What most evangelicals mean by the word “gospel” is the following: Jesus lived a perfect life, died the death we deserve, and rose again so anyone who trusts in Him will go to heaven. That’s not wrong, but I think what Jesus meant was so much more.

If you’ve been around evangelicalism for long, you’ve probably heard someone say, “That’s what the Bible says.” But is it really a good thing for us to be saying?

If you want to understand any work of literature, you need to understand its historical and cultural context. The Bible is no different. However, American evangelicals hardly discuss the Bible’s context. Put simply, if we did, we’d understand the Bible—and God—better.

Sometimes people in the church demand that others believe a certain way about non-essential issues—so much so that they cause more harm than good.

For churches, building close-knit community should be a bigger priority than growth. Large churches have some benefits, but they are outweighed by the benefits of small churches.

Many American churches focus on growth. While this doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t also have a vibrant community, it makes close-knit community harder. Churches should consider focusing instead on developing a close-knit community, because this will foster better discipleship (and also alleviate America’s loneliness problem).…

Church attendance among millennials has declined, and research suggests they won’t just come back, even if they have kids. What can churches do to get millennials in church? The answer may just change how we do church.

The proliferation of opinions on the internet is overall a good thing. But its upside is its downside: anyone can use it. That means some Christian content, while it may have a large following, isn’t very good.

American cities are, in general, very spread out. We have to drive to do almost anything. But what if urban/suburban sprawl contributes to loneliness and other social woes? Wouldn’t it be in the church’s interest to advocate for change? Yet how many pastors are addressing this?

What’s the deal with imprecatory psalms? Are they a product of a bygone era we should just ignore? Or are they a beautiful vision of the Bible’s view of justice?

American Christianity tends to define the gospel as Jesus dying for our sins so we can go to heaven. But is there more to it? If so, what are implications of our current gospel?

In this episode, I interview Chris Staron, host of the Truce Podcast. We discuss the effect wealth inequality has on the church--how it makes wealthy people's voices heard while others may get drowned out, how it pressures pastors and churches to cater to what wealthy people want, how it has the potential to make the church complicit in injustice, …

In Churchthink's first interview episode, Dave Ebert and I discuss how to love God, ourselves, and others through depression. We discuss signs that other people are depressed and how to help them, ways the church can help depressed people, and we encourage anyone who is struggling to take a brave step and reach out to someone. If you are depressed …

This is a special Christmas devotional episode. Our God is a God of renewal. That is why we can have joy no matter our circumstances.

There’s a lot of mud slinging nowadays, even in the church. Is this a constructive approach—one that will actually get everyone to consider all sides of the argument and make a more informed decision? Or will it only generate hostility?