A new survey shows that “the vast majority of US evangelicals are largely satisfied with their church”. Outreach and in-depth teaching are the weakest of the 14 areas surveyed.

As we take stock after two years of Covid-19 disruption, we will see how local church involvement is critical for all aspects of a healthy life.

Let’s get down to the foundations and make sure our view of God, ourselves, sin, and living in response to God’s grace is all as biblical as it can be. 

The new law states that Chinese Christians need a state permit to publish religious content, which “should not incite subversion or oppose the communist party leadership”.

Let’s hold our resolutions with a very loose grip, but squeeze tightly on the hand of Him who holds us, our families, our ministries and our year ahead in the palm of His hand.

Take some time out with your God and let Him stir your heart afresh. Then you can preach Christmas.

Christmas points away from “what-must-we-do” to “who-can-we-trust”.  And we need that.

If what we need is God’s good leadership, then who will be God’s good leader? God promised His eternal ruler to the little town of Bethlehem. 

Christmas services are just a few weeks away. Let’s take a new angle, dive into the Bible and preach with hearts spilling over.

There really isn’t a category of biblical preaching that is somehow good and helpful, but isn’t exegetical. 

Being in relationship with Jesus is not just the end goal of ministry, but it is also the means by which genuine transformation occurs.

We are the bride of Christ, He won our hearts and we are His. We are invited to live with our gaze fixed on Him and our every move lived in response to His loving leadership. 

It is not enough to become informed in preparation for preaching. That truth needs to soak into our lives and bring about some level of transformation.

The outline is an overview of your strategy for communicating the biblical idea relevantly to the hearts of your listeners.

Preaching is not simply study a passage, write a message and deliver it. We need to be meticulous in our study, but selective in our sermon.

Fear is a feature of life in this fallen world. Fear Jesus, for he is more powerful and significant than any evil.

I want to make more of my time as far as reading is concerned. A lot of that motivation has come from taking a couple of hours to organise my shelves.

A lot of ministry happens on fairly short notice. The weekly rhythm keeps ticking like a metronome, and it tends to get interrupted by emergencies.

Performance is unsustainable. At the same time, effective communication is worth some conscious and prayerful attention.

How vital it is to think it through, pray it through, and learn lessons in the late summer before another winter comes (whatever that may look like where you are).

He knows we are sinful when He calls us. He has a far greater work for us to do and knows that He will need to do great work in us.

As we love one another earnestly, we will benefit from each other’s grace, generosity and gifting.

The church is a beautiful blend of backgrounds, personalities and stories. We should praise God for the diversity of people brought together in the body of Christ.

May we preach so that our listeners walk away pondering the character, the heart, the goodness, the grace of God.

We can learn some basic principles that will be helpful to us as we step out into our new world with the message of Jesus today from Acts 13-14.