2019, the EFCA broadened its statement of faith to include all orthodox views of the glorious return of Christ. Benjamin Vrbicek is the first pastor who holds an amillennial view of the return of Christ.

When tomorrow is harder than today, how will you endure? Peter preached boldly in one moment and cursed cowardly in another. His faith and obedience went up and down, down and up. But through it all, the grace of Jesus toward Peter endured. This is also how we will endure - through the amazing, enduring grace of God. In 21 stories, authors Stephen Morefield and Benjamin Vrbicek trace the life and teaching of the Apostle Peter as he followed Jesus. Peter’s story gives us hope that Jesus really is a friend of sinners and mighty to save.

King David and his people lived broken, messy, and yet meaningful lives. Just like you. In these 30 stories from 1 & 2 Samuel, Stephen Morefield explores the life of King David through the eyes of God's people. Both disappointment and hope will be found. And, while King David can't give us everything we need, he will point clearly to the One who can.

If you work in Christian ministry, it’s likely that at some point in your career, God will call you from one church to another. Do you know how to make this transition effectively? Moving can be scary and full of questions: Where do I start the job search process? Which people do I talk with, and what do I send to them? How do I know if my family and I will fit in at a new church? And how do I tell people I’m leaving?

In five of lectures delivered at Princeton Seminary during the summer of 1914, B. B. Warfield used “a progressive series of corrections” to explain “the divine dealing with man which ends in his salvation.” Starting with the divide between naturalism and supernaturalism, continuing to sacerdotalism and evangelicalism, and on through universalistic vs. particularistic views, Warfield emphasized complete dependence upon God: “It is only the Calvinist that has warrant to believe in salvation whether of the individual or of the world.”