The Gospel Coalition (TGC)

3 Ways Church Planting Will Test Your Patience

July 16, 2019 | Jim Essian

I once heard someone say discouragement is the “occupational hazard” of ministry. They’re right. Especially on a Monday. In a park aptly named “Trinity,” I had my head down—literally and figuratively—as I journaled my discouragements and prayers, crying out in Davidic fashion: How long, O Lord? We were three years into planting a church in downtown Fort Worth. Some core-team members—close friends—had just left, and the largely unseen fruit of our ministry didn’t seem worth the exhaustion. Little did I know that I was about to get…

Church Planting

Don’t Reduce Your Sheep to Their Usefulness

July 16, 2019 | John Onwuchekwa • Joe Rigney • Kempton Turner

Church plants have needs. Lots of needs. It’s tempting, then, for planters to size up those who come through the door for their potential…

#RIGHT NOW

Singleness, Same-Sex Attraction, and Preaching

Hershael York with Sam Allberry

The Danger of Neglecting Lament in the Local Church

Mark Vroegop

Give Moms the Gospel

Christina Fox

True Woman

When My Children Grow Strong and I Grow Weak

Tim Challies

7 Thoughts on Pastoral Attire in a Worship Service

Thom Rainer

Arts & Culture

Atticus Finch: Civil-Rights Hero or Stereotypical Racist?

July 12, 2019 | Eric Parker

‘Complex’ is the best word for the history of civil rights in the South.

Christian Living

The Book I Keep Rereading—Even though It Gets Less Funny Each Time

July 15, 2019 | Randy Newman

C. S. Lewis would be disturbed to see The Screwtape Letters in a series about the benefits of reading old books. He’d say his…

How Evangelism Works in a Post-Christian Culture

July 15, 2019 | Joshua Ryan Butler

Stay Up To Date

Thank you for subscribing.

Please make sure all fields are filled out.

The Best Kind of Preaching

July 14, 2019 | Douglas Sweeney • Matt Shrader

Jonathan Edwards believed the preacher is charged with a sacred duty: to communicate the awe of the Word. When the Word is so preached, listeners often “tremble at God’s word” (Isa. 66:2)—they find it “piercing, awful, and tremendous,” Edwards noted, and their hearts melt before it. “The Word in its powerful efficacy”—in mortifying sin and converting people to Christ—“does . . . cut the soul asunder.” As he wrote in…

Christian Living

How Do I Pursue a Discipling Relationship in My Church?

July 13, 2019 | Aubrey Coleman

Last summer at a book club I held in my home, women in my church from different stages of life met to read and…

Bible & Theology

What It Means to Be a ‘Doer of the Word’

July 11, 2019 | Joe Rigney

Christians often struggle to distinguish Christian obedience from its legalistic counterparts. What makes godly obedience different from the moralistic efforts of non-Christians? The apostle…

Christian Living

From Bar Mitzvah to Baptism

July 8, 2019 | Bernard N. Howard

Officer to cadet: “I didn’t see you at camouflage training today.” Cadet to officer: “Thank you, sir.” It’s an old…

Top 5 Trending

Latest Podcasts

TGC Podcast

Don’t Reduce Your Sheep to Their Usefulness

July 16, 2019 | John Onwuchekwa • Joe Rigney • Kempton Turner

Churches Planting Churches

Must Church Planters Be Entrepreneurs?

July 11, 2019 | Tony Merida • Brian Howard

Help Me Teach The Bible

How to Teach the ‘I Am’ Statements in John

June 13, 2019 | Nancy Guthrie • Andrew Sach

VIEW ALL

The Book I Keep Rereading—Even though It Gets Less Funny Each Time

July 15, 2019 | Randy Newman

C. S. Lewis would be disturbed to see The Screwtape Letters in a series about the benefits of reading old books. He’d say his book isn’t old enough. When he spoke of old books, he meant old books—works by Plato, Athanasius, or Aquinas. But I find that the gap between his 1940s writing and my rereading today is long enough to qualify it as “tested against the great body of Christian thought down the ages” (God in the Dock). When I first picked up The Screwtape Letters, I thought it would be funny. How could a fictional series of letters…

READ MORE

Arts & Culture