When Churches Are Abused by Their Pastors
By Donavon Riley
10/08/25
11mins

When Churches Are Abused by Their Pastors

When a congregation is abused by its pastor, it loses more than a shepherd. It loses its threshold place; that fragile seam between earth and heaven.
Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ
Bradley Gray
Bradley Gray
10/07/25

Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ

We can lay down our sledgehammers of moralistic performance, which aren’t effective anyway, and we can trust that we are his and his life is ours.
Big Questions About Faith, Love, and, Salvation
Jason Oakland
Jason Oakland
10/06/25

Big Questions About Faith, Love, and, Salvation

Faith takes God at his word and holds his promise to be true for me because I know God would not lie to me.

All Articles

John Bombaro
John Bombaro
06/27/21

First Principles of Preaching: The Verb Itself (Part 2)

The Christian sermon is Gospel preaching. We only preach the Gospel. Only the Gospel is the sermon, notwithstanding necessary admonishments of law and requisite exhortations toward sanctification.
Joshua Miller
Joshua Miller
06/26/21

A Necessary and Eternal Treasure

Take away the communal aspect, take away the communal gathering around Christ’s body and blood, and the Christian will begin to suffer a malnutrition of faith.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
06/25/21

The Psalms as the Prayerbook of Jesus and the Church

As the sin-bearer, Jesus was also the sin-confessor in the psalms.
Haroldo Camacho
Haroldo Camacho
06/24/21

The First Beatitude: Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit

“Poverty of spirit” is not an ethical value we strive for. It is an act of God’s mercy spoken to the deepest recesses of our soul when it’s overwhelmed by God’s grace.
Mark Mattes
Mark Mattes
06/23/21

A Guide to the Augsburg Confession

The reformers were compelled to confess the true faith and challenge corrupt practices—this is what the Augsburg Confession is about.
Erick Sorensen
Erick Sorensen
06/22/21

Hiding Our Shame

God invites you to confess the skeletons in your closet so that he might bury them in the grave for good.
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
06/21/21

Keeping the Law in its Place

Our certainty is of Christ, that mighty hero who overcame the Law, sin, death, and all evils.
1517 Publishing
1517 Publishing
06/18/21

Some Thoughts on Christian Hope

Christian hope means always hope in God and hope in Christ simultaneously without distinction.
Haroldo Camacho
Haroldo Camacho
06/17/21

The Scandalous Blessing of Makarios: An Introduction to the Beatitudes

The only one truly blessed of God, who in himself is God’s incarnate makarios, surrounds himself with a multitude of the accursed, the non-makarios.
Sarah Crowder
Sarah Crowder
06/16/21

Justus Jonas and the Important Thing

We continue to run the race, knowing the victory has been won and given to us through Christ Jesus.
Gretchen Ronnevik
Gretchen Ronnevik
06/15/21

The Christian Men of Jane Eyre

It is not her sacrifices that define Jane's faith, but her belief in the one who sacrificed for her.
1517 Publishing
1517 Publishing
06/14/21

I Have Put My Words in Your Mouth

This is an edited excerpt from “The Pastoral Prophet: Meditations on the Book of Jeremiah” written by Steve Kruschel (1517 Publishing, 2019).
1517 is a Christian non-profit (501(c)3) multi-media organization. Our mission is to declare and defend the Good News that we are forgiven and free on account of the death and resurrection of Jesus alone.
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