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

Chad Bird
Chad Bird
08/19/18

How to Become a Very Bad Person

Don’t say you’re beyond hope, for there is not one beyond God. Don’t say you’ve done too much evil, for there is no wrong bigger than God’s heart of forgiveness.
Craig Donofrio
Craig Donofrio
08/13/18

Can God Repent Us?

Too often, we equate “repent” as the final warning to stop a particular sin before God ceases to love you and sends you to hell for your evil deeds.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
08/12/18

We're Better People Without Self-Esteem

The foundation of the Christian’s life is that our life is not our own. We don’t belong to ourselves. God has purchased us with the currency of Jesus’s blood.
Joel Hess
Joel Hess
08/09/18

Seeking the Lost

The only obedient son is shunned so that the disobedient one may return. Why? Because God loves sinners. He doesn’t leave them alone.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
08/02/18

When God Disappoints

In the tiny Bible-belt town where I grew up, tragedy brought people together.
Bruce Hillman
Bruce Hillman
08/01/18

When God Wounds

Life is certainly unfair. But in Christ, at least in part, we rejoice at such a notion. Grace, that great descriptor of God’s devotion, is a word that only finds its purpose, only exists at all, because it exists as a response to guilt.
Bror Erickson
Bror Erickson
08/01/18

When Church is Exhausting, You're Doing it Wrong

When those who are serving joyfully and willingly are instead encouraged to complain that they are carrying the load for the rest of the body, all hope is lost.
Valerie Thur
Valerie Thur
07/30/18

What Writer’s Block Tells us About the Kingdom of God

Writer’s Block, however, entertains no such fantasies. It goes straight for my ego’s jugular and pounds home the fact that I’m not good enough.
Kelsi Klembara
Kelsi Klembara
07/27/18

Luther's Anxiety of the Heart and Today's Despair

Today’s world has replaced Anfechtung with an entirely new sort of despair.
Donavon Riley
Donavon Riley
07/26/18

Justification Is Simple

The Gospel is simple to confess. That is, we are justified by faith alone, through Christ alone, without the works of the Law.
Donavon Riley
Donavon Riley
07/24/18

The Truth About Loving Our God

The force of our love is violent. It is love acted out as, “I will love you in a way that’s best for me, and you’ll like it, and celebrate it, and reward me for it.
Bob Hiller
Bob Hiller
07/23/18

Is James Preaching the Social Gospel?

No matter which side, it’s easy for all of us to build Bible verses into grenades aimed at obliterating the political other.
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