Is it Cake? Is it Ministry?
By Ken Sundet Jones
06/01/26
15mins

Is it Cake? Is it Ministry?

There are important historical reasons for making a distinction between ministry and vocation.
Inheritors of God's Kingdom, Part 3: Betrothed to a Greater Glory
Steve Kruschel
Steve Kruschel
05/29/26

Inheritors of God's Kingdom, Part 3: Betrothed to a Greater Glory

It appeared everything would work out perfectly when Ivan the Great married Sophia Palaiologos. But when inheritance was discussed the problems arrived.
Inheritors of God's Kingdom, Part 2: Chosen by a Higher Will
Steve Kruschel
Steve Kruschel
05/28/26

Inheritors of God's Kingdom, Part 2: Chosen by a Higher Will

When the enemies of your faith surround you, don’t look to your own wits and wisdom.

All Articles

Sam P. Schuldheisz
Sam P. Schuldheisz
02/04/15

Baptism Is Your Damascus Road

Paul's conversion is a death and resurrection story. And in reality, so is every conversion, whether it was an awe-inspiring experience like Paul's or not. Dead to sin and alive in Christ.
Dominick Santore
Dominick Santore
01/23/15

Gospel Transparency

Sometimes I think transparency is the bastard child of Christianity. Everyone is willing to talk about transparency (and its cousin, accountability), but when it walks into the room and stays awhile, most people pretend it doesn’t exist.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
01/22/15

When Your Children Stray from the Church

Scattered throughout all denominations are moms and dads whose greatest disappointment in life is that their children have seemingly abandoned the faith.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
01/20/15

Preachers with Soiled Resumes

Case in point: Jonah. Calling this man to be a prophet makes about as much as sense as hiring an executioner to be the CEO of a hospital.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
01/20/15

Preachers With Soiled Résumés

Headhunters have a straightforward job. There’s a position to fill, usually in the corporate world, so they hunt down a candidate for that position.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
01/12/15

Hollywood, Nashville, and the Lord's Supper

That hunger to connect with one who is greater than we are will be satisfied only in the one who created that hunger within us in the first place.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
01/07/15

Honky-Tonk Baptism: Carrie Underwood’s “Something in the Water”

When the Holy Spirit finally gave me a fresh set of ears, I heard—really heard—what He’d been saying all along. Baptism really does save.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
11/26/14

Dumpster Diving for Good Deeds

One of the sad truths I realized about myself long ago is that I do nothing from completely spic-and-span motives. I mean nothing. When I hear someone say that they’re “utterly sincere” or they’re doing something “from pure motives,” I smell a lie.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
11/24/14

Everything I Needed to Know About Vocation I Learned at the Lord's Supper

We usually understand vocation in a very narrow sense; it’s your job, your “calling.” Vocation, however, is not so much what you do for a living but what Christ does through you for the living. It’s a 24/7 calling, not a 9 to 5 occupation.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
11/16/14

Taking the Road More Traveled By: The Benefit of Tradition in the Church

Ultimately, however, I fell in love with traditions—and specifically, traditional worship—for a single, overarching reason: its components, to varying degrees, are all in the service of the Gospel.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
11/08/14

Here's What Happened on the Day of My Funeral

The pastor put a hand over my mouth, another between my shoulder blades, and backward I fell into the dark waters, buried beneath Noah's flood, the Red Sea, Jordan's stream, all the way down into a borrowed tomb outside Jerusalem where a crucified man lay waiting for me.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
11/06/14

The Death of the Sons of David

Yet as we mourn, but unlike those who have no hope, so also we repent, but unlike those who have no absolution. For we though we weep, there is a hand that dries all tears.
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