Pentecost and the Beautiful Mess of the Church
By Ryan Couch
06/06/25
15mins

Pentecost and the Beautiful Mess of the Church

Every time someone is baptized, every time bread is broken and wine poured, every time a sinner hears, “Your sins are forgiven in Christ,” Pentecost happens again.
Hymns at Midnight
Bradley Gray
Bradley Gray
06/05/25

Hymns at Midnight

They were still praying, trusting, and hoping. Why? Because they knew who was with them and who was for them: the risen Christ.
What Now?
Wade Johnston
Wade Johnston
06/04/25

What Now?

So Christ is risen, but what now?

All Articles

Chad Bird
Chad Bird
09/03/14

"You Can Get Used to Damn Near Any Stink": Acclimating to Evil

Have you ever found yourself looking back on a time in your life when you were thoroughly enmeshed in something wrong, and now you hardly recognize the person you were then?
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
08/26/14

The Radical Path to Self-Discovery: Finding Your True Self in Death

I didn’t know it, in fact I consciously rejected it, but the truth is that throughout those years, both in times of success and failure, God was up to something.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
08/24/14

I Stab it With My Steely Knife but I Can't Kill the Beast Within

That all being said, come to think of it, I’ve never gone 24 seconds without sinning.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
08/21/14

And the Three Shall Become One Flesh? Men’s Sexual Fantasies and Christ’s Saving Reality

“You shall have no other gods,” God says, and we, spurred on by the prohibition, roll up our sleeves and get to work fashioning gods like there’s no tomorrow.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
08/19/14

Do I Really Matter? Does My Existence Mean Anything?

As I floated in the Gulf of Mexico, I spoke these truths, but it was not the waters or the heavens that needed to hear them.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
08/04/14

I Will Not Meet God Halfway

Whatever numbers you want to plug in, ours must be greater than zero. We’re in a partnership with God, after all. We both do our part. We’ve got to meet the Lord halfway. If only he does all the giving, and we do all the receiving, the relationship is doomed to fail.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
07/16/14

Trash and Treasure

Who are we, really, but a bag of blood and bones, in which are mixed in bittersweet memories and the shards of shattered dreams and broken hearts?
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
07/11/14

Please Don’t Say These Six Things at My Funeral

Because I do care now, and will care even after I’m with the Lord, here are some things I hope and pray are not said at my funeral. I care about those who will be there, about what they will hear.
Jeff Mallinson
Jeff Mallinson
07/09/14

What's Wrong with Apologetics? False Humility (Part 2)

In an American evangelical landscape that emphasizes the importance of an individual’s personal decision to follow Jesus—as if that were the basis for God’s grace towards a man or woman—Lutherans and Reformed Christians insist that justification before God is based solely on Jesus’ work, two millennia ago.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
07/08/14

God Doesn't Look for the Right Kind of People to Believe

You think the sower sowed his seed in you because he saw such good soil, such a good, generous, noble person.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
07/03/14

The Math of Mercy

Paul is on a roll. He's adding up all the things that can separate you from the love of God in Jesus Christ. And the total? Nothing, zilch, zero.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
07/02/14

Have We Made Christianity Too Easy?

Have we made Christianity too easy? No, God has made Christianity “too easy” because He has made it pure gift.
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