The Original Sin of Preaching: The Constant Craving for a Useful God in Pulpit and Pew
By Magnus Persson
03/25/26
12mins

The Original Sin of Preaching: The Constant Craving for a Useful God in Pulpit and Pew

God is not a tool in our hands. He does not exist to serve our goals, our metrics, or our platforms.
Even Chuck Norris Needed a Savior
Russ Lackey
Russ Lackey
03/23/26

Even Chuck Norris Needed a Savior

The gospel isn’t for the strong but people who know they aren’t.
Post-Denominational Lutheranism
John W. Hoyum
John W. Hoyum
03/20/26

Post-Denominational Lutheranism

One great thing about our post-denominational age is that it has opened up opportunities to make common cause with other Lutherans who, despite their differences and eccentricities, can agree on some of the most important things.

All Articles

Chad Bird
Chad Bird
03/17/16

A High Feast Day for Failures and Fools

If you want to find God, he’s hiding in plain sight. Christ is in the very things that we would never select as a vessel befitting divinity.
Scott Keith
Scott Keith
03/17/16

Justification and Faith

By Philip Melanchthon (from the 1535 Loci Communes), translated by Scott L. Keith, Ph.D., edited by Kurt Winrich
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
02/28/16

Pastors Don't Always Want to Go to Church Either

For many, there are days when they’re as excited about going to work on Sunday morning as you are about going to work on Monday morning.
Scott Keith
Scott Keith
02/22/16

Concerning the Gospel

The term Gospel came to mean a new kind of proclamation so that the Law and the new doctrine [Gospel] are distinguished in such a way that the new doctrine gains primary influence.
Sam P. Schuldheisz
Sam P. Schuldheisz
02/10/16

The Lord of Hosts' Bounty in the Shire

The only thing Hobbits love more than a good meal, is good company with whom they can share it.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
02/08/16

Hurts So Good: Our Dirty Little Secret on Ash Wednesday

What is really good for the soul is not so much confession as absolution. If confession is us telling the truth about ourselves to God, then absolution is God telling us a truer truth about ourselves.
Scott Keith
Scott Keith
02/05/16

The Uses of the Divine Law

By Philip Melanchthon (from the 1535 Loci Communes), translated by Scott L. Keith, Ph.D.
Donavon Riley
Donavon Riley
02/02/16

The Message That Called Me Out of Atheism and Plopped Me Into a Pulpit

Believe in God, belong to a church, and behave yourself isn’t the Gospel.
Uwe Siemon-Netto
Uwe Siemon-Netto
01/18/16

How Bach became a Hit in Japan

During my many journeys to Japan, I discovered that more than a quarter millennium after his death Bach is now playing a key role in evangelizing that country, one of the most secularized nations in the developed world.
Rod Rosenbladt
Rod Rosenbladt
01/12/16

How To Choose Your Church

All other subjects—even Biblical subjects—were subservient to an accurate view of the Person and work of Jesus Christ for sinners.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
01/08/16

The Myth of Forgiving Yourself

I know now that to “forgive yourself” is not only impossible; it is foolish, dangerous, and futile. It is the vain attempt of a soul plagued by guilt to seek relief in the very last place he should be looking: in himself.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
01/05/16

The River of Life and Death

The manna God provides is never tasty enough. God never lives up to your expectations. So silently or audibly you wish for an easier way.
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